rec.autos.simulators

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

Jim Seamu

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Jim Seamu » Wed, 02 Oct 2002 03:22:25

I updated from 10.80 detonators to 40.71 detonators, and now it runs better,
still not really playable because the CPU occupancy wobbles around between
90% and 120% so it's smooth at times and then stutters badly sometimes.
Framerates are 20-40 fps but the stuttering screws the framerates too.

Hopefully the later versions of netKar will be more optimised because there
doesn't seem to be any need for such an enormous cpu load when it's just one
car on track. I'd love to play at decent framerates because it does appear
to have some potential.

:0)


> Rebooted and tried again, this time it got into the game OK.

> Unfortunately I'm running at about 1 frame every 2.7 seconds at minimum
> settings. Now I know my PC is old, but that's a bit silly. Racer runs at
> 30-100 fps depending on which track I'm at, F1 2001 runs at 30-50 fps, so
> for netKar to only manage 0.3 fps is surprising.

> What am I doing wrong?



> > Crashes to desktop when I hit "Race". The controller and video setup
> worked
> > fine, the car setup screen is fine too. It's just when the opengl window
> > launches that it goes wrong. I'm using Win98, PII-450, GF2 GTS,
> DirectX8.1,
> > 10.80 detonators, MS Precision Racing Wheel, desktop is in
1024x768x32bit,
> > and I've tried launching in both fullscreen and windowed at various
> > resolutions and colour depths.

> > :0(

> > Log.txt says:

> > Creating main window
> > going fullscreen
> > Initializing OpenGL
> > trying 32 bpp and 24bit z-buffer
> > Checking pixelformat
> > ******************          ERROR!!!      *********************
> > * KDebugLog: exception trapped correcly...closing the log     *

> > ***************************************************************

Krunc

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Krunc » Wed, 02 Oct 2002 09:47:02

I'm running an:

Athlon 700
256 Mb RAM
GeForce2mx400 64Mb (Det 30.32)
Guillemot Ferrari FFB wheel
SB Live.

NetKar Runs perfectly. However when I first ran it the frame rate was a
slide show as others have mentioned. I realised it was OpenGL and so I
disabled my second display, rebooted and all was fine.

Very impressive for a first release beta from a single programmer. Well done
Stefano. One gripe is the narrow field of view - I prefer to use a FOV above
100 degrees but NetKar feels like 60-70 and I can't find anywhere to change
it. Narrow FOV reduces the sense of speed and in my case actually induces
motion sickness after a while (yeah I'm weird I know :).

Krunch.
__________________________________

- Sometimes known as 'Blister'
- Sometimes known as 'FanBlade'

www.krunchspace.com
for sim racing and other *** stuff

"Crashing is the only thing that Windows does fast"

To use email address remove NOJUNK
__________________________________


> I updated from 10.80 detonators to 40.71 detonators, and now it runs
better,
> still not really playable because the CPU occupancy wobbles around between
> 90% and 120% so it's smooth at times and then stutters badly sometimes.
> Framerates are 20-40 fps but the stuttering screws the framerates too.

> Hopefully the later versions of netKar will be more optimised because
there
> doesn't seem to be any need for such an enormous cpu load when it's just
one
> car on track. I'd love to play at decent framerates because it does appear
> to have some potential.

> :0)



> > Rebooted and tried again, this time it got into the game OK.

> > Unfortunately I'm running at about 1 frame every 2.7 seconds at minimum
> > settings. Now I know my PC is old, but that's a bit silly. Racer runs at
> > 30-100 fps depending on which track I'm at, F1 2001 runs at 30-50 fps,
so
> > for netKar to only manage 0.3 fps is surprising.

> > What am I doing wrong?



> > > Crashes to desktop when I hit "Race". The controller and video setup
> > worked
> > > fine, the car setup screen is fine too. It's just when the opengl
window
> > > launches that it goes wrong. I'm using Win98, PII-450, GF2 GTS,
> > DirectX8.1,
> > > 10.80 detonators, MS Precision Racing Wheel, desktop is in
> 1024x768x32bit,
> > > and I've tried launching in both fullscreen and windowed at various
> > > resolutions and colour depths.

> > > :0(

> > > Log.txt says:

> > > Creating main window
> > > going fullscreen
> > > Initializing OpenGL
> > > trying 32 bpp and 24bit z-buffer
> > > Checking pixelformat
> > > ******************          ERROR!!!      *********************
> > > * KDebugLog: exception trapped correcly...closing the log     *

> > > ***************************************************************

Ruud van Ga

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Ruud van Ga » Wed, 02 Oct 2002 21:01:02

On Mon, 30 Sep 2002 19:22:25 +0100, "Jim Seamus"


>I updated from 10.80 detonators to 40.71 detonators, and now it runs better,
>still not really playable because the CPU occupancy wobbles around between
>90% and 120%

Shouldn't CPU usage always be 100%? Once you're done catching up with
realtime, it's time to draw a frame.
CPU usage above 100% only means the program can't keep up with
realtime. Should never happen (well, you get it with s/w rendering).

With 90% CPU usage, there's still 10% left out in the open! ;-)

Ruud van Gaal
Free car sim: http://www.racer.nl/
Pencil art  : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/

Jim Seamu

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Jim Seamu » Wed, 02 Oct 2002 22:01:47



Well, I thought no.... if I had a super-ninja PC and the sim was running at,
let's say, 400 Hz then I would expect the super-ninja PC to be able to do
the calculations much much quicker than real time, and so it would spend
some time idling. If the physics step is variable (aaaargh!) then maybe it
would be busy all the time.

Ruud van Ga

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Ruud van Ga » Thu, 03 Oct 2002 01:11:53

On Tue, 1 Oct 2002 14:01:47 +0100, "Jim Seamus"




>> Shouldn't CPU usage always be 100%?

>Well, I thought no.... if I had a super-ninja PC and the sim was running at,
>let's say, 400 Hz then I would expect the super-ninja PC to be able to do
>the calculations much much quicker than real time, and so it would spend
>some time idling.

Then that only means a higher framerate. Ofcourse, with vsync enabled,
you can go idle, but then it's ok. If not, the PC should be drawing.
:)

Ruud van Gaal
Free car sim: http://www.racer.nl/
Pencil art  : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/

Biz

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Biz » Thu, 03 Oct 2002 05:07:25

I agree with Ruud, a game should always be using 100%cpu, if nothgin more than to provide higher and
higher framerates unless the gfx engine is fps capped below what the pc is capable of.
--
Biz

"Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand
alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and
the....." - Ash




> > Shouldn't CPU usage always be 100%?

> Well, I thought no.... if I had a super-ninja PC and the sim was running at,
> let's say, 400 Hz then I would expect the super-ninja PC to be able to do
> the calculations much much quicker than real time, and so it would spend
> some time idling. If the physics step is variable (aaaargh!) then maybe it
> would be busy all the time.

massivechicke

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by massivechicke » Thu, 03 Oct 2002 13:56:01

I wonder what Crammonds views are on this matter :)


than to provide higher and

> higher framerates unless the gfx engine is fps capped below what the pc is
capable of.
> --
> Biz

> "Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand
> alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and
> the....." - Ash





> > > Shouldn't CPU usage always be 100%?

> > Well, I thought no.... if I had a super-ninja PC and the sim was running
at,
> > let's say, 400 Hz then I would expect the super-ninja PC to be able to
do
> > the calculations much much quicker than real time, and so it would spend
> > some time idling. If the physics step is variable (aaaargh!) then maybe
it
> > would be busy all the time.

Ruud van Ga

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Ruud van Ga » Thu, 03 Oct 2002 19:41:16



It's too deep in his assembly time engine source to ever change, as
seen from GP3 (have never bothered to buy GP4). :)
But really, it's bad and totally unnecessary to take this approach.



>> I agree with Ruud, a game should always be using 100%cpu, if nothgin more
>than to provide higher and
>> higher framerates unless the gfx engine is fps capped below what the pc is
>capable of.
>> --
>> Biz

Ruud van Gaal
Free car sim: http://www.racer.nl/
Pencil art  : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/
Ruud van Ga

Anyone had a go at NetKar?

by Ruud van Ga » Fri, 04 Oct 2002 05:44:27





>>I wonder what Crammonds views are on this matter :)

>It's too deep in his assembly time engine source to ever change, as
>seen from GP3 (have never bothered to buy GP4). :)
>But really, it's bad and totally unnecessary to take this approach.

BTW Not that I accuse Stefano of using this fixed method, but it does
seem a bit odd.
Certainly worth a patch. ;-)

Ruud van Gaal
Free car sim: http://www.racer.nl/
Pencil art  : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/


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