Moving Forward
 

My question is, how many people actually use V6?

As a developer, I find using the newest version is needed to move forward.

Although, some of the testers that come to my server seem to have issues with some of the features my game provides. The first question I ask is 'Do you use V6?'

100% of them say no...

In the future, will it ever be required to use the new updated version of the Graal client?

The non-native player-list and changes to the way font is displayed has put off a lot of players from upgrading to the new version, others also have performance issues which is odd.

I swear, vast majority of Graal players are stuck with their late 90's computers or $200 laptops.

Are you implying Graal isn't poorly written? It's common knowledge that Graal is the most inefficient program in the world.

I run it very well now, even in situations where I'm doing very resource-intensive stuff. On a good system, V6 runs quite nicely.

While true enough, it shouldn't have to be in a developers mind in 2013 to cater their program to work and support those crazy people who never updated a single thing from 1995. Technology is evolving so rapidly that even something from early 2000's is considered outdated and no longer supported. Honestly, why should Graal be held to any different standard?

Because tons of people have performance issues and it prevents people from doing anything interesting with the Graal engine?

Don't use something from 1995 to test it on and you should be set? I've not had a single issue with V6 on either of my PC's, one being from 2006, my primary being custom built in 2012 for super performance, so I can't attest to any complaints I've heard with performance issues on V6, but if my old hunk of junk from a stock 2006 computer catalogue can handle V6 as it was intended, then maybe people are complaining for the wrong reasons and should instead be revising their computer specs compared to modern day standards or even their hardware configuration (Something as simple as AntiAliasing can make games flip out, not something inside the computer itself).

graal should run smoothly on any pc post-2001 considering how little has visually changed since then -.-

but it used to strangely lag on my new laptop in 2008 so who knows

Soooo, back to my question... Is it going to be required in the future to use V6?

Many of the performance issues people face on v6 do not exist on v5. I've heard many, many reports from players with modern hardware running XP or 7 that run v5 flawlessly and v6 with very low framerates. Sometimes switching to OpenGL will fix that, sometimes not. Even people with brand-new computers occasionally have problems.

I tried compiling a list of hardware that was having trouble to attempt to identify the issue (a certain OS? graphics card? processor? ???) but couldn't find any pattern.

It strikes me much more as a compatibility issue rather than a raw power issue.

(FWIW, I've never had these types of issues on any device I've ever had, which is odd considering how common they are)

I think a 200 dollar laptop could run Graal just fine (at least a current day 200 laptop)
I had a computer from early 2000s with XP that ran Graal just fine with no issues as well.

Also agreed with Chris, it's more then likely a compatibility issue.

Over the years, I've ran Graal on close to 10 different machines. The only one that it lagged on was a stationary from 1999 and a shitty laptop from 2004. I seriously don't understand how people get Graal to lag on their computers.

No it's cool, don't answer my question lol.

Well Brokk, we don't work for Graal. Anything we say is just a guess.

That's true. I just assume you all have all the answers. haha

I considered answering but since V6 has been so many years in the making, I wasn't sure what to say since nothing is definitive. Rather than work on guesses though, let's work on how it's gone in the past:

Following through on previous trends, I would imagine it would become required if it ever gets finished and standardised, because that would obviously make sense. But at this stage, it doesn't look to be anywhere near becoming required, as V6 is easily classed as 'unfinished'. Random lagginess aside, it's yet to prove itself as a worthy replacement or upgrade.

v6 gives too many advantages for developers. Servers should locally disable access from v5.

Should've been easy to figure.

Some do, some don't.

The answer is most likely, yes. They did it before (try logging on with a 2.x client), why not do it now?

A bit old, but what we do on UN (or are going to start doing with upcoming releases) is limit access to things that we know don't work properly on v5. So things like sparring that run much smoother on v5 according to most players, can continue to be used for that, but for anything that bugs up, players will have to be on the v6 client. Pain in the ass, but that's the only way to cater to the players that are annoyed with the reported bugs in v6. We have it disabled for any newer players and/or trial and guest accounts to limit the huge amount of hacking that goes on with v5 clients.
So unless your server is in any way classic and has sword sparring, I'd suggest to just demand all players use the v6 client to log on.