Guild Wars 2

OP: At this point I can assure you, the performance you seek shall not be found in GW2. There’s not much good hardware can do to help you, when CPU cycles are wasted away by inefficient algorithms and hidden overhead.
There is a serious throughput issue that can only be solved by thorough analysis and profiling, The best solutions will most likely involve a redesign/restructure of major chunks in the codebase, which is not likely to happen.

I learned something recently, you can’t stumble upon good performance on c++. That doesn’t mean you can’t achieve it, it means you will not achieve it unless you actively program for performance. From the start. Something these developers, either didn’t care or couldn’t afford to do.

plasmacutter.2709 said:
….

They should start banning users on the basis of idiocy…..

Gadzooks.4687:

If its poorly written code that runs poorly on even powerful hardware, its not a CPU bottleneck, its a software bottleneck.

Precisely, you hit the nail.
Even more outrageous is the fact they are being silent about it. As if the problem didn’t exist, or worse, as if the problem only affected a portion of the users. When in fact it affects all the user base.
When asked about Performance issues, in their recent Reddit AMAA they deflected most questions, and only gave a “The client is generally CPU bound, so more + faster cores will contribute to better performance” and “We are actively working on client performance improvements across a wide spectrum of hardware configurations” Perhaps I’m naive but I was expecting more of an apology, or at least an admission that there is an issue with code.

They didn’t have any problem with accepting, celebrating and rejoicing in all the compliments and praise they received for the “stability”, “scalability” and lack of downtime of the game. Why Then not be a little more open about the performance issue. Is it perhaps because any improvement done in this regard will be at best minimal, and not much can be done without a major rewrite of the code base ?

Just ???? that was published on August 27th !!!
and BTW, that was when the game actually had some optimizations. If Tom benchmarked the game again with the current builds, the minimum fps on all hardware would be MUCH lower.

I don’t know where you guys got the “-umbra gpu” command from.
I doubt Anet, who’s been reluctant to give any information regardless the infamous performance issues, simply gave the command away for users to tinker with.

In any case, it doesn’t work. Starting the game with and without the command makes no difference. Moreover, if you try:
[code] -umbro – umbria -umbrosia -umbolin -lambada -blahblah blah [/code] the game will start and there will be no error at runtime. Which I believe indicates the game is ignoring all command line arguments anyways. Which could very well be the reason why the -perfdebug command Anet gave us doesn’t work either.
Guys, did you forget ( int argc, char *argv[] ) ??

I believe that:
1. The majority of Compiler Optimizations have been rolled back, due to instability and crashes experienced by many users. This roll back occurred shortly after launch and the biggest one back in September, which caused major FPS loss for pretty much everyone. This performance loss will be solved, once proper optimizations are applied back in.

2. Core design choices in the game engine make the game seriously CPU bounded. This is a permanent issue that will not go away. Until Hardware catches up, your performance will be worse than in other contemporary games.

What resolution, how much VRAM is on the card, and what graphics settings are you using?

I’m doubtful its a general problem with the engine, and could be one of those very specific combination in your setup that leads to the problem. Or it could be your pushing it too hard, and its pushing back.

I hate to see how people still try to attribute the issues to hardware/drivers, when is clear that it is the unoptimized game engine the culprit.

Neither AMD nor nvidia will release optimized drivers for this game until the issues in the game are fixed.

I like the idea of having a thread exclusively for posting useful information which Anet can actually use to solve the performance problems. As opposed to pure whining and complaining. Sadly, most likely this will not receive many posts.

Here’s my dxDiagReport

I solved the low FPS in cities(LA mostly) by setting reflections to NONE.
WvW also benefited a little.

There is no “port” as such the whole linux client request is null.
The mac client uses technology based on WINE to run on OSX. Perhaps tehy added an installer, but not much more than that.
I pity the poor souls who get the game for mac. if performance under native windows is bad, I can only imagine how worse it’s gonna be on OSX.

I would suggest rewarding players with Karma in addition to exp, and counting resurrections as greatly contributing in the events.

Perhaps killing the elder dragons was a very big mistake…
Dark forces behind our comprehension have been unleashed, forces that were restrained by the magic of these mystical and powerful creatures. A threat like the world has never seen before is coming and it threatens to destroy the very fabric of life. It rests now upon your shoulders to rescue us all.

The player will have to travel to the past, to the old continent of tyria, the way it was before Lions Arch was destroyed. In a mission to alter specific events in the past that lead to the ultimate demise of all the races, and save the world.

The player will revisit old locations and relive key GW1 moments. Be present when king Alderbern unleashes the Foe Fire, presence the destruction of ascalon, or its very foundation. Witness (and participate) how the Mursat imprisoned the titans.
Travel through different eras, completing different missions, and saving the world.

……..

The time travel could be implemented through a special asura gate, which the player can help to build, adding additional playability to the expansion.
The world could be destroyed right as the player escapes through the gate, adding a more dramatic effect. Now failure would be out of the question.

If you like this idea, post your comments so Anet can see this thread.

I absolutely support this idea.
To give an notion to the players unfamiliar with GW1, this is what Fort Aspenwood gameplay was like:
Fort Aspenwod

Extremly fun!!

Please, excuse me for what I’m about to say. It’s built up frustration from unsuccessfully trying to advice people, in-game, to get an Intel CPU.

AMD SUCKS BALLS!!
Their CPUS are inferior to intel’s in every possible aspect. Their L2-3 caches are slower than than a cow swimming in oil and their branch prediction algorithms are terrible.

This is not their engineer’s fault. Is AMD’s management. Their top engineers quited in rage and disdain after Bulldozer, which was a catastrophic failure, thanks to “brilliant” decisions made by AMD’s management.

Please, excuse me for what I’m about to say. It’s built up frustration from unsuccessfully trying to advice people, in-game, to get an Intel CPU.

AMD SUCKS BALLS!!
Their CPUS are inferior to intel’s in every possible aspect. Their L2-3 caches are slower than than a cow swimming in oil and their branch prediction algorithms are terrible.

This is not their engineer’s fault. Is AMD’s management. Their top engineers quited in rage and disdain after Bulldozer, which was a catastrophic failure, thanks to “brilliant” decisions made by AMD’s management.

Vizier.3164:

Im running with :

MSI 890FXA-GD65 (MS-7640)
AMD X6 II 1100T, 3300mhz
XFX AMD 6950, 2048mb
Crossair xms3 ddr3 8gb (2x 4gb)

Could anyone give me tips on what to buy or change to make my fps go up a little in wvw ? Because its just unplayable right now

It’s not your hardware. The game has serious performance issues. Give it sometime. They will work it out.
edit: I hope

I would like to know this too.
Last thing I read was that they were “Investigating” the issue.

I went over to the Umbra site.
The technology seems very useful indeed, and I get the impression these guys know what they’re doing.
If theres a problem, I’d bet it has to do with the GW2 implementation of the tech rather than Umbra itself.
I hope the GW2 developers, call the experts for consultation.

Umbra Software

aop.6052:

Sure is lot of AMD owners in denial here. AMD CPUs are worthless in CPU bound games these days.

There’s none so blind as those who will not see.

Dear Anet lead developers, this is for you:
Efficient Performance Programming Techniques

shhh, it’s OK, I know ….

Dear Anet lead developers; This is for you:
http://tinyurl.com/9jvrkitten

You REALLY ought to read that.