performance breaking after multiple mapstart

[Johannes Burock]

what is the problem:

 

i boot my system, start my map to look for the things what i want to do today.

i often dmap the map and start it to have a look ingame. After some times of dmapping and starting the map the fps get down trastically (f.e. in one part from ~60 to ~30 !). but i didnt create much more in this time, i even deletet 5 lights ! all other games are running fine furthermore.

after a reboot all is running ok up to 60 fps.

 

have somebody else this problem ? and why is it ?

[Flanders]

Added AI perhaps?

[Johannes Burock]

Added AI perhaps?

 

nope, walking 3 ai since a week...only added some brushes and 2 or 3 patches...and deletet lights as well...

but why should it be ok after reboot in this way?

[nbohr1more]

That sounds like you hit a memory leak of some sort.

 

I know that Greebo fixed a bunch of them for v1.03 but it's certainly possible that others persist. In addition, we have no idea what SDK actions might cause the Doom 3 executable to do something that would cause a memory leak. I know that I have seen performance improvement with fresh restarts or re-installing missions...

 

Though, it's best to restart TDM after a dmap has complete before trying to test your map updates...

[stumpy]

maybe its too many leafs on a brush face, stairs usually do that, or window holes. max is 128 leafs per face. dmap will complain saying something bad about a brush number and max of 128 broken, although it wont break a compile.

[DeTeEff]

I've also experienced this. I restarted the whole computer and it went back to normal...Quite frustrating when you hunt every last FPS-point to optimize your map

[Bikerdude]

I've also experienced this. I restarted the whole computer and it went back to normal...Quite frustrating when you hunt every last FPS-point to optimize your map.

I was about to say just the same, its normal. but you dont have to restarte the pc 995 of the time. just shut down doom/tdm count to five and start again and you will be fine.

[Baddcog]

It probably is a leak of some kind.

 

But I don't see why it would make it that hard to optimize. How many times do you need to compile just to check FPS?

If you're getting 45 and do some optimitizing it shouldn't be any worse right? And if you added portals merely seeing them work is enough to know it's gonna help even if your fps is lower that time around.

And if you only do enough to gain a few FPS anyway what's the point in checking that?

 

I'd say just do the work you need to do and if you really need to confirm a solid FPS then that's a good time to restart it. Only check the numbers on first run through.

[DeTeEff]

True, but as I work along, I do stuff here and there and a falling FPS COULD be the result of over enthusiastic adding-of-shit so at the end I do not know if the FPS-drop is because of too much stuff, or a performance leak.

[Sotha]

A leak would prevent dmapping altogether and I don't know about 'performance leak.'

 

I do, however, have a suggestion.

 

Stop looking at the fps counter. I've noticed that it is lower if you have progs open in the background. With DR running the fps is mediocre for a simple scene. After a boot with only d3 running the performance is solid.

 

So stop looking at fps, learn a nice workflow and always do efficient visportalling when working on an area, ie do not leave that to last.

 

If you're worried about performance, you could start looking tris count instead. R_showprimitives. Decide you never go over x tris in a scene and you'll be fine.

 

What x is open for discussion. 200 000? The triscount of knightons manor opening scene (with all the ai) is probably close to a good maximum. It performs still well but anything more to that starts to affect performance on my computer. Can't check the value now..

 

Anyways, the triscount is not the best meter, since drawcalls and those affect performance. But it can be a rough meter the mapper can use to avoid getting too carried away with a scene. And it is not affected by the things you have running along d3.

[DeTeEff]

By performance leak I meant the fact that TDM/Doom slowly succumbs in FPS as you DMAP and play and edit for a while.

 

And yes, one should not totally be dependent upon the FPS as they increase the feel of sluggishness and if the counter wasn't there, one would probably not care as much...But I look because I had splendid FPS in Betrayal on most places, and then some folks couldn't play it at all...

 

I shall check out r_showprimitives