TGEA 1.8.1 Now Available
by Alex Scarborough · 02/09/2009 (5:00 pm) · 80 comments
I'm pleased to announce that TGEA 1.8.1 has been released and can be downloaded right now! In our internal testing it's approximately 50% faster than TGEA 1.8.0 and with over 50 resolved issues is significantly more robust as well.
In brief, TGEA 1.8.1 is the best engine we've ever released, and we're thrilled with it. Check out the results we found on two of our most popular engines. A couple things to note before you look at the graphs:
Here's what we found on T3D: big increases all around!
Forge is pretty high-end, but we increased PC-end performance while maintaining frame rates for the Mac.
This release wouldn't have been possible without the community's well written bug reports. Almost every issue resolved in 1.8.1 was brought up by the community. Even though we're done working on TGEA 1.8.1, we're not done making TGEA and Torque 3D even better. Please keep on reporting issues in the TGEA private forums, and we'll try to keep on top of them and ensure that they're resolved. But for now, here's a high-five for you.
It's been a blast working on this release, but it's back to R&D for me. You've already seen some of the R&D work we've done with GFX2 and Brett's posts on Torque 3D, and you'll be even more impressed by what else we have in store :).
Until next time, enjoy TGEA 1.8.1!
In brief, TGEA 1.8.1 is the best engine we've ever released, and we're thrilled with it. Check out the results we found on two of our most popular engines. A couple things to note before you look at the graphs:
- PC Specs: 2.40 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce 8600M GT w/256 MB VRAM
- Mac Specs: 2.40 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, ATI Radeon HD 2600 w/256 MB VRAM
- We did not include Mac info for TGEA 1.7.1 because 1.7.1 was Windows-only.
Here's what we found on T3D: big increases all around!
Forge is pretty high-end, but we increased PC-end performance while maintaining frame rates for the Mac.
This release wouldn't have been possible without the community's well written bug reports. Almost every issue resolved in 1.8.1 was brought up by the community. Even though we're done working on TGEA 1.8.1, we're not done making TGEA and Torque 3D even better. Please keep on reporting issues in the TGEA private forums, and we'll try to keep on top of them and ensure that they're resolved. But for now, here's a high-five for you.
It's been a blast working on this release, but it's back to R&D for me. You've already seen some of the R&D work we've done with GFX2 and Brett's posts on Torque 3D, and you'll be even more impressed by what else we have in store :).
Until next time, enjoy TGEA 1.8.1!
About the author
#22
Holy crap! What kind of hardware do you have? I've got an 8800 GTS (640mb) and I don't often break 100fps on Forge.
02/10/2009 (1:07 am)
@Jason:Quote:Nice! forge demo went from 188fps to 256 fps on my machine.
Holy crap! What kind of hardware do you have? I've got an 8800 GTS (640mb) and I don't often break 100fps on Forge.
#23
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
02/10/2009 (1:25 am)
It works well for the most parts, but I still have issues :- new : thin gray box line around my GUI bitmaps
- billboards : some doesn't renders well on Mac, but were and are OK on Windows
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
#24
02/10/2009 (2:31 am)
Yay!... Great job you guys! 
#25
02/10/2009 (3:07 am)
great job... especially on the performance!!
#26
02/10/2009 (3:16 am)
Anyone can execute a dedicated server in TGEA 1.8.1? i get a crash on mission load. 
#27
02/10/2009 (5:50 am)
fantastic perforamce update, my game runs faster than previos 1.8.0 (1.8.0 - 26fps, 1.8.1 - 44fps at same place) 
#28
02/10/2009 (6:47 am)
Hey this is great news.....however right now we are using TGEA 1.7.1 with afx and I don't know if I should switch to 1.8.1 (assuming Jeff is working very hard, as he always does, to get afx into 1.8.1) OR wait till Torque3D comes out? Obviously as the chart indicates, top of the blog, T3D crushes everything on performance. I know GG never indicates a date when they will release their engines but how about an estimate? Will it be spring of 09, summer of 09? winter of 09 or maybe 2010? You could even say something like "At the end of the year, 2009". This would help in deciding what to do. Thx and Good Job with 1.8.1 :-) 
#29
Other than that great work guys.
02/10/2009 (6:48 am)
Just a thought, for benchmarking purposes the same system should be used with boot camp so that spec are identical. Comparing ATI and Nvidia under the systems is a VERY long way from comparing apples to apples "no pun intended".Other than that great work guys.
#30
unlikely as people would stop buying the existing product. Just the way of the world I guess. but if I had to guess I would say 6-8 months tops.
02/10/2009 (6:51 am)
Quote:Hey this is great news.....however right now we are using TGEA 1.7.1 with afx and I don't know if I should switch to 1.8.1 (assuming Jeff is working very hard, as he always does, to get afx into 1.8.1) OR wait till Torque3D comes out? Obviously as the chart indicates, top of the blog, T3D crushes everything on performance. I know GG never indicates a date when they will release their engines but how about an estimate? Will it be spring of 09, summer of 09? winter of 09 or maybe 2010? You could even say something like "At the end of the year, 2009". This would help in deciding what to do. Thx and Good Job with 1.8.1 :-)
unlikely as people would stop buying the existing product. Just the way of the world I guess. but if I had to guess I would say 6-8 months tops.
#31
Are you confusing T3D with Torque 3D? I believe the T3D in the chart is the T3D sample application that ships with TGEA.
02/10/2009 (7:18 am)
Quote:Hey this is great news.....however right now we are using TGEA 1.7.1 with afx and I don't know if I should switch to 1.8.1 (assuming Jeff is working very hard, as he always does, to get afx into 1.8.1) OR wait till Torque3D comes out? Obviously as the chart indicates, top of the blog, T3D crushes everything on performance.
Are you confusing T3D with Torque 3D? I believe the T3D in the chart is the T3D sample application that ships with TGEA.
#32
Off the top of my head I'd say that my only gripe is that emissive is better in 1.7.1, doesn't seem to reall work much since the Mac code moved in (but I'll forgive you!).
Well done chaps.
02/10/2009 (8:04 am)
And after a quick port of my current custom level, performance is noticeably better in general with some really big improvements when I use my highest and lowest settings. And my billboards work which is always a bonus.Off the top of my head I'd say that my only gripe is that emissive is better in 1.7.1, doesn't seem to reall work much since the Mac code moved in (but I'll forgive you!).
Well done chaps.
#33
the thin grey lines :
They appear around the green GUI bitmap in the upper left corner. This artifact appear on fullscreen only. It doesn't appear after the first launch. It appears one the second session in the mission (and the second time the home is displayed, it shows the same default on overlay bitmap elements)
the problem with billboard :
TGEA 1.8.0 on windows (in VMWare Fusion !)
TGEA 1.8.0 on Mac
TGEA 1.8.1 on Mac
As you can see on the 3rd image, the tentacles around the virus doesn't display correctly (see Windows image for correct version).
And, between the 1.8.0 Mac version, and the 1.8.1 Mac version, I loose the central kernel billboard, inside the virus, and the small orange balls around the virus too.
The tentacles and the kernel are billboard.
the application crash at start in fullscreen :
Last thing, when I try to start the application in fullscreen mode on Mac, it hangs (bit doesn't crash). I just get a black screen and I have to do a "force quit". here is the crash report (it seems the app is always stuck in "GFXDrawUtil::drawBitmapStretchSR" method) :
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
02/10/2009 (8:48 am)
Here are the promised screenshots : the thin grey lines :
They appear around the green GUI bitmap in the upper left corner. This artifact appear on fullscreen only. It doesn't appear after the first launch. It appears one the second session in the mission (and the second time the home is displayed, it shows the same default on overlay bitmap elements)
the problem with billboard :
TGEA 1.8.0 on windows (in VMWare Fusion !)
TGEA 1.8.0 on Mac
TGEA 1.8.1 on Mac
As you can see on the 3rd image, the tentacles around the virus doesn't display correctly (see Windows image for correct version).
And, between the 1.8.0 Mac version, and the 1.8.1 Mac version, I loose the central kernel billboard, inside the virus, and the small orange balls around the virus too.
The tentacles and the kernel are billboard.
the application crash at start in fullscreen :
Last thing, when I try to start the application in fullscreen mode on Mac, it hangs (bit doesn't crash). I just get a black screen and I have to do a "force quit". here is the crash report (it seems the app is always stuck in "GFXDrawUtil::drawBitmapStretchSR" method) :
Date/Time: 2009-02-10 17:13:56.382 +0100 OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.6 (9G55) Report Version: 6 Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS) Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x0000000000000000 Crashed Thread: 0 Thread 0 Crashed: 0 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x0011069f GFXDrawUtil::drawBitmapStretchSR(GFXTextureObject*, RectF const&, RectF const&, GFXBitmapFlip, GFXTextureFilterType, bool) + 343 (mPoint3.h:417) 1 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x00110adc GFXDrawUtil::drawBitmapStretch(GFXTextureObject*, RectF const&, GFXBitmapFlip, GFXTextureFilterType, bool) + 112 (gfxDrawUtil.cpp:328) 2 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x00110b58 GFXDrawUtil::drawBitmapStretch(GFXTextureObject*, RectI const&, GFXBitmapFlip, GFXTextureFilterType, bool) + 112 (gfxDrawUtil.cpp:299) 3 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x0019d5ef GuiChunkedBitmapCtrl::onRender(Point2I, RectI const&) + 117 (mPoint2.h:231) 4 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x0017fdec GuiCanvas::renderFrame(bool, bool) + 1460 (guiCanvas.cpp:1479) 5 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x0017d47c GuiCanvas::handlePaintEvent(unsigned int) + 36 (guiCanvas.cpp:202) 6 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x001815ba Signal<void ()(unsigned int)>::trigger(unsigned int) + 36 (tSignal.h:353) 7 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x00181541 void Journal::Call<Signal<void ()(unsigned int)>, unsigned int>(Signal<void ()(unsigned int)>*, void (Signal<void ()(unsigned int)>::*)(unsigned int), unsigned int) + 151 8 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x0017eb01 GuiCanvas::paint() + 113 (guiCanvas.cpp:1311) 9 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x00012970 Signal<void ()()>::trigger() + 28 (tSignal.h:337) 10 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x000fb93c Process::processEvents() + 22 (process.cpp:53) 11 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x0009a8e9 StandardMainLoop::doMainLoop() + 351 (mainLoop.cpp:468) 12 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x00251c47 -[MainLoopTimerHandler fireTimer:] + 23 (macMain.mm:36) 13 com.apple.Foundation 0x91063ea7 __NSFireTimer + 279 14 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x92ffdb25 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 4469 15 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x92ffdcd8 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 88 16 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x95f782c0 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 283 17 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x95f780d9 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 374 18 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x95f77f4d BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 106 19 com.apple.AppKit 0x901dad7d _DPSNextEvent + 657 20 com.apple.AppKit 0x901da630 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128 21 com.apple.AppKit 0x901d366b -[NSApplication run] + 795 22 com.apple.AppKit 0x901a08a4 NSApplicationMain + 574 23 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x00251def main + 137 (macMain.mm:82) 24 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x000024c2 _start + 216 25 com.garagegames.demo_medic 0x000023e9 start + 4
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
#34
Do we not get notifications on new posts anymore?
02/10/2009 (9:15 am)
Oops, I totally read that chart wrong, that's me thinking without my cup of brew first thing in the morning. I thought at first glance the first chart was to show off their new Torque3D engine and the Forge chart was the current 1.8.1 chart. But yes, I realize now it was the two demos that comes shipped. My mistake.Do we not get notifications on new posts anymore?
#35
02/10/2009 (12:44 pm)
I hope the GG development team receives an increase in natural dopamine in their brains for this great accomplishment! 
#36
02/10/2009 (1:31 pm)
Very nice. I just got my new iMac today, and after the preliminary setup the first thing I wanted to do was see Torque run on it... so I downloaded the Forge Demo, fired it up, and performance is superb. The only problem I see is the shadows don't seem to be in sync with the guy. Odd.
#37
02/10/2009 (1:39 pm)
Nice work, Alex! I'm excited to see what you come up with next. :) 
#38
I am thinking if he is using the metrics(fps) there may a slight issue with it. Both FRAPS and the metrics(fps) return on average 150-160fps for me, but the MAX returned by metrics(fps) shows about 250. The 150-160 is more accurate, I may have reached 250 when the program first started but no way while running..
Oh, running 2 - Overclocked GTX-280s.... 1GB each....
02/10/2009 (2:34 pm)
@BrettQuote:
Holy crap! What kind of hardware do you have? I've got an 8800 GTS (640mb) and I don't often break 100fps on Forge.
I am thinking if he is using the metrics(fps) there may a slight issue with it. Both FRAPS and the metrics(fps) return on average 150-160fps for me, but the MAX returned by metrics(fps) shows about 250. The 150-160 is more accurate, I may have reached 250 when the program first started but no way while running..
Oh, running 2 - Overclocked GTX-280s.... 1GB each....
#39
Any how any help as to what I should do is appreciated.
02/10/2009 (2:44 pm)
Ok stupid question time. I'm having the same problem as Syn was on his comment here. My question is I'm running Vista and DX 10 so downloading dx9 runtime doesn't sound like a great idea to me. I'm guessing TGEA 1.81 still doesn't support DX10? Should I revert back to DX 9 then? Funny thing is TGEA 1.7.1 was working alright with DX10.Any how any help as to what I should do is appreciated.
#40
02/10/2009 (2:46 pm)
The problem is that the newer DX SDK's do not allow redistribution of that DLL, though the runtimes all include it or have since last March, I believe. I believe that the DX 10 runtime updates also include it for compatibility, though I'm unsure on that.
Torque 3D Owner Jason Nabors