Massive slowdown

[darkgod]

Can you check the memory usage Fizanko with the line i told powerwyrm to use ?

[Fizanko]

Couldn't check the log in real time, as there was the message "ressource already used" when i tried to open the stdout.txt while running Tome4, but browsing it and noting high/low memory after finished to play :


Creating a new character and exploring the 2 first level of the Trollmire
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 14042.010742188
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 35131.333007813
didn't observed really noticable slowdown (as usual each time i start a new game anyways).


i saved game
later i loaded game


went back from Trollmire level 2 to World Map
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 16249.673828125
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 36093.286132813
Little and not really disturbing stutter in Trollmire level 1 when i was fighting a bunch of trolls.


World Map, from Trollmire to Derth
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 38661.669921875
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 41671.560546875
No noticable slowdown.


In Derth
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 21716.203125
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 45049.618164063
No slowdown in town, i dropped some objects, it was smooth and the drop action immediately resolved, no delay.


Back to World Map, from Derth to Kor'Pul :
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 36082.318359375
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 37589.682617188
No noticable slowdown.


Kor'Pul exploration of 2 levels
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 26607.885742188
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 61340.598632813
During this Kor'Pul exploration, i had noticable slowdowns from time to time (not as massive as some on my old saves on some dungeons, too bad my character has been dead and so the save removed), but in the log the framerate listed is sometime higher at high memory usage than while at a bit low memory usage, sometime it's the opposite too, difficult to make sense of it.


Back to World Map to Derth :
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 42210.852539063
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 43758.219726563
No noticable slowdown.


Into Derth for identify, useless item drop :
the min it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 33209.624023438
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 56117.822265625
Not as smooth as the 1st Derth visit, but no disturbing stutter either.
until i drop objects and notice unlike my first Derth item drop on my previous visit, there are slowdowns (and so delay between commands) between my press on "drop" and when the game allow me to do something else, in which memory climb up :
the max it has been :
=====MEMORY USED===== 69431.873046875

[Alpharat]

After reading through this thread I managed to fix the problem.

For some reason ToME is using the system's cache file first instead of using the ram. Disable the systems cache and suddenly the slowdown issues go away, games save faster, and everything works better. You can even turn all those effects back on!

[darkgod]

That's .. weird.
Can others confirm it ?

[Chattius]

Did a top command in linux and had t-engine at 5fps.

Before running t-engine:
top - 10:37:06 up 3 days, 3:14, 1 user, load average: 0.06, 0.07, 0.08
Tasks: 123 total, 1 running, 122 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 1.3%us, 0.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 98.3%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2032496k total, 1095136k used, 937360k free, 221984k buffers
Swap: 2554292k total, 0k used, 2554292k free, 489496k cached

After creating a level1 character and hacking a troll
top - 10:43:31 up 3 days, 3:20, 1 user, load average: 0.87, 0.75, 0.39
Tasks: 129 total, 3 running, 126 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 36.7%us, 0.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 63.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2032496k total, 1213160k used, 819336k free, 231648k buffers
Swap: 2554292k total, 0k used, 2554292k free, 489880k cached

The bigger CPU usage was caused by Xorg, X-windows and could easily reach 90% and more, while t-engine was around 5%.

[darkgod]

Hum that really sounds like an opengl problem for you, what does glxinfo tells you?

[Canderel]

Try setting Your fps to much higher than 5... Like 30/50. My pc's performance went way up when I did that.

[Charlatan73]

That's .. weird.
Can others confirm it ?

how can i test? I see slowdown all the time so I'd certainly be willing to try.

[PowerWyrm]

After reading through this thread I managed to fix the problem.

For some reason ToME is using the system's cache file first instead of using the ram. Disable the systems cache and suddenly the slowdown issues go away, games save faster, and everything works better. You can even turn all those effects back on!

This sounds promising, but how do you do that?

[paboperfecto]

I was experiencing slowdown on level 2 of the old forest. I went ahead and disabled page files, restarted my computer and just for kicks ramped up particle effects from zero to 100. There is no noticeable slowdown at the moment. It is now playing like I've always wanted it to....weird.

For Windows XP:
Start Control Panel (either from the desktop or the start menu)
Double click on System
Click on Advanced Tab
Click on Settings under Performance
Click on Advanced Tab
Click on Change under Virtual Memory
Click on "No Paging file" option and press "Set"
Restart your computer

For Windows Vista (not tried, copied from a website):
Press the Windows + Pause Break keys > in the left pane click on Advanced system settings > click on the Advanced tab > in the Performance section click the Settings... button > click on the Advanced tab . click on the Change... button.
You'll need to uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives"
Select "No Paging file" option and press "Set"
Restart your computer


Note: Modern Windows systems are not meant to run without a paging file...even with large amounts of memory, I really wouldn't leave the settings like this for extended periods of time.

[darkgod]

Woh this is weird.
Given that you have enough real memory to run the game (which you do) I do not have the faintest idea why is windows playing with his pagefile :/

[paboperfecto]

I wouldn't jump to conclusions yet. It is only two people trying it and I only ran it for less than five minutes before shutting it down and restoring my page file. It's really not advised to run programs under windows without the page file. I'm going to dig and see if I can get some more info....

[paboperfecto]

Looking at some objective data it may be that I fell for the old you see it because you believe it might be true. Running Performance monitor while running TOME shows that page file usage actually decreased over the past half hour while playing. A note with my running with increased particle effects: I had never tried running with particle effects in the last few betas where you made performance improvements.

The page file usage increased when minimized but that is expected as part of Windows memory management and did level off after a couple of minutes (increase from 3.5% to about 5.5% or about 60MB - which is smaller than I expected given the size of the save files). The Cache Faults were occurring exactly where expected on loading games, switching levels and switching zones.

In short, running with performance manager I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with memory usage or page files wile running TOME. I was in the old forest, had vaults, nests and escort quests, defeated the boss, recalled and returned to town.

[paboperfecto]

Also...I am playing a summoner so there was no lack of particle effects and also monsters getting called into the level constantly.

[Grey]

Windows will always make use of a pagefile, even if you have far more than sufficient RAM. What seems odd though is using the pagefile for OpenGL effects.