Hyrule Field Slowdown Observation

[Ocean]

I took screens of hyrule field before/after in wireframe mode, but they were completely identical after visiting north of hyrule and then coming back. There were no additional textures being rendered at all.

However the fps just locks onto 20 even though nothing significant has happened in the game, nor has an event been triggered. In fact, the only thing that has happened is moving from area A to area B. And as you re-enter area A, it suddenly is (permanently) slow.

[StripTheSoul]

Xtreme2damax: Don't be such a diva. A lot of people want a lot of stuff fixed, why is your issue more important than all the others? Why should all devs gather in this thread? you won't see many posts of any of them in the forum, anyway.

[Xtreme2damax]

I'm not, but I've done a hell of a lot more than most members and spent a shit ton of time testing and providing any useful information that I could to the best of my abilities as have few other knowledgeable members. There is far more feedback and information on this one issue than any other issue, it is a bit concerning to see a lack of responses or interest from the developers considering the amount of information that was provided.

But I could really be a diva if you'd like, and lets just say it wouldn't be nice stuff that I would have to say..

[NaturalViolence]

I for one appreciate what Xtreme is doing. I've also tried to gather info on this through my benchmarking project. Mostly not because I am so desperate to get fullspeed in hyrule field but simply because I'm curious about this issue. It's so.....unique.

[kiesel-stein]

(05-06-2010, 01:46 PM)Xtreme2damax Wrote: The fact that Hyrule Field SouthWest was running full speed and is 10 FPS slower after vising Hyrule Field North without any additional geometry being rendered points to another problem in the video or fifo code.

This is not true. There is additional geometry being rendered: The new parts of the map, and Zelda TPs way of drawing the map is expensive in dolphin, probably not at all on the real hardware.

For an example of how expensive map drawing actually is, i captured an image of the framebuffer after each of the 2911 pipeline flushes in an earlier part of the game(just started to explore faron woods, the map shows the area up to the faron spring):
0-2253: draw small fragments for the walls of the map
2254-2317: draw the walkable ground of the map
2318-2319: draw the arrows for current and start position for the map
2320-2605: draw shadow map, visible geometry, add bloom
2606: add map
2607-2743: render area name heading
2744-2910: render rest of gui

Granted, the non-map geometry is very simple, but you can get similar in Hyrule Field. By the way, i am not claiming that there are no other problems with Hyrule Field, like it being extremely cpu hungry... (and in this case i mean the emulated cpu)

[Xtreme2damax]

Weird, because I tested the same area in Wireframe mode and free look and could not immediately see anything different being rendered than before yet the same area was 10 FPS slower than before. A couple of us tested the same area before visiting north Hyrule Field and after, thus is why we made that conclusion.

I'm not saying there isn't anything else that isn't being rendered as it could likely not be that visible without debugging tools, just that's the conclusion that was made by testing before and after with wireframe mode and free look.

[kiesel-stein]

(05-07-2010, 05:59 AM)Xtreme2damax Wrote: I'm not saying there isn't anything else that isn't being rendered as it could likely not be that visible without debugging tools, just that's the conclusion that was made by testing before and after with wireframe mode and free look.

Yes, this performance problem hides in plain view, who would expect map drawing to be expensive? The reason for the map being invisible in wireframe mode is simple, by the way: the framebuffer is cleared in between. Otherwise, you could actually see the map in redish colors in the upper left corner.

[Starscream]

Xtreme is an exceptional member, do not get discouraged from posting or helping, dude. We need more people like you posting here.

[jakeslogan]

Right, Xtreme has started everything, so it's his responsibility to stick with this topic until the problem is solved.

[Starscream]

That is not what I meant, and he has done enough already. All any "normal" member can do is bring things to other people attention. What those "other" people choose to do with that information is up to them. Xtreme is not a developer, he's just tying to help in whatever way he can. He has no responsibility here and is not obligated to do anything.