Performance and optimization questions

[TammySilverwolf]

Hey hey,

I'm not sure how else to put this, so I'm going to probably make a mess of it. I'm working with GZDOOM and ZDOOM, trying to make a map and I keep running into some pretty awesome frame drops with my geometry. I know there's a fair bit of it on display but I don't have any idea what the engine is rendering so I can fix it! Are there any commands I can use to find out? an r_drawtris or something like that?

This is more Gzdoom related, really, but even the editor chugs. >_>

I've tried removing the dynamic lights and cutting the linedefs to the bone, but I still drop into single digit FPS land. Is this a case where I'd be better off modeling the stuff and just keeping the geometry simple or am I doing something wrong here?

I'm using UDMF format (which is amazing, btw) and my computer is a quad core AMD A4. The worst drops appear when looking from the back to the front, obviously, but it never seems to get much over 20 fps.

Area in editor (Top down)

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Area in editor

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Area in game

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I don't /mind/ redesigning it now that I know what I'm doing, but I'd love to be able to know how to prevent these problems in the future. Any help would be appreciated!

[TammySilverwolf]

I should have mentioned, removing all the dynamic lights and the slopes in the background there had exactly 2 FPS impact, so I'm not sure it's just the insanity that is my mapping.

[Kappes Buur]

Do you get any errors when running Map Analysis (F4) ?

[Xaser]

What's your graphics card? If you're using GZDoom, that's more likely the bottleneck than your CPU.

[Enjay]

There is quite a bit of detail there but it doesn't look to be an excessively detailed area so I'm surprised you are getting particularly big FPS drops.

[TammySilverwolf]

I fixed any issues that the map had, yeah.


my video (the chip in here is an APU which has the video and cpu on the same die) is apparent an AMD Radeon HD 8330

[GooberMan]

I'd suspect the slowdown is the BSP there. You've got quite a few slope sectors.

Isn't there some console command to dump those stats?

[TammySilverwolf]

I'm not sure! This was part of my question, just what are the commands for map debugging?

Suppose I can just rejigger the slops and not loose much... hm

[edward850]

What's your graphics card? If you're using GZDoom, that's more likely the bottleneck than your CPU.

Other way round. GZDooms bottleneck is the CPUs ability to construct and upload the frame.

I'm not sure! This was part of my question, just what are the commands for map debugging?

You don't debug the map, you analyse frame statistics. That's a little harder to do if you already don't know what you're looking for, and would be so much easier for someone else to do if you actually uploaded the map.

[Enjay]

Uploading the map would also allow people to post comparative figures to see if other peoples' frame rates are also excessively affected.

[TammySilverwolf]

Sure,

here we are: Link

Very early WIP, so it's really rough... Which is why I said it's not an issue to tear it apart and start over.

Thanks so much for your time!

[Blue Shadow]

There are only textures there, no map.

[TammySilverwolf]

There are only textures there, no map.

Sorted. Also: the map is 3 megs? Holy hell...

[Graf Zahl]

When starting the map with vsync off and fps display on it shows 156 fps for me.
To see what is wrong, go to the console, type 'stat rendertimes', start the map again and make a screenshot. This looks like your CPU is either too weak or somehow fooled to run in low power mode. It's the only explanation I have.

[edward850]

the map is 3 megs? Holy hell...

That's because UDMF maps are intended to be compressed, seeing as they are plain text.

Edit: The scene is expensive, but it sure isn't single digit FPS.

Looks like uploading the frame indeed takes the longest time. Do you happen to be using GZDoom 1.8, rather than 2.1?