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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / New user - Speed Issues

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WildW
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Joined: 16th Jan 2003
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 00:25
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I'm a new user - got my hands on Dark Basic Pro today, installed the latest patch (3.1), started to run the demo programs, experiment a little with some code. I wonder if folks could comment on my experiences.

My computer is a little slow - it's a 1 GHz Celeron, and being a laptop the 3D graphics aren't up to a great deal - I was expecting things to be a little sluggish there - 32MB of memory given over to a lil SIS 730 graphics chip . . . but I can run Unreal Tournament playably, so it's not THAT bad. I've been programming long enough - I code C for a living, I spent a few years writing games in MS QBasic, and on different computers back to the 8 bit era.

My first impressions of DB-Pro have been rather disappointing - running the demo exe's that came with the package vary from slow to awful. . .I just wonder if I'm doing anything wrong.

I've just written a little program to experiment with 2D graphics - grabbing the mouse x and y coordinates and plotting a circle at them when the mouse moves - a few lines of code. I'm almost horrified that a compiled executable running on a 1GHz machine can't plot circles at more than a few frames per second. I can write the same in Microsoft QBasic that came with DOS and it will run at lighting speed, running interpreted rather than compiled, on a much slower machine no doubt. I expect AMOS on the Amiga would've run the same code more quickly.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I might get a better response from DB-Pro? I wanted a nice language for the PC that I could use to make reasonable graphics - I'd read that DB-Pro had made a significant improvement in speed over the original (which I haven't tried) so I thought I'd bite the bullet and pay extra for something better. Is there anything I can do or does DB really NEED a good graphics card? I've tried different screen resolutions/bit depths but without much change - and the 2D graphics appear to run at 640x480 anyway. I wasn't really planning to use 3D, I wanted the ability to move sprite around quickly and easily, make some nice little old-school games with a nice framerate. I'll continue to play around and see if sprite movement is any quicker than line graphics.

If anyone has any useful comments I'd be grateful - I'm not trying to troll, I just want to write some playable little games. Thanks.
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MrTAToad
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 00:47
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To get a better response, use sprites for everything, and not the dot, line etc commands, they are too slow.

Get a nice decent card, and turn off the anti-aliasing, which tends to help.

Try a different resolution, and perhaps use 16-bit mode.

Good news everyone! I really am THAT good...
http://www.nickk.nildram.co.uk/ for great plug-ins - oh my, yes!
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MrTAToad
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 00:48
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One other thing - get a decent computer.

Good news everyone! I really am THAT good...
http://www.nickk.nildram.co.uk/ for great plug-ins - oh my, yes!
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WildW
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 00:52
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Alas, sold my XP2000 a short time ago, Christmas and credit cards being what they are I'll try playing with sprites then. . . and hopefully not feel the need to go back to QBasic.

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Juso
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 01:13
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DB is best at 3D objects, so try to put cubes and spheres to screen and move along them. Its easy and thrilling first step in DB world.

I think 2D commands in DB are nearly futile.
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CloseToPerfect
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 07:03
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it's the sis card, dbpro doesn't handle it well and being a laptop your, well screwed.

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Arrow
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 07:14
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Yah know, I would bet a lofty sum that half the "bugs" that are in DBPro are either hardware problems or human error.

This is Truth!
This is my Belief!
...at least for now.
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brittd
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Posted: 17th Jan 2003 23:45
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The first thing I would make sure of is that you have the latest Video drivers installed & DirectX8.1. I have a 733mhz with a TNT2 PCI 16mb video card and I get way better speed. Even using dots.
Another thing, make sure you have sync on and the rate set high or 0 and update sync yourself.

Post your code here and maybe we can see a programming error.
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Rob K
Retired Moderator
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Posted: 18th Jan 2003 00:14
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Hmm... DBP Patch 3.1 is quite slow with multiple objects. Patch 4 (coming out soon) is much faster (as much as 10x faster in busy scenes) - maybe that will help. What FPS rate do you get on Unreal Tournament?

NOBODY has a forum name as stupid as Darth Shader. I do.
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The admiral
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Posted: 18th Jan 2003 00:49
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patch 4,5,6 will make dbpro much faster and more feature packed...your troubles with dbpro is because the current version is buggy.

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Megaman X
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Posted: 18th Jan 2003 01:23
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Ur computer is good enough to run DBpro. If it was UT2k3 u were talking about, that game updates automaticly DirectX libraries on ur computer, so u have the right DirectX version. Also, if u can play good enough UT2k3, so the problem is really DBpro. I made some tests in my computer as well (pentium 4, 2GHZ and Geforce 4 ) and somethings were a bit faster on DB classic then pro...

"A true warrior fights with skill, not anger..."

Gif edited by Kangaroo2
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brittd
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Posted: 18th Jan 2003 06:34
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Ok WildW try this simple circle drawing code. If you get less then 30 fps there is something wrong with your setup.
I never get below 60fps

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Megaman X
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Posted: 18th Jan 2003 06:57
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I've got 46 FPS with DB Classic and 512 FPS with DBpro . I think it's fast, ins't it? ^_^

"A true warrior fights with skill, not anger..."

Gif edited by Kangaroo2
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Necrym
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Posted: 19th Jan 2003 02:21
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I wouldnt be worried abot speed issues these are being addressed with the DBO pipeline. At DBDN the beta 1 of patch 4 is being tested and let me tell you that i had a whopping 200 fps on a program with over 200 objects that previously ran at 61 fps. Its sure going to improve as they get further down the track with the new pipeline.

Watch the bouncing cursor - now in 3d
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Rob K
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Posted: 19th Jan 2003 03:52
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I can back that up ^^

NOBODY has a forum name as stupid as Darth Shader. I do.
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Rob K
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Posted: 19th Jan 2003 03:53
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I don't think that DB will ever be quite as polished as the UT engine or Quake engine though.

NOBODY has a forum name as stupid as Darth Shader. I do.
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Necrym
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Posted: 19th Jan 2003 12:26
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maybe not but its a lot of power for the average user at a cheap cost - not bad if you ask me. LOL

Watch the bouncing cursor - now in 3d
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Shadow
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Posted: 19th Jan 2003 21:20
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brittd's code gives me 88 fps and my processor is 390 MHz
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brittd
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Posted: 19th Jan 2003 21:55
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With Patch 3 and beta Patch 4 I get the same speed. The reason is becasue Patch 4 only is dealing with the basic 3d dll. This circle command and all drawing commands are basic 2d and are not being worked on in Patch4. I don't even think they need to be worked on because they seem pretty fast from the begining.
WildW said he is only getting a few frames per second. Even under a 733 Process with bad graphics card he should be getting better 2d graphics.
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