Star Citizen Media Musings

[jwh1701]

Star Citizen 3.1 PTU Wave one is here - Performance Improvements - The HYPE is real

You playing 2k during 3.0, then to 1080p for 3.1 then claim the fps is awesome.
Least he was honest about that, but for test to validate performance improvements he should have left
it at 2k.


"3.1 Hype!!!! I can't believe i actually saw 40+ FPS in game... and guys i am not so sure the resolution matters, but it's worth a try. I usually game at 2K so i wanted to try 1920 x 1080P"

[N0mad]

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/4/thread/star-citizen-alpha-3-1-0-initial-ptu-733018-patch-

OK, so other than some bug fixes, character customisation and some new ships what content have they actually added for gameplay? (and I don't count character creation as gameplay for a space sim)

[jwh1701]

Reddit has a thread on the video, not one person has picked up on the resolution change.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/85zbct/star_citizen_31_ptu_wave_one_is_here_performance/

[jwh1701]

Reddit has a thread on the video, not one person has picked up on the resolution change.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/85zbct/star_citizen_31_ptu_wave_one_is_here_performance/

I think you being little harsh I counted polish 4 times in those patch notes so you know its going to be good. jk

[David-2]

N0mad - it's a little odd, huh?  In addition to the lack of additional gameplay you mentioned, I had thought a major emphasis of this release was going to be improved performance yet the only mention of game performance in the entire set of release notes is the following short line: "Numerous performance tweaks."

That's it?  All that terrific performance work by hard working devs in this build but they get such a perfunctory callout?  Compare that to the love the audio guys got by fixing some bugs all over the place, not to mention the guys working on the store who got multiple mentions for bug fixing some display issues ...

[N0mad]

So the physics are still a bit broken then 

[jwh1701]

So the physics are still a bit broken then 

LOL not to mention the stuttering which means he has some severe render issues for video as we know that the performance has been improved.

[dsmart]

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/4/thread/star-citizen-alpha-3-1-0-initial-ptu-733018-patch-

OK, so other than some bug fixes, character customisation and some new ships what content have they actually added for gameplay? (and I don't count character creation as gameplay for a space sim)

Oh? You though they were putting in important things like features? Dude, are you following me on Twitter? :)

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/975778396679569409

Played Star Citizen 3.1.0 this past weekend.

My opinion remains the same.

It's FUBAR.

Patch notes show LOTS of check boxes in pre-existing issues with 0 material additions in terms of the features.

Performance & crashes are no better than 3.0.

https://starcitizentracker.github.io/

[Kyrt]

Reddit has a thread on the video, not one person has picked up on the resolution change.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/85zbct/star_citizen_31_ptu_wave_one_is_here_performance/

Does it matter? If the optimisations they've added work, that's a good thing.

And quite frankly, I'd expect some degree of improvement.

But that video still seems a little jerky to me, and they pushed a lot back to 3.2 in order to put in bug fixes and optimizations that really should have been in 3.0.

However..it is still too early to determine if there is any degree of FPS improvement. I can't help but recall all the tricks used by streamers in 3.0 to fudge their numbers.

[dsmart]

Does it matter? If the optimisations they've added work, that's a good thing.

And quite frankly, I'd expect some degree of improvement.

But that video still seems a little jerky to me, and they pushed a lot back to 3.2 in order to put in bug fixes and optimizations that really should have been in 3.0.

However..it is still too early to determine if there is any degree of FPS improvement. I can't help but recall all the tricks used by streamers in 3.0 to fudge their numbers.

I am a software developer. I don't see how going from 2K to 1080p amounts to "optimizations they've added work".  That's not actually how that works. If whatever they did benefited performance, then those gains would be seen across all resolutions.

I have played it, there is NOTHING in it that amounts to optimizations being a big change. So just like 3.0 where a bunch of these guys were basically LYING about their experiences, the same thing is going to happen with 3.1.

Also, have you seen the latest posts in that thread?

[jwh1701]

I used to do a lot of project testing for t500 / t700 fiber systems. We were always evaluating load, transfers across all raid configurations. Lets say dev releases a new update for the t700 and the same time I upgraded the backend switch from 1gb switch to a 10gb switch before testing the new update. I then go to management and say we are seeing greatly improvement performance with you new software update. All the testing is invalid because we knew what the baselines were, by making one change we can no longer tell if the t700 software update was providing the performance.

Just like the guy in the video he knew what his baseline fps were with 2k and then he decided to change to 1080p?
One change invalidates all tests, he needs to roll back the update, find his fps at 1080p then update and provided the new fps.

[jwh1701]

Some are stating they rarely crashed before 3.1 now all the time. I keep thinking they have cobbled together so much that it has most probably been unimaginable for a longtime.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/4/thread/3-1-ptu-constant-crashes

[Kyrt]

I am a software developer. I don't see how going from 2K to 1080p amounts to "optimizations they've added work". 

Because 40fps at 1080p is still better than 6fps at any resolution. I can easily see optimizations getting rid of one cap but still leaving other issues. If CIGs optimizations were enough to...say...get rid of limitations introduced because of the poor network coding (or at least mitigate it), that could still leave performance issues due to graphical resolution which may still indicate a performance cap.

A lot of people were complaining about poor performance irrespective of resolution. If resolution is now a factor, that....to me...indicates an improvement in performance.

The most that can be said is that the performances can't be compared on a like to like basis. That's important...but ultimately, the only measure of import is whether the game plays well for most players. In 3.0...it didn't. I think we can expect some degree of improvement in 3.1but it is too early to judge how much of an improvement there is. As I said, for all that he claimed performance had improved, the video still appeared jerky in places...to me anyway.

[jwh1701]

Because 40fps at 1080p is still better than 6fps at any resolution. I can easily see optimizations getting rid of one cap but still leaving other issues. If CIGs optimizations were enough to...say...get rid of limitations introduced because of the poor network coding (or at least mitigate it), that could still leave performance issues due to graphical resolution which may still indicate a performance cap.

A lot of people were complaining about poor performance irrespective of resolution. If resolution is now a factor, that....to me...indicates an improvement in performance.

The most that can be said is that the performances can't be compared on a like to like basis. That's important...but ultimately, the only measure of import is whether the game plays well for most players. In 3.0...it didn't. I think we can expect some degree of improvement in 3.1but it is too early to judge how much of an improvement there is. As I said, for all that he claimed performance had improved, the video still appeared jerky in places...to me anyway.

I'm very much interested to see if they can deliver any performance. But for a valid test you cannot alter anything in your test bed and then claim a performance increase. My contention is that he new his baseline fps with 2k, and for some reason he changes it after the update and then claims fps improvements makes everything he said null and void.
The real question is what is he calling 2k maybe (1440p)?

[Beexoffel]

Pixel art is in fashion with indie games anyway, so welcome back, 640x480.