Performance Issues...begone!
Published on September 2, 2010 By ScottTykoski In Elemental Dev Journals

More of a maintenance update than anything, Elemental v1.07 focuses on the performance issues seen by both high and low end users. There are more improvements to come as code is continually improved and tile-designs are streamlined, but this update should bring a healthy FPS boost to all. And, if your frames per second remain under-par, new options will give you additional wiggle-room.
 
That's not to say gameplay dosen't get some update love...resources no longer use up city tiles, unit groups save out the necessary info to regenerate themselves on reload, and item stacking heroes is a thing of the past...but performance, memory usage, and overall stability were our targets here.
 

Note: A 1.07.025 hotfix was published with a fix for a crash in the 'Custom Sovereign' system (Merchant/Brilliant/Meditative traits). This would have caused a crash loading saved sovereigns or games with those traits applied as well.
 
---------------------------------------------------
----------- Elemental v1.07 Change Log  -----------
---------------------------------------------------

***************
* Performance *
+ Major improvement to rendering system, especially when over cities.
+ Condensed scene rendering process from 3 passes through scene into a single pass
+ Bunch of fixes to the issues behind "DX Error: Invalid Call", particularly when Alt-Tab'ing. This will continue to be worked on.
+ Added new framerate limiter ( limits framerate to refresh rate of device )
- Removed throttle framerates option (this is always on now)
+ Particle Effects no longer render if the "Disable Particle Effects" option is on
+ Outlines now LOD-out as you zoom out
+ Added option "Disable Outlines" to the options screen to turn off rendering outlines (Might help lower-end machines, and some people prefer no outlines)
+ Commented out unnecessary debug messages

*************
* Bug Fixes *
+ Fixed Various Memory Leaks
+ Fixed the issue that was causing the unimproved tile designs for elemental shards to stick around after a shard-harvesting improvement was built on top of them.
+ fixed a bug where if you have the option on where when entering/leaving city build mode, the camera switches between overhead and default view, you could get stuck in overhead view (and forced to manually move the camera back) if you pressed the city build mode button, while already in city build mode
+ fixed bug where AI demands a tribute of 0 gildar
+ fixed display issue where improvement cost entries overfilled the improvement build list
+ fixed display issue where units with long names overfilled the name area on the level up wnd.
+ fixed display issue on battle init wnd, if defense or attack was negative then it showed up as a huge number.  Beserker ring gives a -3 to defense, which could give you negative overall defense.  Same might be true of attack if in the future we have some strange item that decreases your attack.
+ Fixed bug where units in tile designs (like horses, wargs, etc) would not fade out when the tile is under fog of war
+ Fixed "jumping units" when starting new game from within a game (or loading a game within a game)
+ Other fixes regarding battle initition window, creating mountains in map editor, first contact status not being set to relation unknown
+ Fixed a bug where improvements that were flagged as once-per-city were able
to be placed twice.

**********************
* Gameplay / Balance *
+ Fixed bug where economic treaty gold bonuses weren't getting added to the global resource pool
+ Changed how creatures and NPCs increase their stats when they level up to nerf incredibly powerful high-level monsters running around
+ Stacking of items fixed (can now only wear 1 per type per champion)
+ Pioneers in a boat can no longer build a Settlement at sea
+ Wild improvements will now be able to be taken into account in a city's resource usage correctly, if any of them ever have negative resource production
+ Refugee camps (and other wild improvements that provide population storage bonuses) improvements
+ Fixed Miner sovereign profession bonus
+ Fixed Great Warriors faction bonus
+ Removed really high starting mana regen ability from Umber's faction config
+ Fixed Advanced Tracking techs (in both tech trees) to change the player ability that is hooked up to affect movement
+ Fixed broken productionreq tag on vengeance coating
+ References to Ice shards changed to Water for consistency
+ Sprint duration adjusted to 2
+ Lowered HP for fallen peasant
+ Fixed up resource hoard description text
+ Various food resources now provide different amounts as indicated by old description text
+ Improved output of Temple of Essence
+ Improved output of Tower of Titans, Tower of Souls
+ Fixed construction resource cost for curgen's exchange
+ Resource hoard costs now mirror kingdoms resource costs
+ Fixed up description text for construction yard
+ Great Theatre no longer provides +100% Gildar, only +100% Prestige
+ AI: Added code to send sovereign back to his capital city if he has no destination after the early phase of the game
+ Fixes for various terrain types not responding to RaiseLand spell
+ Resource hoards no longer deduct from the buildable tiles of a city (the 'bananna cities' from the forums)

***********
* Battles *
+ Changed the calculation for battle damage to take multiple troops into better account (with each unit getting an individual attack roll).
+ Every time panic is caused, the combat text for the panic will be shown.
+ Fixed a problem where misses and non-damage spells would cause an on hit animation to be played in tactical battles.
+ Fixed a possible bug where units would no longer update their troop counts after reaching a single troop left.
+ When selecting the spell book in tactical battles the cursor should now reset to the arrow.
+ When clicking on a unit's hiergemenon entry in tactical battles the cursor should now reset to the arrow.
+ Turned on bounding box picking for tactical battles to improve the feel of unit selection.
+ Selecting units should now be turned back on while other units are animating in tactical battles.
+ Fixed a bug where unit tooltips in tactical battles would draw over tooltips for items and spells.
+ Added some checks to the battle init window to stop the window from showing when defenders or attackers were null. Also added logic to clear waiting flags in this case.

******
* UI *
+ Adopted the unit vitals context for a Details tab to show when a wild improvement is selected on the main map, to give more meaningful and easier to read information
- If the improvement is under construction, it says so and uses the level slider to show the progress towards completion and the turns left
- If the improvement is done, it shows what that improvement is producing and has an entry to get further information about the improvement by opening up the lorebook
- Also, it shows which city an improvement is linked to, or "Not linked" if it isn't.  If it is linked, the tooltip explains that this city is contributing production bonuses to the resource production of that improvement.  If the improvement is not linked, the tooltip says how many tiles the nearest city needs to be closer to link with that city, explaining that it will be able to get city production bonuses if it does link
+ New Tactical Icons hooked up for Smelter, Trade Center, Construction Yard, Merchant Guild
+ New Tile Designs for Ventri Iron Mine, Stone Quarry, Clay Quarry, Marble Quarry, Drath Village, Shrill Hive, Spider Nest
+ Fixed bug where double-clicking on a spell you couldn't cast from the spellbook popup would queue a bunch of "Can't cast tactical spell" message boxes to appear over and over, now just plays a little failure sound if something that can't be cast is double-clicked
+ Fixed a typo in a campaign dialog
+ When you build an improvement on a resource, the map notifier for it is removed
+ Fixed typo "completly restored" to "completely restored"
+ Fixed some places where the display of per-turn gold production lagged behind changes to it, gets rid of some income discrepancies between some screens when loading a game, adding/cancelling a treaty, etc.


****************
* Known Issues *

+ Tactical Battles: Stuck turn if you use space bar or click "Pass Turn" button while selected unit is moving.  Clicking auto-resolve will end the battle if the turn is stuck.
+ Occasional instances of damage indicators not appearing over units.


Comments (Page 6)
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on Sep 03, 2010

would the physical 1.07Hotfix release cause my 1.07game in progress to crash?

err, I got a message that the game stopped responding, I was all ready to come here and mention it, instead I loaded up EWOM again right away and it popped up a window about the hotfix? The timing just seemed coincidental.

was playing along and still things are great. I know the AI needs work

My first real gripe is: I would like to know if there is a way to specifically choose from the research screen so that you know without doubt WHICH selection you have really made?

All too often I select something like Exploration, only to find after the turns that Heroes was what was actually researched. This has happened a lot for me. I hope this is just my spazy way of playing.

I hope this post makes sense, I jusr realized it's 1:35 a.m. here. yawwn.

Game is still improving alot, thanks again

on Sep 03, 2010

Thank you

on Sep 03, 2010

So, there's a lot of improvement, but there's still quite a lot to be done. Balance, for instance, isn't fully achieved yet: hammers are slightly too good, bows are terrible and too pricey. Lord of Ice is insanely overpowered: it's a low-mid level summon that's as strong as a whole army. It's a one-elemental panzer division. 68 attacks? Yeah... right.

on Sep 03, 2010

Awesome work with this! The late game slowdown seems to have some more FPS now (;

My only issue now is getting the AI up to speed!
Thanks for a wicked game! I am loving it and loving the fast updates!

on Sep 03, 2010

bortlings
They did manage to get married though.

I think the AI starts out married.

At least that's my theory based upon the existence of "spouse units" in the CoreUnits.xml file and the fact that I've seen kids born within the very first few turns of the game.

on Sep 03, 2010

Thank you for this, Wasn't expecting so much in this patch. My only gripe is did you have to reduce item stacking to just one per item? One per item is fine for the packs etc but it would be nice to equip at the very least a couple of rings Keep up the great work.

on Sep 03, 2010

Tryptophan
would the Hotfix release cause my game to crash?

err, I got a message that the game stopped responding, I was all ready to come here and mention it, instead I loaded up EWOM again and it popped up a window about the hotfix? The timing just seemed coincidental.

was playing along and still things are great. I know the AI needs work

My first real gripe is: I would like to know if there is a way to specifically choose from the research screen so that you know without doubt WHICH selection you have really made?

All too often I select something like Exploration, only to find after the turns that Heroes was what was actually researched. This has happened a lot for me. I hope this is just my spazy way of playing.

I hope this post makes sense, I jusr realized it's 1:35 a.m. here. yawwn.

Game is still improving alot, thanks again

 

When researching you pick a tree, when the research is done you pick what item you want to learn.  So when the it comes up with Heroes (the top most item in the list) just select Exploration and you will learn it.

on Sep 03, 2010

Thanks for the patch and, as always, the late nights you guys put into working on improving the game. It's appreciated.

on Sep 03, 2010

dr_fishy
Wow, I have at 5870 (2GB) and disabling outlines is a huge help to the framerate (playing at 5540x1050) and it was already much improved vs. 1.06 before I tried that.  I think it looks better too.  Kudos so far.  

 

Yeah, same here. *Big* performance gains from disabling outlines. I've played games with the same effect before and they never seemed to bother my card, but it doesnt like them in this game, evidently.

on Sep 03, 2010

When I click the Multiplayer button I receive the following message:

"Multiplayer is not enabled in this build. We are working to update multiplayer based on the single-player feedback."

Stardock, you folks definitely deserve credit for keeping after this game and updating it but the above message is not acceptable. I say this because Elemental was advertised as a completed game and you need to be careful to not take for granted the tolerance of the playerbase that believed they bought a completed game and are now working as beta-testers that pay the company for taking part in the beta test. This is a matter of tolerance and not patience, both because we see you actively working and realise you will fix things eventually and because there is no real reason to trust a company that has honestly lied about the quality of their product. Again, the game was advertised as finished and this is certainly something that is not finished.

Once more, I want to commend you for your continued work as I have in my posts so far, but I also want to stress that the people that bought this game are either working as beta-testers that pay the company to test the company's game or, like me, are waiting for things to be fixed enough to actually play the game.

Good luck and don't take these people for granted...messages like the one above make it seem like Stardock is awfully close to doing just that.

on Sep 03, 2010

hmm, it seems to be crashing more now.  Some communication error and then dead.  Otherwise runs a lot better though, lol

on Sep 03, 2010

Brilliant. FPS issue improved finally. Now I get to drool for 8 hours while I wait to get home and play. Your patching times are completely brutal to me Stardock!

But I'm glad you guys finally put this out. This is where 1.05 should have been imho. Now we can finally start playing the game.

on Sep 03, 2010

Minor performance gains from disabling outlines for me (+5fps to 20-25) and it only affects close zoom, go farther away with a lot of cities and it drops below 20. So general performance is still a joke, but i guess having a gfx option now for the first time, that actually affects gfx performance is a good start.

on Sep 03, 2010

Thanks for the upload. Great work. Its deeply appreciated and lets me start an otherwise dull Friday with a smile.

 

Cheers

Rabenhoff

on Sep 03, 2010

Tryptophan

My first real gripe is: I would like to know if there is a way to specifically choose from the research screen so that you know without doubt WHICH selection you have really made?

This is a strange problem many people seem to have not being able to figure by themselves that you choose what you researched after the research was made. I don't know how it could be done, but I suppose it is one that should be thought about.

The cursor problem has taken a new turn: now, when casting a spell, the cursor changes back to the feather when you change the tile the mouse is hovering... I suppose the cursor object should be reworked to be changed according to both the object it is pointing and the selected function...

No news about being able to cast a single target spell on when the target is in a group ?

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