Thanks balamacab,

6. Change the way the java garbage collector works and minimize the small random lockups the game had while playing (incremental garbage collector).

This is probably the biggest one I see here. Many people would be happy to get rid of the constant short pauses and if this really does fix it then I'm glad we can finally do something to address it.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tech/vmoptions-jsp-140102....

Sounds awesome. I was figuring there was some way to optimize the game through changing settings somewhere, I just never thought about switches on the shortcut itself.

Hah, and even if I did, I know nothing about Java switches to end up where you got lol.

I was hopeful about -Xincgc, but it doesn't do much. I get noticeably better fps with the 64-bit JRE, but significant loading lag every time an enemy or animation is loaded.

My Info.plist has no such key, and I see little indication that it would be honored. It appears to be set to just run Contents/MacOS/Script, which has the command line switches hardcoded. Maybe it differs by OS version, or how SK was installed?

Any way to do any of these tweaks on the Steam version? On Win 7 x64, and I have the 64-bit JRE installed, but don't see any way to make Steam see that.

Never mind, I got it working. :P

Haven't had time to go into clockworks, but I do notice the mineral deposit comes up instantly instead of taking 5 seconds. :P

I'm not running with the increased GB parameters though, seeing as I have less the 1 GB RAM on my system, there's barely enough memory to run SK as it is. :x

Is there anything like this available for playing through steam on a mac?

@ScareCrow18 see my answer and Trouserman's answer...

All the macs I've installed the game on have the Info.plist call java and thus can set VMOptions, but it appears to depend on the way you installed the game...

I tried to copy the bin folder from C:\Program Files\Java\jre6 to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\spiral knights\java_vm of steam on to get an error.

How would i properly install the java in to the steam folder? also would i be including " -Xverify:none -Dsun.java2d.accthreshold=0 -XX:LargePageSizeInBytes=8m -XX:+AggressiveOpts -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=128m -XX:CompileThreshold=1800 -server -Xincgc -XX:+UseParNewGC -Xms1g -Xmx4g" to the launch options as well?

thanks in advance!

This issue with Steam is going to need dev feedback. I'm able to get 64-bit binaries to launch the game using the resource files from a steam install using a batch file ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\spiral knights\java_vm\bin\javaw.exe" -jar getdown-pro.jar .) The game launches, but lacks the Steam login options.

If I try to launch it through steam, the javaw.exe never appears to execute (or terminates so fast resource monitor never sees it). Same thing happens if I add an improper switch to the batch file I made. I suspect steam is handing additional switches at launch, and something isn't compatible, leading it to quit before doing anything.

6. Change the way the java garbage collector works and minimize the small random lockups the game had while playing (incremental garbage collector).
"C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\javaw.exe" -server -Xincgc -Xms1024m -Xmx2048m -jar getdown-pro.jar .

Upon further testing, this doesn't seem to have any effect on the stuttering.

@starlinvf

If I try to launch it through steam, the javaw.exe never appears to execute (or terminates so fast resource monitor never sees it). Same thing happens if I add an improper switch to the batch file I made. I suspect steam is handing additional switches at launch, and something isn't compatible, leading it to quit before doing anything.

Indeed it does. They're in the getdown.txt file, and thus processed before any launch options you had on (though for me, I only had one option, -Xmx, which conflicted...and I simply had a message when I logged onto a character saying "Unknown command -Xmx1024m" or something like that for me). For convenience, though, here's the main one you might have wanted different options for:

-Xmx256M

And, if you edit getdown.txt or digester.txt, they'll get redownloaded as they fail validification....so, yeah, I'm not seeing a way to change that right now. However, I'm not sure what was causing it to not load for you.

Edit: Also, forgot to mention, that even running it with all the command line stuff from the getdown.txt (the command line options are also in the launcher.log file), it still doesn't launch via steam, so you can't do steam login that way.

Randomly setting runtime flags based on a poor understanding of the Java VM is a great way to cause unexpected bugs. However, all you've collectively managed to do is figure out how to make the updater run REALLY FAST!!1! (except not really since the updater is most likely network-bound which the memory tweaks suggested will not help). None of the command line changes mentioned will have any effect on how the game itself plays. The only exception is specifying a 64-bit JVM instead of the default 32-bit JVM; the updater seems to use the same JVM it was called by to run the actual game software.

The game can be launched directly with specific VM flags but it's still not a good idea. prjdgmr's post mentions the JVM options in getdown.txt. This is proof that OOO's software engineers made a conscious decision to set runtime flags that they wanted clients to use. Chances are, you are not smarter than OOO's developers. There are better avenues to suggest features and report bugs if you really think the garbage collection stalls need to be addressed.

If you still think you're smarter than OOO then be warned that doing so may get you in trouble. Using a custom command line to run the game with tweaked JVM flags can easily lead to a version mismatch between your local client files and a more recent update. It's not up to my interpretation to decide if this is in violation of the Terms of Service (restriction #13). Again, I would personally advise to err on the side of caution and not attempt it in the first place.

I actually just tested this out and it seems like adding the extra arguments don't do anything if the "-jar getdown-pro.jar ." is included.

As of this post, the current command line used is:

-classpath [InstallDir].\code\config.jar;[InstallDir].\code\projectx-config.jar;[InstallDir].\code\projectx-pcode.jar;[InstallDir].\code\lwjgl.jar;[InstallDir].\code\lwjgl_util.jar;[InstallDir].\code\jinput.jar;[InstallDir].\code\jshortcut.jar;[InstallDir].\code\commons-beanutils.jar;[InstallDir].\code\commons-digester.jar;[InstallDir].\code\commons-logging.jar -Dcom.threerings.getdown=true -Xmx256M -XX:+AggressiveOpts -XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB=10 -Djava.library.path=[InstallDir]./native -Dorg.lwjgl.util.NoChecks=true -Dsun.java2d.d3d=false -Dappdir=[InstallDir]. -Dresource_dir=[InstallDir]./rsrc com.threerings.projectx.client.ProjectXApp

Example Batch:

@echo off
CD /d "[JavaDir]"
start javaw.exe -server -Xincgc -classpath [InstallDir].\code\config.jar;[InstallDir].\code\projectx-config.jar;[InstallDir].\code\projectx-pcode.jar;[InstallDir].\code\lwjgl.jar;[InstallDir].\code\lwjgl_util.jar;[InstallDir].\code\jinput.jar;[InstallDir].\code\jshortcut.jar;[InstallDir].\code\commons-beanutils.jar;[InstallDir].\code\commons-digester.jar;[InstallDir].\code\commons-logging.jar -Dcom.threerings.getdown=true -Xmx256M -XX:+AggressiveOpts -XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB=10 -Djava.library.path=[InstallDir]./native -Dorg.lwjgl.util.NoChecks=true -Dsun.java2d.d3d=false -Dappdir=[InstallDir]. -Dresource_dir=[InstallDir]./rsrc com.threerings.projectx.client.ProjectXApp

I heard there was a nasal spray to help increase performance.

It does run, Stardrinker, it just wasn't launched by Steam....meaning that you can't login if you use your Steam account to login. Using the "Set Launch Options" as tleilaxu pointed out, you can add the options like -server and -Xincgc, you just can't change/replace the -Xmx256. That was the point I was trying to make.

The thing I wanted to point out was that just setting things like -server and -Xincgc won't stick if you don't launch it the long way, as per my above post. If the "-jar getdown-pro.jar ." is there then any other arguments are ignored. This info is from testing the stand-alone version of the game, I assume the same problem would exist with the steam version as well.

And you can actually replace the -Xmx256m but it means you have to use the batch method. If you look at the arguments in the long version in my post, you'll see that it's been manually set there.

Stardrinker's method doesn't work for me under linux. I correctly repaced [InstallDir] but it returns permissions error.

Nevermind, I got it working.

@OnmyoujiOmn
Thanks for your excellent post based on careful research, as always.

Your argument is strongly supported by the contents of getdown.txt, launcher.log, and comments of other posters in this thread such as Stardrinker. Oh wait, all of those disagree?! How does it feel to be wrong?

My interpretation of the contents of getdown.txt and launcher.log taken in the context of digest.txt goes something like this:

• standard Spiral Knights shortcut executes getdown-pro.jar which downloads the latest getdown.txt from the Spiral Knights servers
• some code in getdown-pro.jar compares md5 hashes of locally stored content with the server's versions of the files (crossreferencing digest.txt)
• if necessary, getdown-pro.jar downloads new versions of those files (including a new getdown-pro.jar)
• ~filesystem magic~
• getdown-pro.jar reads the JVM arguments for the game client and executes a new JVM instance

By using Stardrinker's method of adding JVM flags to the game client, you are bypassing the automatic update process which can very easily lead to version mismatch. If you really want to be right, then sure, "these arguments" you were referencing do not affect what files are used because I chose not to divulge the full command line required to modify JVM's memory management settings for the game client. You win!

@prjdgmr
I could be wrong about the command line arguments passed to getdown-pro.jar having no effect on the game client, but you're gonna have to give better evidence than a half-remembered anecdote (which you may or may not be able to replicate). The evidence from the launcher itself does not agree with your story.

I believe that you know your system specs well, I really do, but you seem to have the idea that since you have 4 gigabytes of memory (maybe, I don't know your specs), a program using only 500MB is not at Max Performance. So you've figured out a huge command line with Performance settings you copy/pasted from the Internet and now your game has taken the full 4 gigabytes of memory. High Performance Computing at its finest! You win too! (btw, i'm posting this from Firefox 2; just thought i'd mention that)

-Xverify=none deals with how the JVM loads class files, not with how the update or game client deals with their data files. Why would you use a command line flag posted on a public forum of non-experts without double-checking what it does? That sounds pretty dangerous to me. Maybe I'll elaborate on that in another post if this thread continues to entertain me.

I believe that you know your system specs well, I really do, but you seem to have the idea that since you have 4 gigabytes of memory (maybe, I don't know your specs), a program using only 500MB is not at Max Performance. So you've figured out a huge command line with Performance settings you copy/pasted from the Internet and now your game has taken the full 4 gigabytes of memory. High Performance Computing at its finest! You win too! (btw, i'm posting this from Firefox 2; just thought i'd mention that)

Increasing the limit past 500 MB will improve performance (meaning it wasn't at max performance to begin with), provided that the game can utilise it, which it can.

Oh wait, all of those disagree?! How does it feel to be wrong? Maybe I'll elaborate on that in another post if this thread continues to entertain me. You win!

You should get out of this habit of responding with snide remarks. You want to assert your opinion that you are superior to the people on this forum with your snobbish undertones but then you stoop to such low levels to express it.

I got it running under linux. Now I am effectively running the game with the incremental GC and a cap of 900mb of memory (I can confirm this by using Sun's VisualVM). I will post my results after some further testing.

Good find starlinvf. I just copied in my Java 64-bit in my steam account and Spiral Knights fired right up once the overlay was disabled.