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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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- sounds cool!
  Posted 97 days ago by ☣ elf ☣ | Permalink
- This. Is. Awesome.
  Posted 97 days ago by Addi Bee~♥ | Permalink
- So, what about people with old computers and laptops that don't have graphics cards? still foo'd?
  Posted 97 days ago by Bam-Chikk | Permalink
- I'm not sure what the gfxcardstatus thingy is telling me
  but I've got less fuzzy blue lines around things while playing... my fans are a lot quieter and smcFanControl is at 64-69°C instead of 80-85°C which is what I'm used to when playing Glitch. (normal browsing runs at about 59°C)
  running about in the game also seems to be smoother and faster
  Posted 97 days ago by shhexy corin | Permalink
- oh, ha. being in my house has pushed the temperature up again
  Posted 97 days ago by shhexy corin | Permalink
- shhexy corin: gfxcardstatus lets you force your mac to use the GPU by selecting "Discreet Only". By default it should be "Dynamic Switching", which just means the computer will automatically try to select which graphics card to use.
  Posted 97 days ago by Jort | Permalink
- ok, thanks. I didn't know which one I wanted.
  Posted 97 days ago by shhexy corin | Permalink
- Yay! It does seem to render noticeably better... but I see a 1-2 pixels wide vertical blue line in the middle of my backyard when I move.
  Just to let you know.
  Posted 97 days ago by Ayzad | Permalink
- On the GPU-accelerated version, the water bar doesn't update after I water a herb plot.
  The water bar is full if I reload the browser though.
  Is anybody experiencing the same problem?
  Posted 97 days ago by Pirate Prentice | Permalink
- hm, im on a desktop box and it only uses the bitmap. am I going to die? :-(
  i want all the things....
  system:
  Opteron 1210 CPU 1.8ghz, OC'd to 2.27 ghz
  Nvidea 250 GTS video card
  2gig pc 6400 DDR2 ram
  WinXP Pro
  Posted 97 days ago by ☣ elf ☣ | Permalink
- Oh, and I seem to be able to drag stuff around...
  Posted 97 days ago by Ayzad | Permalink
- None of the minimaps for streets have been loading correctly for me, they are all too small with the extra space filled with random game graphics.
  Posted 97 days ago by Keymo Machine | Permalink
- okay, maybe not so awesome. cross posting from my bug report:
  I am using the GPU render and getting these each time I switch streets. lem.to/p/21Q
  Once I made it to my home street (after getting a flash error) it would not load all of the graphics until I refreshed.
  Okay. Now I am back in my house, trying to remove seeds form an SDB, it grabbed my sdb to move it. I am unable to remove anything. I now cannot see anything on my walls nor can I take a snap to show you what I mean.
  I grabbed a screen shot. I can move, switch floors, but I am invisible as is anything other than my doors/walls/floors. http://imgur.com/cE3S9
  Posted 97 days ago by Addi Bee~♥ | Permalink
- Oh, and I seem to be able to drag stuff around...
  I found that machines seemed to be too-pick-uppable in my home
  Posted 97 days ago by shhexy corin | Permalink
- I definitely cannot remove anything from my SDBs. It gives me the menu, but when I go to choose remove with my mouse... it moves my sdb.
  I went to use keyboard shortcuts to remove seeds, as I typed in the number I wanted to remove, and error box popped up. I tried to type in it, it disappeared and my focus went to this http://imgur.com/QWqgv I am still standing in my living room.
  It thinks I have my sdb "in my hand", ESC does nothing. I have to refresh.
  Posted 97 days ago by Addi Bee~♥ | Permalink
- If you get an initial flash error, it is best to refresh your browser as you'll continue to get more errors that wouldn't normally show up.
  Posted 97 days ago by Jort | Permalink
- I did refresh each time I received an error. After I grabbed screen shots.
  Okay, this time it let me remove seeds using keyboard commands. I still cannot remove anything using my mouse.
  Posted 97 days ago by Addi Bee~♥ | Permalink
- all rugs are little bit "higher" now, so I cant put them where they belongs to...under the table (bed, chair, etc.) :)
  Posted 97 days ago by skera | Permalink
- It's not registering "water" in crop plots for me either.
  Posted 97 days ago by Addi Bee~♥ | Permalink
- There is a very nice speedup on my aging 8800GTX! My CPU is older, an E8500 Core2Duo at 3.16 gHz. The monitor shows a consistent 60FPS on physics and 30FPS on render. Is it locked to refresh multiplier? I went to cebarkul where I'm usually slowed down and jumping was smooth. Moving around my house is smooth now. Before I used to stutter if I ran straight across. The card streets where you collect quoins are smooth now too.
  There are some minor bugs but for the most part this client is running fine for me. Players who came to Cebarkul after I arrived were shown as wireframes and failed to fill in. When planting gardens if you use arrow keys to move between plots, the popup to choose which seeds you're planting doesn't appear. SDBs are working fine for me.
  Posted 97 days ago by Lucille Ball | Permalink
- cool! i've got my Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 right this afternoon!
  Posted 97 days ago by PzSniper | Permalink
- Neat!
  With the GPU acceleration on, when I stand below on the ground and click on the door to my house at the top of the stairs, it does not take me inside.
  Posted 97 days ago by jello's landscaping | Permalink
- Using the new GPU acceleration link to load the game. After restoring an 'expired' garden in my yard:
  www.glitch.com/snaps/PIFLM2...
  After replanting it using the arrow keys, the 'junk' is still on top concealing the replanted garden.
  Posted 97 days ago by Feldspar Gravity | Permalink
- Aquarium and disco ball look really weird. The aquarium stand is moving and the disco ball well... it's hard to describe but definitely not right.
  Posted 97 days ago by Lucille Ball | Permalink
- Le Miserable refused to load for me twice when I used GPU acceleration. Reloading the page didn't help. When I switched back to the regular link Le Miserable worked without any problems.
  Other than that.. glitch does seem to be running faster and smoother on my little laptop :)
  Posted 97 days ago by Annelie | Permalink
- Great work on finding all these bugs! Keep em' coming :).
  Oh, and also please be sure to file bug reports in game too!
  Posted 97 days ago by Jort | Permalink
- In the new GPU client, the watering can and hoe are drawn in front of my character rather than behind. Also reported in-game.
  Posted 97 days ago by Lucille Ball | Permalink
- Gardening with the keyboard in GPU mode plants always the first available seed, skipping the seed-choosing window. Mouse works fine though. (Also reported ingame)
  Posted 97 days ago by Asthner | Permalink
- The first thing I did with the GPU renderer was tend my herb garden and I found two problems.
  1) When I water a plot it doesn't get marked as full. I can water each plot over and over (collecting bonus items) and the blue progress bar doesn't fill up. Everything is fine when I switch back to the regular game.
  2) Once I've started working on a garden I'm unable to change the focus back out to work on something else or to walk around.
  MacBook
  13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008
  Processor 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
  Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB
  Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 (11E53)
  Posted 97 days ago by Anthropocene | Permalink
- Reported this one ingame too. In the regular client my signposts are different and look like this: www.glitch.com/snaps/PHFCUU... After a couple reloads in the GPU client my signs look identical: www.glitch.com/snaps/PHFCUU... If I exit the GPU client and reload they go back to looking the way they do in the normal client, until I reload my street a couple times. It's happened to me on two separate sessions so far.
  Edit: Now we've gone to small/small. :-D I had just logged in, went out of my house to the yard, and there were the funny-looking signs.
  www.glitch.com/snaps/PHFCUU...
  Posted 97 days ago by Lucille Ball | Permalink
- OS - Win7 SP1 (64-bit Ultimate)
  CPU - 3.20 Ghz i7 965
  Mem - 12 GB
  GFX - GTX 480
  Subway train no animation in windows or on floor while moving. (Reported)
  Posted 97 days ago by Nerd of Epic | Permalink
- I like the smaller blue highlight on things. It looks a lot cleaner than the big blue blob.
  Posted 97 days ago by phelps.mike | Permalink
- I'm getting the watering bug too but it's not consistent. I was watering fine in a different session. Reloaded the client and the watered state of patches stopped updating.
  Posted 97 days ago by Lucille Ball | Permalink
- http://lem.to/p/wZjK
  My cherries don't like this. I refreshed. Taken them all out and back in. Hasn't affected any other SDBs.
  Cherries in bags and the floor looks fine.
  Posted 97 days ago by M<3tra, obviously | Permalink
- Here's what I mean by wireframing. It's not people who enter the street as I though before. Some people just stay permanently wireframed. It's handy having a meditating, cubimal racing mob in Cebarkul to stress test this for you.
  This is the normal client in a crowd in Cebarkul. It does take a minute for everyone to load fully and the wireframes to go away.
  www.glitch.com/snaps/PHFCUU...
  This is the GPU client in a crowd in Cebarkul, given a generous 15 minutes to load everything.
  www.glitch.com/snaps/PHFCUU...
  Amusingly, I am one of the wireframes. I've never had my own character fail to load.
  www.glitch.com/snaps/PHFCUU...
  Posted 97 days ago by Lucille Ball | Permalink
- Does this mean we are close to unlocking scaling?
  Posted 97 days ago by Sturminator IX | Permalink
- Er... no.
  I just restored a 2x2 produce garden, and it (graphically) became a 15x one!
  Also, the vertical blue line is in fact on every "slice" of my home (corresponding to the various Expansions)
  Posted 97 days ago by Ayzad | Permalink
- I must say, that my system is pure suck. I haven't been able to actually load the game fully on my computer since it was it's first release (and even then it was extremely slow). IF it gets to "reticulating splines", it dies soon after that loader bar starts.
  I wasn't expecting results, but you might be happy to know that I tried loading the GPU version of the game and I actually got through all of the loading bars without freezing. I only lost connection with the game when it tried to actually render the street, and that even I think was because my wireless internet dies when my CPU Usage runs too high.
  I did notice a large difference though, toward the better. Just thought you'd like to know ^_^
  Posted 97 days ago by Kaelyn Renai | Permalink
- Zooming in and out in my house gives me vertical lines at the wallpaper alignment grid about 30% of the time. I REQUIRE A FULL REFUND. :D
  Posted 97 days ago by phlavor | Permalink
- I can't get Le Miserable to load at all...it gets to 100% and just hangs there. I'll try a few more times and see if I can bug it. But the rest is working great (except for those pesky gardens)
  Here is the error:
  [UncaughtErrorEvent type="uncaughtError" bubbles=true cancelable=true eventPhase=2]
  ArgumentError: Error #3683: Texture too big (max is 2048x2048).
  at flash.display3D::Context3D/createTexture()
  at starling.textures::Texture$/fromBitmapData():134
  at GPUDecoView$/drawAndAddTexture():98
  at GPUDecoView$/fromDecoRenderer():138
  at GPULayerView$/copyAndIndexDeco():283
  at GPULayerView$/addDecosFromLayerRenderer():259
  at GPULayerView$/buildGPULayerView():144
  at GPUMiddleGroundView$/fromMiddleGroundRenderer():730
  at GPULocationView$/fromLocationView():185
  at UploadLocationViewToGPUCmd/uploadLocationView():36
  at org.osflash.signals::Slot/execute()
  at org.osflash.signals::OnceSignal/dispatch()
  at StarlingContext/onSceneRootInitialized():114
  at org.osflash.signals::Slot/execute()
  at org.osflash.signals::OnceSignal/dispatch()
  at SceneRoot/onAddedToStage():20
  at starling.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent():116
  at starling.display::DisplayObject/dispatchEvent():316
  at starling.display::DisplayObjectContainer/broadcastEvent():354
  at starling.display::DisplayObjectContainer/broadcastEventWith():364
  at starling.display::DisplayObjectContainer/addChildAt():121
  at starling.core::Starling/initializeRoot():251
  at starling.core::Starling/onContextCreated():366
  Posted 97 days ago by phelps.mike | Permalink
- Blue outlines around objects look weird in GPU, win7, Chrome.
  Best example I could give:
  img.photobucket.com/albums/...
  Posted 97 days ago by Edamame | Permalink
- Decorating my house is just silly, lol. First I got a flashing screen. Now I'm out of Decorate mode and all I see is white. Tried taking a picture and it went to normal, except now I don't see my Glitch...
  Oh, and all the glitches happened when trying to change my wallpaper style.
  Posted 97 days ago by Zoisite | Permalink
- I'm noticing I get reticulating spines loading twice so changing locations is taking longer, however generally I am having a much better time in game in that as yet I have had only one God disconnect whereas earlier it was happening every 30 mins or so.
  Posted 97 days ago by Faereluth | Permalink
- When I tried to remove some of my Wine of the Dead from my SDB in my house, it wouldn't let me. When my mouse goes up to click on the word, it moves the SDB as well. Also, my yellow and silvertongue look different in SDBs. Thanks!
  Posted 97 days ago by kat65 | Permalink
- Reported in game: I'm using the GPU thingummy to try it out. I"m planting herbs, and have two types of seeds in my bags. I don't have any way to choose which gets planted. I have rubeweed and yellowcrumb, but can only plant rubeweed.
  Posted 97 days ago by glassy | Permalink
- I can second glassy's report. I confirmed the bitmap render version of the client doesn't have this.
  Posted 97 days ago by Sturminator IX | Permalink
- Indeed! We're aware of the lack of seed selection when using your keyboard to select plots the GPU (clicking on a plot should bring it up as expected). Looking into it!
  Posted 97 days ago by MrConkin | Permalink
- I'm getting the same thing as the above two Glitchen. Clicking with the mouse still brings up the dialog for me.
  I thought it was some kind of awesome update, because I only had one kind of seed in my bag. I figured it just skipped the dialog now if you only had one kind on you.
  Posted 97 days ago by a lifted pixel | Permalink
- Feels quite better so far, thanks for working on this!
  Posted 97 days ago by Lemo | Permalink
- Uh found one problem, Ladder to Groddle is invisible
  Another: Sign post on dead end street
  Posted 97 days ago by Cuku the Wanderer ☭ | Permalink

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