Visszajelzés News on the new „3D Graphics Engine Update” – Public Testing Tuesday, 16 June 2015!

Hello everyone,

With the new 3D Graphics Engine update being ready for public testing, it’s time for some words from the team.

This client graphics engine update is something we have been working on for a long time. It's a large feature, which includes new art for all the important assets in our game.
It not only makes the game run smoother and less laggy when there are many objects on the same map, it also makes things look a lot nicer. At the same time it does not interfere with the actual way the game is played.

One of the biggest changes in this update is that the game can now utilize your laptop or PC's GPU, allowing it to run much, much more efficiently than even our previous client refactoring (which was already noted by many of you as providing a noticeable improvement).

The good thing is: it’s optional – so if anyone would prefer the 2D style or is amongst the small number of users whose PC may not be capable of running the new client (less than 10% by our estimates), they can enjoy the game in its current state.

Two weeks ago we had a few selected players here at the Bigpoint HQ for a first round of feedback. They had a chance to try out several of the important game features (GGs, TA, PvP maps, ??? map) and gave us valuable feedback. They also had these nice things to say:

"Everything worked as usual – just with better graphics!"
"Beautiful, esp. zooming in when flying to base. I like being able to watch the ship from many angles."
"The zoom in by the base looks great. Don’t change this."
"Everything went well, I didn’t have any lags or so, even when I was surrounded by many aliens."

Thanks to their feedback, and the results of our many weeks of testing, we’re excited that we can give you guys a chance to already test it. So tomorrow, on Tuesday, the 16th June 2015, at 11:30h CEST we will start the first public test session! (A small FAQ is provided at the end of this text.)

We still need to iron out some visual effect timings, and work on some items, but overall we're very happy with how far we've come and we believe that when you see and experience the result, you will understand why it has been an important step for DarkOrbit. Many “old” systems had to be revised and re-done for the new engine, giving us much more room for future features.

The improved client even helped us find out why some “bugs” only appear for some users and not all the time. We discovered that some parts of the current code sometimes produce the occasional hiccup, appearing to be a bug. So we’ve had to optimize these bits too – although they seemed to be totally unrelated to the new version, proving again how complex systems can develop unexpected interdependencies...

We have no doubt that we'll learn even more once you've had a chance to spend time in the new engine, so we'll be watching your feedback closely. Even when we can't react immediately, we are always reading your comments, watching for feedback, and working diligently behind the scenes to improve the game.

With this said: we wish you a pleasant time with the 3D graphics engine visual update and hope to see you in game!

Your DarkOrbit Team

 

FAQ
What does “3D graphics engine update” mean?

A “graphics engine” is the part of a game that is responsible for displaying all the important moving objects in a game – simply speaking it’s the “client”.
Until now we were using a client that was making use mainly of the computer’s main processor and thus had a lot of data to send to the processor like the position of any given object on the screen, the way these objects interacted, the data from the server needed managing, information had to be sent to the browser (which then sent it to the operating system), and so much more.
At the same time the game, the browser and the operating system needed to draw each object on the screen and thus a lot of processing power was wasted on what is called “overhead”.
The new engine makes use of functionalities that are part of each modern graphics chip – either in Laptops or desktop PCs – and offloads all the work displaying the objects on the screen, immensely increasing the “breathing room” for the main processor.
Does that mean I can now move in the third dimension as well?

Actually, no. While we can use the “depth”-axis for cool visual effects (check it out!), DarkOrbit will still remain the same game!
How can I tell if my computer can run the game?

First of all you could simply start game and try it out. If your computer is able to run it, it will. (You can use the “Settings” to switch back to 2D.)
We made sure that computers that cannot run the 3D version at all will not show the “Switch to 2D/3D” option.
If your computer’s “system specifications” is equal or better than the following, your PC should be fine!
Min requirements for 3D version (this is first version, it may change a bit for final release):
Processor Intel Pentium 4 3GHz / AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Graphics card ATI Radeon HD 3650 or equivalent
RAM 2GB
Flash player 11.8, newest recommended (18.0)
OS Windowx XP+, MacOS
It still does not run smoothly enough. Can I improve that?

How to improve client performance (FPS)

1. Update your Flash Player. Use official release version from https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
2. Check if Hardware acceleration is enabled (right click on flash -> settings -> first tab (Display) -> check "Enable hardware acceleration").
3. Update your graphic card drivers (this can give huge performance boost).
4. Close other pages that contain heavy elements (games, ads etc). In all browsers. Music player shouldn't be a problem (if it has no fancy visualizer or sth).
5. Close any unnecessary applications running in the background, especially those using GPU.
6. Update your browser. Side note for Google Chrome (with Pepper Flash) users: if you’re experiencing poor performance (or 3D doesn’t work for you) despite having good PC try different browser (Firefox, IE). Pepper Flash in Chrome is known for performance issues, and developers can hardly do anything about it.
7. Clear browser's cache.
8. Scan your system with antivirus.
Client-server communication lags

1. Disable all applications downloading in the background: p2p, movies, software updates etc
2. Check firewall settings.
3. Router/switch restart helps sometimes.
Are you using Unity or HTML5?

We have been discussing using different technologies when the work was started more than a year ago and we found that Flash3D would offer us the best compromise between compatibility, performance and customizability. A move to a different technology would have taken even much more time but did not offer more advantages.
Also we know that despite the HTML5 hype, it is not mature enough for a online game like DarkOrbit. So Flash3D is not going to be replaced anytime soon.
We can talk about the actual decision making process elsewhere.
Open Beta Test Details

As the testing needs to be supervised by our developers, the servers are open during the CEST office hours:
Tuesday, 16 June 2015, 11:30h – 18:00h CEST
Thursday, 18 June 2015, 11:30h - 21:00h CEST
We apologize to our players on the US-based servers – but as the testing is public, any disruption could interfere with the normal live game – and we wouldn’t be able to react quickly enough outside the office hours.
When are you going to release the finished version?

Depending on your feedback and the amount of polishing we have to do, we may need a few more weeks to finally release the 3D version.
How can we leave feedback?

We have a feedback form that will be accessible in the client for your feedback and we would like you to use the feedback thread in forums for all your comments.

 

Visszajelzéseket várunk majd a 3D-s grafikáról, amikor is a teszt szerver nyitva lesz:

A véleményeket kulturált hangnemben kérjük és olvassátok el többször, mit és hogyan küldtök el számunkra.

Ha nagy igény van rá, akkor lefordítom számotokra az egészet egy "csak a fontosabb" felkiálltással.

 

Lehet, nagy igény (és hosszú munka lesz). Nagyon várom. Nem is magát, a 3D módot, az is érdekel, de azt, hogy állítólag megoldották a lagg egyre kínzóbb problémáját. Kíváncsi vagyok rá.

 

Ha sikerül nekik megy a pacsi a bp.nek

 

Mazsi, amikor a mostani új klienst betették akármennyire is hiszed, de HU1.-n nem volt lagg vagy ha volt, akkor is minimális, alig észlelhető. Én elhiszem, hogy megtudják oldani, de remélem a mostani problémák is kilesznek, mint amit említettem másik fórum témánál. A bemutató video az tetszik nekem, de a régi klienst lehet még attól használni? (Lehet bele van írva, de az én angol tudásom nem éppen perfect)

 

Bele van, lehet.

 

Akkor jó, fogok tudni játszani tovább :-D

 

De amit írnak az újról elég biztató. Hogy inkább a graf. kártyádat fogja leterhelni, nem a procid...

 

Nem hinném ,hogy a gépem bírná, maradni fogok ennél a réginél valószínüsíthetően.

 

Nem fog érdemi változással járni. A régi fog jobban futni mint most, az új meg ugyanúgy.

 

Egyébként néhány vidinél látom hogy aeggel ami még most van 2ds a régebbit használják,azt hogy?
Itt egy példa

 

Majd kiderül idővel, hogy viszi.-e a gépem vagy se

 

Érdekes lesz a teszt szeró,olyan fagyások lesznek,hogy juj...

Khm,volt már ekkor aeg. Most ezen mi a meglepő?

 

Vissza a régi lézereket, régi npc-ket, régi effekteket. Akár opcionálisra!

 

Nem tudom hogy jön ez ebbe a topikba de támogatom


Remélem jó lesz ez a 3D mód.
Ha az aegis leteszi a bóját és a venomnak látszik a lézere engem megvettek.

 

Tiszteletem
És mikor lehet a 3D-s módot kipróbálni ? Mert álítólag késik a test server.

 

Sajnos, pontos időt nem tudunk, de folyamatban van még a hiba elhárítása, hogy minden rendben menjen a szerveren.

 

Kb ekkor fogják bezárni a teszt szervert: ~19h and 20h CEST

 

engem megvet kilora k. jo le a kalapal
picit lagos de jo lesz ez