CalcNormals, FrameRates, and PerformanceDrop - Page 2

Jim Sachs · 11-25-2005, 02:00 AM

The earthly (watery?) reason not to use it, and the reason I keep it secret, is that I've never been able to properly control it. Vertex normals are used by the system to determine the shading of a polygon when lighted from a certain angle. The vertices on my fish are constantly in motion, with the bending of the body and undulation of the tail and fins. Sometimes the additive effect of these motions is enough to throw a vertex normal "over-center", so that it points the other way. This causes flickering of the shading on the polygons sharing that vertex. Hopefully, my new fish models won't suffer from this problem.

cjmaddy · 11-25-2005, 03:25 AM

Hopefully my reference to it on this thread, (pre-launch), is not out of order! But it was the new Lionfish that to my eye looks clearly better with the option 'On', that prompted me to return to this subject.
Not fully understanding the technicalities involved, I can only use my eyes to observe the visual effect, - and I like what I see, Jim. - The effect is quite fascinating.

Fishie · 12-03-2005, 08:09 PM

Well, something like that. I got MA 2 for my 5 year old Dell GX 100 running Win 98 and it looks near perfect. My much newer Dell 8250 w/Win XP is a different story. The fish are jerky and choppy. Playing with the framerate does nothing. I just downloaded a new driver - the only update since 2003, for my NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 graphics card with 64 Mb of memory. It looks just a little better, but not good enough to keep looking at. What else can I do?

Jim Sachs · 12-04-2005, 01:42 AM

Something must be running in the background, stealing clock cycles. Internet and network drivers are notorious for stopping the show every few seconds to do some housekeeping.

feldon34 · 12-04-2005, 12:03 PM

Scan your computer for Spyware if you don't already (either with Microsoft's free Antispyware software which is included in the latest Windows Updates or with a more well-known tool like Spyboy Search & Destroy. Then search your computer for viruses if you don't already.

If you are still getting sluggish fish, can you post a list of the running tasks on your computer?

Although it is normally used to detect Spyware and viruses, I would suggest downloading HijackThis which is a free diagnostic program which generates a list of all the running tasks on your computer (more advanced than Task Manager). Paste the results of the test here on the forum and we can help you figure out which program(s) is making the Aquarium run slowly.

11-25-2005, 02:00 AM	#21
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,816	The earthly (watery?) reason not to use it, and the reason I keep it secret, is that I've never been able to properly control it. Vertex normals are used by the system to determine the shading of a polygon when lighted from a certain angle. The vertices on my fish are constantly in motion, with the bending of the body and undulation of the tail and fins. Sometimes the additive effect of these motions is enough to throw a vertex normal "over-center", so that it points the other way. This causes flickering of the shading on the polygons sharing that vertex. Hopefully, my new fish models won't suffer from this problem. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

12-03-2005, 08:09 PM	#23
Fishie Registered Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 1	Swim like an Egyptian Well, something like that. I got MA 2 for my 5 year old Dell GX 100 running Win 98 and it looks near perfect. My much newer Dell 8250 w/Win XP is a different story. The fish are jerky and choppy. Playing with the framerate does nothing. I just downloaded a new driver - the only update since 2003, for my NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 graphics card with 64 Mb of memory. It looks just a little better, but not good enough to keep looking at. What else can I do?

12-04-2005, 01:42 AM	#24
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,816	Something must be running in the background, stealing clock cycles. Internet and network drivers are notorious for stopping the show every few seconds to do some housekeeping. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

12-04-2005, 12:03 PM	#25
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,947	Scan your computer for Spyware if you don't already (either with Microsoft's free Antispyware software which is included in the latest Windows Updates or with a more well-known tool like Spyboy Search & Destroy. Then search your computer for viruses if you don't already. If you are still getting sluggish fish, can you post a list of the running tasks on your computer? Although it is normally used to detect Spyware and viruses, I would suggest downloading HijackThis which is a free diagnostic program which generates a list of all the running tasks on your computer (more advanced than Task Manager). Paste the results of the test here on the forum and we can help you figure out which program(s) is making the Aquarium run slowly. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

11-25-2005, 03:25 AM	#22
cjmaddy Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 7,854	Hopefully my reference to it on this thread, (pre-launch), is not out of order! But it was the new Lionfish that to my eye looks clearly better with the option 'On', that prompted me to return to this subject. Not fully understanding the technicalities involved, I can only use my eyes to observe the visual effect, - and I like what I see, Jim. - The effect is quite fascinating.