Simulated netboard - future of linked play in Supermodel?

[gm_matthew]

Thank you so much to make the dream come true.

We've tested it more deeply last night.
I found that if you scale up the resolution, no matter how fast your PC's CPU and GPU is, the fps will gradually decrease.
Following is the number we got:
640 x 480 --> 60fps
1366 x 768 --> 60fps

If you setup the resolution higher than 1366x768, the fps will not get 60fps anymore.
For example, if you scale up to 3840x2160 in widescreen mode, you will get around 45~50fps.

And more interestingly, every players linked through internet can setup with different resolution and get different fps but all players still link well.
For example,
1st PC: 1366x768: 60fps all the time
2nd PC: 1920x1080: 50~55fps
3rd PC: 3840x2160: 45~50fps

The fps-dropping of 2nd and 3rd PC will not slow down the 1st PC's game play at all.
My best guess is that the network process still finish its job in every 1/60 second but the graphic process cannot handle it when you scale the resolution up.

This confuses me. As far as I know Supermodel should slow down if the GPU takes too long to render frames, and the way the netboard is currently designed to work means that one PC falling behind should cause all the others to slow down too.

What kind of GPUs are you guys using? Also, what happens if you run with the legacy 3D engine (-legacy3d) or with quad rendering turned on (-quad-rendering)?

[Ian]

Probably just hitting the fillrate / pixel shader limits of the GPU. So higher resolution = lower fps. Nothing really surprising there.
Supermodel is quite heavy on the fragment shader, especially if you use the quad rendering path

[gm_matthew]

Probably just hitting the fillrate / pixel shader limits of the GPU. So higher resolution = lower fps. Nothing really surprising there.
Supermodel is quite heavy on the fragment shader, especially if you use the quad rendering path

It’s the PCs running at different speeds while linked that’s confusing me, because the FPS of all the machines should be locked to that of the slowest one.

[rokfpoewrkcpoqwkcp]

Edit: Ignore this post. User error.

@gm_matthew

If I watch the Sega Rally 2 demo with 3 instances (master, slave and relay), the relay noticeably loses time.
I just thought you've done a good job getting the net play to work at all given the timing issues.

Edit: Ignore this post. User error.

[gm_matthew]

@gm_matthew

If I watch the Sega Rally 2 demo with 3 instances (master, slave and relay), the relay noticeably loses time.
I just thought you've done a good job getting the net play to work at all given the timing issues.

There's a possibility that you have the PowerPC frequency of the relay set too low; I haven't tested relay mode specifically but I do know anything under 83 MHz causes at least some slowdown in the game itself, meanwhile Supermodel is still running at full speed so the other machines aren't affected and thus the relay can lag behind.

Perhaps you could even try changing which machine is the relay and see what happens.

[rokfpoewrkcpoqwkcp]

Edit: Ignore this post. User error.

I've tried ppc 100 & 120, I also tried swapping which instance was relay, still the same.
It shows how robust the net play is though as it doesn't seem to fall over.

Funny observation is though, on the first demo run through the first stage seems to run smoothly, the others flicker.
On the second run through, the second stage runs smoothly, the others flicker.
And so on as it repeats around.
Intriguing that the stages take turns to run smoothly. When they do, they look beautiful.

Edit: Ignore this post. User error.

[Sixfortyfive]

I've been playing a whole lot of Daytona 2 over the past week and felt like putting together a two-hour longplay/showcase video of the game. Tried to cover as many different bases as I could think of (all cars, grand prix mode, live spectator feed, BOTE Hornet, etc). One strange thing I noticed while playing was that the live camera feed consistently cuts out completely at the finish line during a win, but only during a win. No idea whether that's normal game behavior or not.

Also felt like recording some panoramic attract mode demos to see how much the aspect ratio messes with the Youtube player, lol.

Virtua Racing
Daytona 1
Scud Race / Super GT

Kind of disappointed that Daytona 2 doesn't have a 16-screen demo, but I don't have a beefy enough PC to run and capture that anyway.

[fefor]

Just wanted to say to the devs: thank you so much for this, I've always wanted to be able to play with the multiplayer cars easily just like in the first Daytona game on M2 emulator. I just can't get enough of using a different color/number each time I boot up Daytona 2 now , ever since I was a kid and played these games for the first time back in the arcade, I'd always obsess over the paint jobs in each game and would sit on the cabinet that had my fave color, for the Daytona games it was always either Black or Blue.

I've been playing a whole lot of Daytona 2 over the past week and felt like putting together a two-hour longplay/showcase video of the game. Tried to cover as many different bases as I could think of (all cars, grand prix mode, live spectator feed, BOTE Hornet, etc).

Nice stuff!

[segaduck]

Thank you so much to make the dream come true.

We've tested it more deeply last night.
I found that if you scale up the resolution, no matter how fast your PC's CPU and GPU is, the fps will gradually decrease.
Following is the number we got:
640 x 480 --> 60fps
1366 x 768 --> 60fps

If you setup the resolution higher than 1366x768, the fps will not get 60fps anymore.
For example, if you scale up to 3840x2160 in widescreen mode, you will get around 45~50fps.

And more interestingly, every players linked through internet can setup with different resolution and get different fps but all players still link well.
For example,
1st PC: 1366x768: 60fps all the time
2nd PC: 1920x1080: 50~55fps
3rd PC: 3840x2160: 45~50fps

The fps-dropping of 2nd and 3rd PC will not slow down the 1st PC's game play at all.
My best guess is that the network process still finish its job in every 1/60 second but the graphic process cannot handle it when you scale the resolution up.

This confuses me. As far as I know Supermodel should slow down if the GPU takes too long to render frames, and the way the netboard is currently designed to work means that one PC falling behind should cause all the others to slow down too.

What kind of GPUs are you guys using? Also, what happens if you run with the legacy 3D engine (-legacy3d) or with quad rendering turned on (-quad-rendering)?

Let me test more and report it.

[rokfpoewrkcpoqwkcp]

Further to my last post, watching the Sega Rally 2 demo, don't use -legacy3d. If you do, you lose the fancy split screen effect, the instances stay in single/mirrored mode.