Luanti: test runs | Walnut Games

Played sessions

Testing is done with Walnut's rating tool (walnut-rate, on the console): how ratings are made and submitted.

Same in every session: Walnut 0.1

Date	Launcher	Game build	Platform builds that differ	Rules	Play	Ended	Picture
2026-10-29	Luanti	luanti 5.15.2+dfsg-2+ps3.1124~dev20261029153146	Linux kernel 6.12.111+ps3.874 Mesa 26.2.4-1+ps3.924 ps3rsx 0.924+k6.12.111+ps3.874	2.3	11 min	quit	ok	Details
2026-10-24	Luanti	luanti 5.15.2+dfsg-2+ps3.786	Linux kernel 6.12.111+ps3.747 Mesa 26.2.4-1+ps3.721 ps3rsx 0.735+k6.12.111+ps3.747	1.0	8 min	quit	ok	Details

Download all sessions as CSV (one row per session, the aspects as columns)

Rating history

The rating on each version it was tested on, newest first: each row is rated from that version's sessions alone, under the newest rules those sessions have the data for.

Version	Tested	Medal	Rules	Frame rate	Smoothness	Sound	Picture	Stability	Controls	Display	Features	Load	Play
Walnut 0.1 luanti 5.15.2+dfsg-2+ps3.1124~dev20261029153146	2026-10-29	Rust · 60	2.3	10	-	99	100	91	100	85	100	92	0.2 h 1 test
Walnut 0.1 luanti 5.15.2+dfsg-2	2026-10-24	Scrap · 56	1.0	22	-	96	100	90	-	-	-	98	0.1 h 1 test

Scripted benchmarks

Not rated: tests of driver and game changes. A script plays the same scene on the PS3 again and again (the desktop stopped, vsync off) to compare two builds of the game or of the graphics driver. The numbers say which build is faster; they never feed the medal.

How the script plays it: Luanti 5.15.2 with Minetest Game: a fixed flight over terrain generated from a fixed seed.

The recipe's full description

Luanti 5.15.2 (our build, LuaJIT, ppc64) with Minetest Game (luanti-game-minetest): a fixed flight over terrain generated from a fixed seed. A server-side mod can't count frames, so the world mod ps3bench (assets/luanti-ps3bench) only makes every run the same: it holds the player at the start for 15 s while the first blocks are generated and meshed, logs "ps3bench: path start", flies 45 s (240 nodes north looking down, then a full turn), logs "ps3bench: path end" and shuts the game down. fps from the Gallium HUD from the "path start" line (the load time includes the 15 s hold; parse prints joined=, Luanti's own stamps from its first log line to the join). Steady state: the path is flown 4 times (ps3bench_loops; the mod logs "path loop K"), 180 s after the hold. WARMUP=45 from "path start": the hold and the first loop (60 s after joining, the fresh world's first terrain generated) don't count; the HUD window is loops 2-4 (MEASURE=135), the same terrain flown again (generated by then; blocks the server or client unloaded come back). World and config live in /var/tmp/ps3-bench/luanti (the player's ~/.minetest worlds and minetest.conf are untouched). The world is made new for every run, so each run generates the same terrain (mapgen CPU time counts, as for a player exploring); variant saved keeps the last map. The mod also logs the process's memory every 5 s; parse() turns it into mem_* keys (KiB). The other variants (below) change one memory or load-stall lever each; the game's technical.md has the reasoning, the sizes assumed for each, and the measurements.

57 variants of the recipe

`base` stands for the game	the recipe as it is, without a variant
`saved`	the map from the previous run: loaded from disk instead of generated
`nopp`	post-processing off (on by default: the scene goes through an FBO)
`mip`	mipmapping on (off by default): Mesa generates the levels on the GPU
`chunk3`	Mapgen. The built-in server generates a whole chunk at a time (chunksize 5 = 80^3 nodes) inside a voxel manipulator that is one block larger on every side (7^3 blocks: 5.6 MB of nodes, 1.4 MB of flags, 343 MapBlocks of 16 KB created in the map), with v7's two 3D noises kept for good (2 x 4.2 MB) and the cave noises made and freed per chunk (2 x 4.2 MB): ~30 MB at the peak, all touched for every chunk. chunksize 3 (48^3) is ~8 MB. A world-creation setting (a new world here): the terrain's shape is the same, trees and ores near chunk borders differ; the border is a bigger share of each chunk (5^3 blocks processed per 3^3 instead of 7^3 per 5^3), so generation costs more CPU per node.
`srvunload`	The server keeps a block 29 s after the last time it was wanted (generated chunks include blocks nobody is sent: out of view, air, underground) and saves it on unloading. 8 s keeps what the flight is still using (the active and send ranges refresh the timer).
`active2`	Blocks within active_block_range (default 4: 9^3 = 729 blocks) are loaded from the database and kept alive for ABMs and mobs; 2 is 5^3 = 125 (Luanti's own Android default).
`gen3`	Generate no further than 3 blocks (48 nodes) from the player; blocks beyond that are sent only when they already exist (chunks generated whole still reach ~4 blocks further). Far terrain appears later or only as the player comes closer: watch for gaps at the edge of the view.
`io`	Save less often and without a full fsync per commit (sqlite_synchronous 1 = NORMAL, Android's value, instead of FULL; map_save_interval 15 s instead of 5.3). The PS3's disk takes one command at a time, so a world save can hold up page faults.
`cliunload`	Client map. The client keeps every block it was sent that is within the view range of the camera (all around, not only the frustum) and the others for client_unload_unused_data_timeout (600 s) up to client_mapblock_limit (7500 blocks, "about 120 MB" says the source) or the number of blocks in a view-range sphere, whichever is larger (3600 at the default range 190, 268 at 60): a 45 s flight cannot show this, a 10 minute session can. 15 s makes the flight drop what it left behind (about 60 nodes behind after ~9 s) and so shows the saving; blocks seen again are re-sent.
`leaves`	Every block's mesh is kept twice: S3DVertex (36 B, 4 per quad) and u16 indices in Irrlicht's CPU buffer, and the VBO. Fancy leaves draw every face between leaf nodes; simple draws only the outer ones (Android's default). Changes the look of trees.
`tradeoff`	smooth_lighting asks for 26 neighbours to be re-meshed whenever a block arrives, 6 without it (performance_tradeoffs keeps the lighting and re-meshes 6; edges may be wrong for a moment).
`flatlight`	-
`nominimap`	The minimap thread, its per-block copy (2 KB a block) and the mesh thread's scan for it.
`view40`	Fewer blocks everywhere (about the square of the range): 40 and 90 around the 60 of the base.
`view90`	-
`view120`	-
`view190`	-
`nomerge`	Stalls while blocks arrive. renderMap merges every mesh buffer of under 300 vertices of the visible blocks into new buffers (copy, new VBO with EHM_STREAM), cached by the exact set of buffers: while blocks arrive or the camera turns the set changes and the merge is redone, with VBOs of up to 65535 vertices (2.3 MB) created and destroyed, in a driver and memory where both are expensive. 0 turns it off (more draw calls); 100 merges only the smallest.
`merge100`	-
`meshdelay`	The mesh thread sleeps this many ms after each mesh ("reduces jitter on slower clients"): leaves the two hardware threads to the renderer and the server while blocks arrive.
`meshchunk2`	One mesh and one buffer set per 2^3 blocks: an eighth of the VBOs and draw calls, but a block arriving re-meshes eight.
`noraycull`	Occlusion culling by raycasts in the render thread, every time the draw list is rebuilt.
`prof`	Luanti's own profiler (the F6 numbers: updateDrawList, renderMap's collecting and drawing, merged buffers and their cache hit rate, blocks drawn, mesh queue) printed every 5 s into a log file at info level on the disk ($LU_DIR, not the run directory in RAM), gzipped into the run directory as luanti-debug.txt.gz after the run. For a diagnosis, not for fps: info level logs more.
`v120prof`	-
`v120nice`	-
`v120srv10`	the server dropping blocks it has not used for 10 s instead of 29 (4128 server blocks in memory at 120, about half the heap): less to swap, more blocks loaded again from the world database. luanti 0011 (ps3.1125 on) makes 10 the default: v120srv29 is its off-switch, v120old both 0010's and 0011's (the game as ps3.1123 ran it), v120srv5 a shorter timeout still
`v120srv29`	-
`v120srv5`	-
`v120old`	-
`v120nonice`	luanti 0010 (ps3.1124 on) sets nice 10 inside the engine (LU_NICE, default 10): v120nonice is the game as before it, the off-switch for the same-boot A/B
`v120mesh2`	two mesh threads instead of one (Luanti's automatic count is a quarter of the CPUs, at least 1)
`malloc`	glibc's malloc. Threads have their own arenas, and a freed block inside one stays resident: dirty garbage the kernel swaps out. The mapgen's 2-8 MB arrays, the voxel manipulator and the mesh vectors are above the 128 KB mmap threshold only until the first big free raises it (up to 32 MB); with the threshold fixed they are mmapped and returned when freed. Luanti's own malloc_trim() (porting.cpp) waits until 256 MB were freed in all. Environment only, no rebuild.
`trim16`	Luanti's own malloc_trim() threshold (our luanti 0007, LU_TRIM_MB; 256 MB freed by default): the MEM=1 profile of 2026-10-18 had 23-28 MB free inside the arenas (18-22 MB in one thread arena), resident or swapped out (docs/MEMORY.md). Trims run in the emerge and mesh threads, not the renderer. The generic alternative for every game is run.sh MALLOC=trim (ps3-malloctrim.so).
`trim64`	-
`lean`	Combinations. lean: no change a player would notice (the view range and mapgen shape stay); leaner: also simple leaves, no minimap, no buffer merging, a mesh delay.
`leaner`	-
`allbatchoff`	Our luanti build's GL submission switches (gamedb/games/luanti/packages/luanti/patches 0004-0006, irr/include/LuGlOpt.h): all on in the base run, LU_GL=0 is the game as upstream draws it. On the host (llvmpipe, GL 2.1, the same flight) they take the GL calls from ~1180 to ~835 a frame and the buffer bytes uploaded from ~32 KB to ~16 KB a frame; each variant turns one off (or all, allbatchoff).
`nodupup`	-
`nobind`	-
`noxform`	-
`noptr`	-
`nofog`	-
`noskin`	-
`nosky`	-
`nomatreuse`	-
`allog`	-
`b16`	-
`f44`	-
`b16f44`	-
`p1024`	-
`alnull`	-
`f32`	-
`lin`	-
`nosound`	-
`menu`	-
`freshmenu`	the main menu on an empty configuration: the package's own defaults (0008 fullscreen, 0009 viewing range 60)

Conditions: what a variant adds to the recipe (its environment switches) and what ran alongside (the stall recorder, a profiler). Rows marked invalid or not comparable say why. The other numbers, the build and the run length are under "All numbers" in each batch.

What the run length means

"warm-up + 120 s" is a steady-state run, which leaves out a 60 s warm-up and measures 120 s or more; "whole run" counted everything from the start, the way runs before 2026-10-17 did.

Suite summary

2026-10-20 · batch suite-summary-2026-10

Purpose: The 13 benchmarked games (15 rows) with their known numbers, the rules-1 calibration of the rating formula (docs/GAMEDB.md "Calibration", tools/gamedb/score.py). Each value names its source: a batch's cell, or the suite table of docs/games/README.md where the number is a reading or a range (no single cell holds it). Stutter is the stall seconds over the 2-minute window; load unmeasured, stability assumed clean, picture and display right.

Row	ram_free MiB	vram MiB	fps_steady frames a second	stall_play_s seconds	low1_play frames a second	longest_play_ms ms	sound_faults_per_min faults a minute	Picture, sound
Luanti base	19	63	46.0	3.5	19.1	724	0	right, no underruns

Mesa ps3.924 + kernel .874, luajit ps3.931~dev (0002), luanti ps3.1124~dev (0010, 0011 at 5 s)

2026-10-29 · batch 2026-10-29-luanti-shipped · 8 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`v120old`	LU_NICE=0 stall recorder at 10 ms	21	4.3	185
`v120old`	LU_NICE=0 stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	20	4.0	201
`view120`	stall recorder at 10 ms	38	16.7	14
`view120`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	34	13.1	24

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`v120old`	fps whole run 24 cpu 314.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 11.8 MiB vram 83.7 MiB longest_ms 1409.0 ms stall_disk_s 0.9 seconds stall_swap_s 8.2 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.5 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 21.6 seconds stall_play_s 30.9 seconds longest_play_ms 1409.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`v120old`	fps whole run 23 cpu 311.9 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 13.2 MiB vram 78.6 MiB longest_ms 1453.0 ms stall_disk_s 1.1 seconds stall_swap_s 9.9 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.1 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 23.2 seconds stall_play_s 37.1 seconds longest_play_ms 1453.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view120`	fps whole run 41 cpu 326.2 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 12.3 MiB vram 70.0 MiB longest_ms 209.8 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.5 seconds stall_play_s 1.8 seconds longest_play_ms 209.8 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view120`	fps whole run 38 cpu 318.5 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 16.4 MiB vram 69.3 MiB longest_ms 819.7 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.6 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.2 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 2.4 seconds stall_play_s 5.0 seconds longest_play_ms 819.7 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: 3 rounds alternating, same boot, stall recorder on, every run fullscreen 1920x1080, no interference. - Shipped build: 38 fps steady (38-39), 1% low 16.7, 1.8 s of stalls in 135 s (1.3-2.4), longest frame 210 ms, swap stalls 0.1 s, the game's swap at the end 49-53 MB. - Both off: 21 fps (19-21), 1% low 4.3, 30.9 s of stalls (30.8-35.1), longest 1409 ms, swap stalls 8.2 s, 97-105 MB of swap. - Pictures: the shipped build's 100 s shot shows the world (the mountain ahead, sea, sky). The 60 and 150 s shots of both builds and the old build's 100 s shot are black, and the 20 s warm-up shots grey with a black hand. - The flight path runs through a mountain: the camera is in rock (black) or in blocks not generated yet (grey), the same for both builds.

Mesa ps3.924 + kernel .874, luajit ps3.931~dev (0002), luanti ps3.1124~dev (0010, 0011 at 10 s)

2026-10-29 · batch 2026-10-29-luanti-srvunload · 11 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`v120old`	LU_NICE=0 stall recorder at 10 ms	21	4.7	175
`v120srv29`	stall recorder at 10 ms	31.0	8.9	56.0
`v120srv5`	stall recorder at 10 ms	38	16.9	8
`view120`	stall recorder at 10 ms	34	13.2	25

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`v120old`	fps whole run 25 cpu 310.4 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 10.6 MiB vram 80.8 MiB longest_ms 1426.0 ms stall_disk_s 0.6 seconds stall_swap_s 7.5 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.4 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 21.7 seconds stall_play_s 31.6 seconds longest_play_ms 1426.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`v120srv29`	fps whole run 35.5 cpu 312.9 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 11.3 MiB vram 81.9 MiB longest_ms 784.1 ms stall_disk_s 0.4 seconds stall_swap_s 2.4 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.3 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.1 seconds stall_cpu_s 6.0 seconds stall_play_s 9.3 seconds longest_play_ms 784.1 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`v120srv5`	fps whole run 40 cpu 327.7 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 14.2 MiB vram 70.4 MiB longest_ms 345.2 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.0 seconds stall_play_s 1.2 seconds longest_play_ms 345.2 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view120`	fps whole run 37 cpu 322.6 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 12.4 MiB vram 74.2 MiB longest_ms 236.2 ms stall_disk_s 0.0 seconds stall_swap_s 0.5 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.1 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 2.6 seconds stall_play_s 3.8 seconds longest_play_ms 236.2 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: 3 rounds alternating, same boot, stall recorder on. The screenshot was moved into the warm-up at 30 s, because a capture costs 1-3 s of stalls at this load. - Both on (10 s): 34 fps steady, 1% low 13.2, 3.8 s of stalls in 135 s (3.3-4.4), longest frame 230-800 ms. - Both off (the game as ps3.1123 ran it): 21 fps, 1% low 4.7, 31.6 s of stalls (26.7-35.0), longest up to 2.8 s. - 0011 off (29 s): 31 fps, 1% low 9.0, 9.1-9.6 s of stalls. One run left out: a system service ran during it. - 5 s timeout: 38 fps, 1% low 16.9, 1.2 s of stalls (1.1-2.2), swap stalls 0.1 s. - The game's swap at the end: 50-56 MB at 5 and 10 s against 80-101 MB at 29 s. - Every run fullscreen 1920x1080, the world drawn in every screenshot, no input or SSH interference.

Mesa ps3.924 + kernel .874, luajit ps3.931~dev (0002), luanti ps3.1124~dev (0010: background threads at nice 10)

2026-10-29 · batch 2026-10-29-luanti-nice · 12 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`v120mesh2`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	28	7.1	78
`v120nonice`	LU_NICE=0 stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	20	4.2	177
`v120srv10`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	35	11.1	33
`view120`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	30	8.5	65

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`v120mesh2`	fps whole run 31 cpu 309.6 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 12.0 MiB vram 80.8 MiB longest_ms 795.9 ms stall_disk_s 0.2 seconds stall_swap_s 2.8 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 9.4 seconds stall_play_s 12.8 seconds longest_play_ms 795.9 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`v120nonice`	fps whole run 23 cpu 312.8 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 11.6 MiB vram 83.8 MiB longest_ms 1218.0 ms stall_disk_s 0.4 seconds stall_swap_s 5.8 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.5 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 22.3 seconds stall_play_s 30.1 seconds longest_play_ms 1218.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`v120srv10`	fps whole run 38 cpu 320.9 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 14.3 MiB vram 71.6 MiB longest_ms 546.4 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.7 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.3 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 3.4 seconds stall_play_s 5.3 seconds longest_play_ms 546.4 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view120`	fps whole run 34 cpu 306.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 10.7 MiB vram 80.4 MiB longest_ms 516.4 ms stall_disk_s 0.2 seconds stall_swap_s 2.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.9 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 7.3 seconds stall_play_s 10.7 seconds longest_play_ms 516.4 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: 3 rounds alternating, same boot, stall recorder on, every run fullscreen 1920x1080, no interference, the world drawn in every 100 s screenshot. - With 0010: 30 fps steady (27-31), 1% low 8.5, 10.7 s of stalls in 135 s, longest frame 516 ms. The threads showed nice 10. - Without it: 20 fps, 1% low 4.2, 30.1 s of stalls, longest 1218 ms. - Two mesh threads: worse, 28 fps and 12.8 s of stalls. - Server unloading after 10 s: the best. 35 fps (34-35), 1% low 11.1, 5.3 s of stalls (3.5-6.2), swap stalls 0.7 against 2.1 s, lowest free memory 14.6 against 11.0 MB, the game's swap at the end 57-65 MB against 77-105.

Mesa ps3.924 + kernel .874, luajit ps3.931~dev (0002), luanti ps3.1123, background threads reniced

2026-10-29 · batch 2026-10-29-luanti-renice · 8 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`v120nice`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	30	8.4	66
`v120prof`	stall recorder at 10 ms perf recording screenshots in the window	14	2.1	242
`view120`	stall recorder at 10 ms perf recording screenshots in the window	14	3.2	307
`view120`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	20	4.1	183

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`v120nice`	fps whole run 34 cpu 313.4 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 10.8 MiB vram 79.3 MiB longest_ms 811.3 ms stall_disk_s 0.2 seconds stall_swap_s 2.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 8.1 seconds stall_play_s 10.2 seconds longest_play_ms 811.3 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`v120prof`	fps whole run 19 cpu 299.9 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 18.9 MiB vram 79.0 MiB longest_ms 2669.0 ms stall_disk_s 1.4 seconds stall_swap_s 17.3 seconds stall_reclaim_s 11.1 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 25.5 seconds stall_play_s 58.7 seconds longest_play_ms 2669.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view120`	fps whole run 17 cpu 298.8 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 15.2 MiB vram 80.5 MiB longest_ms 2017.0 ms stall_disk_s 0.7 seconds stall_swap_s 16.8 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.2 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 36.7 seconds stall_play_s 55.9 seconds longest_play_ms 2017.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view120`	fps whole run 23 cpu 309.2 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 11.0 MiB vram 83.6 MiB longest_ms 1937.0 ms stall_disk_s 0.7 seconds stall_swap_s 9.3 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.2 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 23.3 seconds stall_play_s 35.1 seconds longest_play_ms 1937.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Two profiled runs first (their fps don't count). In the 55.9 s of stall frames the main thread was on the CPU only 22% of the time (46% in the other frames). MeshUpdate (28%), the kernel's swapper kswapd0 (27%), Emerge-0 (25%) and Server (14%) held the two PPE threads. - The server held 4128 map blocks; malloc had 152-177 MB in use. - Plain against background threads at nice 10, 3 runs each, alternating: 20 against 30 fps steady, 1% low 4.1 against 8.4, 35.1 against 10.2 s of stalls in 135 s, longest frame 1937 against 811 ms, swap stalls 9.3 against 2.1 s. - Every run fullscreen 1920x1080, no interference, only system services running beforehand. - The world was drawn in every screenshot. The one black frame (seen in the previous batch too) is most likely the camera inside the mountain the flight path crosses: Luanti blacks out the screen when the camera is inside a solid block.

Mesa ps3.924 + kernel .874, luajit ps3.931~dev (0002), luanti ps3.1025

2026-10-29 · batch 2026-10-29-luanti-view120 · 4 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	46	16.8	30
`view120`	stall recorder at 10 ms screenshots in the window	20	4.0	203

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 47 cpu 254.8 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 11.7 MiB vram 61.1 MiB longest_ms 500.5 ms stall_disk_s 0.2 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 2.9 seconds stall_play_s 4.5 seconds longest_play_ms 500.5 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view120`	fps whole run 24 cpu 309.0 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 12.3 MiB vram 81.4 MiB longest_ms 1602.0 ms stall_disk_s 0.5 seconds stall_swap_s 9.4 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.4 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 25.4 seconds stall_play_s 36.2 seconds longest_play_ms 1602.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: Same boot, stall recorder on, every run fullscreen 1920x1080, no interference, only system services running beforehand. - Viewing range 120: 20 fps steady (19-20), 1% low 4.0 (3.9-4.3), 36 s of frames over 100 ms in the 135 s window (35.7-41.0), longest frame 1.0-3.8 s. - Viewing range 60: 46 fps, 1% low 16.8, 4.5 s of stalls, longest frame 500 ms. - One 120 run showed a black world with only the HUD at its 100 s screenshot, read then as meshes not caught up. The next batch traced such frames to the camera passing through a mountain.

Mesa ps3.924 + kernel .874, luajit ps3.931~dev (0002)

2026-10-28 · batch 2026-10-28-luanti-view190 · 2 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms	46	18.0	14
`view190`	stall recorder at 10 ms	15	3.0	318

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46 cpu 249.4 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 21.2 MiB vram 61.0 MiB longest_ms 272.8 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 2.0 seconds stall_play_s 2.3 seconds longest_play_ms 272.8 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view190`	fps whole run 18 cpu 311.9 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 10.6 MiB vram 90.5 MiB longest_ms 641.8 ms stall_disk_s 0.5 seconds stall_swap_s 13.2 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.2 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 41.0 seconds stall_play_s 55.8 seconds longest_play_ms 641.8 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: One run each, same boot, stall recorder on. - Viewing range 190: 15 fps steady, 1% low 3.0, 56 s of frames over 100 ms in the 135 s window (318 stalls, the main thread on the CPU, swapping through the VRAM), 129 MB resident, 93 MB VRAM. - Viewing range 60: 46 fps, 1% low 18, 2.3 s of stalls, 118 MB resident, 62 MB VRAM.

RT mixer: RTPRIO=10 against RTPRIO=0 (OpenAL's mixer on SCHED_RR) on OpenArena, Yamagi Quake II and Luanti base x3 (kernel .874)

2026-10-28 · batch 2026-10-28-rtprio-openal · 18 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	real-time priority 0	46	19.8	10
`base`	real-time priority 10	45	20.9	8

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 47 cpu 254.9 seconds underruns 0 underruns longest_ms 1764.0 ms stall_play_s 4.1 seconds longest_play_ms 1764.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`base`	fps whole run 46 cpu 252.1 seconds underruns 0 underruns longest_ms 1022.0 ms stall_play_s 2.6 seconds longest_play_ms 1022.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: 18 runs, rounds alternating the order, none interfered. Every run fullscreen at 1920x1080, with a screenshot 40 s after the load. - No audible dropout in either arm. Inaudible gaps: 4 without the limit (Luanti 3, up to 102 ms; Yamagi 1, 67 ms), 1 with it (Yamagi, 7 ms). - OpenArena, without against with: 68.55 against 68.3 fps steady, 1% low 37.5 against 36.6. - Yamagi Quake II: 86.8 against 86.3 fps (the ranges don't overlap). - Luanti: 46 against 45 fps (HUD), 1% low 19.8 against 20.9, stall time 4.1 against 2.6 s. - 20 live runs outside the harness (OpenArena and Quake III with bots) agree: no gain, a small fps cost. - Extreme Tux Racer and Armagetron were left out: their recipes need a virtual input device that was not installed (the runs sat in menus), and neither plays through OpenAL.

batch ssdroot8 Mesa 0038 force-DXT on the rest of the suite: Luanti and ClassiCube off/opaque/opaque+NEAREST, OpenArena gl2min and gl2min_tc0 off/opaque, SuperTuxKart lean opaque/all (SSD root .472 Mesa ps3.545~dev)

2026-10-20 · batch 2026-10-20-ssdroot8-force-dxt · 24 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms switch force_dxt_stats50	46.5	17.4	17.5
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms switch force_dxtopaque_force_dxt_nearest1_force_dxt_stats50	46.0	16.4	20.5
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms switch force_dxtopaque_force_dxt_stats50	46.0	17.1	17.5

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46.5 cpu 245.7 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 23.2 MiB vram 62.4 MiB longest_ms 370.9 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.2 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.4 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.5 seconds stall_play_s 3.2 seconds longest_play_ms 370.9 ms	Kernel ps3.472, Mesa ps3.545~dev the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`base`	fps whole run 46.5 cpu 241.9 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 23.0 MiB vram 62.0 MiB longest_ms 486.9 ms stall_disk_s 0.2 seconds stall_swap_s 0.5 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.3 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.8 seconds stall_play_s 3.9 seconds longest_play_ms 486.9 ms	Kernel ps3.472, Mesa ps3.545~dev the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`base`	fps whole run 46.5 cpu 243.0 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 21.1 MiB vram 60.9 MiB longest_ms 459.3 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.2 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.5 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.4 seconds stall_play_s 3.3 seconds longest_play_ms 459.3 ms	Kernel ps3.472, Mesa ps3.545~dev the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: 24 runs, compression statistics on in every arm, none interfered, webcam picture right in all. - Luanti: nothing compressed (every upload is an empty texture filled later). Peak VRAM 62.4 MiB off, 60.9 opaque, 61.9 opaque with nearest filtering; 46.5, 46.0 and 46.0 fps; stalls 3.3, 3.3 and 3.9 s; load about 25 s. Equal within the noise. - ClassiCube: nothing compressed (textures under 64 px, or kept for nearest filtering or alpha). VRAM 60.1 MiB in every arm, 47.2-47.3 fps, no stalls. - OpenArena opengl2: nothing compressed (formats the switch doesn't take). 61.8 fps off against 62.1 opaque, VRAM 114-117 MiB in both. With the game's own compression off, still nothing: 58.6 against 58.9 fps at 145-149 MiB. - SuperTuxKart: opaque compresses nothing again (the game already compresses its opaque textures). 'all' takes 182 textures to DXT5 (52-53 MB sent as 13 MB). - SuperTuxKart, opaque against all: peak VRAM 95.5 against 58.1 MiB (-37 MiB, -39%), 20 against 20.5 fps, 1% low 11.3 against 11.4, stalls 1.8 against 1.4 s, load 28.1 against 28.4 s. Free RAM 26-32 MiB in both: the saving is VRAM, not RAM. - Picture: SuperTuxKart's photos with 'all' show the same track and kart, with no blockiness at the webcam's resolution. DXT5's loss on fine detail can't be judged by a webcam. - OpenAL wedged in 9 of the 24 runs, in off arms too, without changing their fps.

batch ssdroot2 P1b: gameplay profiles on the SSD root (PERF=1 MEM=1 x1)

2026-10-19 · batch 2026-10-19-ssdroot2-gameplay-profiles · 7 runs in the batch (all games)

Not comparable: gameplay profiles (PERF=1 MEM=1), slower than plain runs.

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base` not comparable	perf recording	46	15.7	24

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46 cpu 253.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 18.2 MiB vram 61.1 MiB longest_ms 491.3 ms stall_play_s 5.2 seconds longest_play_ms 491.3 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot, one run per game, perf at 499 Hz over the window. Profiled runs are for profiles, not fps (OpenArena 56 against 60 unprofiled). - Share of the game process's samples: - BananaBread: Mesa 62.8%, the GPU kernel driver 4.8, the game 10.5. - ClassiCube: Mesa 41.2, kernel 20.1, the GPU kernel driver 7.1. - SuperTuxKart: the game 36.5, Mesa 35.5, libc 15.1. - OpenArena: the game 27.6, Mesa 23.1, other 20.4 (OpenAL 12.4, libdeflate 3.9). - Luanti: the game 47.2 (its mesh-update thread 20.7% of all samples), Mesa 14.6, libc 13.7. - dsda-doom: Mesa 22.3, the game 20.5, audio 30 (FluidSynth 15, libspeq 12). - OpenTTD: kernel 49.5 (36.7 replaying deferred interrupts, 8.3 page table invalidation, 5.1 clearing GPU memory mappings when buffers are created), audio 17. It ran at its title screen (a menu, not gameplay: 18 fps, 4172 underruns). - Mesa has no symbols in these profiles (to be resolved on the PC later). SuperTuxKart's fps is the HUD's.

batch ssdroot2 P1a: start-up profiles on the SSD root (PERF_LOAD=1 STALLS=1 x1)

2026-10-19 · batch 2026-10-19-ssdroot2-startup-profiles · 5 runs in the batch (all games)

Not comparable: start-up profiles (PERF_LOAD=1 STALLS=1), slower than plain runs.

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base` not comparable	stall recorder at 10 ms start-up profile	46	20.5	9

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46 cpu 253.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 18.4 MiB vram 63.4 MiB longest_ms 541.2 ms stall_disk_s 0.2 seconds stall_swap_s 0.4 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.1 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.7 seconds stall_play_s 2.3 seconds longest_play_ms 541.2 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot as the SSD baseline, cold page cache, one run per game. - Time to the end of the loading screens, against the USB profiles of batch 17: BananaBread 7.7 s (19.8), OpenArena 14.2 (28.1), Luanti 26.1 (43.1), SuperTuxKart 31.5 (54.3), ClassiCube 7.5 (13.9). That is -39 to -61%. - The main thread's disk wait in the load fell from 4.8-18.6 s to 1.0-3.2 s (BananaBread 1.9, OpenArena 2.1, Luanti 3.0, SuperTuxKart 3.2, ClassiCube 1.0). - The main thread's CPU stayed about the same (BananaBread 3.9 s against 4.1, OpenArena 8.7 against 9.0, SuperTuxKart 23.8 against 22.5, ClassiCube 3.2 against 2.9). - So loads are now 47-77% CPU on the main thread, not fully CPU-bound: disk 13-26%, the rest GPU, memory reclaim, waiting to run and sleeps. - Biggest costs now: BananaBread zlib 1.6 s (inflating the map); OpenArena the game's own load path 3.9 s (shader scripts, mipmaps); Luanti map generation 8.6 s plus a 15 s hold; SuperTuxKart PNG 4.2, zlib 3.9, audio 2.2 and JPEG 2.1 s; ClassiCube the game 1.5 s and the dynamic linker 0.6 s. - Profiled runs are for profiles, not fps.

batch ssdroot1+2 A: baseline on the SSD root (kernel .472 Mesa .476 ps3rsx 0.443 ps3-gpu-tools 0.477~dev)

2026-10-19 · batch 2026-10-19-ssdroot1-baseline · 12 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms	46	19.1	11

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46 cpu 247.2 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 19.0 MiB vram 61.5 MiB longest_ms 724.1 ms stall_disk_s 0.3 seconds stall_swap_s 0.2 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.6 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.9 seconds stall_play_s 3.5 seconds longest_play_ms 724.1 ms	Kernel ps3.472, Mesa ps3.476, ps3rsx 0.443 the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot, kernel 6.12.111+ps3.472, root on the internal SSD (an upgraded SSD; a stock PS3 has a hard disk). - 5 of 17 runs left out as interfered (SSH logins, a key press, a polling loop at the batch switch). - Load against the USB root (other boots, older Mesa for some games): BananaBread 7.1 s against 16.9, OpenArena 6.9 against 10.7, Luanti 25.0 against 40.8, SuperTuxKart 31.1 against 53.6, ClassiCube 7.6 against 14.2. - The load's disk wait: 1.3-3.4 s against 5.5-10.9 s. - Gameplay stalls: BananaBread 0.05 s against 1.6, OpenArena 0.2 against 0.3, Luanti 3.5 against 2.5 (memory reclaim 1.6 s against 0.4), SuperTuxKart 0.2 s (one run). - Steady fps about the same: BananaBread 39.1 against 38.5, Luanti 46 against 46, SuperTuxKart 22 (HUD) against 20, ClassiCube 48.1 against 45.9 (falling to 46.1 later in the session with nothing changed). OpenArena gained: 60.4 against 55.9. - SuperTuxKart's own 'Average FPS' (105-111) is its physics tick rate (120 Hz for 180 s, 21602 ticks in every run), not rendered frames. Its fps cells are the HUD median from now on. - Photos show the right scenes. Luanti's photos at 60 and 150 s fall on the flight path's turn over the sea (cyan, no terrain), because the load is shorter than on USB: not a missing world. - Microphone: OpenArena audible; the other games mostly at the room-hum level.

batch 17: ETR uncapped, start-up profiles x5, shader cache cold/warm, OpenArena gl2 memory variants, Mesa sysmem switches, Sauerbraten shortnormals

2026-10-18 · batch 2026-10-18-batch17 · 29 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms start-up profile	47	17.8	16

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46 cpu 245.9 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 16.9 MiB vram 61.3 MiB longest_ms 445.3 ms stall_disk_s 0.6 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.3 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.5 seconds stall_play_s 2.9 seconds longest_play_ms 445.3 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot as batch 16 (kernel .433), ioquake3 462, Mesa 442~dev, cube2 442~dev. One BananaBread run with a key press left out. - OpenArena OpenGL 2 on ioquake3 462 (compact colours by default): steady 57-60 fps, stalls 0.7-2.6 s. On the 396 build in batch 16: 51-53 fps and 9-11 s. - The old 16-bit colour path: 52-53 fps, 12.9 s of stalls, 20 s of swap stalls. - Packed animated model frames: 20 MB less VRAM, same stalls. Gamma-correct mipmaps computed per channel: the lowest stalls (0.7-0.9 s). - Mesa's system-memory copy plus buffer invalidation on the old colour path: stalls 9.9 and 12.3 s to 1.5 and 1.4 s, swap stalls 20-26 s to 0.6-1.1 s, steady 53-54 to 59 fps. - BananaBread with short normals: 38.7 to 45.4 fps (+17%), stalls equal, VRAM +4 MB. - Shader cache cold against warm: no load gain (OpenArena 10.3 s cold, 10.6 s warm; BananaBread 17.4 against 18.4 s). - Extreme Tux Racer without a frame cap: still 59 fps, so not a vsync cap.

batch 16: game prefetch A/B, idle fix on/off (433), ClassiCube chunks1, X-Moto stream, Luanti lean parts

2026-10-18 · batch 2026-10-18-batch16 · 41 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms	46	17.5	16
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms switch gpffetch	46	20.0	13
`active2`	the recipe as it is	46	18.1	14
`chunk3`	the recipe as it is	45	21.9	7
`srvunload`	the recipe as it is	45	17.6	25

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 47 cpu 247.0 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 16.8 MiB vram 62.6 MiB longest_ms 357.7 ms stall_disk_s 0.5 seconds stall_swap_s 0.2 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.4 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.1 seconds stall_play_s 2.5 seconds longest_play_ms 357.7 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`base`	fps whole run 47 cpu 247.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 17.3 MiB vram 61.9 MiB longest_ms 3089.0 ms stall_disk_s 2.6 seconds stall_swap_s 0.4 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.6 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.6 seconds stall_play_s 5.5 seconds longest_play_ms 3089.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`active2`	fps whole run 46 cpu 241.6 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 17.8 MiB vram 59.7 MiB longest_ms 2142.0 ms stall_play_s 6.7 seconds longest_play_ms 2142.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`chunk3`	fps whole run 44 cpu 266.2 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 18.1 MiB vram 65.7 MiB longest_ms 225.6 ms stall_play_s 1.2 seconds longest_play_ms 225.6 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`srvunload`	fps whole run 45 cpu 279.6 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 12.6 MiB vram 59.9 MiB longest_ms 1025.0 ms stall_play_s 6.3 seconds longest_play_ms 1025.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot, kernel .433 with the idle fix and no kicker, interference detector on (3 runs disturbed by SSH logins left out). - Prefetch against none, three runs each: no gain. BananaBread load 18.1-18.6 s against 15.2-18.8; OpenArena OpenGL 2 about 0.5 s faster; Luanti worse (load +1-4 s, two runs with 3 s hitches). Default turned off. - Idle fix on and off, two runs each: gameplay stall time 0.4 and 0.4 s against 9.0 and 7.9 s, longest frame 0.22-0.38 s against 2.2-2.8 s. Clean. - ClassiCube's alternative chunk drawing: 48.1 fps against 46.0 (+4.7%). - X-Moto with its streaming draw path: 162.1 against 160.6 (+1%). - Luanti with chunk size 3 renders a black void at 150 s: it is the part of lean that empties the world. Server unloading and active block range 2 render, but stall more (6.3 and 6.7 s against about 2.5).

Luanti ps3.405 clean re-runs (interference detector, kernel 433, kick)

2026-10-18 · batch 2026-10-18-luanti-clean-reruns · 6 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	45.5	18.4	12.5
`cliunload`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	46.0	20.1	9.5
`lean`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	56.5	22.2	4.0

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46.0 cpu 241.8 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 16.9 MiB vram 62.0 MiB longest_ms 185.2 ms stall_disk_s 0.3 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.0 seconds stall_play_s 1.8 seconds longest_play_ms 185.2 ms	Kernel ps3.433 the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`cliunload`	fps whole run 46.5 cpu 265.6 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 21.0 MiB vram 58.5 MiB longest_ms 2065.5 ms stall_disk_s 2.4 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.3 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.6 seconds stall_play_s 4.5 seconds longest_play_ms 2065.5 ms	Kernel ps3.433 the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`lean`	fps whole run 57.0 cpu 304.0 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 22.1 MiB vram 45.4 MiB longest_ms 238.2 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.0 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.3 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.1 seconds stall_play_s 0.7 seconds longest_play_ms 238.2 ms	Kernel ps3.433 the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Two runs each, kernel .433, no interference in any run. - As built: stalls 1.5 and 2.1 s, longest frame 167 and 203 ms, 45-46 fps. - Client-side unloading: worse. Stalls 3.8 and 5.2 s, longest 2.05 and 2.08 s (unload, then reload hitches). - Lean: 56-57 fps, stalls 0.4 and 0.9 s, but the webcam shows a black void at 150 s in both runs (no sky, no terrain). It renders nothing, so it is not a win. - Base stays the default. Next: find which part of lean (server unloading, active block range 2 or chunk size 3) empties the world.

Luanti ps3.405 memory variants + ClassiCube PERF (kick, STALLS)

2026-10-18 · batch 2026-10-18-luanti-memory · 8 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	45	16.2	24
`cliunload`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	48	21.6	5
`lean`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	54	19.9	1
`nomerge`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	46	17.1	14
`tradeoff`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	46	18.4	21
`view40`	stall recorder at 10 ms waker kick at 10 ms	59	29.2	5

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 46 cpu 254.0 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 13.3 MiB vram 61.6 MiB longest_ms 1943.0 ms stall_disk_s 1.8 seconds stall_swap_s 1.2 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.8 seconds stall_play_s 6.5 seconds longest_play_ms 1943.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`cliunload`	fps whole run 48 cpu 272.0 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 21.0 MiB vram 57.9 MiB longest_ms 258.9 ms stall_disk_s 0.2 seconds stall_swap_s 0 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.3 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.2 seconds stall_play_s 0.8 seconds longest_play_ms 258.9 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`lean`	fps whole run 54 cpu 316.6 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 30.8 MiB vram 44.0 MiB longest_ms 164.8 ms stall_disk_s 0.1 seconds stall_swap_s 0.0 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0 seconds stall_gpu_s 0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_play_s 0.2 seconds longest_play_ms 164.8 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`nomerge`	fps whole run 47 cpu 259.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 14.4 MiB vram 64.6 MiB longest_ms 360.7 ms stall_disk_s 0.3 seconds stall_swap_s 0.1 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.7 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.9 seconds stall_play_s 2.5 seconds longest_play_ms 360.7 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`tradeoff`	fps whole run 47 cpu 230.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 12.6 MiB vram 63.5 MiB longest_ms 2983.0 ms stall_disk_s 2.8 seconds stall_swap_s 0.6 seconds stall_reclaim_s 1.1 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 1.0 seconds stall_play_s 6.7 seconds longest_play_ms 2983.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`view40`	fps whole run 58 cpu 241.0 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 18.7 MiB vram 54.5 MiB longest_ms 362.4 ms stall_disk_s 0.4 seconds stall_swap_s 0.0 seconds stall_reclaim_s 0.1 seconds stall_gpu_s 0.0 seconds stall_cpu_s 0.1 seconds stall_play_s 0.9 seconds longest_play_ms 362.4 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot, one run each. Luanti gameplay stall time, longest frame and lowest free memory: - As built: 6.5 s, 1.9 s, 13.6 MB. - Lean: 0.2 s, 0.17 s, 31.5 MB, but the webcam showed missing nearby terrain at 150 s. - View range 40: 0.9 s, 0.36 s, 19.1 MB, 59 fps, closer fog. - Client-side unloading: 0.8 s, 0.26 s, 21.5 MB, same picture (looked like a default candidate). - Tradeoff: 6.7 s, 3.0 s. No mesh merging: 2.5 s, 0.36 s. - ClassiCube profiled, batching against old drawing: steady 48.4 against 50.3 fps. The game's share of samples 15.6% against 9.5%, Mesa's 42.8% against 57.7%. - Interference (found by the later scan): somebody played Luanti during the base run (2 digs and 4 clicks, a 1943 ms frame right after), the lean run (41 digs, 31 clicks: the 'missing terrain' was the digging and looking at the sky) and the tradeoff run (3 clicks). Those cells are invalid. View 40, client unloading, no merging and ClassiCube are clean as far as the files show.

smoke re-runs (teeworlds ps3.422) + vm.watermark_boost_factor A/B on Luanti (kick)

2026-10-18 · batch 2026-10-18-smoke-reruns-watermark · 4 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	waker kick at 10 ms	47.0	21.6	12.0

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 47.0 cpu 247.0 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 14.2 MiB vram 62.3 MiB longest_ms 321.5 ms stall_play_s 2.0 seconds longest_play_ms 321.5 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot. - Teeworlds (ps3.422): in game, warm-up on the dm1 map, 183 fps. The big-endian socket fix works. - Red Eclipse: no out-of-memory with lean sound and textures. It stops at the first-start profile menu. - SuperTux: still on the title card (the virtual key press didn't arrive). - Luanti, watermark boost on, off, on, off: gameplay stall time 12.5, 0.8, 2.0, 2.1 s. The first run is an outlier. No clear gain, not shipped. - The webcam view moved (PC monitor left, PS3 right).

batch 8: STK lean, OpenTTD gl, ClassiCube/dsda batching, malloc presets, profiles (Mesa ps3.408, kick)

2026-10-18 · batch 2026-10-18-batch8 · 26 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	waker kick at 10 ms perf recording	46	15.4	31

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 47 cpu 246.5 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 20.6 MiB vram 61.6 MiB longest_ms 2763.0 ms stall_play_s 10.4 seconds longest_play_ms 2763.0 ms	Mesa ps3.408 the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot. - SuperTuxKart: the track draws (webcam). Lean settings 21.4 fps smooth against 13 as built, stalls 2.4 against 13.5 s. - OpenTTD with the GL driver: right picture, 21 fps (8-12 with software drawing). - ClassiCube with batching 47.3 fps against 49.4 with the old drawing (-4%), but 1% low 31 against 27.6. - dsda-doom GL renderer with batching 55.9 against 54.2 (+3%), 1% low 40.8 against 36.5. - Memory allocator presets: inconsistent between rounds (noise). - OpenArena OpenGL 2 renderer: 55 s of stalls, longest 16 s, 66 MB swapped out. Luanti: 10 s of stalls, 51 MB swapped out. - Interference (found by the later scan): the profiled Luanti run had a right click in its measured window, so distrust that cell.

Mesa ps3.407 NV30_TRANSLATE_LUT, yquake2 ps3.408 kiss4k, luanti ps3.405 trim16 (all with WAKER kick)

2026-10-18 · batch 2026-10-18-mesa-407-lut · 12 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	waker kick at 10 ms	47.0	20.3	15.5
`trim16`	LU_TRIM_MB=16 waker kick at 10 ms	47.5	20.6	11.0

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 47.5 cpu 250.7 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 15.8 MiB vram 62.9 MiB longest_ms 425.4 ms stall_play_s 3.4 seconds longest_play_ms 425.4 ms	Mesa ps3.407 the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`trim16`	fps whole run 48.0 cpu 246.1 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 15.9 MiB vram 61.0 MiB longest_ms 3648.0 ms stall_play_s 8.6 seconds longest_play_ms 3648.0 ms	Mesa ps3.407 the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot, two runs each, all with the 10 ms waker kick. - BananaBread demo with the lookup table for 8-bit vertex attributes: steady 25.9 to 39.6 fps (+53%), 1% low 18.3 to 26.9. - Yamagi Quake II with kiss4k: memory in use 125 to 56 MB, swap used 80 to 9 MB, gameplay stall time 22.6 to 0.05 s, longest frame 4.5 s to 91 ms, steady 65.7 to 68.7 fps. - Luanti trim16: no gain and more stalls (3.35 to 8.6 s). Rejected. - Pictures right on the webcam.

Luanti ps3.364 batching, Neverball ps3.370 batching, Sauerbraten libspeq 0.381 skinning (spawn)

2026-10-17 · batch 2026-10-17-luanti-neverball-batching · 10 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	the recipe as it is	45.0	18.9	20.0
`allbatchoff`	LU_GL=0	46.0	17.5	26.5

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 45.5 cpu 246.1 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 15.1 MiB vram 62.5 MiB longest_ms 1685.1 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s
`allbatchoff`	fps whole run 46.0 cpu 241.6 seconds underruns 0.0 underruns ram_free 16.8 MiB vram 61.5 MiB longest_ms 3415.0 ms	no build recorded the game's resolution, warm-up + 120 s

Observations: - Same boot. - Luanti, batching on against off, two runs each: steady 45.0 against 46.0 fps, stall time 6.25 against 9.1 s, longest frame 1.7 against 3.4 s, no underruns, picture right. - Neverball, batching on against old drawing: smooth 78.7 against 79.1 fps, CPU 65 against 80 s, stalls similar. One batched run ended before the measured window (12 demo loops were too few; now 20). - BananaBread (spawn point with the gun), one run each: skinning on the SPUs 23.6 fps steady with 21 stalls (4.3 s); on the PPE 28.1 fps with no stalls; off 23.0 with no stalls. libspeq's PPE path is the best; the SPU path adds hitches. - Interference (found by the later scan): one Luanti batching-off run had three digs (a mouse button in the game) in its warm-up. The measured window had no logged action, but the batching-off cell includes that run.

Mesa ps3.262 OpenAL log variants (allog; perf recording)

2026-10-17 · batch 2026-10-17-mesa-262-allog · 4 runs in the batch (all games)

Not comparable: OpenAL logging runs with perf recording, slower than plain runs.

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`allog` not comparable	the recipe as it is	-	-	-

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`allog`	fps whole run 58 cpu 115.7 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 21.0 MiB vram 53.0 MiB	Mesa ps3.262 the game's resolution, whole run

Observations: - OpenArena, Yamagi Quake II, Luanti and ClassiCube with stock OpenAL settings and OpenAL's log on, perf recording for 20 s from the sound start. One run each. - The profiler slows the games: OpenArena 46.2 fps, Yamagi 32.1 (63.9 unprofiled), ClassiCube 45.6, Luanti 58 (HUD). Not for comparison. - OpenAL itself is 4.7% of OpenArena's process samples and 3.7% of ClassiCube's: under the 6% bar for an SPU mixer. - The sound device was stereo float32 at 48000 Hz (OpenAL's ALSA path). - No underruns except in Yamagi (14).

Mesa ps3.262 + ps3rsx 0.249

2026-10-17 · batch 2026-10-17-mesa-262 · 12 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	the recipe as it is	-	-	-

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 53 cpu 117.2 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 16.7 MiB vram 52.4 MiB	Mesa ps3.262, ps3rsx 0.249 the game's resolution, whole run

Observations: - The patches: no relocations, the texture cache invalidated only after texture changes, no duplicate vertex-format writes, batched vertex program constants. One run per game. - Against ps3.246: OpenArena with compressed textures 44.2 to 54.4 fps (+23%), Yamagi 51.4 to 63.9 (+24%), X-Moto 39 to 47 (+21%), Extreme Tux Racer 46 to 53 (+15%), dsda-doom software 33 to 38 with the demo now finishing (+15%), ClassiCube 47.6 to 50.1 (+5%). - Neverball 78.2 to 71.5 (noise), QuakeSpasm 70.5 to 66.3 (repeated in the next batch), Luanti 53 to 53. - Armagetron dropped from 60 to 51 (driver frame counter). - BananaBread reads 28 to 8 on the counter, but it was memory-stalled (13 MB free, killed at the cap): not a driver number, and the cause is uncertain. - The kernel's command validator rejected nothing. - Single runs.

Mesa ps3.246 + ps3rsx 0.249

2026-10-17 · batch 2026-10-17-mesa-246-ps3rsx-249 · 12 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	the recipe as it is	-	-	-

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 53 cpu 105.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 27.1 MiB vram 53.6 MiB	Mesa ps3.246, ps3rsx 0.249 the game's resolution, whole run

Observations: - One run per game. Frame rates by the game's own counter, or the driver's frame counter where marked: - Armagetron 60 (counter), ClassiCube 47.6, dsda-doom software 33 (counter, demo unfinished), Extreme Tux Racer 46 (counter), Luanti 53 (counter), Neverball 78.2. - OpenArena with compressed textures 44.2 (longest frame 2.1 s), QuakeSpasm 70.5, BananaBread with CPU skinning 28 (counter), X-Moto 39 (counter), Yamagi Quake II 51.4. - Pictures right. Sound right except dsda-doom (1161 underruns, MIDI music), BananaBread (176) and OpenTTD (1429, choppy). - OpenTTD used 55.5 s of CPU and has no frame rate (plain X11 path). - Single runs: differences of a few fps are within the run-to-run spread.

ps3rsx 0.249 first boot (Mesa ps3.246; SDL3 ps3.254)

2026-10-17 · batch 2026-10-17-ps3rsx-249-first-boot · 9 runs in the batch (all games)

Variant	Conditions	Steady fps in the window	1% low fps	Stalls frames over 100 ms
`base`	the recipe as it is	-	-	-

All numbers and setup of this batch

Variant	Numbers	Setup
`base`	fps whole run 67 cpu 92.3 seconds underruns 0 underruns ram_free 31.4 MiB vram 48.9 MiB	Mesa ps3.246, ps3rsx 0.249 the game's resolution, whole run

Observations: - The GL tests pass and switching virtual terminals works with a GL program running (those runs aren't in the records). - Neverball (our +ps3.257 with its own benchmark, about 23 s) runs without the wedge: 76.4 and 70.2 fps by its own count, longest frames 320 and 378 ms, 15 and 36 underruns. - OpenTTD with libsdl3 ps3.254 (native BGRA upload): from about 2 to 8 fps on the driver's frame counter (9.5 across the two runs), 12 fps with the 8-bit blitter. The game's own software drawing is the limit. - Luanti, first run: load 37 s, 67 fps on the counter (10th percentile 23, dropping to 0 while map chunks load), free memory down to 31 MB. - BananaBread (CPU skinning), first runs: the first was killed by the out-of-memory killer (free memory down to 10 MB); the second reached 15 fps on the counter, 236 underruns. - Smoke runs, single or paired.