Flaw most foul

[busyrobot]

Here's the problem:

When I have my screen sized fairly small, I can swing my sword nice and fast, monsters impail themselves haplessly, and I can continue though the dungeons without being manhandled.

Now, once I enlarge my screen so I can cast spells or use my bow, the whole world slows down, no, correction just me.

My swordarm moves like a slug in molasses, taking up to two whole seconds to complete it's arch. Everything else gets to attack me in normal-time, making it hard not to stand around studying the ceiling tiles with my head back in the attacked-gani.

I shrink my screen, and all speeds up, I can again move around and hack stuff up.

Now, I know if I tossed my 1 GHrtz CPU machine and bought the latest, I could fix this problem. However, I think the problem really lies somewhere in the code where the swing speed is set by the Weapon Speed, then waits for the swing to finish before the strike event is triggered.

Somewhere, the code needs to have the ideal frames for the strike and total completion estimated time (based on the weaponspeed etc) and, if it gets behind, jump frames so the strike occurs at the speed it is supposed to.

Same with casting spells, when it gets REALLY slow, the spell doesn't go off based on the total time since casting was initiated, but based on when the casting gani ends its run.


IMHO, graphical output should always be slaved to the game engine, never the other way around. So, please please please, please change how this works.

I've spoken to others who have the same problem, and it gives an unfair and unnessecary advantage to people with the superfast computers.

[Kaiser2]

You get what you pay for.

[busyrobot]

Graal is pretty good, and does implement a lot of good code.
Another nice thing about graal, is they actually work on it and add things.

I don't think too much code would be needed to remedy this bug.

[Juron Pilo]

you joking? it will require a total reworking of all those codes for all the weapons and spells... I'd rather wait for the c++ version which will null the need to do this because it will be 10x fast anyways

[daboo]

I have a 1 ghz computer, GeForce2, and 392 MB of Ram, and I have no such problem.

[Kaimetsu]

I agree that it's a problem, but there must be some kind of big flaw in your PC's setup if you can't run Graal smoothly.

[Admins]

Normally a CPU with 300 Mhz is far enough for playing Graal Kingdoms, may be in some treasure caves there can be slowdowns because of several magic effects, but normally there shouldn't be problems with CPUs >=300 Mhz. If there is still a problem with the speed then it must be a slow video card driver.

I have a 300 Mhz CPU overclocked at 450 Mhz, with Riva TNT, and Graal takes ~45% CPU time on outside levels, and 25% CPU time on inside levels.

[Loriel]

Originally posted by busyrobot
IMHO, graphical output should always be slaved to the game engine, never the other way around. So, please please please, please change how this works.

AFAIK, it is absolutely not like this.
At most, the striking events for swords is triggered one frame after the animation begins, and spells are even calculated serverside, so what you see does not matter to the monsters at all.
Now, if you talk about spell charging time, you have a point that it is slower when your comp is going slow, but that is not because of the graphics. EVERYTHING is running slower, including the timer that tells Graal when to fire the spell.

I agree though, it is ridiculous how Graal slows down even on my 1,7GHz, 192MB Ram and 64MB Ram for the GFX card machine, when some spells are there, or the Graal window is not at the default size

[Judge_S]

Originally posted by Stefan
Normally a CPU with 300 Mhz is far enough for playing Graal Kingdoms, may be in some treasure caves there can be slowdowns because of several magic effects, but normally there shouldn't be problems with CPUs >=300 Mhz. If there is still a problem with the speed then it must be a slow video card driver.

I have a 300 Mhz CPU overclocked at 450 Mhz, with Riva TNT, and Graal takes ~45% CPU time on outside levels, and 25% CPU time on inside levels.

You're lucky then. My old computer can barely run GK. I have to have all sound off in order to go anywhere near my top speed (in walking), and even then, it isn't at it's best - any my computer is a 400mhz overclocked to 420. Also with about 416 RAM and a GeForce 2.

[Kaiser2]

My friends comp is better than mine, but he downloads all this crap onto it and it gets all this slowdown loser.