Option to stop rendering the 3D environment

[rit]

Currently, the 3D space or the interior of the ship or station is rendered as a background while you are in any of the menu-driven screens. For me, this means an additional 100W power draw for my system compared to having the game minimised. As the system including monitor only draws 350W at most this is a costly effect for a game that players can leave running for 100s of hours.

An option to not render while in the main menu screens would be far more eco-friendly, as well as returning GPU and CPU cycles for other tasks.

Such an option would also remove the annoying screen flashing when you exit the station plan and logical screens. Currently, the 3D image is repainted and then the menus are placed in front of the 3D image. The flash comes from the fact that the first 3D image generated is with normal brightness. Once the menus are drawn the 3D image is darkened so that it can act as a backdrop.

PS I think back in the day I played X2 for about 6,000 hours game time, so maybe 800 hours real time. On my current system with X4 that would use up an addition 80kWh for no real advantage and a cost of about 10GBP as much of my time is spent in the menus.

[teMELEEn]

yeah makes sense... id also appreciate station traffic settings as its purely visual and tanks cpu quite a lot at times it seems

[mitchella351]

I love this post and this idea. The cost side of it is one thing, but for me the more important thing is the environmental effect of not generating that extra 80 kWh of electricity. Great idea to be honest.

[GCU Grey Area]

Really don't like this idea at all. On longer journeys I frequently have the map open & leave the flying to the auto-pilot (e.g. while setting up trade runs, etc).
Find it quite handy to be able to see what's in front of the ship through the map, just in case the auto-pilot decides to do something really stupid.
Would be very disconcerting to have no feedback at all while hurtling through space at several km/s - autopilot's far superior to previous iterations but still occasionally needs manual assistance.

[graphicboy]

Thus the word, "option".

[radcapricorn]

That's not even an idea. Even without backgrounds, the game still we be rendering frames depending on refresh rate or as fast as it can depending on the vsync setting, you won't save anything. If you're suggesting to throttle the GPU while the game is running and not minimized, that's just not going to fly, and you would be the first to complain that your game is now stuttering. It's not solitaire on a Nokia, for crying out loud. If anything, people are complaining that the game under-utilizes their hardware, and rightfully so.
If you're so worried about environment, you probably should consider not playing games designed to work on modern gaming hardware, or perhaps even not owning such hardware in the first place.

[Socratatus]

Well I find it useful since I can still see what`s going on. For instance I might be Travelling at cruise and can still keep an eye on any obstacles while I view the map, etc.

But I can see why some people might want it- just be careful what you ask for! Smashing into a Station because you can`t see what`s going on while viewing the map won`t make you happy.

[rit]

That's not even an idea. Even without backgrounds, the game still we be rendering frames depending on refresh rate or as fast as it can depending on the vsync setting, you won't save anything. If you're suggesting to throttle the GPU while the game is running and not minimized, that's just not going to fly, and you would be the first to complain that your game is now stuttering. It's not solitaire on a Nokia, for crying out loud. If anything, people are complaining that the game under-utilizes their hardware, and rightfully so.
If you're so worried about environment, you probably should consider not playing games designed to work on modern gaming hardware, or perhaps even not owning such hardware in the first place.

When you set the game to Windowed mode and minimize it, it is still doing all the 3D calculations, they are just not being 'painted' to the screen. As for keeping Vsync operating it already does that every time you switch back to the 3D view - the image has its brightness set back to the default and that refresh will be done under vsync control so no change to the game logic there. There is no difference from moving from a process of "painted screen to a painted screen" to one of "unpainted screen to a painted screen", under vsync control the new screen will only be displayed in its entirety.

Yes, some people care about the resources we use in life, I guess you are not one of them.

[rit]

Well I find it useful since I can still see what`s going on. For instance I might be Travelling at cruise and can still keep an eye on any obstacles while I view the map, etc.

But I can see why some people might want it- just be careful what you ask for! Smashing into a Station because you can`t see what`s going on while viewing the map won`t make you happy.

Once you have 100's of ships to manage you are likely to find that you spilt the game into 2 parts, that of a pilot doing missions and that of production manager, where there is little need to see what is going on as you are most likely docked somewhere.

The whole issue of personal choice was why I used the word 'Option' in the title

[graphicboy]

Yes, some people care about the resources we use in life, I guess you are not one of them.

Flag on the play. They have a very good point.

[radcapricorn]

When you set the game to Windowed mode and minimize it, it is still doing all the 3D calculations, they are just not being 'painted' to the screen. As for keeping Vsync operating it already does that every time you switch back to the 3D view - the image has its brightness set back to the default and that refresh will be done under vsync control so no change to the game logic there. There is no difference from moving from a process of "painted screen to a painted screen" to one of "unpainted screen to a painted screen", under vsync control the new screen will only be displayed in its entirety.

You don't understand. When you minimize the game, it is notified about that fact and just doesn't redraw until it's un-minimized, i.e. doesn't send anything to the GPU. It will still simulate the universe though, perhaps at an reduced frequency. That is not the same as not drawing a part of the scene when the game is being displayed. Because in this case, you're still drawing frames at whatever refresh rate the game wants to display in, i.e. however fast it is running. It is not a 90s GUI app that only redraws portions of the screen when needed.

Yes, some people care about the resources we use in life, I guess you are not one of them.

Please stop with the hypocrisy, ok? Thanks. If you care so much about power consumption, the appropriate action is to moderate yourself, not ask developers to castrate a game for you. Like, listen to yourself: "I got this decently powerful rig that wants to consume loads of power, now please let me make it do what it isn't really built to do." You want both a good, modern, beautiful game and "save the forests"? Ain't gonna happen. Pick one.

[tSpecR]

I dont mind the idea as an option. I sometimes look at the background while in map flying for asteroids, but generally I dont . And if im in seta or just leaving it running I wouldnt be flying or moving anyway. The money is so easy to make in this though that I rarely even use SETA anymore let alone leave the game running.

[Socratatus]

Well I find it useful since I can still see what`s going on. For instance I might be Travelling at cruise and can still keep an eye on any obstacles while I view the map, etc.

But I can see why some people might want it- just be careful what you ask for! Smashing into a Station because you can`t see what`s going on while viewing the map won`t make you happy.

Once you have 100's of ships to manage you are likely to find that you spilt the game into 2 parts, that of a pilot doing missions and that of production manager, where there is little need to see what is going on as you are most likely docked somewhere.

The whole issue of personal choice was why I used the word 'Option' in the title

there is always a point when you`ll look at a map and forget you`re heading straight into an asteroid.

And I understand that you want it as an option. I`m not telling you, you shouldn`t have it, i`m telling you to be careful what you ask for. It`s an opinion.