[1.9-1.12.x] EVE-Redux: Performance-enhanced EVE + maintenance (v1.11.7.1 - 09/09/2022)

[blackrack]

44 minutes ago, Poodmund said:

Aside from Linux and Mac support, there's no real good reason to provide support for OpenGL at this point at performance is markedly better with DX11... but KSP should really be offering Vulkan or Metal support too alongside DX11 for that reason.

EDIT: I also think these 'tests' that users are doing and providing figures for you Blackrack may be very misleading as from the launchpad and runway, I was only seeing a small noticeable improvement in FPS because the volumetric particles were a fair distance away from the camera. The performance increase was VERY noticeable once I got the craft up alongside the cloud layers and flooded the camera with them. This is what I think you are probably more interested in as that was the intent of the changes with regards to performance gains, no?

What was kind of funny is that with EVE Redux installed, I got better framerates inside the clouds than I did when I exited the particle clouds over the water. It seems the ocean rendering was a bigger tax on the performance now than the cloud particles... which is something.

Well, just for linux and mac support really.

The thing is, removing the projectors for the cloud and celestial shadows was already a big performance boost in itself, so while dense volumetrics are certainly the biggest improvement, I already saw big improvements without on the launchpad and elsewhere. Cloud shadows of multiple cloud layers were a killer for CPU performance, so for this reason I don't think they are misleading exactly. From my own testing with AVP I saw no noticeable difference either inside or outside the clouds which left me a bit puzzled. Anyway, on my side it's all good and I don't think we need any more testing apart from stability, I'll just fix some issues and consider this a done deal.

[dok_377]

@blackrack
You still can't play my video? I (and anybody else) would really appreciate if you took a look at the flickering issue. 

Edited August 27, 2020 by dok_377
I'm deleting the video and cleaning this post as the relevant issue is resolved, so it will not contain the dead link

[blackrack]

17 minutes ago, dok_377 said:

@blackrack
You still can't play my video? I (and anybody else) would really appreciate if you took a look at the flickering issue. If you can't play it on youtube, here's a google drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ynf7Tkuwalm3q4R0bkjky8uVefTQtd35/

I watched it and had a similar issue early on in dev, I will try to reproduce it with the mod you mentioned.

[dok_377]

32 minutes ago, blackrack said:

I watched it and had a similar issue early on in dev, I will try to reproduce it with the mod you mentioned.

Thanks.

[cukkoo]

Great work now i can play my ksp at 15 fps

[Beetlecat]

21 hours ago, dok_377 said:

@blackrack
You still can't play my video? I (and anybody else) would really appreciate if you took a look at the flickering issue. If you can't play it on youtube, here's a google drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ynf7Tkuwalm3q4R0bkjky8uVefTQtd35/

Okay! I experience a *VERY* subtle version of this in flight even at the KSC. The view angle definitely contributes to when I can see it. The game I tested it on is a fairly heavily modded 1.10.1 JNSQ along with TUFX--which I toggled on and off to see if it made a difference. I *DO* notice some performance gains, though.

[blackrack]

55 minutes ago, Beetlecat said:

Okay! I experience a *VERY* subtle version of this in flight even at the KSC. The view angle definitely contributes to when I can see it. The game I tested it on is a fairly heavily modded 1.10.1 JNSQ along with TUFX--which I toggled on and off to see if it made a difference. I *DO* notice some performance gains, though.

A video would be nice

[Beetlecat]

41 minutes ago, blackrack said:

A video would be nice

Yeah -- realized that I needed to follow up with -- "i'll see what I can do by way of providing some visuals"  I don't usually/ever capture video. A new life awaits!

Edited August 24, 2020 by Beetlecat

[dok_377]

3 hours ago, Beetlecat said:

Okay! I experience a *VERY* subtle version of this in flight even at the KSC. The view angle definitely contributes to when I can see it. The game I tested it on is a fairly heavily modded 1.10.1 JNSQ along with TUFX--which I toggled on and off to see if it made a difference. I *DO* notice some performance gains, though.

Interesting. I'm running almost no mods, just some visuals. Including KS3P, which is basically the same as TUFX, but I doubt they have something to do with this. Maybe it depends on the size of the planets and some coordinate system (I see the flickering only close to the poles in the stock size). 

[Beetlecat]

Okay. In order to not be a jerk, as @blackrack kindly reminded me, here's some video of the in-game flickering I experienced. It's *much* more subtle than dok_377 illustrated, but also relied on particular angles to reveal itself:

Spoiler

 

I'm also relieved it shows up in the video, and wasn't just a symptom of too many zoom meetings lately.

[Morphisor]

I can confirm the flickering, noticed very similar effects going on as shown in the video by @Beetlecat.

[blackrack]

7 hours ago, Morphisor said:

I can confirm the flickering, noticed very similar effects going on as shown in the video by @Beetlecat.

16 hours ago, Beetlecat said:

Okay. In order to not be a jerk, as @blackrack kindly reminded me, here's some video of the in-game flickering I experienced. It's *much* more subtle than dok_377 illustrated, but also relied on particular angles to reveal itself:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'm also relieved it shows up in the video, and wasn't just a symptom of too many zoom meetings lately.

I have fixed a similar issue before release, and think this one might be related to camera mods. Any notable mods you used? As I don't reproduce this with stock I'd appreciate the most detailed reproductions steps possible. If possible remove other mods and confirm it still happens with only your EVE configs around.

Edited: NVM it's reprodued with sci-fi VE near the poles, as described.

Edited August 25, 2020 by blackrack

[Morphisor]

18 hours ago, blackrack said:

I have fixed a similar issue before release, and think this one might be related to camera mods. Any notable mods you used? As I don't reproduce this with stock I'd appreciate the most detailed reproductions steps possible. If possible remove other mods and confirm it still happens with only your EVE configs around.

Edited: NVM it's reprodued with sci-fi VE near the poles, as described.

I tried reproducing the issue on an otherwise stock game, with only a basic EVE config. This showed no issues that I could find. In my main install I have JNSQ & TUFX, which showed consistent flickering around the space center.

[blackrack]

New version is up, fixes the flickering issues and adds the particle fading when camera approaches them. Requires the new scatterer (0.0632) for integration to reflect the changes in shading.

[dok_377]

Amazing. Can confirm, the flickering is no more. Thank you very much for the fast response and fix.

[RyanRising]

Shoot, I just realised I'm quoted in the OP without providing actual data, just vaguely remembering stuff. Give me about an hour, I need to fix that.

Setup details are in the spoiler:

Spoiler

Settings (Default except where specified.)

General: Advanced Tweakables ON

Graphics: Terrain Detail High, Terrain Scatters ON, Scatter Density 100%, Texture Quality Full Res, Reflection Refresh Mode Low, Terrain Shader Quality Ultra, Screen Resolution 2560x1440, Full Screen ON, V-Sync Don't Sync, Frame Limit 180 FPS.

System Specifications:

GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1080 FE @Stock Speeds, whatever those are

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X @ 4.1Ghz

RAM: 32GB DDR4 @ 3200Mhz

Drive: Game is running off of a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD

Mods:

EvnironmentalVisualEnhancements 1.10.1-1 OR EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements Redux 1.11.1.1

Scatterer 0.0632

Spectra 1.4.0

I started a new game in Sandbox Mode, loaded the Aeris 4A, and replaced its jets with aerospikes. I then launched it, and in the debug menu turned infinite propellant on. I then took these measurements, being careful not to induce aero effects while flying when recording FPS. The biggest flaw I can see is that I picked what seemed to be the mode of the FPS number, and didn't average them out or use a performance graph.

Location - 1.10.1-1 FPS - Redux 1.11.1.1 FPS

Runway, default camera position - 148 - 147

Kerbin, flying east of the runway @ 5000m looking north - 99 - 95

Eve, 0,0 in the water, default camera pos. - 101 - 101

Eve, flying just under the opaque 7500m cloud layer east of 0,0, looking north - 87 - 93

Duna, 0,0, default camera pos. - 169 - 171

Duna, flying east @ 7500m, looking north - 152 - 152

Laythe, 0,0, default camera pos. - 102 - 100 (Timewarped to morning for light)

Laythe, flying east of 0,0 @ 5000m, looking east - 89 - 92.

 

Hopefully that's a little better, though not exactly a statistically sound analysis. Also, I'd like to note that I definitely noticed the new fading effects when doing this testing and comparing it to the original. That's some pretty good stuff.

Edited August 27, 2020 by RyanRising
added, like, the numbers bro

[Beetlecat]

5 hours ago, dok_377 said:

Amazing. Can confirm, the flickering is no more. Thank you very much for the fast response and fix.

Also confirming my light flickering is 100% gone now. Loving the handful of FPS back as well. I wonder what to spend them on...

[dok_377]

@blackrack
I don't want to bug you immediately after you fixed one thing, but another thing came up. Now with the cloud shadows. They do some weird stuff, and the issue is more present the higher up the camera goes. I didn't notice it before because I was flying low, but when I grabbed a plane that can go 20km up, the issue truly showed itself. And now it has nothing to do with the location, it happens pretty much everywhere, but it's more visible on the poles due to the contrast with the snow. 
 

Spoiler

 

If you can't play this video too, just reply and I will upload it to the google drive. 

2 hours ago, Beetlecat said:

Also confirming my light flickering is 100% gone now. Loving the handful of FPS back as well. I wonder what to spend them on...

Hold up a bit, I might've just found another issue. If you can check if it's happening in your game as well, it will be great.

[blackrack]

9 minutes ago, dok_377 said:

@blackrack
I don't want to bug you immediately after you fixed one thing, but another thing came up. Now with the cloud shadows. They do some weird stuff, and the issue is more present the higher up the camera goes. I didn't notice it before because I was flying low, but when I grabbed a plane that can go 20km up, the issue truly showed itself. And now it has nothing to do with the location, it happens pretty much everywhere, but it's more visible on the poles due to the contrast with the snow. 
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

If you can't play this video too, just reply and I will upload it to the google drive. 

Hold up a bit, I might've just found another issue. If you can check if it's happening in your game as well, it will be great.

I'm surprised no one noticed this until now. It has to do with depth precision now that cloud shadows use depth. It may be fixable or I will just fade out the cloud shadows earlier.

[dok_377]

Just now, blackrack said:

I'm surprised no one noticed this until now. It has to do with depth precision now that cloud shadows use depth. It may be fixable or I will just fade out the cloud shadows earlier.

I was thinking about the depth buffer as well. Wasn't sure, but it looks like it. Either way, if you can't fix it, fading out the shadows earlier will probably be the best solution.

[Moose]

If requests are allowed, any chance we can have particles fade in and out at the visible range boundaries?

Arguably the most jarring thing about any of this, especially now we have the optimised particle counts, is how the cloud particles seemingly pop in from nowhere. This is most noticeable when falling over cloud on re-entry, as when you hit the view radius everything just magics into existence. I'd take a hit on max view range to have the particles fade in and out of transparency on spawn/despawn at the edge of it.

I tried to implement this myself with the original EVE version, but it never worked out. Maybe you'll have more luck in Redux.

[blackrack]

1 hour ago, Moose said:

If requests are allowed, any chance we can have particles fade in and out at the visible range boundaries?

Arguably the most jarring thing about any of this, especially now we have the optimised particle counts, is how the cloud particles seemingly pop in from nowhere. This is most noticeable when falling over cloud on re-entry, as when you hit the view radius everything just magics into existence. I'd take a hit on max view range to have the particles fade in and out of transparency on spawn/despawn at the edge of it.

I tried to implement this myself with the original EVE version, but it never worked out. Maybe you'll have more luck in Redux.

The particles already fade in (and have for years) I think the variable is either distanceFade or verticalFade, check how it's done in BoulderCo config.

[Poodmund]

I think its also combined with area as I think the fade in only considers your altitude and not the total circular area that the clouds consist of.

[Moose]

6 hours ago, blackrack said:

The particles already fade in (and have for years) I think the variable is either distanceFade or verticalFade, check how it's done in BoulderCo config.

I'll have to have a look then, I've never seen it work.

[Apelsin]

Are there OPM configs available for this version? Where can I get them if so?