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Using LOD 1 & 2 on PCs with small VRAM
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 00:53 | Message # 61 |
 Cosmic Curator
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| bric-out, if you want to improve performance you'll need to set a larger value than your amount of VRAM. Otherwise it is not going to be any better than using everything set to true. However I don't know how much of an improvement you will be able to get since you have 32-bit Windows, so you are limited to 4 GB of total memory (in this case, 1.25 GB VRAM and 2.75 GB RAM). Also, you'll have to change the LOD setting in the program if you want to change the amount of detail you see. Just keep in mind that you have a limited amount of memory.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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| bric-out | Date: Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 13:09 | Message # 62 |
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Observer
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| Quote (HarbingerDawn) bric-out, if you want to improve performance you'll need to set a larger value than your amount of VRAM. Otherwise it is not going to be any better than using everything set to true. However I don't know how much of an improvement you will be able to get since you have 32-bit Windows, so you are limited to 4 GB of total memory (in this case, 1.25 GB VRAM and 2.75 GB RAM). Also, you'll have to change the LOD setting in the program if you want to change the amount of detail you see. Just keep in mind that you have a limited amount of memory.
Thanks for your help HarbingerDawn,
i've tried this way:
set VideoMemorySize to 4095
installed all the texture packs for planet earth
run on windos 7
change LOD to 1 and 2
planet earth
nothing changed 
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 17:44 | Message # 63 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| Quote (bric-out) nothing changed
Attach your se.log file. Also, keep in mind that even with the texture packs none of the Solar system worlds will have very high levels of detail. If you want to see extremely detailed planet surfaces then you need to go to other stars (I suggest changing back to LOD 0 before you do that).
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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| bric-out | Date: Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 20:09 | Message # 64 |
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Observer
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| Quote (HarbingerDawn) Attach your se.log file
ok
here it is
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 20:25 | Message # 65 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| Quote (bric-out) here it is
There is nothing wrong, everything on Earth seemed to load correctly.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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| bric-out | Date: Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 21:44 | Message # 66 |
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Observer
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| ok
These are some screenshot i took on earth @ LOD 1
Edited by bric-out - Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 21:46 |
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 12.02.2013, 22:08 | Message # 67 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| Quote (bric-out) These are some screenshot i took on earth
As far as the texture and landscape details go everything is normal.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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| Tallest_Skil | Date: Saturday, 02.03.2013, 17:23 | Message # 68 |
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| Okay, so the gist of what I'm getting from this thread is that by editing the main.cfg file to lie to SpaceEngine about the amount of VRAM you have, you can improve visual output by... piggybacking off of system RAM?
Or is that way off-base? I really wish SE could render using both CPU and GPU, as my CPU is still incredibly powerful. And with 29 gigs of system RAM, I mean really.
This is LOD2 on my machine after letting it generate for roughly ten minutes. See what I mean?
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Saturday, 02.03.2013, 17:38 | Message # 69 |
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| Quote (Tallest_Skil) Okay, so the gist of what I'm getting from this thread is that by editing the main.cfg file to lie to SpaceEngine about the amount of VRAM you have, you can improve visual output by... piggybacking off of system RAM?
Basically, thought it might depend on your GPU.
Quote (Tallest_Skil) I really wish SE could render using both CPU and GPU, as my CPU is still incredibly powerful.
Even a weak GPU is still much more powerful than the strongest CPU.
Quote (Tallest_Skil) And with 29 gigs of system RAM, I mean really.
SE is a 32-bit application, so it could never use anywhere near that.
Quote (Tallest_Skil) This is LOD2 on my machine after letting it generate for roughly ten minutes. See what I mean?
Depending on your setup that might not get you anywhere. In the screenshot it looks like you don't have enough memory to really use LOD 2. Also SE can have weird memory issues at times.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
Edited by HarbingerDawn - Saturday, 02.03.2013, 17:40 |
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| midtskogen | Date: Saturday, 02.03.2013, 17:47 | Message # 70 |
 Star Engineer
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| Quote (HarbingerDawn) SE is a 32-bit application, so it could never use anywhere near that.
Any reason why it is 32 bit? All(?) x86 processors sold in the past 10 years or so support 64 bit, and I can't really imagine anyone running SE with an older processor than that. By compiling for 64 bits the speed gain should be in the 20-30% ballpark, I think. It might not affect fps much, but surely procedural generation and such?
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Saturday, 02.03.2013, 18:06 | Message # 71 |
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| Quote (midtskogen) Any reason why it is 32 bit?
Only SpaceEngineer knows that. Hopefully he can answer, it is a good question.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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| midtskogen | Date: Saturday, 02.03.2013, 18:41 | Message # 72 |
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Star Engineer
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| Quote (HarbingerDawn) Only SpaceEngineer knows that. Hopefully he can answer, it is a good question.
The issue is perhaps whether the OS is 32 or 64 bit. I can see why one would still use a 32 bit OS a year or two after 64 bit processors became available, but why would anyone install a 32 bit OS in 2013? (Or even if the computer is 5 years old, why install a 32 bit OS in 2008?)
That said, I entirely depend on Wine in Linux to run SE, which works out of the box with the current 32 bit SE. I can't know for sure that a 64 bit SE would run. Most Windows stuff runs, but not always. If an application depends on a lot of dynamic libraries, it might not work in Linux. But I'm sure the reason for 32 bit isn't that SE then is known to work in Linux. 
Ideally there could be two versions.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Saturday, 02.03.2013, 19:00 | Message # 73 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| Quote (midtskogen) why would anyone install a 32 bit OS in 2013? (Or even if the computer is 5 years old, why install a 32 bit OS in 2008?)
Out of ignorance perhaps. Or because the manufacturer did it that way. The laptop I bought in 2008 had a 32-bit OS, I didn't have 64-bit until 2010, same goes for most other people I know. And some people still use 32-bit. So the reason is probably accessibility to the most possible users.
Quote (midtskogen) Ideally there could be two versions.
Indeed
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
Edited by HarbingerDawn - Saturday, 02.03.2013, 19:01 |
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| Tallest_Skil | Date: Saturday, 02.03.2013, 20:34 | Message # 74 |
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Observer
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| Quote (HarbingerDawn) Even a weak GPU is still much more powerful than the strongest CPU.
Ah, I challenge that. Terragen runs off of CPU rendering, for example. Great improvements there come from a more powerful processor.
Quote (HarbingerDawn) SE is a 32-bit application, so it could never use anywhere near that.
This is unfathomable to me, but I suppose such was the trouble of designing it when he did. No complaints from the work put in, of course, but making the switch would be a great boon.
Anyway, so since we're able to trick it into using system RAM (and given the hard limit), a user can set VideoMemorySize to 4GB-actual vRAM size and have Space Engine use more (setting VideoMemoryStartupDetect to false)?
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Sunday, 03.03.2013, 03:40 | Message # 75 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| Quote (Tallest_Skil) Terragen runs off of CPU rendering
Terragen is not real time rendering. A frame in Terragen might take many seconds or minutes to render while in SE it takes a fraction of a second to several seconds depending of your perspective. Also, static rendering programs like Terragen or 3D modelling programs/CAD software are designed to use only the CPU are have an entirely different function than real time renderers like games.
Quote (Tallest_Skil) Anyway, so since we're able to trick it into using system RAM (and given the hard limit), a user can set VideoMemorySize to 4GB-actual vRAM size and have Space Engine use more (setting VideoMemoryStartupDetect to false)?
Yes, though it still won't hurt to use a larger value like 6GB (not that it will use that much, but you can still input that). Keep in mind though that this all depends on your particular system and GPU, etc, and so you might not have success with it.
Quote (Tallest_Skil) This is unfathomable to me
Why? 32-bit apps are still extremely common. Looking at my task manager I can see that about half of the processes running on my PC are 32-bit, including some integrated parts of Windows like Explorer.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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