Feedback: "3D Graphics Engine Update" test

Greetings space pilots,

You may have seen we just announced the next test which aims to test the new graphics engine update.

We also have some information for you to go with it:

What does “3D graphics engine update” mean?

A “graphics engine” is the part of a game that is responsible for displaying all the important moving objects in a game – simply speaking it’s the “client”.

Until now we were using a client that was making use mainly of the computer’s main processor and thus had a lot of data to send to the processor like the position of any given object on the screen, the way these objects interacted, the data from the server needed managing, information had to be sent to the browser (which then sent it to the operating system), and so much more.

At the same time the game, the browser and the operating system needed to draw each object on the screen and thus a lot of processing power was wasted on what is called “overhead”.

The new engine makes use of functionalities that are part of each modern graphics chip – either in Laptops or desktop PCs – and offloads all the work displaying the objects on the screen, immensely increasing the “breathing room” for the main processor.

Does that mean I can now move in the third dimension as well?

Actually, no. While we can use the “depth”-axis for cool visual effects (check it out!), DarkOrbit will still remain the same game!

How can I tell if my computer can run the game?

First of all you could simply start game and try it out. If your computer is able to run it, it will. (You can use the “Settings” to switch back to 2D.)

We made sure that computers that cannot run the 3D version at all will not show the “Switch to 2D/3D” option.

If your computer’s “system specifications” is equal or better than the following, your PC should be fine!

Min requirements for 3D version (this is first version, it may change a bit for final release):

Processor Intel Pentium 4 3GHz / AMD Athlon 64 3400+

Graphics card ATI Radeon HD 3650 or equivalent

RAM 2GB

Flash player 11.8, newest recommended (18.0)

OS Windowx XP+, MacOS

It still does not run smoothly enough. Can I improve that?
How to improve client performance (FPS)

1. Update your Flash Player. Use official release version from https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

2. Check if Hardware acceleration is enabled (right click on flash -> settings -> first tab (Display) -> check "Enable hardware acceleration").

3. Update your graphic card drivers (this can give huge performance boost).

4. Close other pages that contain heavy elements (games, ads etc). In all browsers. Music player shouldn't be a problem (if it has no fancy visualizer or sth).

5. Close any unnecessary applications running in the background, especially those using GPU.

6. Update your browser. Side note for Google Chrome (with Pepper Flash) users: if you’re experiencing poor performance (or 3D doesn’t work for you) despite having good PC try different browser (Firefox, IE). Pepper Flash in Chrome is known for performance issues, and developers can hardly do anything about it.

7. Clear browser's cache.

8. Scan your system with antivirus.


Client-server communication lags

1. Disable all applications downloading in the background: p2p, movies, software updates etc

2. Check firewall settings.

3. Router/switch restart helps sometimes.


Are you using Unity or HTML5?

We have been discussing using different technologies when the work was started more than a year ago and we found that Flash3D would offer us the best compromise between compatibility, performance and customization ability. A move to a different technology would have taken even much more time but did not offer more advantages.

Also we know that despite the HTML5 hype, it is not mature enough for a online game like DarkOrbit. So Flash3D is not going to be replaced anytime soon.

We can talk about the actual decision making process elsewhere.


Open Beta Test Details

As the testing needs to be supervised by our developers, the servers are open during the CEST office hours:

Tuesday, 16 June 2015, 11:30h – 18:00h CEST

Thursday, 18 June 2015, 11:30h - 21:00h CEST

We apologize to our players on the US-based servers – but as the testing is public, any disruption could interfere with the normal live game – and we wouldn’t be able to react quickly enough outside the office hours.


When are you going to release the finished version?

Depending on your feedback and the amount of polishing we have to do, we may need a few more weeks to finally release the 3D version.

How can we leave feedback?

We have a feedback form that will be accessible in the client for your feedback and we would like you to use the feedback thread in forums for all your comments.

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You can leave your feedback here in this thread

 

Note: Thread is now open for comments.

 

I do like it! Brings a great feeling to the game and just looking at ships in base is fun I am absolutely certain that this will bring plenty of new potential players to the game, no one is forced to use 3D if they don't like but I am sure many will love it and enjoy this game more than some other game now Now DarkOrbit can compete even better with some other space shooters.

Few improvement ideas:
- Let us use RMB to move the camera vertically everywhere, it would be fun to look what game looks from different angles when you are shooting Kristallon or Cubikon for example (horizontally maybe not or I do not know because we could see targets further away which I think may bring unfair advantage to guy who uses 3D compared to 2D user, if you can prevent this or it will not be a problem then yes horizontally too!)

- Let us move camera even under the ships in base by RMB Now we can move it up and down and left and right but only above the ship, it would be cool if you would let us look ships and base from beneath, that would bring true 3D feeling! if camera movement would not be limited!

Little disappointed:
- I still feel like game could run smoother, but I am sure you are working on tweaks all the time, and this is just a test server. I hope I can get 60 fps in DO since I can run games like Skyrim on high setting with great fps no problem, so having below great fps in DO should not be hardware related.

 

Like:

• ship movements, feels great.
• normal rockets feel damn good when shooting, those effects
• no lag/FPS problems at all! BIG LIKE

Don't like:

• ship/NPC texture. That 2D texture we have on all servers right now, is much more realistic. I think you will have to make it a bit more realistic (if I am honest, it looks like cartoon stuff according to me, I know you can do much better!!)
  
• make drones a bit more realistic too (speaking of texture)
• when ship/NPC textures are not fully loaded, it is really hard to lock something. Don't know what is causing this, but it may affect in PvP/PvE when the update hits all live server. (updated: 18.06.2015)
• resources/bonus boxes are too small, especially bonus boxes may affect the previous player experience when collecting. They need to be enlarged. (updated: 18.06.2015)

I think that today we didn't had much time to test (especially me, as I got in the last 20 minutes or so). I am really looking up to Thursday, and hope that the Test server will be live in the time schedule you wrote on the announcement, so I can test further and give a much better feedback.

I will have to agree with Darkomaani in the post above, if we can have a look from beneath the ship it would be nice too!
Till Thursday, my feedback will stay like this. On Thursday, I will spend a lot of time on Test server, and I hope I will be able to give you much better feedback.

PS. Put RSB ammo in shop on Thursday!


EDIT 18.06.2015:

Today had the chance to test more than on Tuesday. I feel like I don't have to add much more from what I have said above on this post (except couple more "Don't like:" items in that category). Didn't had a chance to test EMP, RSB + x4 combo and stuff, but apart that, everything else was fine according to me. Again, good job with this work, I feel that with time this 3D will become much, much better!

About the 3D textures that look like a cartoon a bit, I think you should add high resolution textures too, but maybe if you are worried about performances, let players lower the ship/NPC texture quality. With this, those who have better performances can run with great high quality textures, others should be satisfied with the current 3D textures on Test server.

 

The test sever 2 for 3D:
was all good movement was smooth the graphics was good, like ¤hüñ‡ë®¨¦MKЦ¨¤ said it's a bit much like a cartoon, could do better
The drones could be made better more like the drones we currently have
Didn't get any lag or glitches

 

i think the work the darkorbit team put into the 3d ship models is fantastic! i believe that great things will happen if they keep up the good work, this also might attract new players into the game as its a new clean engine. i will be uploading in game footage on my youtube channel shortly here >>> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEWSoAbw08ttRMlRrWmVgxQ >

 

If it's possible for any higher resolution models / texture they would be pretty cool to have, however the current ones are far from terrible and really quite good if anything higher resolution is not possible.


Really well optimized however there was a issue that occurred when users had their backpage open in another window or another screen, in my case it was on Chrome and I would go from 60fps to below 10 and when I minimized or changed tabs away from the backpage it would go back up to 60.
I know since it's Chrome the issue could be something regarding pepperflash but thought I would mention it just encase other users on different browsers had the same issue.

Seems to have gone on the second test

 

Sad that stage3d doesn't offer linux support

/forever stuck on 2d

 

As an avid player I have seen this game rise and fall in its time, and I must say, this may be the tipping point.

Having both options available is a definite perk, to save both the members that like classic and those that can't perform on the new 3D render.
The testserver was a bit lagged in my opinion, but I do believe it is from the mass number of players, and that it shall improve on the lacking servers, such as USA East servers and DE servers, where player counts have dwindled.

Now as for the graphics, I applaud how much work you guys have put in, it definitely shows itself, despite the complaints by numerous members. Surely we will see a graphic update as you guys are using what worked best and 3D isn't a familiar system. Therefore, I am happy with what we do have despite the other greedy members of the community.

As for my personal opinions, I think it does look great so far, maybe a bit of touching up for the Thursday test session, but it should go live as is for those that didn't make it to the test server. After all, both options are available to those who don't like it, so why not release it and update as you go, that way, we can also see the improvements.

The NPC update looked pretty good, it was nice to see a new skin, but since we have both 3D and 2D options available, we should have classic NPC skins available as well (The skins from before the 5 year graphic update), so us veteran players can go back to the good old days as we should. We can change our ships design at will, and use WIZ rockets to change other players into NPCs, so we should be able to reverse the graphics on our end. Just an improvement idea.

Having said that, let's get to the negatives.

Not too much to mention here besides the slight lag on the test servers.
Noticing the slight items, there were a few honorable mentions here.

Resources and boxes: Not many people may have paid too much attention to these, but the size of bonus boxes and resource collectables (raw materials and cargo drops) should be increased. My mouse is bigger than they are.
Drones: Drones were not as round as I had expected. In some corners of the rounding, it appeared they had a slight point in some areas.
Ships: The ships looked great, especially with the actually firing of the lasers, however, we should also take realistic damage considering the new 3D effect. Perhaps after a certain amount of damage, the ships could have some damage holes, maybe a little bit of fire and some smoke for aesthetical benefits.


Not much left here besides some pointers.

Those of you complaining about the update, keep in mind, this is the beta and there is bound to be an update before the official release. Nothing is made perfect on the first try, and you should definitely learn that. Secondly, they are using a program that is available to most everyone while keeping it a browser game, so it will not be the best at first until they are fully functional with it (no doubt they are for producing this much already).

You should keep wary of what's to come in the game and the possibilities this unleashes for the game. This heeds leeway to new events, new items, maybe even new maps or gates. We could even produce a on-board camera sometime in the future showing the controls on the dashboard.

Otherwise, remain optimistic. It's about time this game got a fresh breath of life.

As much as I've bashed the team for failures before, this has revived the game for me, so congrats DO Team on this update, it seems like it will really be successful. I look forward to seeing an update. Thank you DO Admins for playing with us today. I especially liked our 1V1 CA DDraig

Hope to see more pilots out there as I expand into other servers.

DiminisherNO
Basic Major
62199337
USA East 3, Global Europe 5

 

Honestly speaking, I don't like the ship designs much in 3D. It looks a little bit weird and unrealistic. I've noticed that the in game items were more realistic graphically 3 - 4 years ago than they're now.
3D would look much better if the ships are little bit more realistic.

However, that being said I do like this new update. I've to admit that I like it maybe not cos of the new looks but cos it does reduces lag (not completely) but much better than the current situation.

Things I wish you would consider changing:

Ship designs, the looks are not so good.
Maybe use a little more color contrast and saturation. Try to make it more realistic.
Better if use current design texture or old.

Increase the size of the ships.
Increase the size a bit. They are quite small lol

Change some Sound effects!
Some sound effects (like lasers shooting) are not at all good. A little bit low pitch might be better.

Synchronize in game abilities (EMP, insta shields, smb, etc.)
Some of them are not synchronized with their use. It'll be nice if they're in sync.

Bonus Boxes
The cube graphics are not at all good. Please be mindful that many players rely on them. So make it appear little bigger and with better texture, easy to spot.

Position Glitch
People (ships) are not exactly at the place where they appear. This creates a lot of confusion and unfair advantages to some players. Not sure if you guys have worked on it but I think it still happens with new 3D client.

Make 3D client available to more players
Some players were not able to run 3D client. A friend of mine for instance couldn't, though he has decent hardware. So it'll be nice if more people could enjoy smoother gaming experience.

Some problems (bugs) I could find:

The EMP visual effect is not synchronized with EMP use. The visual effect takes place a few second later after using the EMP. Almost every time I used emp, I found this.

[Not sure if its a problem] Once during a fight in 4-3, I noticed that I can't shoot my target (I try to shoot but nothing happens). I had to change my lock and then attack. [Though it occurred only once]

The visual effect of Cloak sometimes goes away after jumping or after some time. It is really hard to know whether you're cloaked or not unless we look at the cloak CPU.

I'm really happy to see some nice work done by you guys. Appreciate it (only the smoother game and less lag part ).
Keep optimizing the client keeping in mind that most players don't have the best hardware/connection and make the game more smoother.
And try to make ships and other in game items more realistic and not a fancy cartoon lol.

Keep up the Good Work ^^

 

can we have the time in usa that the next test is on thursday (12am or 12pm eastern time

 

Hi auggiethedog,

I'm afraid the hours are limited to the work hours of the developers since they need to be able to watch over the test server when it is open. Since the developers are based in Hamburg (Germany), the test on Thursday will occur from 11:30 to 21:00 CEST providing no issues occur. I believe that this translates to 05:30 to 15:00 Eastern Time. Hopefully you'll be able to reach the test server at some point to check out the new features.

~Ddraig

 

I was lucky enough to be in test server over 2 hours, so i was able to test a lot of different things

Personally, i really like watch different kinds of things about graphics, including my, other players and alien ship looks. I really liked zooming effect, which allowed to zoom so closely to ship, that i was able to see even the smallest details.


Graphics are ok, and this includes tons of different details:

If ship has more than two turbine engines at the back of that ship, it also uses all of them.


FIREWORKS BABEES! I was able to test medium sized firework and oh man, that explosion was huge! If medium was so massive, i can't wait for testing large fireworks


In 3D background and aliens are really moving and those are not like flat objects.
Players can finally fly trough gates! In 3D, gates are not flat objects and players can now really fly trough them! In 2d gates were like just like plates.

There was a lot of good things about 3D client, but there was also some bugs and things, what i didn't liked so much.

Some of the aliens looked really bad (one example is Boss Lordakium) and some of Boss aliens were smaller than in 2D client. If player faces boss alien (like Century Falcon), he should be able to know, how dangerous is this alien by its size. Like this century falcon, now it looks absolutely too small compared to how though alien it is.


Visual bug, what allows user to fly inside to the gate. It looks pretty weird, but it doesn't matter much.
There was also some really annoying bugs, like pop-up help screen at the top of quickslot list. and i wasn't able to click it away.
I noticed also, that some sounds and effects are not well synchronized.
I hoped, that bigpoint would have fixed the most annoying problem ever in game, but it didn't happened: other players can still get some random speed bursts during flying (synchronizing issue).

But all in all, great job bp! I think this update makes really huge, positive U-turn in darkorbit!

 

Hello there , is the testserver gonna be on today aswell as stated in the faq or not?

 

Definately not on time...again...

 

It will be delayed some time due to some issues :
http://www.bigpoint.com/darkorbit/board/threads/unofficial-darkorbit-revealed.43381/page-73

 

Something seems very wrong with the scaling. When fully zoomed out my ship is still massive and the view box on the minimap is tiny compared to what I'm used to. Here's couple of pics to try and explain what I mean:

New update:


Current client:


As you can see the pusat on new client is massive compared to citadel on old client. Is there some sort of limitation on how far out you can zoom on the new update?

And yes, I was out from the base so it was fully zoomed out.

 

Note to DO team: I have updated my post (and may update more during the day when I test more), so keep an eye on it cause more changes may be coming.

 

This may not be the feedback you're looking for, but I'm sorry to say I don't really care about a 3D update. Good work and everything, but your update will make users stay for maybe 30 seconds longer (until they check prices of uridium). Maybe instead of updating the graphic interface, you could do something about getting and keeping users in the game.

 

Nevermind, it just reopened for me.

The Test server was scheduled to be open for Thursday, 18 June 2015, 11:30h - 21:00h CEST. It's currently 19:58h CEST and the server is gone. They need to get their timing right.