[0.12.20] Smoke Lag Spike

[AnTracius]

Ever since I updated to 0.12 I've been having these weird smoke lag spikes. FPS drops a little bit when faced with furnace smoke, but it drops significantly when over Steam Engines (where I guess the most smoke is). For this reason, I had build my Steam Engines way off my main factory so as to not occasionally meet the significant fps drops and annoying my already less-than-60-fps-gamplay. I'm quite confused how a little bit of smoke animation can cause such a massive FPS drop and I love this game so I went to the trouble of compiling evidence.

I have enclosed a zip folder containing my save file and a few screenshots of FPS comparisons here: https://www.mediafire.com/?8zzk9cyv4gttyak

Specs:

CPU: Intel Celeron N2830, Dual-core 2.16 Ghz (Yes, it's a laptop)
RAM: 4GB
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit (I'm using the 64-bit version of Factorio).

Note: My normal FPS when in the middle of my factory (without or with minimal furnace smoke) is 45-50FPS/60UPS, which is fine for me. But it drops to 10-20FPS when smoke-centered. This lag/bug doesn't happen at all at 0.11, giving me a solid 40-60 FPS all around (with a few drops to 30 here and there).

[Klonan]

You can turn off smoke in Options > Graphics

[AnTracius]

You can turn off smoke in Options > Graphics

I've done so, for now. But I'm still curious as to why smoke was fine pre-0.12 but now anchoring down performance. To be frank, I like the smoke animation. It gives off more impact on pollution and the whole "Factorio" vibe. I'd hate to have it off until I get a new PC. But, I guess FPS>Graphical Features, so I'll just turn it off for now and wait for them to optimize the smoke or until I get a more powerful PC. Still, I prefer the smoke, though.

Thank you for the suggestion.

[Henkdohm]

asdf

[Smarty]

please post pc specs

[AnTracius]

please post pc specs

I did, on the very first post.

[Henkdohm]

asdf

[Ichorio]

Created an account to also comment on this issue.
My factory is quite large, and haven't had a smoke issue at all.
I'd been around my engines before, but the lag spike didn't occur until after I'd save and reentered the world.
Let me elaborate more.
I'd been playing for about 7 hours beforehand.
Working as usual, no lag spikes. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I didn't add any Steam Engines, but I should point out I have to cross near them almost every time I go to my main station, which is quite often.
The save that I'm on now is about 27 hours, and before now, haven't had an issue with lag.
Solid FPS and UPS of 60.
So, after my session last night, I saved and quit, and upon reloading the save, which I should point out, I was near my engines at the time of saving, loading in causes an immediate drop to about 20 fps, give or take 4.

It's such a weird bug, to have only manifested itself now.

If you need the save or more information, don't hesitate.

Computer specs:
Core i5 3570k - 4 Cores @ 3.40 GHz..
16GB ram.
NVidia GTX 560 Ti 448 Edition.

[Ichorio]

Just a quick observation, the steam appears to be moving around a lot.
A quick check of the time taken info, a field called "flip" spikes up a lot.

[Ichorio]

Another update, just discovered that trees cause a massive drop as well.
Right at this moment I'm inside a medium density forest, and my FPS has dropped to 16ish.
There's no pollution nearby, the only thing that's close is a train line.
So, I have no idea how to solve this one...

[Ichorio]

Further testing shows the GPU load skyrocketing from 4% to 99%, and the Bus Interface load from 1% also to 99%, when the spikes occur.

[AnTracius]

Further testing shows the GPU load skyrocketing from 4% to 99%, and the Bus Interface load from 1% also to 99%, when the spikes occur.

Is it possible that the smoke animation is overloading the GPU? It doesn't look very complex (to me) to begin with. I'd imagine the animation takes little to no virtual computation (since it looks pre-rendered. Like a bunch of frames being looped over and over). One would think the sheer size of a factory in motion (conveyor belts, bots, inserters, flame animations, etc.) would stress the GPU more than a couple of steam engines.

[starholme]

I've noticed a lot of lag trouble as well around steam engines/boilers in my factories. I'm forced to disable smoke on my laptop. My desktop has a beefier GPU and seems to be OK on the same save.

Laptop: i7-5600U @ 2.6ghz, 8gb ram, Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit, Intel HD Graphics 5500, running 64 bit factorio v12.20

[AnTracius]

I've noticed a lot of lag trouble as well around steam engines/boilers in my factories. I'm forced to disable smoke on my laptop. My desktop has a beefier GPU and seems to be OK on the same save.

Laptop: i7-5600U @ 2.6ghz, 8gb ram, Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit, Intel HD Graphics 5500, running 64 bit factorio v12.20

That laptop should be fine for simple "smoke" animations, which furthers my suspicion that the current smoke animations are unoptimized.

[Darloth]

I also get smoke lag on a slower computer (4gb ram, 2 core 2.8ghz cpu, geforce 210). I don't recall this happening in earlier versions, but I can't remember for sure... Still happens even in the latest build, so I thought I'd make a post about it.

Turning off smoke or going away from the furnaces removes all the slowdown, but makes it notably less pretty.

I'd appreciate a smoke quality toggle, even something like "off / simple / full".

[Rseding91]

I've noticed a lot of lag trouble as well around steam engines/boilers in my factories. I'm forced to disable smoke on my laptop. My desktop has a beefier GPU and seems to be OK on the same save.

Laptop: i7-5600U @ 2.6ghz, 8gb ram, Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit, Intel HD Graphics 5500, running 64 bit factorio v12.20

That laptop should be fine for simple "smoke" animations, which furthers my suspicion that the current smoke animations are unoptimized.

The smoke animations are simple sprite sheets like virtually every other thing drawn on screen. There's nothing to optimize over a tree, an assembling machine, or a transport belt - they all use the same sprite system.

[orzelek]

I've noticed a lot of lag trouble as well around steam engines/boilers in my factories. I'm forced to disable smoke on my laptop. My desktop has a beefier GPU and seems to be OK on the same save.

Laptop: i7-5600U @ 2.6ghz, 8gb ram, Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit, Intel HD Graphics 5500, running 64 bit factorio v12.20

That laptop should be fine for simple "smoke" animations, which furthers my suspicion that the current smoke animations are unoptimized.

The smoke animations are simple sprite sheets like virtually every other thing drawn on screen. There's nothing to optimize over a tree, an assembling machine, or a transport belt - they all use the same sprite system.

There is a possibility that with smoke on screen your GPU starts running out of VRAM - try to lower graphic details and see if smoke still causes slowdown then. It might be possible to reserve more RAM for VRAM - that would be in BIOS somewhere.

[ShizukaMiyuki]

I've noticed a lot of lag trouble as well around steam engines/boilers in my factories. I'm forced to disable smoke on my laptop. My desktop has a beefier GPU and seems to be OK on the same save.

Laptop: i7-5600U @ 2.6ghz, 8gb ram, Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit, Intel HD Graphics 5500, running 64 bit factorio v12.20

That laptop should be fine for simple "smoke" animations, which furthers my suspicion that the current smoke animations are unoptimized.

The smoke animations are simple sprite sheets like virtually every other thing drawn on screen. There's nothing to optimize over a tree, an assembling machine, or a transport belt - they all use the same sprite system.

Is it possible to see a smoke effect quality option in the near future? like even just for the smokes resolution? the ability to set it High Medium Low None
also I noticed that there's a direction to where the smoke goes, it may be less taxing if there was an option to turn that off, and have the smoke blow of to a pre-rendered 1 direction.

[Rseding91]

Is it possible to see a smoke effect quality option in the near future? like even just for the smokes resolution? the ability to set it High Medium Low None
also I noticed that there's a direction to where the smoke goes, it may be less taxing if there was an option to turn that off, and have the smoke blow of to a pre-rendered 1 direction.

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-84

[Afforess]

I also have been unable to use smoke since the animation was updated in 0.12. I have to disable the smoke option, or my FPS drops from 60 to 10FPS near steam engines or steel furnaces.

Specs:
OS: Ubuntu 15.10 Wily x64
CPU: i7-3770K
GPU: GTX 680 Superclocked, 2GB VRAM
RAM: 16GB 1333 MHZ
Storage: 1TB WD Black HDD

Given my GPU and Processor, there is zero reason I should be experience such massive frame drops with smoke. I can provide a save if desired.