Hey guys, This is my attempt at making a long, detailed feedback thread with the intent of sharing thoughts and possibly collaborating with the community instead of what I usually do in these kinds of tests, which is lock myself off and only communicate with the person asking for feedback. Or in this case, group of people asking for feedback, I suppose. Well, that, and I don't quite thing the feedback menu in-game is enough for me to get my thoughts out. And I like to talk about my thoughts. Hm...
I intend to add to / edit this post as other things come out or come up, so that hopefully I can find out what is just "me" and what is actually an issue, as well as hopefully spark some discussion about the Alpha.
Anyway, I'll just jump right into it.
First things first: Collisions. It is very clear that they aren't done. I can completely understand that. What I can point out about them in their current form, is that there is significant mass loss. I estimate around 20% for most collisions with Earth objects, however this obviously varies. Most of this is accounted for in the fragments that come off, but the same can't always be said for the smaller object. And in any case, there is still a significant amount of mass that is still not accounted for, in either of the participating bodies or any fragments that come off the collision.
In addition, there is the issue that valentin123 (and others) pointed out in
his thread, where two objects of similar mass seem to simply pass through each other during collision, with the only other effect being that they both lose a
significant amount of mass. I assume that this is another byproduct of collisions not being fully "done," however it is still worth noting because it is such a big part of this new installation. My own tests may also hint that it is only mass that is the critical factor there, and that the radii of the objects does not matter. I have yet to do more tests though, and I will update this thread when I can.
Secondly: Black Holes. They seemingly never do anything expected. Although, what else
can you expect from them? However in the context of this game, they just seem to make everything go haywire. Whenever one is introduced, the text "Adaptive Stepping needs to Bail" (I believe that is what it is will begin to pop up, once or twice per second, until the 'Hole is either deleted or edited. And if it doesn't, there is severe frame rate drops in its place. In addition, it seems nigh-impossible to create on on your own, without loading a simulation with one already in it. (If there is a way that someone knows, please let me know in this thread!)
Thirdly: The camera never seems to behave how I expect. Centering on an object zooms out significantly, seemingly to a simulation default, rather than to a value that's based on the object that's being centered on.
The biggest thing, and most important to me, is the
noticeable difference in performance. My system isn't particularly powerful, but I could still get 60+ fps on the old U. Sandbox except only in the most extreme cases. Things tended to dip around 500 objects, but I was fine otherwise. In this, I get 30 fps
maybe. Fps tends to dip, seemingly at random, to ~15 fps, and I get about 20-25 on average; the performance test gave me a score of approximately 21. Performance really tends to drop when there are more than 100 objects or above (500) pseudo-objects (Dust/Particles, I assume). My laptop also generates an
absurd amount of heat while running this.
My Laptop Specs, according to the device manager:
- AlienWare m11x r3 Laptop, it is about 1-2 years old, got it for Christmas without really knowing what was in it.
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2467M CPU @ 1.60GHz (x4)
- Graphics:
- Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
(The system automatically switches between the two as needed, OpenCL uses
the NVIDIA card and I'm assuming it is automatically selected. I have yet to try forcing the system to use
the NVIDIA via the NVIDIA Control Panel / Menu / whatever. Will edit post when I can try this later today.) - RAM: 6GB
If any more information is needed, let me know and I can edit the post.
Thank you for reading, here's hoping I remember to stay on top of this thread!
Topic: A Long Feedback Thread. (Read 3441 times)
