Happy Saturday, Everyone!
I dug into the game's rendering and discovered a lot of room for optimization. Many of the models in the game were being rendered individually instead of in batches, causing the game to waste time on unnecessary draw calls.
To put the problem in perspective, before I got started I was seeing an advanced world with a population of 100 take about 25 milliseconds to render. After taking some time to make sure that GPU instancing was used to render as many objects as possible in single batches, that same world now renders in 4 milliseconds. I think I'll be able to improve performance more beyond this, but I figured I should push an update now because this should already be enough to make the game run at 60 fps on many people's machines.
That's it for now! I'll be back next weekend with more optimizations, and hopefully some improvements to art and effects, too.
-Pouchmouse
A tiny band of settlers land on a remote planet. With you as their leader they will either build a new civilization, or be consumed by the foul creatures which inhabit the furthest reaches of space.
In Poly Universe worlds are tiny but numerous. Be strategic in laying out your cities to maximize the limited space available on each world. Balance industry and residential buildings to keep your citizens happy. But don't neglect the defenses necessary to keep them safe! Here in the outer edge of the known universe, danger can arrive at any moment, and when it does it arrives in full force.
Establishing trade routes between worlds will allow your planets to specialize and share resources, pushing the boundaries of your civilization even further outwards. But always keep an eye on the health, happiness, and education of your citizens -- with nowhere to receive reinforcements from, your citizens are ultimately your most valuable resource.
MINIMAL SETUP
OS: Ubuntu 14.04
Processor: Dual Core 2 GHzMemory: 2 GB RAM
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel HD 4600 (AMD or NVIDIA equivalent)
Storage: 500 MB available space
RECOMMENDED SETUP
OS: Ubuntu 12.04+ or SteamOS+
Processor: Intel Core i5 or higherMemory: 4 MB RAM