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Fan Mission: A Matter of Hours, by Springheel (28/4/2017)


Springheel

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Congratulations on the release Springheel!

 

I've been curious on the videos but I wanted to avoid spoilers so I'm looking forward to giving this mission a playthrough tonight and finally being able to watch the process :)

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Nice little mission. It is fun to blackjack through on medium. Also one of few missions where i found all the loot.

Now that we know, that pro mappers can create enjoyable missions in less than a day i expect em flooding this forum. Looking forward to the "best mission of the week" contests...

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Unfortunately, my initial reservations about the quality of those models were grounded, as they impact the overall performance. At this state, game can't maintain even 50 FPS in the warehouse area. We're talking about 6 gig GTX 1060, that thing can handle Dishonored 2 on Ultra settings in 1440p.

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Unfortunately, my initial reservations about the quality of those models were grounded,

 

 

This is a speed build made in under six hours. Shockingly, that means it wasn't optimized for performance. Nothing was set to noshadows. It doesn't use LOD. It has a lot of overlapping lights and a moving torch in that area, along with up to 5 AI. It's not surprising performance isn't perfect. That said, it plays just fine on my moderate system, and my beta-testers had no complaints about performance either.

 

I don't know where this continual need to bitch about my modules comes from, but I'm frankly sick of hearing about it. If you can't help yourself, perhaps you should start your own thread on the matter, rather than repeatedly complaining in every thread where they're being discussed.

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You released these models to the public, and for others to use. This is a responsibility. I'm not bitching about one extra polygon you could save here and there. This is a really simple level, it doesn't need mesh LODs. We're talking about a real problem here. Just to check whether my concerns were valid, I opened the map and deleted some of those wall modules. Before:

 

image.jpg

 

And after:

image.jpg

 

 

As you see, this is not the result of speedbuild, but this might:

image.jpg

image.jpg

 

I'm genuinely curious, what was the rationale behind throwing so many polygons and edges at these walls, if you can't even see some of them? I'd never do anything like that, and no other mapper I know wouldn't either. I showed those screens to two of my friends, and I can't even cite their comments, because they were mostly the wtf material.

 

Making so many meshes is a tremendous effort, I get it, but TDM team really needs to have some QA on this, as this will impact other players, hard. Something is seriously wrong with your workflow, and if you don't believe me, try posting any of these meshes and textures on sites like Polycount, you'll get a great feedback there.

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I can't comment on the frame rate in the finished version but with GTX1060 playing at 1920 x 1080 my frame rate never dropped below 60fps (limit of monitor) in the final beta

EDIT checked with finished version and no problems with frame rate

Edited by Oldjim
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I have been playing the release version and haven't had any issues so far, My fps has always sat at 60 and I haven't suffered any frame rate drops. I'm using a 980ti btw.

 

Sometimes I find TDM boots in a funky way that can slow down any mission. A restart seems to solve the issue and I don't know why it happens. All I know is that as long as I'm getting a constant 60fps on the main menu, then the game is running well. If it dips in the menu before I even start playing I will restart until it sits at a constant 60fps and then the mission runs at full capacity.

 

I should file this as a bug report now, come to think of it.

 

Edit: here's the bug report btw http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4514

Edited by Goldwell
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Just for fun, I went in and looked at the stats for that area of the map. Even with the AI walking around, and the moving torch, I didn't see anywhere that was higher than 3500 drawcalls. Shadows never got higher than 75000. That is well within the performance limits of TDM, and is less than some of the areas of A New Job, which has had no performance complaints. It's certainly more than good enough for a speedbuild.

 

The warehouse wall modules you are bitching about, yet again, are less than 400 polys each (the bare wall is less than 150).

 

The other modules you are bitching about aren't even in the area we're talking about, which makes it rather clear that this is all just another excuse for you to complain about the modules in general.

 

I frankly couldn't give two flying fucks what people on Polycount would say about the models. I care what TDM mappers and players have to say. And the overwhelming consensus has been that they're a welcome addition. I've said it before, and I guess i have to say it again, if they're not good enough for you, don't fucking use them. Go work on your own modules with your own workflow, and show us how it's done. I look forward to your 300 model contribution.

 

:D

 

There's no sense in releasing your work if you can't deal with criticism, especially if it's valid. That's part of the fun, and the opportunity to grow. I can only guess you're used to constant praise and noone in your circles is able to fairly judge your work. Sure you can throw a tantrum like that, it's both funny and sad. Those models will snowball on you and us players later, unless you plan to include 2 SLI GTX 1080s and SSD drives as a requirement for a game that doesn't even look 2010. Getting back to good work then :)

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If you really built that mission in such a small amount of time, there might still be hope for the TDM campaign :D.

 

Pros:

- Very Challenging

- Nice ambient music

- TDM FM

 

Cons:

- ?

 

 

There is a floating crate in one of the two storage rooms upstairs, but aside from that I found no signs of speedbuilding^^.

 

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Well maybe I don't have ~exacting standards~ but I enjoyed the mission. It was most challenging in the warehouse section, where the combination of the open plan, harsh industrial lights and the crowd of patrolling guards form a deadly combination. The rest is much easier (a smaller and a larger loop, in essence); ironically, it gets easier and easier as you get closer to your goal.

 

It is good for what it is, a really. Sure, much more can be done with modules, even in ways that will not have this kind of performance impact, but this is essentially a demo for a building technique.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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