First of al thank you for giving us this oportunity to test this new engine. Now to sharing my findings with you: I mingled with the ScenarioCustom for a while to get consistent FPS results since even for the same scenario preset I got big differences in FPS not just in Attract but also in Follow too, because during bench run, Attract has the camera jumping randomly from one unit to next, and for both Attract and Follow changing the camera angles randomly while the transition too also happens randomly and not at specific pre-fixed times. So overall not even Follow Scenario is so consistent, and you may say that it's due to demo not being pre-canned. But what I found with mingling with ScenarioCustom is interesting since I managed to set the camera at a fixed position looking at the action unfold right before you, no transition, no movement, no angle change, it is really totally fixed. So therefore with this way I got FPS results very much consistent (error margin only 3%
) and I shared it to my fellow forum members at overclockers.co.uk in Star Swarm - Oxide bench thread and they also got consistent frame results with this custom preset albeit low results due to Dx overhead restrictions, fixed with Mantle hopefully. But without a furhet ado;
My ScenarioCustom seettings:
Command,Subject,Player Number,Start Time,Max Reps,Unit Rep Rate,Unit Spawn Rate (the time between units spawned into this squadron once it has materialized (in seconds)),X,Y,z
SpawnBackgroundObject,TheCosmos,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
SpawnBackgroundObject,Planet,,0,1,1,0,0,-12000,-2300
SpawnBackgroundObject,PlanetAtmosphere,,0,1,1,0,0,-12000,-2300
SpawnBackgroundObject,StarSphere,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
SpawnBackgroundObject,StarSphere,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
SpawnBackgroundObject,StarSphere,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
SpawnBackgroundObject,StarSphere,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
SpawnBackgroundObject,StarSphere,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
SpawnBackgroundObject,TheSuns,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
CameraToUnit,,,0.1,0,0,0,0,0,0
CameraToRandomAngle,,,0.1,0,0,0,,,
CameraToRandomUnit,,,0,0,0,0,,,
SetGrids,,,0,1,1,0,0,0,0
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-0-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-1-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-2-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-3-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-4-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-5-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-6-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-7-0,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-0-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-1-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-2-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-3-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-4-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-5-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-6-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterA1-7-1,0,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-0-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-1-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-2-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-3-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-4-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-5-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-6-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-7-0,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-0-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-1-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-2-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-3-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-4-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-5-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-6-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench FighterB1-7-1,1,0,3,12,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench BomberA1-0,0,0,24,100,0.2,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench BomberA1-1,0,0,24,100,0.2,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench BomberB1-0,1,0,8,200,0.2,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench BomberB1-1,1,0,8,200,0.2,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench CarrierA1-0,0,0,1,0,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench CarrierA1-1,0,0,1,0,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench CarrierB1-0,1,0,1,0,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Bench CarrierB1-1,1,0,1,0,0,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress00,0,1,250,12,0.01,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress01,1,1,250,12,0.01,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress02,1,1,250,12,0.01,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress03,0,1,250,12,0.01,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress10,0,1,250,12,0.01,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress11,1,1,250,12,0.01,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress12,1,1,250,12,0.01,,,
SpawnSquadron,Stress13,0,1,250,12,0.01,,,
ResetScenario,,,2700,99999999,,,,,
Now with this setting preset, the results as I said are consistent, but that's not the thing of importance that I found. What I realized is the action unfolding before you is ALWAYS the same, same things happen at the same moments accross the different runs, same seconds even; two opposing forces appear then first fires shot at same seconds, the fight ensues all the same, then first wave leave the screen at the same time, the second wave comes in on the action at the same time, and then to top it of in 120 seconds run, towards the very end, three big ships appear from the left hand side of the screen all at the same second accross the runs; and not just that but the HUD with fighter info and numbers disappears and appears during the fdifferent runs all at the same time.
Now finding this led me to believe that this demo is contrary to your claims, a pre-canned demo in fact, so Mantle may solve the overhead and we can see it as results, but this really kind of supports the allegations concerning you crippling the DirectX version, now I'm not saying it's true since both randomness and inconsistency would be there for Mantle version too (But there may be different scenario in affect during mantle api run alleviating these issues?)
Also another thing is changeing FixedFrameMS=16.6 into FixedFrameMS=9.3 or 9.1 (or something your pc can run without problem) really shots up FPS so much so that it feed more into my skepticism. Some results:
16.6
================================================== =========
Oxide Games
Star Swarm Benchmark - ©2013
C:\Users\Kyle\Documents\Star Swarm\Benchmark_14_01_31_2113.txt
Version 0.95
01/31/2014 21:13
================================================== =========
== Hardware Configuration =================================
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
CPU: GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz
Physical Cores: 4
Logical Cores: 4
Physical Memory: 4252483584
Allocatable Memory: 8796092891136
================================================== =========
== Configuration ==========================================
API: DirectX
Scenario: ScenarioCustom.csv
User Input: Disabled
Resolution: 1920x1080
Fullscreen: True
GameCore Update: 16.6 ms
Bloom Quality: High
PointLight Quality: High
ToneCurve Quality: High
Glare Overdraw: 16
Shading Samples: 64
Shade Quality: Mid
Motion Blur Frame Time: 16
Motion Blur InterFrame Time: 2
Detailed Frame Info: Off
================================================== =========
== Results ================================================
Test Duration: 120 Seconds
Total Frames: 2231
Average FPS: 18.58
Average Unit Count: 3688
Maximum Unit Count: 5477
Average Batches/MS: 932.40
Maximum Batches/MS: 1132.27
Average Batch Count: 53240
Maximum Batch Count: 96044
================================================== =========
VS
9.3
================================================== =========
Oxide Games
Star Swarm Benchmark - ©2013
C:\Users\Kyle\Documents\Star Swarm\Benchmark_14_01_31_2111.txt
Version 0.95
01/31/2014 21:11
================================================== =========
== Hardware Configuration =================================
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
CPU: GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz
Physical Cores: 4
Logical Cores: 4
Physical Memory: 4252483584
Allocatable Memory: 8796092891136
================================================== =========
== Configuration ==========================================
API: DirectX
Scenario: ScenarioCustom.csv
User Input: Disabled
Resolution: 1920x1080
Fullscreen: True
GameCore Update: 9.3 ms
Bloom Quality: High
PointLight Quality: High
ToneCurve Quality: High
Glare Overdraw: 16
Shading Samples: 64
Shade Quality: Mid
Motion Blur Frame Time: 16
Motion Blur InterFrame Time: 2
Detailed Frame Info: Off
================================================== =========
== Results ================================================
Test Duration: 120 Seconds
Total Frames: 3413
Average FPS: 28.43
Average Unit Count: 3515
Maximum Unit Count: 5432
Average Batches/MS: 878.89
Maximum Batches/MS: 1122.88
Average Batch Count: 33506
Maximum Batch Count: 73665
================================================== =========
as you can see for yourself, this single change with my ScenarioCustom.csv in use results in 10fps increase.
So overall I do not know what to think or believe, just hope Mantle is really great (really wish that) and NOT just some gimmick which needs a push by developer criplling one version and optimising the next.
