FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Hardware: Core i3-2120, AMD/ATI Radeon HD6870, OpenGL 4.5, Windows 7 sp1, ATI Driver Crimson Ed 15.12 beta, resolution ~1280*978, 120 nodes fixed view, map disabled, chat and interface is on
Minetest: 0.4.13-dev krock's 32 bit build, 15 DEC 2015
Config with shaders off:

Config with shaders on:

Config with shaders on / effects off (default shader settings in MT):

Results:
Test 1) Just Test 0.4.12-dev, position: -77.5 1.5 -101, yaw = 0.0, standing without moves
shaders off: 52 fps
shaders on: 24 fps (2.1 x slower)
shaders on / effects off*: 34 fps (1.5 x slower) <--- default

Test 2) LinuxGaming 2 0.4.13-dev, position: 445.0 40.5 756.5, yaw = 0.0, standing without moves
shaders off: 34 fps
shaders on: 19 fps (1.8 x slower)
shaders on / effects off*: 24 fps (1.4 x slower) <--- default

By default in MT enable_shaders is true, that means that default performance could be boosted up to +50% if you disable shaders by default, this can increase fps more into comfort range (if you have fixed view range) or increase view range while keeping fps above 30(when default autorange finder is enabled).

Interesting in doing some tests? I advise developers to look at that issue and disable shaders by default or fix them (if something is wrong). Disabling shaders helped me a lot to improve minetest performance in multiplayer (gaining 30-60 fps with 120 nodes view), singleplayer was capable of 240 nodes @ >60fps (but with very big stutters, that's the other unsolved problem).

* effects are: bump mapping, normal maps, paralax occlusion, waving water.. leaves.. plants

If you set the wanted_fps and max_fps settings, you can get 50+ fps with shaders.

benrob0329 wrote:If you set the wanted_fps and max_fps settings, you can get 50+ fps with shaders.

What's wrong with the default values? wanted_fps is used mostly for the range autotuner, whereas fps_max's default value is set to something that prevents generating useless heat (the only reason to increase it is for benchmarking, as well as using a 120/144 Hz screen).

benrob0329 wrote:If you set the wanted_fps and max_fps settings, you can get 50+ fps with shaders.

max_fps settings was set to 0, no fps limit, with fixed view it will show as high fps, as possible, wanted_fps is for view range finder iirc, which is disabled here.

Ohh ... all this time i thought there was no difference between 'shaders off' and 'shaders on, no effects' =}

Fixerol wrote:By default in MT enable_shaders is true, that means that default performance could be boosted up to +50% if you disable shaders by default, this can increase fps more into comfort range (if you have fixed view range) or increase view range while keeping fps above 30(when default autorange finder is enabled).

The results of this highly depend on your setup. For me, I have almost no difference in performance with shaders enabled compared to shaders disabled.

You can't say that performance would be better for everyone if we disable shaders by default. Everyone has to test it for their specific setup.

Everyone has to test it for their specific setup.

That's why I'm asking everybody to test on their setups.

Shaders are way too slow for me, reduces performance by 5-10 FPS.
Also, shaders have a bug with fog, but it's probably my problem.

Did you set wanted_fps and max_fps?

@Fixerol if its not set the FPS is really unstable and bounces all over the place, setting it gives me a constant FPS around what I set it to.

My config uses a fixed viewing range.