NEWS: X3: Albion Prelude and X3: Terran Conflict updated

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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Xenon_Slayer
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Post by Xenon_Slayer » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 19:10

The change is in the EXE, not the story files. And yes, instances where there are a large amount of bullets is one of the cases which will be improved. Of course large battles are still going to be heavy on performance, but hopefully you'll see enough of a gain to make the changes you want.

We'd of course be interested in the FPS changes people see, mod or not.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 20:46

Xenon_Slayer wrote: We'd of course be interested in the FPS changes people see, mod or not.
Right, time to go lurk in War Zone sectors... :D
And the battle in Interworlds early in the CW-side main plot...
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Post by dreamer2008 » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 23:08

Xenon_Slayer wrote:The change is in the EXE, not the story files. And yes, instances where there are a large amount of bullets is one of the cases which will be improved. Of course large battles are still going to be heavy on performance, but hopefully you'll see enough of a gain to make the changes you want.

We'd of course be interested in the FPS changes people see, mod or not.
Great news, thank you for the patch! The idea that Litcube's Universe will be even better thanks to this update is great.

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Re: NEWS: X3: Albion Prelude and X3: Terran Conflict updated

Post by tyk » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 18:35

X2-Illuminatus wrote:
X3: Terran Conflict 3.4

• Added Borderless/Window mode resolution listing for QHD standard 2560x1440
Well, the biggest resolution I see is 2560x1024. In the fullscreen listing the correct resolution (x1440) is showed but not in the borderless or windowed. The same bug is with AP too. I'm on Windows 10 / GTX 980TI & latest nvidia drivers.

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Post by CBJ » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 18:42

Are you sure you've updated your games correctly? The fullscreen resolution would have been available before the update, so that's not an indication.

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Post by tyk » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 18:47

CBJ wrote:Are you sure you've updated your games correctly? The fullscreen resolution would have been available before the update, so that's not an indication.
I have the GOG version (with Galaxy Client) so the game was automatically updated. I also run the "verify/repair game" and it did not make any difference.

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Post by CBJ » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 18:56

I'm now seeing the same problem and I'm now trying to find out why the change didn't appear in the released version.

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Post by tyk » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 19:00

CBJ wrote:I'm now seeing the same problem and I'm now trying to find out why the change didn't appear in the released version.
Thank you for your fast replies! Let's hope the bug is easy to solve.

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Post by alt3rn1ty » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 21:39

For anyone else waiting for the GOG files (manual install files, not the update via Galaxy client) .. They updated today :D

Image

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Post by alt3rn1ty » Tue, 12. Dec 17, 04:45

.. Although there's a strange thing going on with GOG files :

After installation of "X3: Terran War Pack", it leaves you with ONE desktop icon which is named also X3: Terran War Pack

Double clicking that you would expect (given the content is both X3TC and X3AP) that you would be presented with launching either game ..

.. Instead it just launches X3TC.exe

Anyone new to the game, and buying it from GOG, will probably never realise they have a whole new game to experience if they just changed the Icon properties to load X3AP.exe instead.


@CBJ do you know if GOG were given any direction as to how to present these two games so that anyone using it would know there is much more content here than just X3TC ?

I wonder if they thought "X3TC is version 3.4, and X3AP is version 3.3, so X3TC is the newer game" .. Which as we all know would be completely wrong.

Ideally the Installer ought to have setup two icons on the desktop, one for each game, but it does not.

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Post by tyk » Tue, 12. Dec 17, 11:25

alt3rn1ty wrote:.. Although there's a strange thing going on with GOG files :

After installation of "X3: Terran War Pack", it leaves you with ONE desktop icon which is named also X3: Terran War Pack

Double clicking that you would expect (given the content is both X3TC and X3AP) that you would be presented with launching either game ..

.. Instead it just launches X3TC.exe
AP is difficult to find in GOG Galaxy too. You need to click "More" (next to the "Play" button), then select "Other" and then you can see an option to launch AP. Quite silly UI design for a game client :?

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Post by CBJ » Wed, 13. Dec 17, 12:16

It turns out that the missing additional resolution was caused by a file (res.dat) that was missed from the update. This has now been rectified on Steam, and GOG will be informed, hopefully later today, so that they can sort it out too. Apologies for any inconvenience.

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Post by tyk » Wed, 13. Dec 17, 15:41

CBJ wrote:It turns out that the missing additional resolution was caused by a file (res.dat) that was missed from the update. This has now been rectified on Steam, and GOG will be informed, hopefully later today, so that they can sort it out too. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Excellent news, thank you! :)

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Post by stonedsub » Thu, 14. Dec 17, 01:34

Yes it's good to see updates !
For what i can tell , FPS nearly unchanged but more stable and CPU charge clearly reduced.
Smoother game experience. Nice !

:thumb_up:

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Post by TTD » Thu, 14. Dec 17, 05:50

yup :-) Nice to know my favourite game of longest standing is still getting tweaked here and there.

Thanks guys.

btw, GOG sent notifications of XRebirth updates, which directed me to the list on this site.
I was curious to chck X3,too.
Hence found this post.
So they have notified GOG users, indirectly.

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Post by alt3rn1ty » Fri, 15. Dec 17, 17:46

alt3rn1ty wrote:.. Although there's a strange thing going on with GOG files :

After installation of "X3: Terran War Pack", it leaves you with ONE desktop icon which is named also X3: Terran War Pack

Double clicking that you would expect (given the content is both X3TC and X3AP) that you would be presented with launching either game ..

.. Instead it just launches X3TC.exe

Anyone new to the game, and buying it from GOG, will probably never realise they have a whole new game to experience if they just changed the Icon properties to load X3AP.exe instead.


@CBJ do you know if GOG were given any direction as to how to present these two games so that anyone using it would know there is much more content here than just X3TC ?

I wonder if they thought "X3TC is version 3.4, and X3AP is version 3.3, so X3TC is the newer game" .. Which as we all know would be completely wrong.

Ideally the Installer ought to have setup two icons on the desktop, one for each game, but it does not.
tyk wrote:AP is difficult to find in GOG Galaxy too. You need to click "More" (next to the "Play" button), then select "Other" and then you can see an option to launch AP. Quite silly UI design for a game client :?
CBJ wrote:It turns out that the missing additional resolution was caused by a file (res.dat) that was missed from the update. This has now been rectified on Steam, and GOG will be informed, hopefully later today, so that they can sort it out too. Apologies for any inconvenience.
@CBJ - Would you not consider the GOG installer issues in addition to the res.dat issue (as quoted) to be a problem worth bringing up with GOG also ?

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Post by tyk » Mon, 18. Dec 17, 21:35

CBJ wrote:It turns out that the missing additional resolution was caused by a file (res.dat) that was missed from the update. This has now been rectified on Steam, and GOG will be informed, hopefully later today, so that they can sort it out too. Apologies for any inconvenience.
GOG has not updated yet... Luckily the res.dat can be edited with a simple texteditor, like notepad, and you can add the missing resolution there by hand.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Wed, 20. Dec 17, 15:10

Xenon_Slayer wrote:We'd of course be interested in the FPS changes people see, mod or not.
Well, I no longer run FRAPS or ShadowPlay, or anything of the sort, but simply go by the subjective experience (isn't it what it's all about, at the end of the day? :) ) In any case, my first impressions (after a few days of X3AP game time in previously started games, and just over a week game-time in a fresh game) are overall very positive.

X3TC: The game has always run smoothly on my rig, and even in the later game for the most part, but now it runs ultra-smooth in the early to mid game, and smooth with very few hitches or slowdowns of any sort in the late game. Even in battles flying a Deimos using IBLs and PSGs vs 4 Qs using GCs and what-not, and a number of assorted Xenon fighters also buzzing around, the action was butter-smooth and thus more immersive and more fun. The same in battles with more and larger opponents (= more guns = more bullets and stuff...). The only time I managed to get a significant slowdown was firing multi-PSG at Xenon stations (not sure whether it's specific to them, or applies to stations in general - I suspect the latter, and likely due to some complex hit geometry calculations.) Performance in Kha'ak pink mist sectors isn't quite 100% smooth, but also significantly improved (since what I've read indicates the improvements are primarily to objects in motion, I wasn't expecting much change here.)

X3AP: I've had little time to test in X3AP yet, and furthermore as I despise Steam, I think I updated incorrectly (am I correct in that I am going to have to roll back the previous standard .EXE, update via Steam, then overwrite the .EXE with the NoSteam version? If so, I kinda skipped steps 1 and 2, hoping that since it was mentioned that this is an EXE-based update, I might be able to get away with it...); also, the games I tested with had been started previously, so it's entirely possible that some bloat or whatever may have previously developed and hung around - I don't really know. However, I did already notice a performance improvement in War Sectors, although I'm not 100% sure; the battles were moderately large, not massive, but I'm fairly sure that everything was running significantly smoother. I guess the true litmus test will come once I'm done with my current X3TC game, and I update AP properly and start a new game, and get to the battle at the South of Interworlds, when the Commonwealth fleet attacks that initially invulnerable Tokyo - I should be able to tell for sure how it compares then.

Additionally, I spotted some (as far as I can tell) undocumented back-ported improvements to X3TC's 'GoD'.

All in all, thanks EgoSoft - this makes for a nice Xmas prezzie! :D
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Post by Blake00 » Fri, 22. Dec 17, 07:04

amazing.. after all these years.. you guys are the best!
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Post by Litcube » Wed, 3. Jan 18, 05:46

Xenon_Slayer wrote:The change is in the EXE, not the story files. And yes, instances where there are a large amount of bullets is one of the cases which will be improved. Of course large battles are still going to be heavy on performance, but hopefully you'll see enough of a gain to make the changes you want.

We'd of course be interested in the FPS changes people see, mod or not.
Xenon, is there a specific benchmark or scenario that you or whoever coded the optimization would recommend?

I have tried a few, and I could not produce any significant delta between the new and old optimization.

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