koobas.hobune.stream
Game lags at native resolution but when run at 640x480 is fine?
I've been currently developing my game on a top of the range PC which runs the game at 60 fps but when I tested it on my low end laptop I experienced major lag running at 15 fps. I figured out that when I ran the game in the lowest resolution it was able to run at 45fps. I assume this means it isn't a problem with the draw calls, physics or scripts. So what could be causing the lag?
I've taken a screenshot of my game running with the profiler visible: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6Gj_RTZRHs7odweb2w4HgNumTc6NW7XejYB1ytE8p7o?feat=directlink
Hi, this looks like more of a GPU problem than a CPU problem. I would check the bandwidth usage on the GPU: complex shaders, overdraw, post effects with lots of passes, big uncompressed textures... Lastly, Intel integrated GPU that are present on a lot of laptops are not as good as a dedicated GPU, especially for bandwidth.
A lot of netbooks and low-end laptops simply dont have the bandwidth for large amounts of data. You will find they even struggle with simple browsing, sometimes.
Run a program like 3D$$anonymous$$ark (Some older version) to get an idea of what the machine is really capable of. Play a few games on it. If you can play Half-life 2 in full GFX no problem your game is broken.
Your problem is probably that your low end GPU just isn't fast enough for the required fill rate. A larger resolution requires a greater fillrate. Keep in mind that fragment shaders are executed for each pixel. So the larger your resolution the more pixels it has to render. If you have a lot of overdraw it even gets worse. Keep in mind that if you double the resolution you actually have 4 times the pixel count. It's a quadratic increase.
Thanks I didn't know about fill rates, that explains why it was able to run much faster at a lower resolution. In that case does it mean I have to lower my texture resolutions even further or will that make no difference?
The texture resolution will not affect the fill rate at all. Larger textures just require more memory. If you have an integrated GPU you probably don't have that much memory available.
Well, if the laptop doesn't have a "real" 3d accelerator there's not much you can do beside:
Run your application on a lower resolution.
reduce the stuff that is actually drawn. I don't talk about vertex or triangle count but overall count. The fillrate is affexted by everything that is "in view", not just by things that are visible. Even things that are occluded by other things. Depth testing is done after the fragment shader has been executed for that fragment. If the depth text fails it's not as much overhead as if an actual color is written to the frame buffer, but it's still quite a bit depending on the used shader.
Use "lighter" shaders, especially the fragment shaders. Unity's new standard shader is quite heavy. If you don't need specular highlight, try use one of the old shaders or even the mobile versions.
If nothing of the above mentioned things helps you should realise that you can't reach the moon with a Cessna ^^.
haha, well thanks for all the insight! I'll give those a try but your probably right. I still do want to reduce as much of the lag as possible for lower end machines but for my game I guess a graphics card would be recommended.
Hello, Please ensure that you'r laptop is in the high performance mode. If this wont help then you can check if there is problem with choosen GPU. Many games uses integrated graphics when run on a laptops even though you have a "super-ultra graphics chip from nvidia".
If that wouldn't help, just leave the comment and i will make some research ;)
Regards, M. Rogalski
Hi, thanks for the response. The laptop dose not have a graphics card so yes it does use integrated graphics but this should be enough to run my game as it works fine when played at a low resolution. I was wondering if there might be a way to reduce the gpu load, possibly a way to reduce the VRA$$anonymous$$ usage/VBO total. I also have an image link to the game running with the profiler. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6Gj_RTZRHs7odweb2w4HgNumTc6NW7XejYB1ytE8p7o?feat=directlink
