VG Hacks - VGExtremeRadar v2.1 with Harvesting and Waypoints : VGExtreme Programs

[maglins]

found the problem. In radar utilities you have nickel spelled nickle. Fixed it and it's working.

[wyvernx]

chan, I suggest adding a "default" pen for objects that dont fall into a category. Ie if they add a new resource and you dont have it listed, it wont show. You should have an else default pen for each object type.. and for object types that are not coded yet.

[gheezer]

Bah, having major issues at work so I may not be able to get the updates in until tomorrow.

I will put in put a generic node to catch whatever falls through the type check.

And about the fps on the sli 7950 setup, could it be poor context switching in the sli driver? I would think ther would be a lot of overhead in switching between gdi and sli d3d like the radar and hud do. Just a guess...no SLI here

And I will correct Nickel too.

[djvj]

I have no idea why it would lag the game, UNLESS vge is at like 100% CPU usage.. which it should never be. When you notice lag, check the CPU usage for Vge.

Trying it now, I had 15 fps sitting here, load up vge, no frame drop. Start radar (not debugging) and vanguard in focus, fps now 3-5 while facing a wall. CPU for vge ranges from 10-21%. Whenever vge drops in cpu, vg takes it and vice versa.

[djvj]

Playing with different UI's and results change. For those who don't know, vg has a !@#$%^* UI system. It draws windows that are turned off in settings still. Lots of people have issues using custom UI's. I, for one, am one of them.

Typically I use droxui when not in a dungeon. But it has like 100 windows. Even when you turn them off, the game still has to draw ALL of them. Once I'm in a full party in a dungeon, i often freeze for 5-10secs during a fight, every 20-30 secs. As soon as I go back to default, game runs very smooth.

My above post I was using droxui. Where I had 15fps facing a wall, I have 28 in the same spot using BoxedUI. Radar on, ~15fps. Default UI, facing wall ~43fps, radar on, 32fps.

Running through town though is horrible wiht radar on, I get like 3-5fps and skips cause vge keeps trying to draw tons of npc's and names on the radar and keep it updated. But that has always been a limitation with radars running on the same pc as the game. Too bad we can't use vge on a networked pc.....it's safe to dream.

Wyvern, is this capable since vge isn't hooking into the game anymore like XU did?

[wyvernx]

It still doesnt make sense. As vge runs in its own thread, it should not effect the game's drawing at all. It doesnt hook the game, doesnt wait on the game to do anything, just sits there passivly reading memory when you tell it to. I'll try to duplicate it. I havnt tried running radar in town. but that should tip me off as to whats happening. Only thing I can think of is that the function to read memory might pause the game for a fraction of a tick while it does its read.. if that is the case, I can easily fix by using a different read method that is not thread safe but gives the same results.

[djvj]

Would having a dualcore cpu and dedicating the 2nd core to vge improve this? Pretty sure the game is not written to use dualcores, so leaving an entire core open for vge would do wonders in this case.

I noticed while running and radar on, the overall smoothness of the game, even when there is no loading of textures into memory, is worse. It's hard to explain in words without seeing it. Think of it like this, those older games that had movie intros and the movie just didnt play that smooth like every half second the entire movie would slow down slightly. Just like that!! lol...

[wyvernx]

actually.. try turning off hyperthreading.. ie ctlr-ins-delete, go into CPU properties and uncheck CPU1 under processor affinity and see if it helps. It could be a cross threadding issue.

[gheezer]

OK djvj, with your exact settings, at windowed resolution of 1280x1024 I get about 31 avg fps in town with lots of mobs. when I turn radar off, I get about 35 avg fps. If I select the search box it drops to 7 fps until I return focus to VG. I am using high performance settings.

Now with balanced settings:
With no radar I get 27 avg fps, with radar I get 25 avg fps.

Hmm...you said you were facing a wall right? And not moving I assume. Well something is fishy, cause if your not moving the radar only updates once every 4 seconds or so. Now when your moving, the radar updates about 10 times per second.

Try using AutoAlign = 2 and intMilliSecsToRun = 200
That will make the update area smaller and it should still update about 1 time every 4 secs standing still but will only update 5 times per sec while moving. If that doesn't make a difference you have something else going on with your setup.

Hope we can help you figure it out

[gheezer]

Another update...

1) Added Unknown nodes
2) Fixed Nickel

[sinshar]

I know why your getting poor frame rates.. I was able to produce it last night repeatadly.
I use drox UI as well.. here is what i am certain is your problem

if i run the radar, and I don't give focus back to vanguard, My frames drop to like 5-10 depending on where i am. HOwever if i click with the mouse INTO vanguard (assuming your Radar window is smaller then your main window) You IMMEDIATLY pick back up to 30+
frames

It took me a while to figure that out as, sometimes it is Very difficult to tell which as focus.

And speaking of that... why can't i get a totaly Invisivble window? How do we get rid of the framing all together, The windowed border is tacky.
Thanks

and hopefully that fixes your problem

[wyvernx]

sinshar, take a screenshot so I can see what you are talking about.

[sinshar]

Ok, i will do it when i get home tonight.

until then, here are my specs on the set up of the radar
I have the window set to Locked, 400x400, only npc's and pc's on.
I run in windowed mode with the window of vanguard taking up the entire screen.
I run the radar setting on 2. (upper right corner)
If i start it up, it does not Always Give focus back to vanguard on its own, so it holds focus, yet the game appears to have focus sinec its all overlayed, but it don't, (Meaning i can't control my charecter ) thats how i know.

[djvj]

I sure hope you guys don't think I could be that dumb that I wasn't clicking back into vanguard to give it focus...You can't move around in game if it doesn't have focus...

Wyvern, I don't have a dualcore...the post above was was talking hypothetically, because my next pc I build will have 2-4 cores. I still have an amd64 3500+. ctrl-ins-del isn't even a shortcut in my windows, nothing pops up. And I know the cpu1/cpu2 properties only exist when you have 2 cores or 2 cpu's.

Changing the AutoAlign = 2 and intMilliSecsToRun = 200 did help a little gained a couple fps. But still running radar lags horribly. I know I'm not the only one with this issue, avsok also has the same thing as me. Switching UI's helps alot still

[gheezer]

If you have locked = true and you still see a border, then drox is doing something funny. The transparent portions of the radar should be click through. At least they are borderless and click through on my setup with the standard UI.