[Linux] Workaround for AMD Catalyst users - UPDATE

murraymurray Join Date: 2012-12-22 Member: 175880Members, NS2 Playtester, Pistachionauts
edited August 2014 in Technical Support
Maybe you noticed in other threads, that tuxator and me got this game running with Mesa. So, if you want to play this game with the catalyst driver, you must first switch to mesa. I can recommend the version 10.1. Then start the game and hope that all shaders will be compiled during the optimization process.
So, if you get this game running with the mesa driver, then you can switch back to the catalyst driver and the game should still work fine.

The advantage to use the catalyst is (at the moment), that you will (maybe) have a better performance and you will not have these graphic bugs, as reported for the mesa driver.

Maybe someone else could try, if this workaround works for him.

EDIT:
Ok, I uploaded the shaders, which I compiled with Mesa. I got a positive response in the steam forum, that it should work with other AMD GPU Generations and with the Catalyst driver.

Download the file and extract the shaders in the folder, where the Natural Selection cache files are located.
Build 266 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxgyziejewrt8of/ns2_shaders_build_266.tar.bz2
cd ~/.config/Natural\ Selection\ 2/
rm -rf cache
tar xvjpf ns2_shaders_build_266.tar.bz2

Maybe some severs will not work, because there are still some missing shaders, which the catalyst can't compile. But Servers without mods should work. Use the filder in the Serverbrowser!

Comments

  • murraymurray Join Date: 2012-12-22 Member: 175880Members, NS2 Playtester, Pistachionauts
    *push*
    maybe someone can try
  • shpinogshpinog Russia Join Date: 2014-04-06 Member: 195198Members
    edited April 2014
    That is as documentation to help make the game work on catalyst,?
  • murraymurray Join Date: 2012-12-22 Member: 175880Members, NS2 Playtester, Pistachionauts
    edited April 2014
    Yes, but it's a dirty workaround.
  • KarbaKarba Join Date: 2006-09-23 Member: 58040Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Gold
    Yeah, it works for me. Thx mate ;)
  • mintehminteh Join Date: 2012-05-01 Member: 151389Members, Reinforced - Diamond
    Working for me too. Performance on Catalyst is around 20-30fps with my R9 290. Changing settings from max to low makes no difference BUT its is just playable so big thanks. ^:)^
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    @minteh‌
    Ensure you are not bottle necked by your cpu, then. Type r_stats in the console and if it says anything other than 0 for "X ms waiting on Gpu" then you are correct for assuming it's your card, otherwise it's your cpu.
  • mintehminteh Join Date: 2012-05-01 Member: 151389Members, Reinforced - Diamond
    IronHorse wrote: »
    @minteh‌
    Ensure you are not bottle necked by your cpu, then. Type r_stats in the console and if it says anything other than 0 for "X ms waiting on Gpu" then you are correct for assuming it's your card, otherwise it's your cpu.

    My setup is pretty good, R9 290, OC'd i5, 8 GB RAM, SSD etc.. I get 0-15ms waiting for GPU during game play. Guess it just needs more optimization with drivers or the game...

  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    @minteh Must be the opengl performance in NS2, because that rig running directx9 couldn't possibly be GPU limited..
  • mintehminteh Join Date: 2012-05-01 Member: 151389Members, Reinforced - Diamond
    edited April 2014
    Good news, I messed around in Catalyst control pannel and now I get 60-80fps. I disabled Catalyst A.I / V-Sync. The game still shutters quite bad with "12ms (ish) Waiting for render thread", with little if any ms on the GPU side. Also the new AMD drivers have improved my FPS.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    @minteh‌
    You may already know this, but ensure that Ambient occlusion and atmospherics are off.
  • ZaggyZaggy NullPointerException The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-12-10 Member: 24214Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, Subnautica Playtester
    This works for me!
    @murray
    tar xvjpf ns2_shaders_version2.tar.bz2 should be ns2_shaders_build_266.tar.bz2
  • murraymurray Join Date: 2012-12-22 Member: 175880Members, NS2 Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Zaggy wrote: »
    This works for me!
    @murray
    tar xvjpf ns2_shaders_version2.tar.bz2 should be ns2_shaders_build_266.tar.bz2

    correct! thanks!

  • ZaggyZaggy NullPointerException The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-12-10 Member: 24214Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, Subnautica Playtester
    Note: the game starts now but I cannot enter a server, stays infinitely on the loading screen, last line in console: is about the keybindings file.
  • murraymurray Join Date: 2012-12-22 Member: 175880Members, NS2 Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Zaggy wrote: »
    Note: the game starts now but I cannot enter a server, stays infinitely on the loading screen, last line in console: is about the keybindings file.
    Can you check, if this also happens with vanilla servers (servers without mods)?
    These servers dont have any mods (148.251.50.39:27016 or 148.251.50.39:27036). Thanks @Obraxis‌

    Maybe you should also delete your local installed mods. Clear the Workshop folder on your system:
    rm -r ~/.config/Natural\ Selection\ 2/Workshop/*
    
  • ZaggyZaggy NullPointerException The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-12-10 Member: 24214Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, Subnautica Playtester
    I've switched to an Nvidia card (still have the amd card though)
  • ZaggyZaggy NullPointerException The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-12-10 Member: 24214Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, Subnautica Playtester
    Cache files for build 269, place in ~/.config/Natural Selection 2/cache
  • ZaggyZaggy NullPointerException The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-12-10 Member: 24214Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, Subnautica Playtester
    Cache files for build 270, place in ~/.config/Natural Selection 2/cache
    Download link: https://www.mediafire.com/?ndq198uu333d95d
  • KarbaKarba Join Date: 2006-09-23 Member: 58040Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Gold
    NS2 runs fine on Radeon 6850 with lastest catalyst omega 14.12, 50/80 fps with minor lag issues.
    Important note, put NS2 on the same resolution as desktop, otherwise performance drops dramatically to 15/20 fps. Same happens when load a map the second time by reasons unknown.
  • ThewinatorThewinator Netherlands Join Date: 2015-12-06 Member: 209776Members
    I think this workaround is no longer needed. Runs without any issues here.
  • RedSwordRedSword Join Date: 2006-12-07 Member: 58947Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    What was the original problem that initiated this thread ? Artefacts or poor performance or other ? I'm having poor performance on Linux (Xubuntu 15.10 seems to have some problems though :/).
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