Daytona USA 2 / Scud Race Performance/FPS

[raidendx]

Great work getting this emu up and running.
Here are some observations for version 0.2a:
I tested Daytona 2 (both version) and Scud on a lower end system to see if/where any bottlenecks exist.

Old Laptop (XPS 1530)
Intel Core2 Duo 2.40GHz
3GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
Win7 (32bit)

GFX settings
All Video card settings Antialiasing = OFF
Texture filtering = High Performance
* Trilinear optimization = ON (this setting made a huge difference with out it the game will run a half the FPS)

Remember this is not a gaming pc just a mid range laptop from several years ago - but testing this type of setup can highlight what a fast gaming pc might hide.

External display 22" via VGA/D-SUB

* Scud Race
res=1024x768
Fullscreen
PPC = 33
no throttle
-frag-shader=Fragment_NoSpotlight.glsl
Sound enabled
Force feedback enabled

The game runs at 55~60 FPS (sometimes it feels like the game is slightly too fast)
Force feedback works accordingly

I tested Daytona 2 (both version) on the same setup as above
PPC = 50

The game sometimes runs at 50~60 FPS especially in the cabin view but overall runs at a choppy 10-30FPS
What I noticed is that:
- Whenever there is some sort of animation the game appears to be caching and the frame rate drops to about 10-20 FPS for a couple of seconds or lower making sliding impossible.
* For example when you enter the severs tunnels and there are some kind of rodents in the drain there appears to be a blue masking effect before they load and the framerate drops considerably.
* Just before the bats appear and also when the giant robot appears the frame rate drops
* A simple example is the boat - the frame rate drops in 1/2 when it swings towards you.
* When cars powerslide - every time there is some sort of particle/tyre effect the game frame rate drops

None of these issues are present in Scud Race and the frame rate holds even on this minimal setup holds up.

I had a look at some higher end setups and the effects aren't noticable but they are still there - you can still see the framerate drop momentarily.

It seems that whenever there is some sort of animation the frame rate drops in Daytona 2.
Also its not random - it always happens at the same position of the track.
Also disabling the music/force feedback has no effect/improvement on the above scenarios.

Daytona USA 2 might be more of a gfx intensive game than Scud and it might internally work differently.
By the looks of things it will just require some tweaking - the Fragment_NoSpotlight.glsl for example makes a huge difference.
Scud race is very playable with no drop in frame rate even on this minimal setup.

I guess this is only version 0.2a and it was a big step from 0.1. Especially getting the FFB to work.

Keep up the great work.

[karadaniano]

do you think the use of that shader gives a boost in the performance? i had that feeling to, anyway 55-60 fps its a great number for that rig, and that "slowdowns" you are talking about are the famus "hiccups"

[SuperSZ]

I've just tested Scud Race (I've been playing only Daytona USA 2 which doesn't run at full speed in my PC) and it runs awesome, at full speed (60fps) 99% of the time (I have this PC: C2D E8400 @ 3.5Ghz, 2GB Ram 800Mhz, 8800 GS) . If Scud Race could run at full speed in a core 2 duo 2.4Ghz with a 8600GT, logically Daytona USA 2 (which looks so similar) will also do it too some day, isn't it? ... because this is just the second version of the emulator. I want to believe that next versions will be more focused on optimization

[isamu]

Bart is aware of it guys. Optimization and other such tweaks are things he's working on. Patience