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Ugh brerak time...


AluminumHaste

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Man just finished moving 800+ trees in the last 1.5 hours, time to take a little break.

That's just one part of it, still gotta do 1/2 the map's trees....I just realized I haven't dmapped and tested the performance of this map in a long while...

 

bigbdf.th.jpg

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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Hot damn dude, thats crazy.

 

Congratz on your 1000th post

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Years ago Ishtvan implemented something where func_statics could be made to draw only if they're within an adjustable range from the player; that'd probably be very handy in this map.

 

In fact, this gives me an idea: I don't think the original implementation allows this distance to be adjustable by the player, but it should be. Maybe it could be a cvar that allows people with slower systems to really crank it down and bring this "clip plane" in close.

 

@Ishtvan: if you see this post, do you remember what this was called? I'm looking through the wiki but no luck so far. I might have a test map from years ago.....

 

Edit: Nevermind, I remember now. Func_portals were implemented and are described here (updated the info), but they're not what I was referring to. The distance check for func_statics is still only in script form, never yet implemented in TDM, and sits somewhere on one of my hard drives. I'll have to see if I can find it, and maybe it can be merged into source or just sit as a standalone script or something.

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@Ishtvan: if you see this post, do you remember what this was called? I'm looking through the wiki but no luck so far. I might have a test map from years ago.....

 

Edit: Nevermind, I remember now. Func_portals were implemented and are described here (updated the info), but they're not what I was referring to. The distance check for func_statics is still only in script form, never yet implemented in TDM, and sits somewhere on one of my hard drives. I'll have to see if I can find it, and maybe it can be merged into source or just sit as a standalone script or something.

No it's there in the SDK, for func_statics only (SDK class idStaticEntity)

"editor_float hide_distance"	"If set greater than zero, this entity will hide itself when it is greater than this distance from the player.  WARNING: Performance can be impacted if too many entities in a map use this feature."

"editor_float dist_check_period" "If hide_distance is used, this sets the interval between distance checks, in seconds.  Default is 0.5 (500 milliseconds)."

"editor_bool dist_check_xy"	"If true, the LOD distance check is only done orthogonal to gravity, i.e., vertical distances aren't counted in it.  Useful for things like rain clouds turning off/on."

 

We were going to try it on statics only and see if it was worthwhile performance-wise, and if so, possibly add the option to all entities. (Fun fact: This was used to hide far-away rain sheets in Thief's Den)

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No it's there in the SDK, for func_statics only (SDK class idStaticEntity)

"editor_float hide_distance"	"If set greater than zero, this entity will hide itself when it is greater than this distance from the player.  WARNING: Performance can be impacted if too many entities in a map use this feature."

"editor_float dist_check_period" "If hide_distance is used, this sets the interval between distance checks, in seconds.  Default is 0.5 (500 milliseconds)."

"editor_bool dist_check_xy"	"If true, the LOD distance check is only done orthogonal to gravity, i.e., vertical distances aren't counted in it.  Useful for things like rain clouds turning off/on."

 

We were going to try it on statics only and see if it was worthwhile performance-wise, and if so, possibly add the option to all entities. (Fun fact: This was used to hide far-away rain sheets in Thief's Den)

 

Hmm that's a good idea especially since portalling won't help my map at all (wide open area)

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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oh baby OH BABY I wanna see this in-game :) Perhaps get some fog or something like in L4D for performance to make the disappearing trees not noticeable. Just an idea :)

 

Yup got a fog light in there already.

 

EDIT: I'd have been able to work on it for 8 hours tonight at work, but I forgot to bring my power supply and mouse GRRRRRR :angry: I was so mad when I got to work lol

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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I added some trees to maps/test/distportal.map for demonstration.

 

Here are a couple of shots to show what a significant effect these tricks can have on a system where it counts. First is with all portals open, showing five fully lit guards, and the trees displayed. Second shot is after stepping back out of detection range, when all drawing optimizations kick in.

 

Edit: new article.

post-58-1239031907_thumb.jpg

post-58-1239031911_thumb.jpg

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I added some trees to maps/test/distportal.map for demonstration.

 

Here are a couple of shots to show what a significant effect these tricks can have on a system where it counts. First is with all portals open, showing five fully lit guards, and the trees displayed. Second shot is after stepping back out of detection range, when all drawing optimizations kick in.

 

Edit: new article.

 

Alright that's going to be very useful for this map, I just dmapped for the first time in like 2 months and it only took 54 seconds :blink:

I calculated that at this moment if I stand in one of the four corners I can see every tree in the map. Now, only counting the trees (And leaving out the patches for the terrain), that equals 646,404 polys, which if I want that to run at 30 fps = 19,392,120 polys per second just for the trees :ph34r:

 

shot00001euu.th.jpgshot00002rxw.th.jpgshot00006fdd.th.jpg

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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Hot damn that's a lot of trees. I swear we really need a way of quickly covering an area with trees.

 

The in-game shots look damn sweet :)

 

Only comment would be the patches - the breaks in between them are a little strange, though I suppose from ground-level you wouldn't notice them, so it shouldn't be a problem.

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I have an idea! What we need to do is have a tree texture which resembles the model of the trees. Place one of these textures where every tree is. Make it so the trees, (not the tree patch) fade from a long distance, THUS you get the illusion from the low poly trees that they never disappear! :D

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Holy Moly, those ingame screens look amazing. You could perfectly tell a fable like "Hänsel and Gretel" in that Forest... :D

 

But here is a quick suggestion for the groundtexture (which is maybe even usefull to the darkmod overall). There are custom high resolution texturepacks for oblivion featuring 2048x2048 groundtextures and 4096x4094 terrain textures, which are really amazing. The latter are only used for the distance I think, but I am not sure.

 

On those darker ingame shots the repetitive pattern isn't noticable at all of course, but you're way above the ground there.

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Holy Moly, those ingame screens look amazing. You could perfectly tell a fable like "Hänsel and Gretel" in that Forest... :D

 

But here is a quick suggestion for the groundtexture (which is maybe even usefull to the darkmod overall). There are custom high resolution texturepacks for oblivion featuring 2048x2048 groundtextures and 4096x4094 terrain textures, which are really amazing. The latter are only used for the distance I think, but I am not sure.

 

On those darker ingame shots the repetitive pattern isn't noticable at all of course, but you're way above the ground there.

 

Waayyyyyyy ahead of you there in that respect.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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