Yarlen Yarlen

Sins Beta 1 - Technical Feedback - *Post Here*

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Sins Beta 1 - Technical Feedback - *Post Here*

Put your bug/compatibility reports here!

from Sins Forums

This thread is for technical feedback for Sins of a Solar Empire Beta 1. 

Please reply to this post if you'd like to make: a bug report, let us know about a compatibility issue, graphics issues, performance reports, etc. (i.e., technical stuff).

Before making a report, please be aware that the minimum system requirements for Beta 1 are:

  • Windows XP SP2 / Vista
  • 1.8 GHz Processor
  • 512 MB RAM (1 GB RAM for Vista)
  • 128 MB 3D DirectX Video Card
  • DirectX 9.0c

IMPORTANT:  When making a post about a bug, be certain to include - your system specs, a description of the bug you encountered, what you were doing when the bug occurred (how to reproduce it), and if it was reproducible or not.  We won't be able to make changes to the game without detailed information.

If you encounter a crash, please install SmartException from the Free Stuff section of Stardock Central and reproduce it (if possible). Send the generated exception to: sinsbugs(at)stardock.net along with a detailed description as outlined above.

If you wish to give us non-technical feedback about Beta 1 (feature requests, gameplay suggestions, etc.), please post it here:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/index.aspx?AID=148255

By keeping this information separate, it will go a long way towards us making Sins a better game!

Thanks!

240,469 views 294 replies
Reply #276 from Sins Forums Top
It runs fine but then you save it and reload it and it lags? If so, plz send us the save game at [email protected] and we'll check it out. That shouldn't happen.
Reply #277 from Sins Forums Top
So that is why some of my games lagged like crazy when I came back to them. I could never figure out what was going on. I always assumed my anti virus was trying to run a scan or something.
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Reply #278 from Sins Forums Top
I haven't experienced problems when I have saved/reloaded without leaving SINS altogether, but I do notice a significant computer slowdown after I leave SINS.

HP7000
3.4 Ghz P4
1 Gig Ram
Reply #279 from Sins Forums Top
Once again im here with a "small" bug

My dreadnaught was stuck for more 5mins, and i was woundering where it was. So looking thru my systems i found it stuck behind a asteroid
Reply #280 from Sins Forums Top
he was hiding because he was afraid to get killed by my uber fleet
Reply #281 from Sins Forums Top

he was hiding because he was afraid to get killed by my uber fleet


you mean he was hiding because he was afraid of dieing of laughter,
when seeing your ÛBER n0obys fleet of scouts
Reply #282 from Sins Forums Top
phffft , i wanna see you defend against my billion scouts of death
Reply #283 from Sins Forums Top
I haven't experienced problems when I have saved/reloaded without leaving SINS altogether, but I do notice a significant computer slowdown after I leave SINS.


So that is why some of my games lagged like crazy when I came back to them. I could never figure out what was going on. I always assumed my anti virus was trying to run a scan or something.


well, I knew I wasnt alone

I'll try to send the save file, but I doubt it has to do with the actual game, as its happened every time, regardless of the game parameters.
Reply #284 from Stardock Forums Top
So far I've tried Sins on two computersO

Desktop:
3.2 GHz Core 2 Duo
2 GB DDR2
7900 GS

On this machine Sins runs buttery smooth at 1280x1024 4xAA.

Laptop:
2.0 GHz Pentium M
1 GB DDR
X700 Mobility

On this machine, there is some visible slowdown at 1680x1050 no AA, but this is as expected given the resolution and GPU.

What was not expected is the rather high RAM usage and resultant swapping. On my laptop, even before the game really gets going, there is substantial swapping when zooming into a gravwell. It seems to happen when icons transition to models, which makes me think Sins is swapping in meshes and textures.

On both machines, after starting a new game (large galaxy, 10 opponents), Windows Task Manager indicates Mem Usage for Sins over 700 MB, and VM Size over 750 MB. This is definitely a performance issue even with 1 GB, which is still a fairly decent amount.
Reply #285 from Sins Forums Top

I believe this is normal. Someone from Ironclad would know for sure, however.

Reply #286 from Stardock Forums Top
"Normal" can mean one of several things in this case:

1) This is a known performance problem that will be addressed in future betas.
2) This is a known performance limitation that meets our expectations for the final product.

I hope that 1) holds true, given that:

a) I'm running Windows XP, and that Vista machines have even tighter memory pressure.
b) Beta 1 has only 1 of 3 races, and so there will be 3 times as much memory needed for models, textures, and sound effects in a game with all 3 races participating.
c) I sincerely doubt anyone wants to print boxes with a listed "Recommended System Requirements" including 2 GB of RAM.

I will continue to test performance on a 1 GB machine, and possibly less, as we go through beta. The game is looking very promising so far!
Reply #287 from Sins Forums Top
My buddy loaned me 2 more Gig of ram since he built a new rig and hasn't had a chance to ebay it yet, so I am running 4 Gig right now, and I see very little difference between 2 and 4 Gig...

I am guessing what the game requires more of is CPU speed... My dual core @ 2.5Ghz isn't cutting it anymore when battles of 200-300 ships are taking place...
Reply #288 from Sins Forums Top

Windows XP doesn't let any application use over 2GB of RAM (Windows Vista does, but has lingering driver performance issues).

Games expect to have access to all of a system's resources, that's why I say it's normal.   You can decrease the amount of RAM in use by turning down the video quality settings (texture quality / screen resolution). As we progress through the betas, performance and optimizations should also improve things.

Reply #289 from Stardock Forums Top
Thank you for that input, Yarlen. I wasn't expecting the texture quality settings to have such a dramatic impact. Here are my observed process sizes for Sins, just sitting at the main menu (rendering the planet in the background):


[code]
Real memory usage in MB / VM size in MB
Low: 405 / 465
Medium: 420 / 480
High: 480 / 540
Highest: 711 / 771

All at 1280x1024 resolution. Does "Highest" indicate uncompressed textures? The jump in memory usage from "High" to "Highest" seems pretty massive.
Reply #290 from Sins Forums Top
I don't know if they're uncompressed, but they are the largest (2048x2048 sized textures with all the graphical bells & whistles I believe). I think High uses 1024x1024 sized textures, but someone from Ironclad would know the exact details.
Reply #291 from Stardock Forums Top
Ships seem to fixate on their designated target, to the exclusion of all others, even when certain guns cannot fire on the designated target, but they have other targets available in range. It does not seem to matter whether the designated target was player-selected or chosen by "auto-attack."

This is most noticable with the Kol battleship, which has autocannon facing all directions, but the left, right, and rear guns seldom fire at other targets while the Kol is engaging a forward target with its beams and forward autocannon.

If you mod the autocannon to beam weapons and reduce the cooldown (mine have 1.0 second cooldowns), then the issue is even more visible.

Other ships with multiple guns are also affected, such as the Marza. The Kol is just most noticable since its weapons have short cooldowns and very distinctive appearance.

It is not a 100% failure. The affected ship will sometimes use its other guns, but not nearly at the rate its cooldown allows, and exactly when they will fire appears quite unpredictable.
Reply #292 from Sins Forums Top
Am i to late to report another bug? haha well here it comes.

dunno if this has been reported before..

-When trying to dock and then undock fighters from the carrier, the fighters becomes invisible. If you zoom out you can see the icon, but not the fighter itself

-When queuing research, and you cancel all lower tiers, and let a higher tier still be in the queue, all research seems to come to a stop. Even if i cancel the higher tier.
It got fixed somehow, when i tryed to click all of the lower tiers, on and off, and the progress started again.
Reply #293 from Sins Forums Top
I started playing large galaxies with all of the AIs active and have been experiencing CTD's about 3/4 through the conquering of the first star system.

I have sent in the smart exception files.

My stats:

HP zd7000

3.4 Ghz P4

1 Gig Ram

Operating System : Windows XP Service Pack 2 - (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)

Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5600

Sound Card : Conexant AMC Audio

DirectX version : 4.09.00.0904
Reply #294 from Sins Forums Top
Thread locked in advance of Beta 2's release.