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heya devs, i just wanted to throw at you something that i've discovered that could turn out as a really easy way to actually get a good performance boost out of the game. so, i guess the vast majority of users actually plays the game on laptops or otherwise non-hyperthreaded CPUs, however, i think this one is still something worth mentioning. i am currently running the game on a powerful desktop (i7 7700k overclocked, gtx970, 16gb of ram) and, as expected, the default rooms run just fine up to 4k resolution bar some really heavy options like detailed reflections. custom rooms vary but that's ok. however, what really bugged me was the new beach, because it seemed to really trounce my CPU and GPU at any resolution, 1080p included. i see almost 60% usage out of my CPU and 100% GPU, that's actually more than many AAA videogames with top notch graphics and simulation. this translated in horrible stutter and great framerate variance at every resolution depending on the camera orientation and location within the beach, which really bothered me because i think it's an extremely well done location and i'd like for other rooms to be updated in similar fashion. after a lot of tinkering in the nvidia driver though, i seem to have found a "magic trick" that boosted my beach performance immensely, and that's enabling "multithreaded optimizations" in the 3d options, specifically for the 3dx profile. nvidia mentions that it's enabled by default for all games but since 3dx is not recognized as a game by the driver unless you make a custom profile for it, i guess that it was actually disabled. right now, i can comfortably run the beach at 50+ fps without having to gimp my usual level of detail, no matter how many people are in it, at a resolution of 3200*1800, just like any other default room. i think that it's worth for the devs to maybe check the nvidia documentation on what multithreaded optimizations actually does, because it may turn out to be something really easy to implement in the game code that would net a huge performance boost for a lot of users. also trying to understand why the nvidia driver does not list 3dx as a 3d application by default and therefore apply its optimizations to it may be a worthwile endeavor. another thing this would help with is Vsync, because right now, your implementation still has frame pacing problems. to be more precise, i am actually running the game without vsync and with a 60fps cap, because that nets me a really good tear-free experience even if i spend most of my time between 50 and 60. however, the half refresh rate (30fps) mode has really bad frame pacing and does not feel smooth at all, with or without vsync. also, because the nvidia driver doesn't like 3dx much, it's currently impossible to ovverride the ingame vsync and frame limiter options through the driver. this, imho, is yet another hint that having a look at how the game and drivers interact could actually net important performance results without touching the codebase too much. honestly, despite running just fine on most systems, i think spending some time profiling the game to catch easy paths of optimization would be nice. a lighter, faster engine would make you able to implement a lot more in term of graphics despite 3dx already being the best 3d community around in term of looks. more eyecandy is always welcome, and i'd really love to run everything maxed at 4k. detailed reflections and multiple lights/shadows really add a nice touch, but i need to disable them most of the time because they kill my gpu big time. :/

Yo ! while its usually a bad idea to mix topics i will also add at the bottom of my mail an information for people encountering grey-screen crashes with nvidia cards as it drove me crazy fighting it but i found the solution. so this should be a self-contained "ps" just as source of exact information for people having the same issue in the future, without the need to comment on it. my technical issues are as follows: i cant hear any stream in default public rooms. i do hear streams in private rooms however. when i am in my appartment i cant hear the default stream (if there is any - i cant tell), but if i select manually any of the stations i can hear them all. and yes. thats shit. OK. i checked thoroughly following: - i already followed tips posted here, uninstalling the game, removing any registry settings. i moved the game now entirely on a lightning fast raid0 SDD array and while that gave general loading speed boost in crowded rooms (now near instant) it had no effect on the stream issue. i also checked if the radio.dll is present - it is. i turned the radio ingame option OFF and ON in public rooms without change. ah yes and i tried the two different login issues (US Direct, or EU) (funny enough US is faster for me and EU gives bit rubberbanding when walking but neither of the settings had any effects on the streaming issue) my bandwidth is 100Mbit i manually checked what streaming station would be theoretically used. while in the public room, i can enter it in the browser and play the station (in the browser) without any problem. it just doesnt works automatically in the room (while private room stations or even live streams by players work). i updated the flash version (of "internet explorer" which is not my default browser) as recommended in the general technic tips&tricks thread. so yes im pretty much out of ideas what could be the reason here. the stream works outside of the game. i can load it in the browser while playing. all without any bandwidth issues whatsoever. all other streams work. i already reinstalled the game 2 times and even moved its physical location to another drive. whats the issue ? possible nvidia grey screen stability fix second thing. my gaming rig is pretty much built upon e-sports standards featuring a rock stable system and 2x evga gtx 980ti sc running SLI (parallel). i used it even in competitions and never had whatsoever issues or crash. funny enough in 3dxchat i encountered a grey screen crash on the main monitor (4k Ultrawide) and while the other 3 monitors were still operational i quickly could determine that it was a partial gpu "hard lockup" and you couldnt recover the system unless a complete reboot. after all kind of research (involving replacing the ´be quiet!´ 1200Watt supply and many other things) i finally found out that one of the SLI evga cards which comes factory overclocked in its "sc" superclocked version proved to be not 100% stable in 3dxchat. After years of competitive gaming this is the first application which found that flaw. i had to underclock my gpu´s by 20Mhz on the Base Clock (through nvidia inspector) to get it fully stable in 3dxchat. it may also work by trying to over voltage it, but the stability implications on an SLI systems were not worth for me trying (especially not for 3dxchat alone which is a hm not that competitive environment xD ) - so my hint is: if you have this issue, try decrasing the base clock in -10 steps and see when it gets stable. thats not 3dxchat´s fault, but freaking interesting to find out as this system ran all kind of performance and stability tests over weeks without any issue before. so in case someone ever has a similar issue i hope he finds the thread before losing lot rl time. (the keywords on this thread help finding him/her the info quickly) br