Framerate is choppy

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Since friction was implemented, blob movement is kind of choppy, especially
at the beginning of simulation when they're moving quickly.

We should have at least 20 fps at all times with blobs moving in proper
amounts per frame.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by dbenamy on 13 Dec 2007 at 8:50

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Original comment by dbenamy on 13 Dec 2007 at 8:51

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Zach, can you give a quick description of how the friction look is implemented. 
Maybe
I'll be able to fix this.

Original comment by dbenamy on 13 Dec 2007 at 9:53

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Friction: I ended up doing it a bit differently from the original guess. The 
force
starts at about 3.2* the optimal force and then decreases linearly over time.

Really, all you want to do is increase the framerate (in RedrawThread), and 
maybe
reduce the FORCE_OF_USERS_HAND parameter, which directly controls the speed of 
the
simulation.

Original comment by zac...@gmail.com on 13 Dec 2007 at 9:55

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I increased the framerate and the granularity of physics (so there were more
intermediate states to draw). I think it's better but it's still not perfect. 

I think it also uses more cpu now. Can you guys make sure it still runs ok on 
your
machines?

Original comment by dbenamy on 14 Dec 2007 at 2:24

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I really would like to make this nicer, but I'd say at this point it's good 
enough
for the demo and not worth ripping the code apart over. Let's leave this for 
after
the demo.

Original comment by dbenamy on 14 Dec 2007 at 2:29

• Added labels: Priority-Low
• Removed labels: Priority-High

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A little choppier now for me, actually, but not too bad. Maybe cut the 
framerate a
little but keep the high granularity?

I'm also seeing GUI hiccups on my laptop that I didn't see elsewhere, I'll do 
some
testing and figure out what's up and if it's related.

Original comment by zac...@gmail.com on 14 Dec 2007 at 2:56

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You can try dropping it. 
I set it as is to try to get around 30 fps which I'd think we should be able to 
hit.
But something's a little not right with the whole thing.

Original comment by dbenamy on 14 Dec 2007 at 3:04

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Isn't 30 way high for a PC game?

Original comment by zac...@gmail.com on 14 Dec 2007 at 3:28

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I don't think so. From an article on WoW:
"I have to say that the performance results are pretty disappointing. The test
machine is a 2.5Ghz Pentium 4, with 2GB of RAM and a 256MB Radeon 9600 video 
card.
This same machine stayed regularly in the 40fps range with Windows XP 
installed. Now,
sitting around in Orgrimmar, it’s struggling to stay above 20fps, regularly 
dipping
into the teens. The scary part is that even standing idle, my CPU usage is 
pegged at
100% and 60% of my RAM is used."
Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framerate#Frame_rates_in_video_games

Original comment by dbenamy on 14 Dec 2007 at 3:34

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In more recent revisions it looks pretty darn good here. Speak of if this is 
still a
problem or I'll close this.

Original comment by dbenamy on 15 Dec 2007 at 6:13

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Original comment by gene...@gmail.com on 15 Dec 2007 at 5:08

• Changed state: Fixed