Very high GPU load 03-16

[Egheal]

What is really weird is that my 2 screens are really basic 2560x1440 at 60Hz. at vsync 0 with a 2001x2027 (5.85 Mo) image, full los and lighting, the load on my GPU is only 11% more than not using FGU, hardly a big deal imho. The fact it is going 100% at vsync 1 and hardly reduce with vsync 2,3 and 4 is very strange though.
Did someone knows if my Vsync choice is transfered to my players ? or need i to tell them to use "/vsync 0"?

[Griogre]

The vsync settings are independant per machine and your players may find a different setting works better than yours depending on their hardware setup.

[Egheal]

ok thanks, i will test with them the best vsync for their machines!

[Weissrolf]

Empty (PF2) campaign (no modules), 1 image (14800 x 10200, no walls), LoS + Lighting enabled, 1 token (22.5 bright, 42.5 dim), windowed image in FGU, FoW enabled in Foundry (demo GM server)

FGU vs. Foundry (Chrome + Edge), 6.25% CPU =~ 1 core maxed out


FGU, PC client:


Foundry, PC client:


PS: GPU driver power-saving is disabled, aka no down-clocking of the GPU.

[Zarestia]

Hello all,

I've found a 100% sure way to reduce GPU immensely/replicate the GPU load issue.

Ryzen 7 3700x
Radeon RX 5700 XT

Test Campaign (5E), no extensions, empty campaign (got a few images I tested with, can share/upload campaign if you want. This was tested with a 4000px*4000px 2,5 MB JPEG (80% quality). 1 Token with 30' Darkvision. All on the GM machine.

Steps to reproduce:
- Open Assets
- Create image record of the map
- Reset zoom (the other zoom options should work aswell)
- Enable LoS and Lighting
> see about 40-50% GPU Load, even with no token

- Open Assets
- Create image record of the map
- let it be, don't reset the zoom or anyhting!!!
- Enable LoS and Lighting
> see about 5-15% GPU load, even when resizing the map afterwards
--> When you close the map and reopen it, you got again a GPU load of 40-50%

I have found no lighting differences with both methods, but only tested with 1 token.
Maybe this gives a clue to the high GPU load (and resulting performance issues for worse systems).

If you need more information, just ask

[Moon Wizard]

@Zarestia,

Thanks for the specific example. I've passed on to @cpinder.

Thanks,
JPG

[Weissrolf]

2. Disable vs. Enable LoS layers:

In the Live version GPU load can decrease dramatically by disabling LoS layers, or just LoS points/lines. I posted this as a workaround for high GPU load due to FGU permanently calculating all LoS points of a map even when invisible to tokens (due to many LoS walls in-between). In the 03-16 Beta GPU load stays the same regardless of LoS layers being disabled or even deleted.

I would like to point to this specific issue again, because it demonstrates a regression from 4.0.10 Live in an area I already deem problematic (calculation of LoS points over the whole map).

[Zarestia]

As all performace threads seem to mix together into a bit of chaos, I will post here again, although this might have some reference to discussion between Moon Wizard and Weissrolf.

I tested some more with my "workaround" from three posts ago.
Same campaign, 12000px * 12000px, 19 MB JPEG (I think 90% quality, not sure), map has a 40*40 grid with 300px/grid (don't know if that matters much). Enabled LoS & Lighting, then resized/resetted the zoom.
Then I went on and added about 300 LoS points (only walls), way less than some other maps, but I was fine with 300. Then added about 15 torches and candles all over the map. Also, 1 PC and 9 NPCs were added. My test NPC was a barbed devil with 120 ft. darkvision.
All testing was done from GM machine with preview of player's view. All movement of Tokens was done without token locking (I saw no difference with locking). The map/image was not put into background, FGU was maximized, vsync is set to default (got a 75Hz FreeSync monitor, don't know if FGU even supports FreeSync... shouldn't matter too much).

Both videos show the map way zoomed out, otherwise you can't really see anyhting. Main difference for about 50% load: LoS edges - see the videos for better demonstration.

The video "workaround_big_image" shows the movement of the NPC over the map, the LoS seems a bit better when you have a 100% zoom, or reset zoom. GPU load: 15%.

The video "big_image_reopened" shows the movement of the NPC after I closed the map and reopened it. You can see way better LoS around the edges, lighting stays the same as far as I can tell. GPU load: 65%.

I haven't found any slowdowns or other issues with both methods, but that is just a few minutes of testing with no player connected. This inital big load on a not too shabby middle-class GPU might lead to some other problems when playing with player's over a long time (what SilenRuin and kevininrussia reported).
I hope this gives a few more clues into all the performance/lag/etc. issues. I sadly didn't have the chance to test with connected players. Feel free to download the attached campaign zip file and test it yourself. Under assets you should find some images with different pixel per grid sizes.

Google Drive Link for Campaign: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CsR...ew?usp=sharing

[Weissrolf]

Great work, thank you!

What you are seeing is differences in the "shadows" creation. Game engines usually allow players to set shadow quality, which in turn can affect that stair-case kind of shadow edges. Older games (Battlefield 2 age) used to always have these edges, because GPUs were less powerful back then.

FGU's current "shadow" soft edge creation is problematic in 03-31, because it causes artifacts, both along the edges (aliasing/moire like) and within the dim light areas (single bright pixels). We don't see that in your video, but that might be because the dim area is too far away from the occluders and the video codec might swallow it. You can see it here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...l=1#post591551

[Zarestia]

I don't see any artifacts in my campaign like in your linked post, but I only moved rather fast to try to get hiccups, which I didn't. The only bothering/problematic things I see with the "reset zoom after LoS/Lighting" workaround is the stair-cases in LoS, which btw seem okayish if you zoom to 100%.
This probably all comes down to how FGU precalculates the LoS and Lighting based on the initial image viewable size (otherwise my workaround would'nt work logically). The rest I and we have to let the devs work out.
If we can get adjustable shadow quality, fog of war and light presets, even for players that of course would be very cool. Imho, that all can come later after the main base system is working well.

I dont have anyhting else to contribute and don't want to spam these threads further with theoretical discussions


I am happy to test and provide feedback again as soon as any updates come out