nbohr1more

I have created a Wiki article to record Upcoming Fan Missions. The bulk of what is listed is from screen-shot evidence in the "What are you working on?" thread. If your work is represented, please either sign-up for a Wiki account to edit this list or post your corrections to this topic. Thanks, nbohr1more http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Upcoming_Fan_Missions

I have created the Upcoming Fan Mission Wiki and will now add a forum thread about it as well: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Upcoming_Fan_Missions

I lost track of which is the current advised version but these threads might help fill-in-the-blank until an expert pipes up: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11459-vertex-colored-ase-models-using-darkradiant-and-blender-253-beta/ http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10906-ase-export-script-for-dark-radiant/ http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11399-ase-export-script-for-blender-253-beta/

Vote + (mostly because demagogue = king of all ... where's his new FM when we need it)

If I knew my wife was going to let me stay on the PC 'till 9:30PM I would've offered to start tonight... But with less than half an hour I'm not sure it's worth it?

Yep. AI is a big performance hit. If you have applied monsterclip to walls and ceilings (and everywhere you can imagine an AI can't go) then that is it for the low-end folks. Now that I think of it... I have heard of AI dormancy tricks with distance triggers... But if you've beefed up the AI with scripts don't make them dumb just for the slow CPU folk...

Went through the map with killmonsters (spoiled a lot for myself to cure my OCD ). The average FPS was around 35-40 with some areas at 60 and the lowest around 14. So neither lights nor leaks are a big issue. So unless you've neglected to cover lots of unreachable areas with monsterclip the Low-Enders are probably out of hope for any more performance. (Well..., if you've customized the AI with scripts you could make a dumb version I guess... ) Since it now is playable for me I am happy enough. I am further satisfied that I mostly have my answer about what is possible. I'd say a P4 3.0ghz is at (or a little below) the minimum for this map.

I won't be available 'till Sunday evening ... (going to Celtic Rock fest tomorrow though )... Let me know if you need another at that point. (I can't believe this thread hasn't been flooded yet )

My apologies Fieldmedic. Performance benefits are what they are. The Archery range in the Training Mission would perform better if the lights did not overlap. ( Edit: Ah... your Archery range... ... Bikerdude worked with you and he's been obsessed about that map so I lost context ) It just happens to perform well overall. I have not done a deep-dive in the Pk4 but the use of custom Light Textures in that area might be part of the magic. As there are no AI in that area, I am pretty sure that all the lights are set to noshadow as well. It would be cool if the authors of the Training Mission would comment...

( Reducing your light radius (falloff) will actually reduce the chance of light overlaps and thus improve low-end performance. ) (Edit: The above was me praying to the performance gods that something easy may have been overlooked... ) (More Prayer: Even if no other lights are visibly overlapping your light radius is still affected by the ambient. Smaller radius = better performance. But this is probably a negligible improvement idea at most... So: Smaller radius = maybe better looking lighting and that's it? ...)

I think that ATI and Nvidia try to reformat the data in the driver compiler before sending it via PCI-E (or AGP) to be distributed to the video ram. This has lead to all sorts of problems with load times for games (see the many Battlefield BC load time threads at Rage3d...)

I'm guilty of putting all sorts of tangential stuff on the Discussion tab at wikipedia... For example I provided tips for manually adding Mp3 player software to an LG Rumor... Nobody really uses the Discussion tab for most wiki entries... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:LG_Rumor_%28LX260%29

I put a Future Fan Mission proposal in the Discussion Tab for the Wiki article using the same formatting. Let me know if this is acceptable. (The only upcoming Fan Missions I know of besides those listed for the Team Member profiles are: Jdude's un-named cave example and GameDevGoro's "Lockdown"... ) Thanks.

Neb and Xonze ...are the other remaining entrants. Komag (he is stating he will release...?) Baal DeathStage_12 _Atti_ nic485x (?) winter (?) ...are on the maybe list... (Figured I would recompile the public info )

Looking forward to it Komag. I'm not worried about reload times but that's because I'm just grateful to be allowed PC time at all when I'm at home... (damn wife )...

No matter what descriptors you use, there will always be missions that fall between these ideas. It might be better to simply use a "Star Rating" system with a little more granularity: Example Appearance: 3 stars Game-play and Performance: 5 stars Story: 5 stars Contest Element Usage: 1 stars Technicality: 5 star (edited per Komag's suggestion?) (edit per Fidcal and reality ) (So rather than call something poor or near perfect just use star numbers, forum comments can clarify the reasoning... basically the same but the psychology is a little different...)

I agree. If your look or idea is great but it wont run on a low-end system don't hold back. The low-enders will eventually upgrade anyway. I'm just glad things have smoothed out. I am looking forward to completing this one.

Well, I got a little more testing in this morning... I started with a regular run for a reality check (control). I was dreading things seeing the 6FP hovering in the upper-right. As soon as I escaped the first cell things smoothed out to 18FPS or so. When I got to the 2nd level it was hovering around 12FPS. So it was much more playable. Could be all the mission reloads from my previous session had bogged things down. I thought I would set the record straight after my whining... (but I still hope a revision might squeeze a little more juice out.) You can't blame the Low-Enders for whining when they miss out on missions that the community raves about

Quit picking on my vocation

Wikified! So far Low-Enders can rejoice again!

Google says "Ultima Underworld"...?

It all comes down to: 1) Who has the information 2) How reliable it is and 3) What they can do with it The flood of Facebook details is tainted with spammers' fake profiles that any info-thief would need to wade through. In an odd way, the better the bots the harder it'll be to peer into these sites for information about real people. It's a kinda sad thought that the future of human freedom wrests with those who write spam and malware... but the inherent problems of malfunction and distrust make any power-monger's job that much harder. I see this tainting as a two-way street though... The power-mongers are trying to taint the public's well of reliable info. The outgrowth of such instant populace controlled media is a major menace for those in authority. I can only begin to fathom the measure they are taking to crush this paradigm. The Patriot Act comes to mind.................

Yeah. I haven't tried killmonsters yet. I just saw Tels statements about the lights and took it as cursory proof... (Could be both lights and lack of monsterclip though... and leaks, and the need for more visportals, etc...). I'm not sure any place is specifically worse. I just know that as soon as I got up one level I really had laggy play and it was 6FPS at most. I will try killing some options and get you better feedback.

I agree with this idea in most regards (even though your FM murders my old P4... )... My only concern is the efficiency issue. If a map is well optimized you can pack a lot more visual punch per FPS (see Bikerdude's heroic efforts with RTTC). If I or other crusty ole PC folk cant play some FM's that's just a fact of life. But if FM's are heavy on hardware requirements and lack visuals that is a real shame. I think your map has lots of dynamic lighting (shadows) which is a well known performance issue but that is your artistic call to make: more dynamic light verses better geometry... So it's hard to judge yours verses the other entrants who have kept to more traditional ratios of static to dynamic lights Fieldmedic. This is tough one because the strength of Doom 3 is dynamic lighting but if you go too wild with it you'll exacerbate Doom 3's short-comings in comparison to more modern engines. Jesps and Baddcogs (caves) clearly perform better and arguably look a better in screen-shots so you are competing by way of the mood created by all that light movement. It's pretty apples and oranges. But I am curious if there is still some performance that can be squeezed out of your map with further work anyway... I can see a lot of brilliance in the design I just wish I could enjoy it. I will accept the concept that this map is for newer systems. I will try to struggle through it further but I may just forgo voting on this one.

If I fathom all that, then perhaps these aren't really separate lights... they are just stages that do not inherit from the previous stages? That may help further detail the advantage of this approach (and decode what Lunaran is up to ) So maybe 2 separate lights can be packed into one light definition and have only the performance impact of one light?