About graphics and performance

[SilverSet]

Just started to replay this game again, it's as awesome as I remember it. One question though, I think I was asking it a long time ago, but will we get more graphics options? As well as more tweaks to increase the performance overall? Sometimes this game has those annoying and big FPS drops, and having only 3 presets is not really that convenient.

[mindthunk]

I'm planning one more update (apart from bug-fixes) and you're right more refined performance settings need to be included. At the moment I can't promise when it will be though - "before the end of the year" is the best I can offer (sorry).

[SilverSet]

Originally posted by mindthunk:

I'm planning one more update (apart from bug-fixes) and you're right more refined performance settings need to be included. At the moment I can't promise when it will be though - "before the end of the year" is the best I can offer (sorry).

That's good to hear, wish you luck!

[SilverSet]

Originally posted by mindthunk:

I'm planning one more update (apart from bug-fixes) and you're right more refined performance settings need to be included. At the moment I can't promise when it will be though - "before the end of the year" is the best I can offer (sorry).

Sorry to bump it, but when I asked about the optimization, will that future update improve it somehow? It just feels like the game shouldn't drop FPS at some locations that much. And sometimes I get pretty high GPU temperatures, which is a bit concerning. Will this all be adressed as well?

Also, off-topic, but can we get a toggle bind for the tool/ctrl mode? Without a need to hold the key.

[mindthunk]

There's already a toggle option for egomode - look in the keybindings settings - there's a checkbox you can tick there. I think that setting applies even if you're using a gamepad/controller (thought not 100% sure without checking). (and if not I can make it so).

As for optimization... this long after launch the game is as optimized as it's going to get I'm afraid. The game was developed against 2016 specs (nvidia 1070), so anything that or better the game should be running at 60 FPs almost everywhere at max quality.

The main reason for less good performance is CPU to GPU comms, this is due to not very smart texture/material usage - admission: I didn't know about texture atlases until late into development, by which time it would have been too much work to unpick everything - I'm just one person, and there was very little interest in the game at that point.. so it just didn't seem worth the trouble. So yes you're right the performance can be 'spikey' depending on how many textures the CPU needs to send the GPU.

Do you have a specific example I can investigate? Maybe something can be improved. And what are your PC specs?

[SilverSet]

Originally posted by mindthunk:

There's already a toggle option for egomode - look in the keybindings settings - there's a checkbox you can tick there. I think that setting applies even if you're using a gamepad/controller (thought not 100% sure without checking). (and if not I can make it so).

Oh, I meant the tool selection/hosts selection wheel menu. I would love to have an option to toggle that.

As for optimization... this long after launch the game is as optimized as it's going to get I'm afraid. The game was developed against 2016 specs (nvidia 1070), so anything that or better the game should be running at 60 FPs almost everywhere at max quality.

The main reason for less good performance is CPU to GPU comms, this is due to not very smart texture/material usage - admission: I didn't know about texture atlases until late into development, by which time it would have been too much work to unpick everything - I'm just one person, and there was very little interest in the game at that point.. so it just didn't seem worth the trouble. So yes you're right the performance can be 'spikey' depending on how many textures the CPU needs to send the GPU.

I see. Well, that's fine, the fps is more than 90 most of the time for me. I guess having more graphic settings to tweak would be enough.

Do you have a specific example I can investigate? Maybe something can be improved. And what are your PC specs?

For fps, the worst locations are Bug Free Zone and the location where you first fight bad bugs after dealing with the parasite. The former one is smallest location in the game, isn't it? It's just weird how the fps drops there from 144 to 70, especially near the bug elevator.
I understand that it will most likely run perfectly with 60 fps cap, but that wouldn't be as smooth for me, especially when most of the game runs so well.

For the high temps, the location where you collect bug parts is concerning, as well as the one with bad bugs. I can't recall the names, since I'm playing in other language.
And the Freight Workshop as well.
And I guess the location with the parasite itself has some problems with temps and fps.

Specs:
Intel Core i3 10300
RX 580

[mindthunk]

Thanks for all the info, very helpful.

I've pushed an update to the Steam public-beta branch (to switch: select game in Steam library, right-click Properties > Betas, and from there opt in to the public beta (game will then update). You'll know you've got it if the version in main menu shows 1.4.18.

Once you've got the update, there's a new key-bindings option to enable 'toggle' input for the Bug upgrade tool wheel and the ego-mode Host Filter wheel. The checkbox is located on the right-hand-side, just under the 'Tool Wheel' key binding, and the text is not localized so it will just say "Toggle?". I implemented this in a hurry (just for you!) so this new feature might not be 100% bug-free - let me know!

For the performance, I had a look at the BugFreeZone and I think I know what might be happening... and so I offer a 'dev' setting for you to try to see if it improves things for you.
Here are the full instructions for how to get it:

grab the ".settings" file from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w_T651IV1MDdqqCsU8IMVCl42r_vX19-/view?usp=sharing

Copy the file into %AppData%/MindThunk/CtrlAltEgo
(literally paste that path into Windows Explorer, then copy in the .settings file)

(Alternatively create your own .settings file and copy the single line from this file)

(Just be sure the file name is exactly ".settings" i.e. a leading dot/period character + settings and no additional file extension)

The right-hand-side of the single setting in this file specifies a target frame rate - you can edit it.
The game usually defaults this setting to 60 FPS. In the linked .settings file, I've bumped it up to 100.
The game uses this setting to decide, amongst other things, how aggressively to reduce realtime shadow distance and light range.
Whenever the game is running at lower than the specified target FPS setting, it tries to reduce the workload.
It's not always beneficial (e.g. in low-light areas), but in the BugFreeZone near the freight lift, there are a lot of realtime lights in that spot, so it will almost certainly help a bit.
Note that your actual framerate will likely remain under the setting, because there is a lag between game noticing the specified target framerate is not being met and then responding to it.
From everything you told me it seems a setting of 90 or 100 should work pretty well for you.

If you find this setting useful, I'll look at integrating it into the game properly!

Final thing - if you'd prefer to switch to email for easier discussion / sharing of resources - then you're more than welcome to email me - [e-mail]

[SilverSet]

Originally posted by mindthunk:

Thanks for all the info, very helpful.

I've pushed an update to the Steam public-beta branch (to switch: select game in Steam library, right-click Properties > Betas, and from there opt in to the public beta (game will then update). You'll know you've got it if the version in main menu shows 1.4.18.

Once you've got the update, there's a new key-bindings option to enable 'toggle' input for the Bug upgrade tool wheel and the ego-mode Host Filter wheel. The checkbox is located on the right-hand-side, just under the 'Tool Wheel' key binding, and the text is not localized so it will just say "Toggle?". I implemented this in a hurry (just for you!) so this new feature might not be 100% bug-free - let me know!

For the performance, I had a look at the BugFreeZone and I think I know what might be happening... and so I offer a 'dev' setting for you to try to see if it improves things for you.
Here are the full instructions for how to get it:

grab the ".settings" file from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w_T651IV1MDdqqCsU8IMVCl42r_vX19-/view?usp=sharing

Copy the file into %AppData%/MindThunk/CtrlAltEgo
(literally paste that path into Windows Explorer, then copy in the .settings file)

(Alternatively create your own .settings file and copy the single line from this file)

(Just be sure the file name is exactly ".settings" i.e. a leading dot/period character + settings and no additional file extension)

The right-hand-side of the single setting in this file specifies a target frame rate - you can edit it.
The game usually defaults this setting to 60 FPS. In the linked .settings file, I've bumped it up to 100.
The game uses this setting to decide, amongst other things, how aggressively to reduce realtime shadow distance and light range.
Whenever the game is running at lower than the specified target FPS setting, it tries to reduce the workload.
It's not always beneficial (e.g. in low-light areas), but in the BugFreeZone near the freight lift, there are a lot of realtime lights in that spot, so it will almost certainly help a bit.
Note that your actual framerate will likely remain under the setting, because there is a lag between game noticing the specified target framerate is not being met and then responding to it.
From everything you told me it seems a setting of 90 or 100 should work pretty well for you.

If you find this setting useful, I'll look at integrating it into the game properly!

Final thing - if you'd prefer to switch to email for easier discussion / sharing of resources - then you're more than welcome to email me - [e-mail]

Thank you so much for you work! I will check all of this tomorrow and see if that improves anything. Though I might have troubles returning to the Bug Free Zone, since I'm already fighting bad bugs, but maybe I have an older save.

Though I want to add that the main concern I'm having is the GPU temperatures, since when I was using C.A.T after defeating the parasite, it skyrocketed to 90 degrees, which I don't think is all that crucial, but that bugs me a lot when playing the game. And settings usually don't change anything much.
It might be an issue on my part to some degree, but I doubt that it's fully my system's fault.

[SilverSet]

Alright, I have tested that and it seems to be working. One specific angle in the Bug Free Zone (near the savegame gadget) increased the average fps from 85 to 100, which is amazing. For other angles the increase is really small, but that's something!
I have also done some tweaks to lower the overall temps, so now they are actually quite low at times. Though Ctrl Alt Ego is the only game that had pushed them that high, unfortunately.

I was also curious about the potato mode that was introduced in one of the updates and back in the day I wanted to see how it looks out of curiosity. Yet it only applies automatically on a low-end PCs, if I recall correctly. Can this setting be optional for everyone else? And will it help with the fps and temps issues?

As for the toggle thing, it's nice and thank you again, but it feels quite slow and clunky in a way. In Prey or Dishonored games, for instance, the wheel spins between the options pretty fast, no delay and no feel of being "stuck" on a single option.
Also, I think that the info tablet that is located on every level (where you can see ego, worms, etc.) should be highlighted from anywhere when you select "friendly" operators in ctrl mode.

And another request, can we get an option to rebind the Tab menu, H, etc? I know it's a game design thing, but I'm not asking to swap anything drastically in the ctrl mode, so why not?
Same goes for F1-F9 binds. I would love to assign the disk menu to F1, the metas to F2 and so on. Could that be implemented?

[mindthunk]

Potato mode: You can emulate potato mode by adding a new setting to your installed .settings file - add it on a new line:
emulate-low-VRAM = 1000
the value here is MB, you can try messing with it. What it does is reduce the texture budget. Warning: The game looks hideous in some places with this setting! Set emulate-low-VRAM to 0 (zero) to get back to normal behaviour.

There are a few other performance related dev settings, I'll review them and see if any may help with your temperature issue.

The toggle selection wheel UI - thanks for the feedback - I'll see if I can improve it without having to reinvent it, You can imagine I'm not all that keen to spend much time on such things at this stage - trying to make the NEW game :)

More flexible key rebinds - yes why not, I'll do them and once ready I'll post again here. Might be a few days.

[SilverSet]

Originally posted by mindthunk:

Potato mode: You can emulate potato mode by adding a new setting to your installed .settings file - add it on a new line:
emulate-low-VRAM = 1000
the value here is MB, you can try messing with it. What it does is reduce the texture budget. Warning: The game looks hideous in some places with this setting! Set emulate-low-VRAM to 0 (zero) to get back to normal behaviour.

I actually quite like low graphics in video games. Especially when they still try to preserve the original look and don't ruin anything gameplay-wise.
Though I don't really see any differences, maybe I got something wrong? I just pasted the setting inside that file, just like you said.

There are a few other performance related dev settings, I'll review them and see if any may help with your temperature issue.

Thank you so much for your time! I will probably tweak my system a little bit, already the temperatures are way better though.

The toggle selection wheel UI - thanks for the feedback - I'll see if I can improve it without having to reinvent it, You can imagine I'm not all that keen to spend much time on such things at this stage - trying to make the NEW game :)

More flexible key rebinds - yes why not, I'll do them and once ready I'll post again here. Might be a few days.

No, no need to reinvent anything, I just think having a faster switch time between the tools and hosts in toggled mode, as well as no "delay" between switching would be sufficient. (By "delay" I mean that it feels like my mouse is being glued to the selection, which is uncomfortable).

An example of the fast tool wheel.
It probably doesn't show anything, but the weapon wheel in Dishonored feels extremely responsive and good. One of the things I have noticed in Ctrl Alt Ego, is that it seems that you can still select blank options, which makes it feel very unresponsive.

Of course, take your time. I just thought these things are pretty easy to implement and they might improve the experience of other players too. Thank you for your time again!

[mindthunk]

if you monitor your VRAM usage while playing, the usage should be considerably lower with the low-VRAM setting enabled. That's one way you can know it's working. Also - go find a DAD that emerges from hole in the floor - with cheap textures you can see all the floor 'joins'. Not pretty.

Thanks for the info on the rest - will be back when I've got another update.

[mindthunk]

Originally posted by SilverSet:

And another request, can we get an option to rebind the Tab menu, H, etc?

Now available on the beta branch.

I've also lowered the latency with the selection wheel(s) UI - I had forgotten there is literally a setting for it in the code that I can increase or decrease to change the feel. I think the reason I left it 'slow' is because at faster speeds it becomes too easy to 'overshoot' the selection. Hopefully now it feels a bit better. Nowhere near as slick as the Dishonored example of course - but part of the idea of the UI in the game is to feel a bit retro/clunky.