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#### [Updated] CPU Renderer testing concluded for now - thanks for testing!

We're working on a new way to draw stuff to screen in the hopes that those of you with older computers will experience a performance boost. The new "GPU Renderer" works very well for computers which have an older CPU, but have a decent graphics card (NVIDIA or ATI chipset from 2008 and on).
The GPU renderer is still in its infancy, so we're asking anyone who is able to test it out and report any issues/bugs. If you're interested in helping, please use this URL to play the game:
[url removed — test is over]
(Please note that we are aware the blue glow around items looks slightly different.)
If your computer isn't capable of using the GPU renderer, it will safely fall back to the normal "Bitmap Renderer". Also, you can hold "Q" and press "P" to bring up a performance chart that will tell you which renderer you're using.
Some useful stuff we found in our performance tests:
* The GPU renderer seems to benefit people running Windows the most.
* Laptops can experience poor GPU performance if they are unplugged.
* Macbook Pros will sometimes have trouble turning on their GPU (check out this cool utility for manually enabling your GPU: codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus).
* Macbook Airs can't take advantage of GPU acceleration... Yet.
Thanks for helping us improve Glitch!

Posted 97 days ago by Jort | Permalink

### Replies

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- My impression after trying the GPU client is that on my hardware, it offered no performance benefit over the bitmap client despite a very fast GPU. However, while initially responsive, lag reached unusable levels much faster than with the bitmap client. I estimate 20 minutes from initial load to almost complete unusability. I'm guessing the problem is Flash leaking memory like a sieve.
  Hardware:
  AMD AthlonII CPU, 6x3.2GHz cores, Thuban microarchitecture
  16GB interleaved PC1600 DDR3 RAM
  nVidia GTX560Ti Fermi GPU, 1GB GDDR5, 900MHz clock
  Software:
  Windows 7 Pro x64
  Firefox 15.0.1
  Flash 11.4 r402, build 11.4.402.265
  Posted 94 days ago by Alaric | Permalink
- Oddly for me it's horribly slow, 1-2 fps at best if I were to guess (and the reticulating stage takes four or more times as long as usual). Regular mode works smooth as ever (I hardly ever lag badly on that.)
  Linux: Opensuse 12.1
  AMD Athlon 7750 Dual-Core (2x2.700GHz)
  NVIDIA Geforce 9500GT (official drivers installed)
  2GB memory (what type? I dunno for sure)
  Posted 93 days ago by San Serif | Permalink
- Found this quote from NY.Times.com article.
  pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/200...
  This is a quote from someone named Alex. It seemed to make more sense to me about what a memory leak may be.
  "Why Do Adobe Flash Videos Slow Down?"
  "Memory leaks originate during programming. The programmer allocates memory to do something (store temporary data), but then does not mark it as “free” when it is no longer needed. This results in the program consuming more and more memory the longer it “lives”, causing slowdowns as less memory becomes available to the OS and other programs.
  Imagine a moviegoer walking up and down the aisles putting down articles of clothing to “save” seats for his friends, then sitting down and neglecting to notify anyone that his friends were no longer coming."
  — Alex
  Posted 93 days ago by bayBi | Permalink
- I'm experiencing the same performance issues as Alaric- initially speedy, quickly 15-20 minutes) dragging down to sludge and a need to reload.
  Hardware
  Intel Core 2
  1.87 Ghz 2GB
  SOftware
  Windows XP
  Chrome
  Firefox 11.3.3.3 ( latest version does not get along with Chrome)
  standard Intel Graphic media accelerator
  Posted 93 days ago by caley dunn | Permalink
- Tried on Chrome Linux 32bit. With both Flash plugins - with pepper and standard it shows "bitmap" rendering. Is GPU renderer still not turned on for linux?
  i3-530, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA 560ti 304.43
  Debian Squeeze 6.0.5 BigMem
  Posted 93 days ago by Lilla My | Permalink
- flash crashed on me, which has not happened to me in a long time, if at all. I don't know if it is attributed to the renderer or something else, but it might be worth looking into.
  Posted 93 days ago by >^.^< | Permalink
- Wow. So I've been using this new renderer for a few hours, and everything is much slower than I'm used to. Not sure if that was supposed to happen or not, but there ya go. I'm switching back to the normal mode to see if logging in that way makes a difference.
  Thanks
  Posted 93 days ago by Gordon Lughsen | Permalink
- @bayBi glch yeah that's precisely the feeling I had
  would be cool to do something for the memory too :]
  Posted 93 days ago by Lemo | Permalink
- SmOOOOth sailing for me! Yay! thanks for this new rendering system, Now I can play lag-free (and heat&noise-free) on my Macbook air (late 2010).
  Core 2 duo 1.86ghz
  2gb ram
  NVIDIA Geforce 320M 256MB
  There are bits of issues like the SDB menus not functioning right or the appearing vertical lines when zooming in and out.
  But, boy oh boy, is this the way to go! There is a very big performance difference for me.
  Also, curiously
  "* Macbook Airs can't take advantage of GPU acceleration... Yet."
  Is my Macbook Air 13'' an exception? Or is the GPU acceleration on the other machines far superior than mine?
  Posted 93 days ago by Berke | Permalink
- Berke: The 2011 and 2012 Airs use Intel HD Graphics processors which can cause some issues. Seems the 2010s use NVIDIA. Glad to hear it helped :)
  Posted 93 days ago by Jort | Permalink
- I have a badass computer and this actually seems to run worse on it! ><
  Hackintosh:
  Mountain Lion 10.8.1
  Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
  CPU: i5-2500K
  GPU: Radeon 6670
  RAM: 16 gigs
  HDD: OCZ Vertex 3 SSD
  Posted 93 days ago by Serra | Permalink
- Serra: Does it perform poorly in different web browsers? What version of flash are you using? Finally, what kind of frame rate are you getting in the performance graph? Thanks for your feedback!
  You can check your flash version here: http://playerversion.com/
  Posted 93 days ago by Jort | Permalink
- Not sure if this is related to the renderer or not:
  I decided to give this a try tonight. Notice "some" improvement, however after 10 or so streets I am getting a similar slow reaction time (glitch movement vs when i press keyboard or mouse is delayed)
  But besides that I noticed on some home streets backwards barnacles see here
  Posted 93 days ago by Gadzooks | Permalink
- Man!! I haven't seen splines reticulate that fast since..... well, it's been awhile now. Woot!
  :)
  Posted 93 days ago by Truly Scrumptious | Permalink
- Jort: My flash is "MAC 11,4,402,265". I used to use Chrome all of the time, but have switched to using Firefox now for a couple of reasons. Flash does way better in Firefox than it does Chrome, the regular game runs fine, but this new rendering thing seems feh.
  I'll check out the framerate and let you know. I know that Hackintosh is a whole 'nother beast, but it's probably nice to know how it does, yes? :P
  Edit: Here is a pic with the fps and stuff- oh.what-the-fuck.me/2SMB
  Posted 93 days ago by Serra | Permalink
- Core 17
  6 GB DDR3
  1000W PSU
  GTX 680
  Playing with Firefox 15.0.1, well... GPU mode its faster and better BUT it suck up too much ram, after 30 mins of play plugincontainer.exe process take over 1gb o ram!
  This slow down entire game, and i need to close and reopen Firefox.
  Posted 93 days ago by PzSniper | Permalink
- Haven't even noticed an initial speed-up over bitmap; and it reticulates splines twice, both times taking a good 3-4 minutes each time. Dunno if it's supposed to, but I never saw it do that before. Consequently, changing streets is a massive pain in my hindquarters. The game itself seems as slow as it ever has.
  ETA - Scratch that- slower. Took me about 10 minutes before it was nearly impossible to do anything.
  Toshiba Satellite L305
  Windows Vista 64
  Chrome 22.0.1229.39 (Official Build 155327)
  Flash 11.3.31.318
  Intel Pentium Dual T3400 @2.16Ghz
  4 Gb RAM
  Posted 93 days ago by Djabriil | Permalink
- Works fine for me!
  MacBook Pro 15" 8GB
  OSX 10.7.4
  2 Ghz Intel Core i7
  AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB
  Firefox 15.0.1
  Posted 93 days ago by Kip Konner | Permalink
- Well, I cannot enter Ganos Lucidum at all while rendering on GPU mode.
  I get this error every time! It's a reload loop.
  [UncaughtErrorEvent type="uncaughtError" bubbles=true cancelable=true eventPhase=2]
  Error: Error #3691
  I guess I need to go to another street on cpu render, and then avoid this Ganos Lucidum like it's the Gates of Lucifer.
  (also reported this as a bug)
  Posted 92 days ago by Berke | Permalink
- When doing the Greedy Street Spirit using this link I can only walk up and down. At the end it says something about having missed the story. Reloading didn't help. But when I then entered the game using the normal enter world button I had the red and grey buttons to read and forward the story
  Posted 92 days ago by IrenicRhonda | Permalink
- I'm getting black squared placeholders with the GPU renderer
  This can actually stay up quite a while with lazy connections like mine
  lem.to/p/9QfP
  Posted 92 days ago by Lemo | Permalink
- Everything is moving much better. However I find that I can't feed the batterflys in Liminskie even when they collide with my glitch.
  Posted 91 days ago by Jo Jo Ruffledspouse | Permalink
- Can we please stop calling it the "GPU renderer" and start referring to it by its real name, The Spline Reticulator?
  Posted 91 days ago by richi | Permalink
- i actually attempted to run the game with this new graphics engine on my asus transformer tablet... no go sadly, but the other engine works alright... after maybe 15 mins or so it freezes my browser :( but thats cool... not complaining, just offering my experience to the devs.
  Posted 91 days ago by lahutchi | Permalink
- BUG - I am mining and I notice even if there are no rocks to mine and I press enter (even in spots where no rocks usually reside) that it brings up the mine option.
  Posted 91 days ago by Couper | Permalink
- *crosses fingers, says a prayer*
  Posted 91 days ago by Hab | Permalink
- Nope. Dangnabbit. I was hoping. If anything, it is worse by about 25-30%. I suspect it is an issue with my computer as Glitch is not the only thing that is sooooo slooooooow. Have gone through Windows forums etc, spending a lot of time troubleshooting and running programs to figure out what it is without any results - can't afford a tech right now, but hopefully soon. Well, it was definitely worth a try! Thanks guys for offering up an option that may help those of us with older computers! :)
  Posted 91 days ago by Hab | Permalink
- Hi - I and others are getting a blank white screen when we try to open the page. This is the first time I've tried to use it so I'm not sure what's going on.
  Posted 88 days ago by diaveborn ♥ | Permalink
- Hi. I've really been enjoying the GPU and think it has helped. Today I got a blank white screen when I clicked the link on the first page (which has always worked before). I hope it will still work. I got in the "regular way" but had much more lag.
  Posted 88 days ago by MontytheGeek | Permalink
- I just tried the "new" way by clicking link on the first page of this post and received a blank white screen. I opened a new page and went back to the bookmarked link of the "old" way and everything was fine. Guess my computer is not in need of the new bells and whistles.
  Posted 88 days ago by Holly Waterfall | Permalink
- This used to work fine for me..I sorta liked it..I don't know if it was my imagination but dragging things around was so much easier...But now..I get the blank white screen.. :-/
  Posted 88 days ago by Cryztal | Permalink
- Sorry we were slow to update this: the test has concluded and the GPU renderer is not available any more. Thanks for all the help and reports!
  Posted 88 days ago by stoot barfield | Permalink

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