ddaazzaa

Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks. Thanks for the feedback.

I've updated a few things. 1.03 * Tweaked lighting. Ambient world lighting is a little darker. When the manor interior is dark, I added some low brightness lights around the windows. * Performance should be better around the hedges. Thanks to HMart for the modified hedge model. * Fixed a small "invisible barrier" issue in the Grand Hall. Also fixed some dining room loot falling through the table when bumped. Thanks to SuaveSteve for pointing out those issues. * Cricket volume has been lowered. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZc_nqHoX7kQvzfg08EpoRy2hyuH7mw3/view?usp=sharing

I finally got around to testing that model and it works well. Thanks.

I was never really sure whether the map was too bright or too dark as everyone has a different display and TDM brightness and gamma settings. Since the first half of the FM has no lights I tried to lean on the side of having it a little brighter as I didn't want players complaining that the map is just too dark for too long. I can look at reducing the ambient light a little. Reducing to almost pitch black would potentially create a better atmosphere for some players but others might get frusted by how dark it would be

This doesn't solve the issue of when moving closer, the full poly models will be displayed and performance will still be affected I have been experimenting with the model scaler and I might be able to use that to an extent as a workaround. Although it doesn't help with other mappers using the hedges in future as they will all have to do the same.

* I'll look at adding some faint light around the windows to add a bit of diversity to the lighting * I noticed the crickets are very loud. I'll probably tweak the volume and radius. * I didn't really want to have LODs for the hedges but due to the poly count on them I ended up having to for performance. I didn't want to have to fall back to a brush based hedge. I have requested in the art assets forum if someone is able to create a lower poly hedge, that way I might be able to remove LODs for the hedges. * All of the audio except for the voices are from the core assets. Maybe some of those assets were poorly recorded, although I didn't notice any issues with any of those sounds. * I tried to warn players with the voice saying "beyond that door there is no turning back". Tapewolf experimented with jamming a box in the doorway to prevent the door from shutting and was able to get back into the mansion. This obviously wouldn't be possible on a first playthrough without prior knowledge of the door shutting. Thanks for the feedback.

Just wondering if anyone is able to create some lower/mid range poly models of the hedges that are included as part of the core assets? Currently the hedges have hi and low poly versions. The low poly versions are very basic and range between 50-100 polys. The hi poly models are mostly 2500 and 5000 polys with one even being 9600. When using hedges in maps, most times they will be used in rows or columns, this means poly count can start to skyrocket if too many of them are used. I found this out with my map Blackgrove Manor. With the hedge models being smaller in size, it also means there are many unnecessary polys being wasted on the interconnecting sides. Creating some longer and/or taller hedges would help alleviate those unnecessary polys. If anyone is able to help out with this, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I could use the low poly version which is mostly a rectangle with texture but it looks considerably worse. The hedge is currently using lods so it's only an issue when close enough. A low-mid poly hedge that joins multiple hedge pieces together as a single model would be ideal. At the moment having small hedge pieces joined wastes polys on the interconnections that aren't visible.

They are from the core TDM assets. The hedge archway alone is 9600 polys. The rectangle hedges are 5200 each. Add a few of those in a row and an archway and the poly count starts to skyrocket. models/darkmod/nature/hedge01_***.lwo What's the best way of asking someone? Should I create a thread in the Art Assets forum requesting if someone can create lower poly models?

There's only 2 versions of those models (low and high poly). The low poly model isn't really suitable for up close, so I'd have to create my own. Is there an easy way of lowering poly count on models without knowledge of 3D modelling software?

Due to the nature of those outdoor areas it will be hard to improve performance much more without introducing noticeable amounts of pop in. I'm happy to release a different version with more pop in that should have better performance.

It should be good to update in the mission database, I don't think I did anything that would have introduced any bugs. Thanks.

@Gadavre I have released a new version that should improve performance by a lot. Let me know what your performance is like now. 1.02: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZc_nqHoX7kQvzfg08EpoRy2hyuH7mw3/view?usp=sharing

I have completed optimizing the outdoor area. There are some very large performance improvements. Set TDM Object Details (LOD) to Normal (or lower) to take advantage of some of the optimizations. Thanks to everyone who helped with performance suggestions. 1.02: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZc_nqHoX7kQvzfg08EpoRy2hyuH7mw3/view?usp=sharing I picked a few of the heavier areas and did some spot checks to compare the difference. Before: Draws 4.3k | Tris 1.98m | FPS 143 After: Draws 3.6k | Tris 0.64m | FPS 202 Before: Draws 7k | Tris 2.8m | FPS 107 After: Draws 2.4k | Tris 0.44m | FPS 208 Before: Draws 4.4k | Tris 1.87m | FPS 139 After: Draws 3.4k | Tris 0.50m | FPS 188 Before: Draws 5.8k | Tris 2.56m | FPS 102 After: Draws 4.5k | Tris 1.04m | FPS 139 Before: Draws 7.8k | Tris 2.89m | FPS 91 After: Draws 5.6k | Tris 1.03m | FPS 137 Screenshot comparisons with stats: