I find that most of my lag comes from when a new image is loaded into memory. Once that tile has been loaded it won't lag for that specific sprite for the rest of the session.

Is it possible to load all the sprites into memory at the start of a session?

Hard to say what's causing the lag for me, but game definitely chews up as much CPU as it possibly can (mitigated slightly if I limit the CPU usage). This happens both in ASCII and tiles mode. Vsync is off, new SDL2 renderer is used. In fact, it uses that much CPU even at the start screen before loading a game. Making it fullscreen in tiles mode has a negative impact on performance. 800x600 is bearable. Problem seems to worsen the more mobs are visible.

Gentoo Linux, latest steam release, 4 x Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20GHz, 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF119M [Quadro NVS 4200M] (rev a1). 6GB RAM. Memory doesn't seem to be an issue though, seems to be more to do with the CPU.

I find NotEYE slower and more fan-intensive for me than Skyrim! I also still get graphical issues when loading the specialty levels (sometimes remedied by saving and reloading). Possibly due to the amount of new tiles being loaded at once?

Currently running on a GTX860 gaming edition card, 6 x Intel i7 2.6Ghz processor, and 8GB RAM (soon to be upgraded).

Hey I get performance lags on my laptop when I play ADOM. All of the settings are default and I am not using beta versions. It happens all of the time even when I turn off my anti-virus(which really shouldn't be an issue anyway). It isn't every 1000 turns it's every couple of turns. It's not a deal breaker and I'm not even complaining. I was looking for a solution and I found a discussion that led me here and said to post system specs. So here ya go! ADOM is love. ADOM is life(or endless death). Happy Creator Day!

My system is

Intel Core i7-4700HQ CPU @ 2.4 GHz
16 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 850m with 2 GB DDR3

Windows 10 64-bit

*EDIT* I accidentally typed DDR4 instead of DDR3

Hardware:
[Win 10 64bit Home build 10586]
[16GB DDR3 RAM]
[Nvidia GTX 680 2GB driver version 368.39]
[i7 Quad @3.4ghz]
[ADOM installed on 100GB SSD, also 1TB dynamic speed HD for recording, 2TB 7200 RPM HD]
[Razer mouse+keyboard, Qanba Q4 Arcade Stick, Playstation 3 DS3 gamepad] [Wired 40/40mbit fiber, 3ms ping to ISP]

In all of ADOM's rendering modes, with Nvidia Adaptive Vsync or ingame Vsync enabled, frames rates decrease drastically depending on the number of NotEYE tiles drawn on screen, and CPU is working under heavy load at all times. Adjusting the NotEYE tile sizes in the advanced configuration menu has a very direct impact on performance. I get steady 60 fps with tile sizes in the 72-128 area, but lowering the tile size to for example 64 drastically reduces frame rates to sub 30 area, while fans spin so hard I'm worried my desktop case will fly out the window at any moment.

Hey, after quite a few hours of testing, I must say that I'm surprised at how little it affected my performance. Great job!

But in the animated forest it's barely playable though... So I might have the same issue in other level filled with mobs such as D50.

As always, PC and mobs movements are disabled through NotEye so it may explain why I can (could) run ADOM perfectly with an old laptop.


Win 7 pro 64bits
HP Elitebook 2560p
i5-2540m @ 2.60 GHz
8 gb DC rams
Samsung 750 Evo SSD

i7 4700MQ
8 GB RAM
Intel HD 4600 / GeForce GTX 765m (Optimus switchable graphics)
Win 10

Generally choppy animation (lag and frame skipping), worse on battery, but not much better on AC. Frequent hiccups, high CPU usage all the time.

The more stuff on screen, the worse the problem is. The game is only somewhat smooth right after I descend down stairs to a new dungeon level, when only a few tiles are visible.

Switching between graphics cards doesn't seem to make a difference - performance is about the same on Intel integrated graphics and on the much more powerful GeForce.

I've tried various NotEye config options - vsync, frame limiting, CPU usage - but nothing seems to make much difference.

One more question: What kind of monitor do you use? Is it some kind of wide screen and you are playing in full screen mode or what is the setup? I'm wondering if the issue might be related to players using a huge monitor (I'm only running on a notebook all the time and do not even own any monitors these days - so maybe that's an issue).

Thanks!

I'm mostly using my laptop screen, which is 1920x1080, and an external monitor (also 1920x1080). I play in fullscreen mode on both.

I've encountered distinct lagging in R67 (both in ASCII and graphics) when there are a lot of monsters around, and occasional slight lags on normal dungeon levels. Specs:

Game mode: windowed (but with enlarged window), graphics mode on
Computer: ASUS ROG laptop, Windows 8, Intel Core i7 240 gHz, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce 860M
Monitor: 1920 x 1080

I did not experience these lags on the latest stable Steam version I had (R64?), only now with R67 beta.

See http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=4390 for another detailed report.

Game is totally unplayable due to the lag when I get to the animated forest. (windowed mode, ascii)

i7-4790 3.60GHz
32GB RAM
Win 10
1920x1080

I want to add that in addition to the animated forest that is unplayable, the ice queen domain also lags a lot, especially in the ice/fire battle.

Hi, experiencing general lag, bad motion... playing in windowed mode, 1920x1080
Windows10 x64
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4500U CPU @ 1.80GHz, 2401 Mhz
8GB RAM

I'm experiencing the same thing.

Linux 64-bit (Arch Linux)
AMD Phenom II 965 3.4 GHz 4 cores
12 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 560 GPU, 1 GB RAM (old crap...)
2 monitors, 1 is 24" Philips 1920x1080, the other is an older 22" HP monitor with the weird resolution 1680x1050

Previous versions of ADOM have played perfectly, so my computer should be good enough...
The lag/performance issues happen regardless of which monitor the game is on, in fullscreen and windowed mode.
One thing I noticed that might help track down the issue: If I keep walking through a long corridor or similar, my character will eventually move out of sight, and if I stop walking, the display catches up and moves so that the character is in the middle of the screen as it should be. Maybe there's some problem with regards to synchronizing what's happening in the game and what is displayed?

I also tried playing R67 on my IBM Thinkpad T60 laptop which is about 10 years old, has a dual core Intel CPU @ 2 GHz, 3 GB RAM and some kind of intel gpu. 14" monitor with a 1440x1050 resolution. ADOM R64 plays without problems on it. R67 have the same issues with lag / performance (I only tried in windowed mode, all settings on default). Laptop also runs linux.

We have already started working on improving the performance, but some of the things reported here appear to be caused by rather complex issues -- basically, they could be fixed, but fixes come with a cost, and it is not clear what is the best balance:

1) The engine could either load all the tiles at the start of the game, or load them when needed. So the game could either start up quickly and then lag when it has to load a new tile, or start up slowly (or possibly wait on loading of new areas) without further lags. This appears to be a personal preference -- I perceive waiting for the game to start (or a new area to start) as a loss of time, while a slight lag from time to time is not a problem for me; furthermore, since we don't know what tiles will actually be required, loading only the tiles we actually need takes less time total. (I guess such lags would be a worse problem in real time games.)

2) A very nice thing about ASCII ADOM (and other non-animated games) is that they react to keypresses immediately. When playing commercial games, I often hate them for wasting my time by playing the same animation again and again. NotEye attempts to balance having animations and instant reaction, and the way it does that has changed recently. In previous releases, the game world was affected immediately, but the monster sprites were pushed on a straight line from their previous position to the current one, giving quick animation. These monster movements were not synchronized, and straight lines could go through walls, giving weird effects sometimes. In the new releases, by default, NotEye does animation in a less careless way -- it knows which monster was where at which time, and quickly replays the movement; however, since the speed changes, this might be perceived as "choppy animation". And that seems to be a balance problem again: without changing speed, the game would feel slow; with careless animation, you would go through walls and other weird effects; and with careful and changing speed, it feels choppy. (This can be configured in NotEye: Ctrl+M -> animations -> animations while autoexploring, animations while pressing keys quickly)

I personally don't mind much having to wait at the start of the game (or maybe at the moment of entering a dungeon) for all tiles to be loaded, but I can't stand latency while I'm playing. I play rather fast and I don't want the interface to limit that. And in a game like ADOM, fast play plus too much latency can mean death.

I suspect most players will agree with this. Wait times at the beginning of games are rather standard nowadays, latency in the UI is generally frowned upon.

I also tend towards "start slow but then run fast". Especially as ADOM on old systems about ten years ago also needed a couple of seconds to initialize everything. I'm not sure how long the wait would be if NotEye would aggressively load everything in the beginning but IMHO we should try that.

I'm not sure it's a noteye issue, I purposely crashed noteye in the animated forest and went into safe mode, but the 3-5 second lag I'm experiencing there did not improve at all.

D50 is super laggy as well. For me it's really a problem; because the animated forest can be skipped but D50 cannot....