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1
General Discussion / Re: Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2007-2013+) (4k res)
« on: November 27, 2023, 05:25:10 AM »Thanks so much for these. I've gotten used to the 5+ minute wait time to get the game started, though I have to tell you I much prefer the ~30-second load time with the updated libvorbis dll.No problem! 5+ minutes is way too much. I've added the second loading time DLL, libvorbisfile-3.dll, to the main post. It should improve the loading from 30 seconds on macOS to even less.
2
General Discussion / Re: Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2007-2013+) (4k res)
« on: September 07, 2023, 04:40:28 AM »
It's come to my attention that some users are trying to run my mods on systems so old they aren't supported and experiencing a blank screen.
If you seek performance improvements on, say, a 2006 Core2Duo I suggest you use this optimized build of vanilla SDL 1.2 I've made.
My mods assume a minimum processor version, but this mod doesn't. One user has reported it fixed issues they experienced perf-wise.
The sources are from upstream libSDL/SDL-1.2 on github and built off the release-1.12.15 tag.
If you seek performance improvements on, say, a 2006 Core2Duo I suggest you use this optimized build of vanilla SDL 1.2 I've made.
My mods assume a minimum processor version, but this mod doesn't. One user has reported it fixed issues they experienced perf-wise.
The sources are from upstream libSDL/SDL-1.2 on github and built off the release-1.12.15 tag.
3
General Discussion / Re: Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2007-2013+) (4k res)
« on: August 31, 2023, 08:58:43 PM »
I found another SDL project that allows Cogmind to render under SDL3.
Apple Silicon users will see at least 10% performance gains under stress, if not more.
Users who use my mod for ReShade support will also gain performance.
Untested compared to the others, YMMV!
Sources are on the libSDL project on github, sdl2-compat and SDL3, release-2.28.x and main tags respectively. Built with MSVC and heavy optimizations.
I have further improvements to make. When they're ready I'll publish a fork and put it in the main post as a replacement to sdl12-compat.
EDIT: New build with the improvements out.
sources: https://github.com/aronson/SDL/tree/blitters-sdl3
EDIT 2: Wow it has massive bugs. Backported my enhancements to SDL2, wrote even more optimizations, and integrated it into the old "GPU" mod -- which by the way only uses GPU at the very final step, who knew! Releasing a new version of the GPU mod that is much faster.
sources: https://github.com/aronson/SDL/tree/cog-sdl2
Use the zip attached or the in the main post for the best experience! It's way faster oh wow. Sometimes it's 1300% faster. This applies to all machines.
Apple Silicon users will see at least 10% performance gains under stress, if not more.
Users who use my mod for ReShade support will also gain performance.
Untested compared to the others, YMMV!
Sources are on the libSDL project on github, sdl2-compat and SDL3, release-2.28.x and main tags respectively. Built with MSVC and heavy optimizations.
I have further improvements to make. When they're ready I'll publish a fork and put it in the main post as a replacement to sdl12-compat.
EDIT: New build with the improvements out.
sources: https://github.com/aronson/SDL/tree/blitters-sdl3
EDIT 2: Wow it has massive bugs. Backported my enhancements to SDL2, wrote even more optimizations, and integrated it into the old "GPU" mod -- which by the way only uses GPU at the very final step, who knew! Releasing a new version of the GPU mod that is much faster.
sources: https://github.com/aronson/SDL/tree/cog-sdl2
Use the zip attached or the in the main post for the best experience! It's way faster oh wow. Sometimes it's 1300% faster. This applies to all machines.
4
General Discussion / Re: Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2007-2013+) (4k res)
« on: August 01, 2023, 09:53:22 AM »
I recently made a lot of progress on figuring out the "loading time" situation. For anyone interested, the fastest possible solution is quite simple and attached to this post. These DLLs are the latest libvorbis and libvorbisfile as of 2021 compiled with Visual Studio 2022 and MinGW respectively, and a number of stable optimizations. They'll work on any machine, and save a few seconds on most machines a few members of the community tested on:
Cracklepappy's i7-4790k reduced load time from 12.5s->8s
My Windows i7 1068NG7 2020 laptop goes from 10.5s->7.5s
aoemica's i7-9700k was a less significant 11.5->11s, could be typical variance but not worse
Kyzrati saved around 2 seconds on his development machine
Cogmind will soon ship with minimal DLLs that work on everyone's machine and solves the Apple Silicon 10 minute load time by default, making the old load-time mods above irrelevant. You only want these DLLs if you want to potentially save a few seconds.
Cracklepappy's i7-4790k reduced load time from 12.5s->8s
My Windows i7 1068NG7 2020 laptop goes from 10.5s->7.5s
aoemica's i7-9700k was a less significant 11.5->11s, could be typical variance but not worse
Kyzrati saved around 2 seconds on his development machine
Cogmind will soon ship with minimal DLLs that work on everyone's machine and solves the Apple Silicon 10 minute load time by default, making the old load-time mods above irrelevant. You only want these DLLs if you want to potentially save a few seconds.
5
Competitions / Re: Serflord April 1st ARG!
« on: June 11, 2023, 09:13:23 AM »
I played the Serflord ARG and so can you!
It was so much fun: I laughed, I cried, I even sneezed once
Play this, you won't regret it
It was so much fun: I laughed, I cried, I even sneezed once
Play this, you won't regret it
6
Support / Re: [GUIDE] Running Cogmind on any MacBook with Free, Open Source Software [2022,M1]
« on: September 22, 2022, 07:30:50 AM »
I've noticed that bugs emerge in Cogmind under M1 macOS wine when the application is in "True Fullscreen" mode (which I think is default) and one Cmd+Tabs out to use other applications.
I suggest waiting the 5-10 minutes (or 8 seconds with my mod) without moving focus away from Cogmind like Kyzrati suggests, and then changing that option under settings (press ESC -> 4 -> B -> A or C, possibly after choosing a difficulty level).
Windowed mode works and borderless fullscreen lets macOS manage the window like other normal fullscreen applications. You may need to restart the app once after setting borderless fullscreen if it gets misaligned.
EDIT: I was able to reproduce the crash in an M1 virtual machine and can confirm Kyzrati's advanced.cfg change works to prevent the crash.
I suggest waiting the 5-10 minutes (or 8 seconds with my mod) without moving focus away from Cogmind like Kyzrati suggests, and then changing that option under settings (press ESC -> 4 -> B -> A or C, possibly after choosing a difficulty level).
Windowed mode works and borderless fullscreen lets macOS manage the window like other normal fullscreen applications. You may need to restart the app once after setting borderless fullscreen if it gets misaligned.
EDIT: I was able to reproduce the crash in an M1 virtual machine and can confirm Kyzrati's advanced.cfg change works to prevent the crash.
7
Support / Re: [GUIDE] Running Cogmind on any MacBook with Free, Open Source Software [2022,M1]
« on: September 21, 2022, 08:33:20 AM »
Hanging on boot is normal -- it takes up to 5-10 minutes to load without my performance mod for loading times on M1/M2.
Check out the forum link in my first post and install the loading time and OpenGL mods for best performance.
EDIT: I've attached the loading times mod to this post so you don't have to go hunting. Extract the zip and overwrite the DLL files in the Cogmind folder with the contents of the zip.
Check out the forum link in my first post and install the loading time and OpenGL mods for best performance.
EDIT: I've attached the loading times mod to this post so you don't have to go hunting. Extract the zip and overwrite the DLL files in the Cogmind folder with the contents of the zip.
8
Support / Re: [GUIDE] Running Cogmind on any MacBook with Free, Open Source Software [2022,M1]
« on: September 20, 2022, 01:29:26 PM »
Hmm I believe running winecfg for the first time will create that directory for you.
According to the command output you should be good to go… Do you have Rosetta installed? Try this command to install it, then try winecfg again:
EDIT: I tried my instructions in a fresh M1 virtual machine and got the same error as you did. Installing Rosetta with the above command fixed it and I was able to run winecfg and proceed. Hope this helps and I’ll update the guide!
According to the command output you should be good to go… Do you have Rosetta installed? Try this command to install it, then try winecfg again:
Code: [Select]
softwareupdate --install-rosettaEDIT: I tried my instructions in a fresh M1 virtual machine and got the same error as you did. Installing Rosetta with the above command fixed it and I was able to run winecfg and proceed. Hope this helps and I’ll update the guide!
9
Support / Re: [GUIDE] Running Cogmind on any MacBook with Free, Open Source Software [2022,M1]
« on: September 20, 2022, 12:25:35 PM »
Howdy, this should run on an M2 MacBook Air just fine. Go ahead and skip to the winetricks step and/or try to launch the application with wine. Can you post the output of these commands?
The CodeWeavers team behind wine-crossover have added full support for running 32 but applications in a 64 bit wrapper on M1/M2 series chips. It looks like you have a bad install of brew or you’re running under Rosetta.
Code: [Select]
file `which winecfg`
file `which wine`
file `which brew`
brew doctorThe CodeWeavers team behind wine-crossover have added full support for running 32 but applications in a 64 bit wrapper on M1/M2 series chips. It looks like you have a bad install of brew or you’re running under Rosetta.
10
Support / [GUIDE] Running Cogmind on any MacBook with Free, Open Source Software [2022,M1]
« on: April 29, 2022, 06:04:28 AM »
EDIT: New guide here! Much easier to maintain, features a nice GUI .app wrapper and no command line once installed
https://gist.github.com/aronson/b893fb140245d0f19409ab5617cce750
Hello gamers, I figured it out!
I have figured out how to get crossover working for free:
You may need homebrew if not already installed: https://brew.sh/
You may also need Rosetta installed if on an M1 or M2 device:
Go to finder, press Cmd+Shift+Period to display hidden files, then navigate to ~/.wine/drive_c/ and copy the Cogmind/ folder into it.
Run
https://gist.github.com/aronson/b893fb140245d0f19409ab5617cce750
Hello gamers, I figured it out!
I have figured out how to get crossover working for free:
You may need homebrew if not already installed: https://brew.sh/
You may also need Rosetta installed if on an M1 or M2 device:
Code: [Select]
softwareupdate --install-rosettaCode: [Select]
brew tap gcenx/wine
brew install --cask --no-quarantine gcenx/wine/wine-crossover
brew install winetricks
winecfg # let it launch and close it with OK when it's loaded to init your bottle
winetricks vcrun2010 # required library for Cogmind, follow the installer
Go to finder, press Cmd+Shift+Period to display hidden files, then navigate to ~/.wine/drive_c/ and copy the Cogmind/ folder into it.
Run
Code: [Select]
cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Cogmind/ && wine ./COGMIND.exe to start! Works with all my performance mods too, almost required on M1 Macs, see here https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1567.msg9990#msg9990
11
Support / Re: How to build Cogmind open source libraries
« on: February 21, 2022, 06:26:13 AM »
Adding this here for more instructions since I have started contributing to these projects and would like to document how they are built and used:
To get the tools you need:
https://www.msys2.org
Open a Mingw32 terminal
This will compile a version of libvorbis and friends and drop it in the location of a retail copy of Cogmind.
It will use the fastest possible native language your CPU supports to decode the game audio and would be the fastest theoretical speedup, but it won't work on most machines other than your own.
One can verify my builds on the forum with the CFLAGS: "-msse4.1 -O3 -ffast-math". If you build it around the time I did, it should be bit-for-bit exact on a Windows 11 (and probably W10) machine.
This generally applies to all my mods, see the post above for the special case of SDL 1.2 or check the readme on my GitHub project.
To get the tools you need:
https://www.msys2.org
Open a Mingw32 terminal
Code: [Select]
pacman -Syu mingw-w64-i686-toolchain curl mingw-w64-i686-libogg make
curl https://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/xiph/releases/vorbis/libvorbis-1.3.7.tar.gz | tar xz
cd libvorbis-1.3.7/
CFLAGS='-march=native -O3 -ffast-math' ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --build=x86_64-w64-mingw32
make -j8 # replace 8 with your CPU core count
cp lib/.libs/*.dll "/c/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Cogmind/"
This will compile a version of libvorbis and friends and drop it in the location of a retail copy of Cogmind.
It will use the fastest possible native language your CPU supports to decode the game audio and would be the fastest theoretical speedup, but it won't work on most machines other than your own.
One can verify my builds on the forum with the CFLAGS: "-msse4.1 -O3 -ffast-math". If you build it around the time I did, it should be bit-for-bit exact on a Windows 11 (and probably W10) machine.
This generally applies to all my mods, see the post above for the special case of SDL 1.2 or check the readme on my GitHub project.
12
General Discussion / Re: Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2007-2013+)
« on: February 20, 2022, 05:19:44 PM »
For those interested in the loading time mod, I offer a new build (this time with debug symbols included!)
AVX is for most modern CPUs (2013+). If your CPU does not support it (rare!) the game will harmlessly crash a few seconds into load.
I went from 20 seconds to 10 seconds load time on my Ryzen 7 5800X. Significant! It's an AVX2 processor.
Similarly, an Intel i7 from 2017 got down to 8 seconds, as did my 2020 i7 MacBook Pro.
Note: I previously offered an AVX2 build but it wasn't any faster than normal old AVX so there's only one release to keep it simple.
Edit: download removed as no longer relevant
AVX is for most modern CPUs (2013+). If your CPU does not support it (rare!) the game will harmlessly crash a few seconds into load.
I went from 20 seconds to 10 seconds load time on my Ryzen 7 5800X. Significant! It's an AVX2 processor.
Similarly, an Intel i7 from 2017 got down to 8 seconds, as did my 2020 i7 MacBook Pro.
Note: I previously offered an AVX2 build but it wasn't any faster than normal old AVX so there's only one release to keep it simple.
Edit: download removed as no longer relevant
13
General Discussion / Re: Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2013+)
« on: February 19, 2022, 06:08:32 PM »what systems do you reckon these enhancements apply to? [...] there was no real difference in startup time for me
TL;DR: It's for old machines, try the builds below for speedups on modern machines
Now that I test it more, I think this is for emulated systems under Wine, though there are benefits to be had on machines from 2013+ that are less and less obvious on machines more modern. There's overhead when doing some of the basic decoding math that only uses i686-compatible instructions when under so-called "transpiled environments". In addition, think of older processors like an Intel Core Duo, they're going to be chugging doing basic floating point decoding with the old vorbis DLLs.
A modern Ryzen 7? It eats floating point math for breakfast. But if you use intrinsic SSE4.1 support to extend how much data that Intel Core Duo can process to 2 or even 4-wide floating point matrix operations, it's suddenly loading the game much faster. I had a unique case under Rosetta 2 on my Mac where I got the 7 minutes down by ~1300%, but that was because the unaligned memory access of basic decoding incurred massive overhead on every random file load.
The only difference between these DLLs and the ones shipped by Xiph is they won't run on something like a Pentium 4 anymore -- they're using a more expressive/efficient set of assembly instructions that has been evolving for the last few decades. On my Intel Atom Cherry Trail ASUS T100-HA laptop, a little 10" powerhouse from 2013 that runs Cogmind like a dream with the SSE4.1 CPU blitting mod, I went from 60 seconds of loading time to 30 seconds.
14
General Discussion / Re: Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2013+)
« on: February 18, 2022, 05:07:59 AM »
Faster loading times are here!
[EDIT]: Below info is outdated, but the new DLL attached here is what you want
Try the later AVX build if your machine was made after 2013 or is not Apple Silicon.
The game ships a real old libvorbis-0.dll that doesn't have modern optimizations enabled.
I'm down from 7 minutes on my M1 MacBook to 30 seconds. It's ~100% faster now on older Intel-compat PCs (<2013).
Drag and drop and overwrite per usual.
Sources can be obtained from Xiph. I compiled with -O3 -msse4.1 -ffast-math
Note: The original release was accidentally empty, sorry about that! This new release also includes debug symbols.
[EDIT]: Below info is outdated, but the new DLL attached here is what you want
Try the later AVX build if your machine was made after 2013 or is not Apple Silicon.
The game ships a real old libvorbis-0.dll that doesn't have modern optimizations enabled.
I'm down from 7 minutes on my M1 MacBook to 30 seconds. It's ~100% faster now on older Intel-compat PCs (<2013).
Drag and drop and overwrite per usual.
Sources can be obtained from Xiph. I compiled with -O3 -msse4.1 -ffast-math
Note: The original release was accidentally empty, sorry about that! This new release also includes debug symbols.
15
General Discussion / Re: Unofficial Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] DirectX, OpenGL, AVX2/SSE4
« on: February 13, 2022, 07:34:23 AM »
Cogmind with Software (CPU) Blitting using SSE4.1 and AVX2 is now available!
Fastest option out there on Windows! No hacks needed, drag and drop
Note: it's also attached to the first post
What does that mean? If you have a CPU from 2013 or later this will get you free performance under load and at idle. If your CPU is older than that... you still get free performance! Isn't that great?
JellySquid and a number of other talented programmers worked with me to create this build of SDL. I have gone from 15 FPS under stress at 4k on my Ryzen 7 5800X to 77 FPS. Yeah. Crazy.
YMMV, have fun! Sources are on my github.
https://github.com/aronson/SDL-1.2
Note: This new stable release also includes debug symbols
Fastest option out there on Windows! No hacks needed, drag and drop
Note: it's also attached to the first post
What does that mean? If you have a CPU from 2013 or later this will get you free performance under load and at idle. If your CPU is older than that... you still get free performance! Isn't that great?
JellySquid and a number of other talented programmers worked with me to create this build of SDL. I have gone from 15 FPS under stress at 4k on my Ryzen 7 5800X to 77 FPS. Yeah. Crazy.
YMMV, have fun! Sources are on my github.
https://github.com/aronson/SDL-1.2
Note: This new stable release also includes debug symbols
16
Support / [GUIDE] How to stream Cogmind
« on: January 27, 2022, 06:11:52 PM »
How to stream Cogmind (macOS and Windows)
So, you wanna stream the best roguelike out there? Here's my setup on Windows and macOS, I hope it helps you.
Note: Some of this is paid software! I will link free alternatives where I can, but you're on your own to make them work. The internet has a vast wealth of resources
The Core: Open Broadcaster Software
Everyone and their grandma is using OBS to stream these days. It's Free (as in beer, not as in puppies) Open Source Software.
https://obsproject.com/
Notes for all users:
Follow the tutorial after install. I suggest using a twitch.tv account. There is a wealth of tutorials on basic OBS mechanics on YouTube.
You'll be put in a studio-like environment where one creates "Scenes" that are composed of "Sources" layered on the "Canvas" in the center of the application.
Users will see what you place on the canvas. I suggest adding a source for "Desktop"
Most users will only need one scene. I personally have three -- one for Cogmind streaming (in Desktop capture mode), one for Window capture, and one for transitions that loops a video by our Discord resident and streamer Runia.
Create at least one source in your default scene that captures your entire screen. Be mindful that others will see everything you can see on that screen.
It is possible to capture just the window on some systems -- your mileage may vary on newer Windows systems.
I highly suggest trying out my GPU support builds of Cogmind -- DirectX for Windows and OpenGL for macOS/Linux.
It can make your streaming experience faster on machines with less power.
https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1567.0
Notes for Windows Desktop users:
NVENC (hardware) stream encoding is often much faster than x264 encoding. It uses your GPU, at the cost of lower graphical quality at the same bitrate.
This is why people turn up their bitrate to 6000 mbps -- the highest twitch.tv will allow. Your mileage may vary.
Auto-Duck is an amazing software I use to both route audio from Cogmind to sound devices live (this is not supported in the retail application) and to add auto-ducking to my streams.
Auto ducking can also be obtained via OBS filters on your audio devices. Your side channel is the microphone.
Play around with delay, attack, and threshold and listen to yourself through the configurable "monitor device" in OBS or Auto-Duck, or take a recording and play it back.
https://auto-duck.com/
Note for users with a NVIDIA RTX series GPU who want a green screen or better audio
NVIDIA broadcast is an amazing piece of software. I use it on my Windows desktop to add a virtual green screen to my streams through a basic webcam.
It can be heavy on the GPU. You may want to use the x264 CPU encoder if using this while gaming with your GPU.
It also supports filtering noise from microphones, it's very useful. And if you have a supported card, it's free!
I've also heard rumors it can be run on older NVIDIA cards without RTX but I don't know how to do it.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/broadcasting/broadcast-app/
Notes for all Mac users
A system-wide audio plugin is required to capture audio on macOS. I have found great success in using Loopback, which retails for $100.
https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/
It, like Auto Duck above, comes with the added benefit of letting one route Cogmind's audio to any device they choose. You can route to a monitor device live.
Here is an example of my setup:
A free alternative is Blackhole as your sink device for Cogmind. You will need to have it selected when you boot Cogmind.
Note there is a subscription wall! I think there are builds on GitHub one can find as well.
https://existential.audio/blackhole/
Notes on green screen for Mac users
I don't have a formal green screen, so when I'm not using my desktop to stream I use the (paid) software XSplit VCam.
Note that they have many other associated apps that are expensive and I can't vouch for.
I just got the virtual webcam connected to OBS, set my background to 0x00FF00, and used a chroma key in OBS.
The free trial isn't too bad either.
https://www.xsplit.com/vcam/
Notes for M1 MacBook users
There are ARM native builds for OBS Studio in the thread below that are much faster. You will have to start from the end and go backwards to find newer builds.
I cannot vouch for the integrity or stability of these builds, though I can say that streaming on my base model M1 MacBook Air with one was a delight.
I suggest you choose the Apple HTV hardware encoder and set it to as high as you can for performance. The same caveats apply as for NVENC on Windows above.
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-on-apple-silicon.133606/
How do I get those follow and subscribe alerts like other streamers?
Coming soon...
Can you recommend any specific hardware?
I personally use these tools to stream:
I have also had great luck streaming on my M1 MacBook Air (8 GB model) while using native software and GPU support for Cogmind.
Streaming on an Intel MacBook was an okay experience without GPU support, but I can't recommend it.
So, you wanna stream the best roguelike out there? Here's my setup on Windows and macOS, I hope it helps you.
Note: Some of this is paid software! I will link free alternatives where I can, but you're on your own to make them work. The internet has a vast wealth of resources
The Core: Open Broadcaster Software
Everyone and their grandma is using OBS to stream these days. It's Free (as in beer, not as in puppies) Open Source Software.
https://obsproject.com/
Notes for all users:
Follow the tutorial after install. I suggest using a twitch.tv account. There is a wealth of tutorials on basic OBS mechanics on YouTube.
You'll be put in a studio-like environment where one creates "Scenes" that are composed of "Sources" layered on the "Canvas" in the center of the application.
Users will see what you place on the canvas. I suggest adding a source for "Desktop"
Most users will only need one scene. I personally have three -- one for Cogmind streaming (in Desktop capture mode), one for Window capture, and one for transitions that loops a video by our Discord resident and streamer Runia.
Create at least one source in your default scene that captures your entire screen. Be mindful that others will see everything you can see on that screen.
It is possible to capture just the window on some systems -- your mileage may vary on newer Windows systems.
I highly suggest trying out my GPU support builds of Cogmind -- DirectX for Windows and OpenGL for macOS/Linux.
It can make your streaming experience faster on machines with less power.
https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1567.0
Notes for Windows Desktop users:
NVENC (hardware) stream encoding is often much faster than x264 encoding. It uses your GPU, at the cost of lower graphical quality at the same bitrate.
This is why people turn up their bitrate to 6000 mbps -- the highest twitch.tv will allow. Your mileage may vary.
Auto-Duck is an amazing software I use to both route audio from Cogmind to sound devices live (this is not supported in the retail application) and to add auto-ducking to my streams.
Auto ducking can also be obtained via OBS filters on your audio devices. Your side channel is the microphone.
Play around with delay, attack, and threshold and listen to yourself through the configurable "monitor device" in OBS or Auto-Duck, or take a recording and play it back.
https://auto-duck.com/
Note for users with a NVIDIA RTX series GPU who want a green screen or better audio
NVIDIA broadcast is an amazing piece of software. I use it on my Windows desktop to add a virtual green screen to my streams through a basic webcam.
It can be heavy on the GPU. You may want to use the x264 CPU encoder if using this while gaming with your GPU.
It also supports filtering noise from microphones, it's very useful. And if you have a supported card, it's free!
I've also heard rumors it can be run on older NVIDIA cards without RTX but I don't know how to do it.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/broadcasting/broadcast-app/
Notes for all Mac users
A system-wide audio plugin is required to capture audio on macOS. I have found great success in using Loopback, which retails for $100.
https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/
It, like Auto Duck above, comes with the added benefit of letting one route Cogmind's audio to any device they choose. You can route to a monitor device live.
Here is an example of my setup:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Note there is a subscription wall! I think there are builds on GitHub one can find as well.
https://existential.audio/blackhole/
Notes on green screen for Mac users
I don't have a formal green screen, so when I'm not using my desktop to stream I use the (paid) software XSplit VCam.
Note that they have many other associated apps that are expensive and I can't vouch for.
I just got the virtual webcam connected to OBS, set my background to 0x00FF00, and used a chroma key in OBS.
The free trial isn't too bad either.
https://www.xsplit.com/vcam/
Notes for M1 MacBook users
There are ARM native builds for OBS Studio in the thread below that are much faster. You will have to start from the end and go backwards to find newer builds.
I cannot vouch for the integrity or stability of these builds, though I can say that streaming on my base model M1 MacBook Air with one was a delight.
I suggest you choose the Apple HTV hardware encoder and set it to as high as you can for performance. The same caveats apply as for NVENC on Windows above.
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-on-apple-silicon.133606/
How do I get those follow and subscribe alerts like other streamers?
Coming soon...
Can you recommend any specific hardware?
I personally use these tools to stream:
- Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, though my Ryzen 5 2600X worked just fine on Windows
- NVIDIA RTX 2060
- Astro A50 Gen 3 headset (PS4 edition)
- AmazonBasics webcam ($30)
- Two monitors, one for Cogmind, one for stream interaction
- The Twitch app on my phone for viewer interaction before I had a second screen
I have also had great luck streaming on my M1 MacBook Air (8 GB model) while using native software and GPU support for Cogmind.
Streaming on an Intel MacBook was an okay experience without GPU support, but I can't recommend it.
17
General Discussion / Re: Unofficial GPU support for Cogmind [BETAv2] DirectX and OpenGL
« on: January 27, 2022, 03:51:17 PM »
Keyboard fix for GPU mod on macOS
One can "just do it in the OS" with Karabiner-Elements, formerly known as KeyRemap4MacBook -- a free, open-source application that allows for complex scripting.
It can be obtained here
https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/
For a simple fix, press the "Add Item" button, choose "right_shift" and set it to "left_shift". Easy peasy! Included is a screenshot of how it should look when you're done.
Works great on my machine! I will learn how to apply it to only CrossOver, and hopefully only COGMIND.EXE at some point. This works for me for now, I hope it helps others!
One can "just do it in the OS" with Karabiner-Elements, formerly known as KeyRemap4MacBook -- a free, open-source application that allows for complex scripting.
It can be obtained here
https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/
For a simple fix, press the "Add Item" button, choose "right_shift" and set it to "left_shift". Easy peasy! Included is a screenshot of how it should look when you're done.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Works great on my machine! I will learn how to apply it to only CrossOver, and hopefully only COGMIND.EXE at some point. This works for me for now, I hope it helps others!
18
Support / Re: Cogmind on M1, possible?
« on: January 22, 2022, 07:12:40 PM »
Wanted to follow up again, I have built the library Cogmind uses to draw on the screen to include DirectX 9 (technically 5) support.
https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1567.msg9956
The second download in this link works great. Right click your bottle, "Browse C: drive", and overwrite the Cogmind SDL.dll file and drop in the second file next to it.
I'd also like to suggest the ideal Crossover settings:
- First, navigate to "View" >> "show bottles", then right click your Steam (or Cogmind) bottle.
- Select all options under "Settings" except for "Default" (up to you) and "High Resolution Mode" (unless you have a 4k screen and are aware what this does)
- The last option (Enhanced Performance Synchronization) is up to you, but I found it made a difference with how quickly the game actually rendered
- Click on "Install a Windows Application"
- Install "DirectX for Modern Games"
With all of these changes, I hit a solid and unwavering 30 FPS that rises up to 200 FPS sometimes. The experience is rock-solid at 1080p as well as 4k on my M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM) with CrossOver. No more expensive Parallels!
https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1567.msg9956
The second download in this link works great. Right click your bottle, "Browse C: drive", and overwrite the Cogmind SDL.dll file and drop in the second file next to it.
I'd also like to suggest the ideal Crossover settings:
- First, navigate to "View" >> "show bottles", then right click your Steam (or Cogmind) bottle.
- Select all options under "Settings" except for "Default" (up to you) and "High Resolution Mode" (unless you have a 4k screen and are aware what this does)
- The last option (Enhanced Performance Synchronization) is up to you, but I found it made a difference with how quickly the game actually rendered
- Click on "Install a Windows Application"
- Install "DirectX for Modern Games"
With all of these changes, I hit a solid and unwavering 30 FPS that rises up to 200 FPS sometimes. The experience is rock-solid at 1080p as well as 4k on my M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM) with CrossOver. No more expensive Parallels!
19
Support / Re: How to build Cogmind open source libraries
« on: January 22, 2022, 11:47:51 AM »
I figured it out, you just have to use mingw32 in highly specific ways listed here: https://how-to.fandom.com/wiki/How_to_setup_a_Simple_Direct_Media_Layer(SDL)_build_environment#Windows:_MinGW
20
Support / Re: How to build Cogmind open source libraries
« on: January 16, 2022, 05:55:47 AM »
Hey Kyzrati, thanks for dropping those sources! I've noticed that SDL builds made like this have an issue after about 20 seconds of gameplay where the SDL mixer buffer throws an exception trying to free the audio resource.
Would it be possible for us to get a pointer to the sources for libvorbis-*.dll and the like? I have a feeling all the FOSS libraries need to be built with the same toolchain for SDL to be pluggable.
Would it be possible for us to get a pointer to the sources for libvorbis-*.dll and the like? I have a feeling all the FOSS libraries need to be built with the same toolchain for SDL to be pluggable.
21
General Discussion / Performance Mods for Cogmind [STABLE] OpenGL, modern CPUs (2007-2013+) (4k res)
« on: January 04, 2022, 11:37:26 PM »
EDIT: Loading time also improved with separate mod
EDIT 2: You must register for the forum to see attachments on posts (and download them)
The CPU mod can be downloaded here https://github.com/aronson/SDL-1.2/releases
The "GPU" mod can be downloaded here https://github.com/aronson/sdl12-compat/releases
Hello fellow Cogminders, would you like to get anywhere between 20-400+% measurable FPS speedups on your machine?
I can make Cogmind draw on your screen faster (FPS++)!
I have found the source code to and made numerous modifications to the SDL.dll file powering the graphics for the game.
Are you running on an older/slower machine, Wine on Linux, or macOS?
Or might you be streaming Cogmind on Twitch.tv or recording it with a program like OBS or even the built-in Windows recording feature for games?
Do you have a computer that chugs a little bit now and then when you pan the map with shift and mouse aggressively? If it lags in this situation, it probably lags in other situations too. One that comes to mind is those beautiful win animations -- you rarely see them, but on WINE on regular ol' Linux you might have a 15 FPS experience as you hit that lovely high note if you have a computer from around 2014, not 2022, and you have your own reasons for not running Windows.
One can display an FPS counter with Ctrl+F3 in the titlebar and above your core to track FPS as you play, if you feel it's lagging a little bit compared to other video games on your machine.
If any of these situations apply to you, I highly suggest you try out my experimental builds of the Simple DirectMedia Library (SDL) attached to these posts with your copy of Cogmind. You can unzip these files and drop the DLLs contained within next to Cogmind. Note, this will overwrite your original files! Please either rename them to something like SDL.dll.bak first so you can restore them later, or you can click "validate local files" in Steam through the game's properties to return to the official Cogmind CPU renderer.
Please do not run random DLLs off the internet
After half a decade working as a cybersecurity engineer in network forensic analysis for a US department of defense contractor, I urge you, do not run binary files like DLL's and EXE's from sources you don't trust.
Source code is linked here
CPU mod: https://github.com/aronson/SDL-1.2
"GPU" mod: https://github.com/aronson/sdl12-compat https://github.com/aronson/SDL/tree/cog-sdl2
Original sources provided by Kyzrati: https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1566
Don't report new bugs to Kyz if you use this
I'm very interested in new bugs, but if you use this who knows what will happen. I have a pretty good idea -- massive speedups for a lot of use-cases that are outside of Cogmind but make sense in 2022 when we are running operating systems with multi-tasking. If something weird happens, restore the old DLLs and try it again first. If you see a difference, great, feel free to let me know and I'll see what I can do If you don't see a difference and it's buggy, well, nothing to do with me!
There is a memory leak of like a few bytes, that's why it's in the archive name. It doesn't compound unless you change the window size or borderless fullscreen/etc. setting as far as I understand, but I have not yet fixed it.
EDIT 2: You must register for the forum to see attachments on posts (and download them)
The CPU mod can be downloaded here https://github.com/aronson/SDL-1.2/releases
The "GPU" mod can be downloaded here https://github.com/aronson/sdl12-compat/releases
Hello fellow Cogminders, would you like to get anywhere between 20-400+% measurable FPS speedups on your machine?
I can make Cogmind draw on your screen faster (FPS++)!
I have found the source code to and made numerous modifications to the SDL.dll file powering the graphics for the game.
Are you running on an older/slower machine, Wine on Linux, or macOS?
Or might you be streaming Cogmind on Twitch.tv or recording it with a program like OBS or even the built-in Windows recording feature for games?
Do you have a computer that chugs a little bit now and then when you pan the map with shift and mouse aggressively? If it lags in this situation, it probably lags in other situations too. One that comes to mind is those beautiful win animations -- you rarely see them, but on WINE on regular ol' Linux you might have a 15 FPS experience as you hit that lovely high note if you have a computer from around 2014, not 2022, and you have your own reasons for not running Windows.
One can display an FPS counter with Ctrl+F3 in the titlebar and above your core to track FPS as you play, if you feel it's lagging a little bit compared to other video games on your machine.
If any of these situations apply to you, I highly suggest you try out my experimental builds of the Simple DirectMedia Library (SDL) attached to these posts with your copy of Cogmind. You can unzip these files and drop the DLLs contained within next to Cogmind. Note, this will overwrite your original files! Please either rename them to something like SDL.dll.bak first so you can restore them later, or you can click "validate local files" in Steam through the game's properties to return to the official Cogmind CPU renderer.
Please do not run random DLLs off the internet
After half a decade working as a cybersecurity engineer in network forensic analysis for a US department of defense contractor, I urge you, do not run binary files like DLL's and EXE's from sources you don't trust.
Source code is linked here
CPU mod: https://github.com/aronson/SDL-1.2
"GPU" mod: https://github.com/aronson/sdl12-compat https://github.com/aronson/SDL/tree/cog-sdl2
Original sources provided by Kyzrati: https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1566
Don't report new bugs to Kyz if you use this
I'm very interested in new bugs, but if you use this who knows what will happen. I have a pretty good idea -- massive speedups for a lot of use-cases that are outside of Cogmind but make sense in 2022 when we are running operating systems with multi-tasking. If something weird happens, restore the old DLLs and try it again first. If you see a difference, great, feel free to let me know and I'll see what I can do
If you don't see a difference and it's buggy, well, nothing to do with me!22
Support / How to build Cogmind open source libraries
« on: January 03, 2022, 03:48:46 AM »
What
Recently I have come upon modern understanding (as of this post) of how to satisfy the Lesser GNU Public License clause of Cogmind's associated SDL 1.2.14 binary that was built against an old toolchain many years ago. You should be able to generally apply this to other SDL helper libraries if necessary.
Why
This post is intended for archival in the distant future when historians seeking to plug Cogmind into their latest hyperreality gamestation's graphics layer run into problems because of how Cogmind manages its memory across heaps, at least as of Cogmind b11 X9 (a patreon pre-release build). I believe this is included in Cogmind only due to its use of REX, but I don't really get how it all works in the end.
How
Without further ado, this works on a modern Debian machine, and I was able to apply this on an M1 Macbook Air running the latest macOS and mingw-w64 toolchain. Huge thanks to user Daid of the Roguelikes Discord for putting this together! What a cute cat they have in their profile picture
The last command is demonstrative of the need for this assembly configuration workaround.
Further information
If you are a developer interested and aware of the implications of SDL hooking, I welcome you to join the Roguelikes discord community where I am working on a Cogmind AI/TAS. A later post in this forum somewhere appropriate will link to the sources for this project if and when it is in a state I deem interesting.
Binary Archival
Attached to this post would be a copy of SDL source code that can also be used in the event the git remote specified above goes out of service. But the forum limits me to 1MB. It's a 5MB archive. I'll see what I can do.
Recently I have come upon modern understanding (as of this post) of how to satisfy the Lesser GNU Public License clause of Cogmind's associated SDL 1.2.14 binary that was built against an old toolchain many years ago. You should be able to generally apply this to other SDL helper libraries if necessary.
Why
This post is intended for archival in the distant future when historians seeking to plug Cogmind into their latest hyperreality gamestation's graphics layer run into problems because of how Cogmind manages its memory across heaps, at least as of Cogmind b11 X9 (a patreon pre-release build). I believe this is included in Cogmind only due to its use of REX, but I don't really get how it all works in the end.
How
Without further ado, this works on a modern Debian machine, and I was able to apply this on an M1 Macbook Air running the latest macOS and mingw-w64 toolchain. Huge thanks to user Daid of the Roguelikes Discord for putting this together! What a cute cat they have in their profile picture
Code: [Select]
$ git clone git@github.com:libsdl-org/SDL-1.2.git
$ cd SDL-1.2/
$ git checkout release-1.2.14
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --disable-directx --disable-assembly --build=x86_64-w64-mingw32
$ make -j 12
$ file ./build/.libs/SDL.dll
./build/.libs/SDL.dll: PE32 executable (DLL) (console) Intel 80386, for MS Windows
$ daid@MSI:~/SDL-1.2$ i686-w64-mingw32-objdump -x ./build/.libs/SDL.dll | grep DLL
DLL
vma: Hint Time Forward DLL First
DLL Name: ADVAPI32.dll
DLL Name: GDI32.dll
DLL Name: KERNEL32.dll
DLL Name: msvcrt.dll
DLL Name: USER32.dll
DLL Name: WINMM.DLL
DLL Name: libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
The last command is demonstrative of the need for this assembly configuration workaround.
Further information
If you are a developer interested and aware of the implications of SDL hooking, I welcome you to join the Roguelikes discord community where I am working on a Cogmind AI/TAS. A later post in this forum somewhere appropriate will link to the sources for this project if and when it is in a state I deem interesting.
Binary Archival
Attached to this post would be a copy of SDL source code that can also be used in the event the git remote specified above goes out of service. But the forum limits me to 1MB. It's a 5MB archive. I'll see what I can do.
23
Support / Re: Cogmind on M1, possible?
« on: December 24, 2021, 03:54:39 PM »
Hey wanted to follow up, Parallels put out an update a week or three ago that increased graphics performance. On my M1 MacBook Air it's playing at 100-150 FPS, never dipping below 60 FPS. It's just about perfect now
24
Ideas / Re: Steam Achievement Ideas
« on: November 27, 2021, 11:20:34 AM »
Never punished: travel 20+ unstable tiles without a cave in
25
Support / Re: Cogmind on M1, possible?
« on: November 19, 2021, 07:58:19 PM »
What's up gamer, Luigi here. I wanted to share some more thoughts on how to get this set up:
- The game takes a while to load. I've been playing b11 which has a new loading screen, but on b10 expect to wait 5-10 minutes, literally, before the game responds. It loads all the assets up front and the sound assets can take quite a while. It'll act like it's just plain frozen while it loads. If you're patient, you can load it up in WINE too, but it won't run great like I mentioned X)
- Set parallels to gaming mode when configuring the VM
- Adjust the memory of the VM down to 4GB, with Cogmind running it will have about 300-600MB free/cached to work with. You want all the CPU cores you can give it, for virtualized OS stability IMHO -- YMMV, it only seems to max 2-3 cores while emulating in complex scenes
- The display options for resolution all have quirks. Scaled is the best IMHO,but it breaks your ability to take screenshots with Cmd+Shift+4. Retina is pointless if you're running at half res, and will make your cursor tiny. Kyz assures me I can fix this but I'm lazy -- might be worth a shot to restore the screenshot crop tool. For external displays acts similar to scaled.
- Half (quarter) resolution makes this game playable at a speed that I can't tell isn't 60FPS except once in a blue moon. I'm probably going to be using my laptop instead of my desktop for this now
- There is a weird audio crackling issue if you overload the host OS. I experience it when I'm tabbing out of the VM into Discord to chat sometimes, but it seems to clear itself up when the game is in focus after a few seconds. If you experience this, I'd love help hunting down what causes it.
If you have any more questions, ask away!
EDIT: I fixed the screenshot issue by changing the mouse mode to "Don't optimize for games". The scaling options don't matter other than what effect they have on your cursor and Windows desktop experience. I haven't noticed an issue with the mouse optimization off; I play a mix of keyboard and mouse mode. I'd say on the Mac laptops I prefer keyboard mode. Definitely make sure the keyboard setting is "Optimize for games" -- it makes a noticeable difference in input lag for me when using modifier keys.
EDIT 2: I got some hands-on time with an M1 Pro 2021 MacBook Pro. Cogmind runs amazingly on it. I made a benchmarking suite for myself and put it through its paces. I'm seeing 60-120 FPS easily in the most complex endgame scenarios. I'd say the M1 Pro (or Max, won't make a difference here) is a better option to play. This is all at the 4k native resolution on this machine.
- The game takes a while to load. I've been playing b11 which has a new loading screen, but on b10 expect to wait 5-10 minutes, literally, before the game responds. It loads all the assets up front and the sound assets can take quite a while. It'll act like it's just plain frozen while it loads. If you're patient, you can load it up in WINE too, but it won't run great like I mentioned X)
- Set parallels to gaming mode when configuring the VM
- Adjust the memory of the VM down to 4GB, with Cogmind running it will have about 300-600MB free/cached to work with. You want all the CPU cores you can give it, for virtualized OS stability IMHO -- YMMV, it only seems to max 2-3 cores while emulating in complex scenes
- The display options for resolution all have quirks. Scaled is the best IMHO,
- Half (quarter) resolution makes this game playable at a speed that I can't tell isn't 60FPS except once in a blue moon. I'm probably going to be using my laptop instead of my desktop for this now
- There is a weird audio crackling issue if you overload the host OS. I experience it when I'm tabbing out of the VM into Discord to chat sometimes, but it seems to clear itself up when the game is in focus after a few seconds. If you experience this, I'd love help hunting down what causes it.
If you have any more questions, ask away!
EDIT: I fixed the screenshot issue by changing the mouse mode to "Don't optimize for games". The scaling options don't matter other than what effect they have on your cursor and Windows desktop experience. I haven't noticed an issue with the mouse optimization off; I play a mix of keyboard and mouse mode. I'd say on the Mac laptops I prefer keyboard mode. Definitely make sure the keyboard setting is "Optimize for games" -- it makes a noticeable difference in input lag for me when using modifier keys.
EDIT 2: I got some hands-on time with an M1 Pro 2021 MacBook Pro. Cogmind runs amazingly on it. I made a benchmarking suite for myself and put it through its paces. I'm seeing 60-120 FPS easily in the most complex endgame scenarios. I'd say the M1 Pro (or Max, won't make a difference here) is a better option to play. This is all at the 4k native resolution on this machine.
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