Natural Selection 2 News Update - Build 190 released

135

Comments

  • fanaticfanatic This post has been edited. Join Date: 2003-07-23 Member: 18377Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    <!--quoteo(post=1893826:date=Jan 12 2012, 02:23 PM:name=Balderon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Balderon @ Jan 12 2012, 02:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893826"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Probably obvious already that the marine win chance increases with each minute of the game. There need to be better balance. Hopefully new features in the future (like onos) will help :)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I'm willing to bet that a very large percentage of those short game alien wins, and probably also some of the long game wins, were due to the aliens rushing marine start and taking out the power node. It is very easy to get a cheap and cheesy win by rushing the marine start power nodes in this version because of the lowered hps. Once it goes down it's pretty much game over as the IPs stop spawning and the turrets stop shooting.
  • Electr0Electr0 Join Date: 2011-10-31 Member: 130337Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1893829:date=Jan 12 2012, 07:46 AM:name=konata)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (konata @ Jan 12 2012, 07:46 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893829"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I was disappointed to see nothing new. I think I'll play when there's an update, not yet another performance patch.

    :(<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Yeah, now i've had a play it was fun for a round or two but mines and the performance improvement didn't keep me entertained for long, i guess im bored of playing the same map, well done to the devs for the nice performance boost though, im averaging around 30 and above now, 40 when not much is happening so thats great, we just need something new to play with now.
  • WilsonWilson Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 72867Members
    edited January 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1893778:date=Jan 12 2012, 07:42 AM:name=Schimmel)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Schimmel @ Jan 12 2012, 07:42 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893778"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->about the skulk: what you describe as animation problem or movement responsiveness is related to how the model changes it's angles (roll). you see in the video that under certain situations (falling off the ceiling) the model can remain a short time on it's back when falling on the ground. I will fix that problem for the next build (gorilla!), i hope you still can enjoy the improved movement system, even with this little bug :)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The barrel roll is actually not what I was talking about, although it's great that it will be fixed.

    Perhaps it's related, if you watch carefully (or load up a map with box type corridors and test it) when you are changing between the wall and the ceiling, you just suddenly jerk into the middle of the celling for no reason. This is the clearest example of it but it affects many different situations when you are wallwalking. It feels a lot different to the way it did before. Before the animation changes it felt the same as walking on the ground, now it is very obvious when you are wallwalking as the controls feel sticky and less responsive and you get times like this when you move even though you didn't press any key. It feels like you are being shoved around by parts of the wall.

    I don't know if you have old builds available but it would be pretty obvious if you compared the two versions one after the other. I hope you can get it back to the way it was before because it felt great.
  • ZurikiZuriki Join Date: 2010-11-20 Member: 75105Members
    edited January 2012
    Performance update? I'm still having the same issues I've had since 15x builds, never reaches 60fps, barely reaches 50fps, combat almost unanimously drops to 15fps or worse. Occlusion culling is still broken (how long has that been on the table now, hm?). This game performs worse than some of the most graphically demanding games out there today, it's like a bad console port. If I can play BF3 on near-max everything, why can't I play NS2 <i>full-stop</i>?


    <!--quoteo(post=1893835:date=Jan 12 2012, 02:08 PM:name=Wilson)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wilson @ Jan 12 2012, 02:08 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893835"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The barrel roll is actually not what I was talking about, although it's great that it will be fixed.

    Perhaps it's related, if you watch carefully (or load up a map with box type corridors and test it) when you are changing between the wall and the ceiling, you just suddenly jerk into the middle of the celling for no reason. This is the clearest example of it but it affects many different situations when you are wallwalking. It feels a lot different to the way it did before. Before the animation changes it felt the same as walking on the ground, now it is very obvious when you are wallwalking as the controls feel sticky and less responsive and you get times like this when you move even though you didn't press any key. It feels like you are being shoved around by parts of the wall.

    I don't know if you have old builds available but it would be pretty obvious if you compared the two versions one after the other. I hope you can get it back to the way it was before because it felt great.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I noticed that too, it feels like you're walking on cushions and they're also slippery.
  • GrissiGrissi Join Date: 2003-08-28 Member: 20314Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    <!--quoteo(post=1893832:date=Jan 12 2012, 09:53 AM:name=fanatic)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fanatic @ Jan 12 2012, 09:53 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893832"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm willing to bet that a very large percentage of those short game alien wins, and probably also some of the long game wins, were due to the aliens rushing marine start and taking out the power node. It is very easy to get a cheap and cheesy win by rushing the marine start power nodes in this version because of the lowered hps. Once it goes down it's pretty much game over as the IPs stop spawning and the turrets stop shooting.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    There is easy way to fix this problem, if the IPs would powered by the command chair then rushing the power node wont have any effect. It will still be viable later in the game to power down the marine base.

    Also the command chair could get an ability that costs res/energy to use that powers up a single structure for X time(Such as a observatory to becon the marines back to base).
  • MaxMax Technical Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment Join Date: 2002-03-15 Member: 318Super Administrators, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
    <!--quoteo(post=1893838:date=Jan 12 2012, 07:15 AM:name=Zuriki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zuriki @ Jan 12 2012, 07:15 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893838"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Performance update? I'm still having the same issues I've had since 15x builds, never reaches 60fps, barely reaches 50fps, combat almost unanimously drops to 15fps or worse. Occlusion culling is still broken (how long has that been on the table now, hm?). This game performs worse than some of the most graphically demanding games out there today, it's like a bad console port. If I can play BF3 on near-max everything, why can't I play NS2 <i>full-stop</i>?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    What's wrong with occlusion culling?
  • MaxMax Technical Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment Join Date: 2002-03-15 Member: 318Super Administrators, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
    <!--quoteo(post=1893831:date=Jan 12 2012, 06:52 AM:name=player)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (player @ Jan 12 2012, 06:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893831"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Confirmed, it completely bricked the admin-mod. Hope the devs are aware of the issue.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I'll fix this in the next patch, which will be today (barring any difficulties).
  • SomaZSomaZ Join Date: 2011-08-09 Member: 115177Members
    Performance still not at the level I wish it was. 20-30 fps on 1024x600 (very low res), or 15-25 on 1366x768 (my highest res), fullscreen and awful graphics settings. In other words, unplayable. Turning everything down and off seems to give a very small fps boost. CPU is the bottleneck then? Core i5 2.27 Ghz, HD5470 1 GB, 4 GB RAM. Input latency has been decreased (thank god!) but I can still feel it, especially when below 30 fps.

    Have you guys (devs) updated DirectX? On the latest version (I hope I'm talking about the right thing) alt-tabbing while in fullscreen mode is supposed to be lightning fast (under 1 second). Just an idea, most of the games I know have already switched. In NS2 I have to wait for a bit for it to alt-tab.

    Server tick rate was good, but even on a server with low tick rate performance was not much worse.
  • MaxMax Technical Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment Join Date: 2002-03-15 Member: 318Super Administrators, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
    <!--quoteo(post=1893820:date=Jan 12 2012, 05:41 AM:name=fsfod)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fsfod @ Jan 12 2012, 05:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893820"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It seems the engine is ignoring custom entrypoint lua files specified in game_setup.xml also I'm kinda disappointed that the loading screen is not done in lua<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    It will be done in Lua in the future, I just didn't want to spend time on that right now though (much more important things for me to be doing).
  • sonix1977nlsonix1977nl Join Date: 2006-12-02 Member: 58831Members, Reinforced - Silver, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Hey guys,

    I recently reinstalled Windows 7, so I had to do a full install of the NS2 beta build 190. I have the most strange bug I can imagine. My movement keys are acting strange. The forward key (W) and the left key (A) do exactly as I'd expect. However, my backwards key (S) makes me walk forward as well and my right key (D) makes me move left as well. Any idea why this is happening?
  • WilsonWilson Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 72867Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1893854:date=Jan 12 2012, 03:48 PM:name=sonix1977nl)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sonix1977nl @ Jan 12 2012, 03:48 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893854"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hey guys,

    I recently reinstalled Windows 7, so I had to do a full install of the NS2 beta build 190. I have the most strange bug I can imagine. My movement keys are acting strange. The forward key (W) and the left key (A) do exactly as I'd expect. However, my backwards key (S) makes me walk forward as well and my right key (D) makes me move left as well. Any idea why this is happening?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    Quite a few people have reported this bug. The fix seems to be to rebind your movement keys (even if they say they are correct).
  • ZeikkoZeikko Join Date: 2007-12-16 Member: 63179Members, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester
    edited January 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1893854:date=Jan 12 2012, 05:48 PM:name=sonix1977nl)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sonix1977nl @ Jan 12 2012, 05:48 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893854"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hey guys,

    I recently reinstalled Windows 7, so I had to do a full install of the NS2 beta build 190. I have the most strange bug I can imagine. My movement keys are acting strange. The forward key (W) and the left key (A) do exactly as I'd expect. However, my backwards key (S) makes me walk forward as well and my right key (D) makes me move left as well. Any idea why this is happening?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    This seems to happen every time the game is installed. Just restart the game and the controls should be fine.
  • sonix1977nlsonix1977nl Join Date: 2006-12-02 Member: 58831Members, Reinforced - Silver, WC 2013 - Supporter
    <!--quoteo(post=1893859:date=Jan 12 2012, 03:51 PM:name=Zeikko)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zeikko @ Jan 12 2012, 03:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893859"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This seems to happen every time the game is installed. Just restart the game and the controls should be fine.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I noticed that as well. But thanks for the explanation. :)
  • croncron Join Date: 2010-06-21 Member: 72122Members
    Had a quick match and mainly noticed two things:

    1) The performance at the beginning of the game seems to be a lot better, at least it feels infinitely much smoother and is actually well playable until the mid game (Q6600, 4GB DDR2, GTX260). As soon as there were lots of mines and hydras the frame spikes started (possibly connected to server performance).
    2) 15 Minutes in the game every other kill was due to mines. Marines are a lot stronger but still killable, I can live with that. With the mines as they are now however I can not live very well (not as gorge at least).
  • WilsonWilson Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 72867Members
    edited January 2012
    1 more bug that's been annoying me for ages. The physics model on the pipe prop in summit reactor is messed up which causes your bullets to be deflected. The prop is called summit_reactor_tube.model

    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/JHTZD.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
  • autograderautograder Join Date: 2011-06-24 Member: 106181Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1893801:date=Jan 12 2012, 05:41 AM:name=Balderon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Balderon @ Jan 12 2012, 05:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893801"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->What have they done with the balance?

    I was a carapace fade and was 1-shot down to 69 hp from a shotgun. A shotgunner could easily make me (Lerk) have to retreat when the distance between us were atleast 10m (no weapon upgrade). 2 LMGs was enough to almost instantly kill me as a lerk. I can't enter turret-filled rooms no matter what lifeform I'm.

    Marines slaughter alien lifeforms at the moment.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Yup.
  • LUSITANERLUSITANER Join Date: 2010-09-19 Member: 74086Members
    Nice performance boost i got, first good one ever, yay

    A thing i noticed, MACs are more quiet now, i played with one around in my own server and it was 99% of the time muted XD

    Another thing, first cyst i placed, game freezed.. was in cheat mod though, dunno if this is causing it. Also, i have chosen the deception mode.
  • subshadowsubshadow Join Date: 2003-04-21 Member: 15710Members
    I must say I'm a bit dissapointed in the fact the aliens get 3 new buildings. In my opinion it worked great with functional buildings being responsible for researching stuff.

    So the main point of this change is that you can only choose 1 upgrade-path per hive, but you can always place all chambers how you feel like?
  • YotopiaYotopia Join Date: 2010-11-22 Member: 75176Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1893838:date=Jan 12 2012, 03:15 PM:name=Zuriki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zuriki @ Jan 12 2012, 03:15 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893838"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Performance update? I'm still having the same issues I've had since 15x builds, never reaches 60fps, barely reaches 50fps, combat almost unanimously drops to 15fps or worse. Occlusion culling is still broken (how long has that been on the table now, hm?). This game performs worse than some of the most graphically demanding games out there today, it's like a bad console port. If I can play BF3 on near-max everything, why can't I play NS2 <i>full-stop</i>?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Same here....i am starting to loosing the hope that i can play this game ever properly without buying a new computer....and i wont do this the next 2 years cause i can play other games still very well....
  • SewlekSewlek The programmer previously known as Schimmel Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16247Members, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Developer
    <!--quoteo(post=1893869:date=Jan 12 2012, 12:23 PM:name=subshadow)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (subshadow @ Jan 12 2012, 12:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893869"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I must say I'm a bit dissapointed in the fact the aliens get 3 new buildings. In my opinion it worked great with functional buildings being responsible for researching stuff.

    So the main point of this change is that you can only choose 1 upgrade-path per hive, but you can always place all chambers how you feel like?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    point of the change is that you can place crags / shades / shifts at tactical positions without risking to lose upgrades tied to that tech route
  • dushandushan Breaker of Games Join Date: 2011-10-30 Member: 130202Members, NS2 Developer, Squad Five Blue, Pistachionauts
    <!--quoteo(post=1893803:date=Jan 12 2012, 02:41 AM:name=thelinx)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (thelinx @ Jan 12 2012, 02:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893803"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm curious; What changes did you make (and where)?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The Lua VM does thousands of tiny allocations every frame. We used to just let our main heap allocator deal with them but when Max profiled it, he noticed we were spending quite a bit of time allocating / freeing memory.

    Our new custom allocator exploits the fact that vast majority of these allocations are for blocks of similar size and caches freed blocks in about 32 'buckets' of different sizes. When Lua tries to allocate a new block, we first look in the appropriate bucket (which is blazing fast compared to a full allocation). We also avoid having to worry about access from other threads as cached blocks belong exclusively to the Lua VM.

    As a result, the Lua memory allocations are now about 5 times faster at a cost of using 25% more memory (a tiny increase in real terms compared to memory used by textures, audio, etc). The changes are completely transparent to Lua code.
  • Fluid CoreFluid Core Join Date: 2007-12-26 Member: 63260Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Nice with the build, can't wait to try it out! Well, maybe I'll go to the sauna first...
  • FloodinatorFloodinator [HBZ] Member Join Date: 2005-02-22 Member: 42087Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Wouldn't it be better if we could upgrade those shells instead of placing 3 of them. More buildings means more ents = more stress. But I also see the advantage of placing them at different spots.

    The SG is now a really strong weapon again and acts like a little midrange sniper but skulks aren't as easy to kill if they use the new walljump.

    The rifle butt is weak now. Something other changed on it beside the hitbox? Seems like the stun is shorter or can be avoided by walljump maybe? It seems the RoF has also been increased or is it only the sound that gives that feeling?

    We finally have a conter to Alienvision: Mines! It is hard to see them with Alienvision but alot easyier without AV.

    Lerk is cool to fly IMO perfect. But he is somehow weak against A2 or a3 marines and the shotgun is pure luck. F.e. if you sit on the ground and shoot a SG with the lerk, some shells hit the ground 2m infront of it. Spread is really to big to be effective even if you are close to a rine.

    Bombard is hard to use if 1 marine has a GL. The whip gets confused somehow with bombard and throwing back a nade.

    I love the new feature that shows me that I am in umbra (even if I am to far away to be still in it).

    Overall performance on good Servers is great. But the Server do crash alot (around all 30-40mins).


    Ty for this patch. After some time it gets great to play!
  • konatakonata Join Date: 2011-08-24 Member: 118296Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1893834:date=Jan 12 2012, 04:02 PM:name=Electr0)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Electr0 @ Jan 12 2012, 04:02 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893834"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah, now i've had a play it was fun for a round or two but mines and the performance improvement didn't keep me entertained for long, i guess im bored of playing the same map, well done to the devs for the nice performance boost though, im averaging around 30 and above now, 40 when not much is happening so thats great, we just need something new to play with now.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    30 and above? I still struggle to get above 20 and average 15/16. That's what na i7 with a 6970 and 8gb of ram gets you for your money!
  • playerplayer Join Date: 2010-09-12 Member: 73982Members
    That doesn't sound right, what's the i7 clocked at?
  • konatakonata Join Date: 2011-08-24 Member: 118296Members
  • slimeslime Join Date: 2010-07-14 Member: 72352Members
    Have you tried turning your resolution down? Res can be a huge factor in games like NS2 and BF3 which do deferred rendering.
  • thelinxthelinx Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113495Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1893879:date=Jan 12 2012, 07:18 PM:name=dushan)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dushan @ Jan 12 2012, 07:18 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893879"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The Lua VM does thousands of tiny allocations every frame. We used to just let our main heap allocator deal with them but when Max profiled it, he noticed we were spending quite a bit of time allocating / freeing memory.

    Our new custom allocator exploits the fact that vast majority of these allocations are for blocks of similar size and caches freed blocks in about 32 'buckets' of different sizes. When Lua tries to allocate a new block, we first look in the appropriate bucket (which is blazing fast compared to a full allocation). We also avoid having to worry about access from other threads as cached blocks belong exclusively to the Lua VM.

    As a result, the Lua memory allocations are now about 5 times faster at a cost of using 25% more memory (a tiny increase in real terms compared to memory used by textures, audio, etc). The changes are completely transparent to Lua code.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    That's very interesting. Do you think you could upload your custom version of Lua somewhere (GitHub?) or just release a diff?
  • konatakonata Join Date: 2011-08-24 Member: 118296Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1893894:date=Jan 12 2012, 07:55 PM:name=slime)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (slime @ Jan 12 2012, 07:55 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893894"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Have you tried turning your resolution down? Res can be a huge factor in games like NS2 and BF3 which do deferred rendering.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    No other game requires me to turn it down.

    So no, I am not going to turn it down, that's how you measure performance by keeping things consistent.
  • kingmobkingmob Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 3650Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1893879:date=Jan 12 2012, 12:18 PM:name=dushan)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dushan @ Jan 12 2012, 12:18 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1893879"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->...
    Our new custom allocator exploits the fact that vast majority of these allocations are for blocks of similar size and caches freed blocks in about 32 'buckets' of different sizes. When Lua tries to allocate a new block, we first look in the appropriate bucket (which is blazing fast compared to a full allocation). We also avoid having to worry about access from other threads as cached blocks belong exclusively to the Lua VM.
    ...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Go go custom allocator.
    The LUA GC is the most written about thing on the internet.
    Everyone has their own solution from single stepping for periods to custom allocators etc.

    The custom allocator makes the most sense since you probably have one for the rest of the game too.
Sign In or Register to comment.