Graphical performance hit when drawing text
I've been testing FG's performance on my laptop, hoping I could find some way to improve it, but haven't had much luck. I understand this is probably not something that can be fixed, at least not easily. The FGC engine uses DirectX9 and the Intel HD Graphics 620 chip in this likely just isn't optimized for that. I'm patient and can wait for FGU, which will probably fix this naturally.
Or, maybe there's some adjustment the devs can make/suggest that will help? It can't hurt to post what I found in the hopes that there is something that can be done!
So, on to the details...
I had noticed that with a few windows open in FG, the frame rate of just about everything in FG would drop considerably (not just the 3d dice, but even just dragging windows around). My first thought was that I probably had too many images open, but after playing around for a while, images don't seem to affect the performance much at all. If I open *every* image in the DMG Maps module, but no other windows, FG still runs smooth as silk. But, if I instead open a single story entry with more than a few lines of text, frame rate goes to hell. It seems like drawing text is quite intensive.
This is a fresh install and a fresh campaign. Default theme, no extensions or modules open (except the DMG Maps module when I was testing with images). Latest graphics driver. Clean system.
I made a quick video to demonstrate the performance hit that drawing text has on this system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHVtZHijaWw
As you can see, performance is good when there's not a lot of text, or when the text is not actively being re-drawn (not being dragged around or nothing passing in front of it). When there's a lot of text moving or has something passing in front of it, performance drops significantly.
I've tried just about every variation of settings in the Intel Graphics Settings control panel app. No changes there made any noticeable difference. I also have my laptop's power settings jacked up to best performance.
I did the same test on my gaming PC and it's always nice and smooth no matter what I throw at it, but that system is a different animal altogether. Either its nVidia card is better at DX9 or its sheer power hides any such symptoms (probably both are true). But, it's not at all convenient to bring the gaming PC to where I play, so I'm hoping to improve how it works on the laptop.
Also, please save the comments about the crappy Intel GPU. These GPUs are quite common in laptops and perform surprisingly well in modern games (within reason). It can certainly handle a few paragraphs of text. This laptop serves me quite well for every other use, and it's not worth buying another laptop just for FG. :)
Some details about the laptop, in case it makes a difference:
Lenovo X270 from late 2017
Intel Core i5-7300U 2.6GHz CPU
8 GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 620 GPU with the latest driver currently available from Lenovo (version 23.20.16.4973)
1366x768 resolution (native for this screen)
512 GB SSD
Windows 10 build 1709
Fantasy Grounds 3.3.5A (visible in the chat box in the video, but kinda hard to see)