"Doesn't support indexed blended animation" + Vista problem

[Joe M.]

Hey Karl,

First, Vista:
the debug logs weren't showing up until I turned off User Access Control (the annoying thing that pops up "are you sure you want to do this?" messages every few seconds)--Vista wasn't allowing any editing of the directory in Program Files; I couldn't even edit the config.ini file directly--I had to copy it to the desktop where my computer would allow me to change it. I don't know if you can work around this, but I thought you'd like to know.

Second,
I've been having some pretty bad lag, and though I tend to blame my University's network, I also noticed this in the debug log:
"This computer's hardware doesn't support indexed blended animation; using software device to compensate"

Doesn't seem good. My computer is a new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which seems to be using "Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family" for its graphics. So is this a natural result of my computer's incapability, or is this Evidyon not playing nice? It seems that a new laptop shouldn't have such difficulties, but I didn't exactly purchase the thing for gaming, so.

Here's the debug log:

.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "Startup"
.\acquiregraphics.cpp(103): [INFO] Using "Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family"
.\acquiregraphics.cpp(177): [WARNING] This computer's hardware doesn't support indexed blended animation; using software device to compensate
.\acquireresources.cpp(95): [INFO] TODO: Make sure the media file is the correct type
.\acquireresources.cpp(953): [INFO] Max vetex blend matrices: 4
.\acquireresources.cpp(954): [INFO] Max vertex blend matrix index: 255
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 0 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 0 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 0 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 1 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 1 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 2 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 3 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 3 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 3 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 4 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 4 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 5 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 5 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 6 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 6 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 7 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 7 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 8 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\acquireresources.cpp(1022): [INFO] Rendering mesh 8 / 9 >> texture group 0 / 1 >> in software
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "Connect"
.\stateconnect.cpp(142): [INFO] Connection to poorserver.no-ip.org succeeded!
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "Account Login"
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "Logged Into Account"
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "World - Main"
.\stateworldmain.cpp(52): [WARNING] Clearing effect visualizations might cause memory leaks...
.\stateworldmain.cpp(611): [INFO] NETMSG_UPDATEYOURACTIVEPARTITION: 0 actors removed, 1 left
..\common\decodeserverpackets.cpp(745): [INFO] Receiving item 85
..\common\decodeserverpackets.cpp(745): [INFO] Receiving item 9
..\common\decodeserverpackets.cpp(745): [INFO] Receiving item 53
..\common\decodeserverpackets.cpp(745): [INFO] Receiving item 31
..\common\decodeserverpackets.cpp(745): [INFO] Receiving item 85
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 82205] : 'Winking At Lillian' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 82205] : 'Winking At Lillian' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 78055] : 'You Sire, got PKED!:o' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 1 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 66 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 99 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 75019] : 'kelchy' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 67 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 80178] : 'Hatebreed' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 67 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 69 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 8 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 81803] : 'Beetle Juice' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 66 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 80018] : '' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 5 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 71 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 77957] : 'dark nakills' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 1 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 5 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 7 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(611): [INFO] NETMSG_UPDATEYOURACTIVEPARTITION: 0 actors removed, 7 left
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 80496] : 'Pinky' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 87 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 80496] : 'Pinky' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 87 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 82031] : 'Rampage' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 1 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 5 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 7 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 80496] : 'Pinky' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 87 visible
.\stateworldmain.cpp(322): [INFO] [actor 80496] : 'Pinky' telling actor description
.\stateworldmain.cpp(342): [INFO] Item 87 visible
.\volucrisguieffectkeybindinglist.cpp(248): [INFO] Showing 6 effects in key binding screen!
.\stateworldmain.cpp(526): [INFO] Leave world confirmed
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "Logged Into Account"
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "Disconnect"
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "No Connection"
.\volucrisclient.cpp(51): [INFO] Executing state "Shutdown"

Best,
Joe

P.S. I do have the latest drivers from Intel.

[Karl G.]

Hi Joe,

So that's what's causing the Vista bug! I don't have Vista so I can't test the game on it.

As far as the indexed blended animation thing goes, this is Direct3D telling Evidyon "the hardware can't do what you want, so bug off and do it yourself". There's a little history here.

It used to be that the Direct3D built-in "pipeline" for graphics rendering, which is nice and standardized, was well-supported on hardware and graphics card manufacturers kept making better cards to implement this pipeline. Shift forward several years, and shaders--essentially specialty programs that run directly on the graphics card without the CPU doing anything at all--have pretty much taken over. They are better than the standard pipeline: far faster, more flexible, etc.

I want Evidyon to support hold hardware, so I figured "hey, let's go with the older way of doing things since the new cards should all support this basic stuff, right?" But what I didn't count on is that some new cards have started completely dropping support for standard parts of Direct3D that they, in their infinite wisdom, have decided are antiquated. So we end up with a nice little conundrum: supporting old hardware forces new hardware to downgrade itself, supporting new hardware completely prevents old hardware from working at all.

That's the stage I'm at with this stuff, and it's probably a lot more than you wanted to know It is likely that the lag is due to this issue--rendering in software is definitely not fast. I'm going to be supporting new hardware in the future, but for now I'd like to add more game features first.

[thadiusofx3]

That's why mine worked, because i have UAC (yuck!) turned off

[hydroxide]

Humm wierd that you are having trouble using it on vista. I only run evidyon on my laptop(which has vista) and it runs fine.

[thadiusofx3]

volucrisguieffectkeybindinglist.cpp

love that name

[Karl G.]

Haha I forgot you guys could see the names of the source files in the debug log. I've got some other pretty good ones, such as

evidyonguisideiconselement.cpp
volucrisguistatdisplay.cpp

and the epic:
omnidirectionaltargetprojectiledeliveryeffect.cpp (from the world editor)

[Joe M.]

Humm wierd that you are having trouble using it on vista. I only run evidyon on my laptop(which has vista) and it runs fine.

The game will start and it will "play," but the lag's so bad it's pretty much unusable. That seems to be a hardware rather than a software issue. Thanks for the detailed reply Karl! I appreciate the information and (of course) fully support your goal of content > compatibility (for now, at least ...).

I mentioned Vista because I noticed that UAC wasn't allowing Evidyon to create the debug logs (and maybe perform other actions on its own directory--seems a pretty stupid restriction if you ask me, but that's Vista).