I actually noticed this during beta 4, but it was the first time I noticed buildings, on my new laptop, so I thought they just needed some optimizing, which would be done for the release.
I get a constant max framerate (limited to 90 in my case, for example) over all the map, on a bare ground, units for example are ok. But as soon as a small 3D object enters the field, it decreases. A tree in the corner? 45 fps. A city (not a big one, just the first settlement) visible? 15 fps.
I tried to change the various settings, deactivated soft lighting, AA, shadows, resolution, it's still doing the same. It works good on the cloth map, without a problem, though, as there are no such elements.
Now I would understand such thing on my older laptop, but I'm surprised to see this on the new one. Specs:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~1.6GHzMemory: 8192MB RAMVideo Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
So I'm guessing there is somehow a problem with drivers (though latest ones from ATI), or at least some incompatibility somewhere. Because the objects are nice, the cell shading effect too, but it's hardly something to bring this computer to its knees.
ps: I understand that a game like this doesn't need to run at 90fps. But 15-20 is actually unpleasant on the long term.
Edit: To make a complete (more or less) analysis, I tried at a high and low configuration, similar effects:
LOW Settings:
- Video Configuration
- Over a city: 20 fps
- Without objects: 138 fps
HIGH Settings:
- Over a city: 18 fps
- Without objects: 80 fps
So it doesn't seem to be related to the video settings. I also tried windowed, same.
It is really related to these 3D objects, as shown by these two other screenshots:
- Full zoom, empty ground: 99 fps
- Same place, just a bit higher to have one tree in the view: 29 fps
So far, the only thing which seems to improve performance is to force the game to run only on one core (physical one, so two virtual cores on Core i3/5/7), as suggested by thebigJ_A in this answer.
It should be the other way around, clearly, so maybe it's giving a hint on where the problem could be. Note that this doesn't solve the performance problem, there is still a big decrease on framerate when passing on cities, but less than when the game is authorized to run on all cores. I noticed however that doing this since the 1.05 version makes the sound choppy, probably because it was expecting to run on a different core to begin with.
What is the ETA on the next patch? This week? Next week? today?
This is a game-stopping bug so I hope the Stardock resources are not being diverted to fulfil the multiplayer promise. Please fix these issues before moving on to other items so we can play the game.
Not tonight it seems. Maybe tomorrow.
BoogiBac says -
"The big changes in 1.07 will be...- performance boost (Q/A seeing a 15-ish FPS boost in apples-to-apples save comparisons)- lots of memory fixes, including game-within-a-game and sound issues- tweaked calculation of unit group battle stats (shouldn't be as powerful)- grouped units save/load max HP info properly- no more stacking of items for heroes (a quick fix while we compile a proper to-do list for improving champions)- fix to the way roaming creatures level up to fix crazy-overpowered stats"
Not don't get me wrong here I am thrilled at a performance enhancing patch...but 15fps? There goes my idea that I would soon be playing Elemental at 40-80fps... instead I should be at 30ish. I mean that is a lot better than my current 10ish or so, but not what I was expecting from my machine. Then again maybe everything will be just fine and I'll be playing at 60fps. Only time will tell.
The human eye actually cannot differentiate between 30 and 60 FPS.
You are completely and utterly wrong. Don't bother replying to me; I don't want to hear it.
If I turn the game on after 1.07 and find I'm only running about 25fps - 30fps I'm going to refund my game if there is no further mention of improving the performance.
Yes, but I can feel the bizarre lurch in my screen as I go from scrolling over empty land to a city; I can watch units stutter across the screen as my PC struggles to render the scene via CPU, and I can also observe the buttery smoothness of tactical battles and other areas of play.
Also fairly sad to hear that they are removing item stacking BEFORE making leveled up sovereigns worthwhile. As it is, the only way to make my soveriegn/champions decent is to stack him with amulets and rings until his stats are at least comparable to a mid-game army, much less a late-game unit. Remove that and we'll be stuck w/ sovereigns that max out around 20 attack, ~30 def, and around 25-30 HP assuming you're putting some points into constitution.
Which is maybe the intended level for them, but seeing as how stacks can easily break 100ATK/120DEF and have absurd amts of HP when utilizing 12-unit groups and veteran troops, I just don't know how sov's/champions can be viable after turn ~100 =/.
As an aside: um, no. Without any amulet/ring stacking, I had a ~80atk, ~80def, ~30hp sov at turn 180 in one of my recent games. That doesn't remotely compete with late-game units, but it's far more powerful than you've just stated.
I am super human. When I was but a young man a secret govt agency took me in and modified me. They made me faster, stronger, and enhanced my eyesight. I am now able to tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps.
I want your eyes. I will have them.
lol , eyeballs ... want em !!
but seriously, who said that u cant see the difference between 30 and 60 fps is wrong , i am not a super human or anything like I Intrude there and i see the difference between 30 and 60 fps ...
Won't you get pull-down judder with 30 fps on a 60 Hz screen?
Here's a handy comparison between 15, 30 and 60 fps: http://bit.ly/6LwoKv
It's pretty easy to tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps.
Nice link.
Still no patch. I haven't played the game for one week out of the two weeks I've had it...
The instant the patch hit, I will check if the game take more than 5% of one on my 5970 gpu if not I hope we will have news on this issue.
To all those who plan on getting a refund, make sure you have everything ready up front.
This means the game's serial number, your hardware and OS specs, descriptions of the problems and how to reproduce, a .zip containing all the logs produced by the SDSupportTool.exe, and maybe a few of the .zip files found in C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Elemental - War of Magic that follow this format:
Elemental1_06-2010-08-27T15-44-05-132.zip
The support team will stall as long as possible on a full refund, often offering the 75% option as a quick fix, but be consistent and insist that you want the full refund. It isn't as easy and quick as others say. The game is obviously broken technically and I've posted a few times about my issues but I'm still being asked for logs and such by tech support, who clearly do not want to approve my refund.
The performance is still not what I wish on my monster gaming pc but with the new 1.7 patch I actually really have a boost of 15 to 20 FPS at all time even on my crazy level 5 city spinning my camera like a mad men.
I can play the game now
25 to 35 fps is enough for a strategy game but I sill hope for some more performance tweak in the future.
Elemental still only utilizes a max of about 35% of my GPU capability under 1.7, but that's better than 0% under 1.6. Find more of those "magic bullets"? I get around 15fps mid- to late-game, which is a massive increase in playability (compared to 5fps) but still rather bad considering what the hardware can do.
Yup I'm in the same boat. I'd estimate I'm now getting about 35 - 45 FPS overtop multiple cities instead of the 10 - 15fps I was getting before. Still plenty of room for improvement but at least the game is playable now.
Confirmed. Game turned to playable. Increase of 15-30 fps on 3d map. Don't know about late game yet though.
I too got a nice boost with 1.07, but like you all I have a pretty beefy machine that laughs at most demanding games. Where I was getting 10-20fps, I am now getting 30ish once I have a good sized town or two. Once I scroll away from the town my fps shoots up to my refresh cap. Great improvement, just don't stop there, it is far from perfect. Keep the fixes coming SD.
You kept my purchase with this patch.
Same performance increase that everyone here is reporting under 1.07. Late game is still pretty choppy. Seems like this game should run much better on my system.
specs:
Windows7 Pro.
Asus P5E board
intel Q49650
8 gigs 1024 mhz ddr2
sapphire radeon toxic edition 5850 1024 mb
Even my old computer now gets 20 fps when viewing cities That's good enough for me.
The new patch improved, but not in a regular and constant way.
Example, if I have a new city, ok, it's empty, 60 fps. I build a workshop, 11fps... but only for like 5 seconds, and just after it comes to 50fps, without moving the view.
And in general the performance goes this way. It looks like the rendering has been improved, but only after an initial time to load a new element, for some reason.
In the end, it makes the game choppy, and still not pleasant to play, unfortunately. Because the slowdowns seem to happen very irregularly now. My FRAPS graph is a rollercoaster, jumping from the top to bottom.
300+ turns in 1.6 patch i was getting 0-6 fps now im getting 15-22 fps with new patch. At least now its playable. I hope we get another performnace boost soon, as I should see slightly better performnace on my laptop.
However, im now pleased its playable, so thankyou very much for patch 1.7, and thanks for getting it out so quickly....
Been giving this a good go tonight with 1.07. GPU usage hovers around 25% which is much better but probably still isn't high enough yet. Frame rate away from cities is around 50fps, and around 10fps over cities.
While the latest update is a step in the right direction, I get nowhere near as good a rate as I should have. I'm getting a moderate 25 FPS with some medium sized cities on the screen, at the lowest graphical settings. If I get some AA and shadows in, my FPS go to 14-18.
Please continue working on this Stardock. With the lowest graphics, a system like mine should be getting at least 30 FPS everywhere.
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