[Not a ZDoom bug] Screen flash - framerate bug

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 9:33 am

When the screen flashes, like when you pickup ammo or get shot at, the framerate briefly stutters (or maybe drops to 35 fps as i usally have framerates over a 100 per second). Using ZDoom 2.0.57.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:21 pm

This is most likely an issue with your graphics card. For the screen flashes the palette has to be changed and some hardware doesn't do that well.

Post by **randi** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 5:35 pm

If your framerate drops whenever the palette changes, then it is definitely an issue with your drivers (or possibly an actual hardware limitation). When the colors change, all ZDoom does is tell the driver what colors it wants to use, and then it's up to the driver to actually change the palette.

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 8:23 am

I have a GeForce 4 Ti4600 and I'm using Nvidias 52.16 drivers and DirectX 9.0b.

Is it possible to turn off changing of the palette to avoid the slow down.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 10:30 am

Softie wrote:I have a GeForce 4 Ti4600 and I'm using Nvidias 52.16 drivers and DirectX 9.0b.

Is it possible to turn off changing of the palette to avoid the slow down.

No. It's the only way to do the screen flashes. The regular palette does not have enough colors.

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:08 am

I have another computer with a GeForce 4 Ti4400, 52.16 and DirectX 9.0b and when the palette changes it doesn't slow down the game. What can be the difference? To me it appears like it's nothing wrong with the driver rather some setting or something.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 12:01 pm

Computer hardware is a strange thing. Unfortunately things like this happen and nobody knows why.

Post by **Chris** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 10:43 pm

Maybe something's running in the background that doesn't like palette changes.

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 9:15 am

I have now tested ZDoom on all my computers. Works on 2 out of 4, there is no logical explanation to why it does, seems like a lottery.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 9:20 am

You have a lot of computers!

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 9:27 am

Yeah, 4, but I really need a laptop too...

Anyone else having the same problem and maybe a solution (to the palette change thing

)?

Been doing some testing and found out that the anomaly only occurs in fullscreen mode, not windowed...

Post by **Chris** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 8:20 pm

Is there anything that's running on the 2 computers that have problems, but not the other two? It really sounds like something's uin the background trying to keep track of palette changes, for whatever reason, and is draining your CPU. That would explain why you don't have a problem in windowed mode, because when you're windowed, the palette never actually changes (because there is no palette). It would only change the color look-up table Windows would use for ZDoom to translate the 8 bit source into a 16/32 bit display image.

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 8:04 am

I reinstalled windows on the two machines I had problem with and now it works on one more. The fourth computer has a Intel® 82815 Graphics Controller witch may be to old and slow for ZDoom...