Slow appearance of the world in 0.4 branch

[Maeredhel]

Hi all mintesters

I'm a bit new in minetest (started a month ago). I started with the latest stable version (so 0.3) but when I saw all the power of modules and all, I installed the latest version in development (from git).
I noticed that the world in my new server is much slower to appear than in the 0.3. For example, when I launch my client, then connect to my (dedicated) server, my screen is fully blue, then a first part of the world appear (quite normal from now, but it is a bit slower than 0.3 though).
When I walk through the world, I usually have to wait when I arrive to the edge of the appeared world.

So a first question is : do you also feel that the appearance of the world is slower? (I've quickly been through the forum and haven't found any topic about that, so I guess no?)
If not, where do you think this comes from?

Briefly, my configuration :

SERVER :
Linux 3.1.4-gentoo i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux, 1Go RAM

CLIENT :
Linux 2.6.39-sabayon i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P7450 @ 2.13GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux, 3Go RAM

On the server side, I use the following mods :
baking
bottle
bucket
default
experimental
flowers
give_initial_stuff
growing
jeija
legacy
mineral_detector
ropes

But I don't think the problem comes from any mods since I first tried without any of them, and got the same result (moreover, I checked the CPU usage when I was waiting at the edge of the appeared world on my server, it was from 10 to 30 at most)
It probably doesn't come from the generation of the world because I also have to wait for the world already generated to appear.
I don't think the problem comes from the network either since it's the same network used as with the 0.3 server (and same machine by the way).

This is more or less all I know about this issue. So if you have any suggestion, I will be really glad to ear it :)

Maeredhel

[sdzen]

I noticed that but didn't think to report it

[jordan4ibanez]

that is how the game is..i put my game client in ramdisk and it still appears slowly

[sapier]

There are at least two different cases you have to wait for the world:

1) world already generated but hasn't been transfered to client.
this would indicate the transfer handling has slowed down

2) you're at the edge of the already generated world
as world is generated on the fly having to wait for it to appear suggests generation is slower than before.

still there are multiple options mods can hook into generation and slowdown the process as well as the basic world generation might have become slower.

[kahrl]

I haven't noticed any slowdowns between 0.3 and 0.4. Then again, I don't have many mods installed, and my computer is relatively fast.

[VanessaE]

TL;DR: Anything newer than roughly one week ago takes forever to start a world when using a high-resolution texture pack, at least in Linux, and starting fresh doesn't really help. :-)

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I can't be sure if the speed difference I saw between 0.3 and 0.4 (March 20) was real or just my imagination, but as of maybe a week ago, things got really *really* slow, particularly with high-resolution texture packs.

With the default textures, the game takes just under 5 seconds and it's ready to play. With my high-resolution one (81 MB in size, unzipped), it takes a minimum of 38 seconds from the moment I select a world and/or click "Play" to the moment the world appears. This seems excessive to me, and it wasn't nearly this bad before.

Test sequence (Linux):

1. Remove and purge your current version of Minetest and install the most recent 0.4 build available.

2. Rename or move your ~/.minetest directory so that the game can't find it.

3. Launch Minetest and immediately close it via the window's [X] button. This is just so it can create a new ~/.minetest directory and populate it.

4. Download and install a high-resolution texture pack, and configure Minetest to use it. I recommend using my 512px "Realistic" one for the sake of consistency with this report.

5. Launch Minetest from a terminal, confirm that it's using the new texture pack.

6. Create a new world but do not start it.

7. Close Minetest via the window [X] button and launch it again from a terminal.

8. Select the world you just created and click "Play" if necessary.

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At this point, the chain of events goes like so:

9. The window immediately turns black and switches to the "Loading..." status display.

10. Wait one second.

11. One CPU core jumps to 100%.

12. Wait four seconds while the program is "loading".

13. Once this four-second load time is finished, the window turns solid black - no content.

14. Wait thirty three (!) seconds. If you maximize the window during this time, it does maximize but turns into a royal mess (it'll turn black again after several seconds). If you try to close the program during this time (maximized or not), it ignores you.

15. The CPU core that went to 100% earlier finally drops back down, and the world appears. If you tried to close the program during that 33-second period, it will close now.

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When I play the game normally, i.e. with a populated ~/.minetest directory, the game takes an additional 6 seconds beyond the above (for a grand total of 44 seconds), probably due to startup time from the mods I use.

It doesn't seem to matter whether I'm in Creative mode or Survival mode, or whether ~/.minetest/cache has been populated or not (except that if it has, the game doesn't report the progress of loading the textures). It doesn't seem to matter whether I go into my usual world, or create a new one, or go into one I created but never explored.

I don't play on anyone's server - this all purely local/single-player.

Hardware: ASRock M3A770DE mainboard carrying an AMD Phenom II 1055T processor (6 cores) at 2.8 GHz, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD6800 video card with 1GB on it, with everything running from a 60 GB OCZ Vertex 2 solid state disk.

OS: Linux (kernel version 3.0.0, Ubuntu "Oneiric"). OpenGL is fully operational via ATI's proprietary binary blob (supplied by a standard Ubuntu package).

Minetest version: minetestc55_201204161538-0~1514~oneiric1_i386.deb from c55's daily builds PPA (though the game still reports 20120408 despite having been purged and re-installed).