Dawn of Reality - new version release

[Reinchard2]

Thanks, this will be very helpfull.
Today I discovered what is the main cause of loss of fps in some areas of the map. This is a very large number of grass sprites in open areas, which are not covered with one-sided lines (many of my buildings are made using 3d floors, no 1-sided lines). When I delete this sprites my fps increase from about 30 fps to about 60-70 fps (I'm using GTX285), and this is very difference. But then this areas looks worse. I tried to reduce the textures by half from 512x512 to 256x256, but it was not as much difference in fps, so I leave 512x512. Zip with textures and sounds will be have something about 100-120 mb, maybe I can get rid of a few more unnecessary things, then filesize will be smaller.

No, there will by only one big map.

Oh well, then I might not be able to play it; I guess I could "freeze" and run through the static map at least to see it

Im not a good betatester, at all, but I'll say I am just for you to send it over here and try it ASAP

EDIT: or I could say I can help to know in which systems might work

I just resigned from certain places, but this map is still very, very big. I hope that after my changes of map geometry (more 1-sided lines) you will be able to play. On start, I have little "freeze" in 6-8 points of map, but after then everything is fine. I guess thiss is problem with precache gl textures function in GZDoom, but when I reduce size of textures by half, I still have this damn "freezes".

[DBThanatos]

Well, if the grass sprites are actors, I was going to suggest [wiki]A_CheckSightOrRange[/wiki]; but seems like this only takes in count 1 sided lines also.

About the size, I (in a very personal opinion) wouldnt worry about it. If a huge file is what it takes to see a very pretty city, Im definitely going to download even if is 300mb.

[gh0st]

I'm really looking forward to this, excellent work, cant wait for a release.

[Grymmette]

Well, a map can be outrageously huge and still run fine actually. It depends how many open spaces you have, if you can see the entire map from one point (and seeing as how it is pretty detailed) then I wouldn't be surprised if it slowed down even on the best of computers, at least a little.

Also depends on how many things are "active" at once. Like DBThanatos said, it might be good to modify the monsters to attack only from a certain distance (especially projectile based attacks, which can lag if a lot are crossing a large open exanse at once). Deaf monsters and waking up once the player is close to the monster from a certain distance helps too.

[Caligari87]

At very least what you could do is put some "buffer" void spaces in there (buildings, etc) to avoid having anywhere with too far of a draw distance. I've seen a couple maps that have to do that in order to avoid crashing.

[Reinchard2]

Well, if the grass sprites are actors, I was going to suggest [wiki]A_CheckSightOrRange[/wiki]; but seems like this only takes in count 1 sided lines also.

About the size, I (in a very personal opinion) wouldnt worry about it. If a huge file is what it takes to see a very pretty city, Im definitely going to download even if is 300mb.

I do not quite understand zdoom wiki in case of "A_CheckSightOrRange". My grass in decorate looks like this:
Grass1
{
DoomEdNum 21001
Sprite KRZ1
Frames "1:A"
scale 0.50
}

How should look like this decorate with this function? Give me an example.

At very least what you could do is put some "buffer" void spaces in there (buildings, etc) to avoid having anywhere with too far of a draw distance. I've seen a couple maps that have to do that in order to avoid crashing.

This is exactly what I'm doing. I built a few buildings, not existing in a real city, just to cover up too large open areas.

[Caligari87]

Ah, you're using the older decorate syntax. the new code would look something like:

Code: Select all

ACTOR Grass1 21001
{
  +NOINTERACTION
  States
  {
  Spawn:
    KRZ1 A A_CheckSightorRange([etc])
    [additional code to check if the actor should display or not]
    loop
  }
}

Note that this is only a pseudo-code example, but it may be enough to get you started.

[DBThanatos]

I usually test whatever I suggest first, so here's the test actor I made

Code: Select all

Actor Something replaces Zombieman //lamp that likes to be funny when you're not watching
{
	Game Doom
	Radius 16
	Height 80
	ProjectilePassHeight -16
	+SOLID
	States
	{
	Spawn:
		TNT1 a 0 
		TNT1 A 0 A_CheckSightOrRange(256,"CantSeeShitCaptain")
		TLMP ABCD 4 BRIGHT
		Loop
	CantSeeShitCaptain:
		TROO FIJL 1 BRIGHT
		Goto Spawn
	}
}

Now, is worth a try, but Im not sure how much would it actually help in practice for the framerate. Your code should be this:

Code: Select all

Actor Grass1 21001
{
+NOINTERACTION
scale 0.5
States
{
  Spawn:
    TNT1 A 0 
    KRZ1 A 0 A_CheckSightOrRange(1024,"CantSeeShitCaptain")
    KRZ1 A 3
    Loop
  CantSeeShitCaptain:
    TNT1 A 3
    Goto Spawn
}
}

[Caligari87]

I usually test whatever I suggest first, so here's the test actor I made

I would if I wasn't at work with no access to my mod tools.

Anyway, Reinchard2, the +NOINTERACTION flag is what will probably do the most for your purposes; not drawing the actor won't necessarily help if they're still taking up CPU cycles just checking their LOS. It removes most of the physics/etc checks from the actor so it's great for particles/grass and whatnot.

[DBThanatos]

I usually test whatever I suggest first, so here's the test actor I made

I would if I wasn't at work with no access to my mod tools.

LOLWUT? Did that look like I was saying you dont? sorry about that, I was just saying I had this code handy since yesterday

[Caligari87]

Ah, okay.

[cq75]

I read the whole 10 pages. I like your style, some people said it looks like half life, I actually like it better than half life. I keep expecting to see grungy, gray/brown shading in the surroundings, like most games made today, but it's just not there, and I'm thankful for it.

---

even though the brown supports on that building look a little blocky and fake, the rest of the screenshot looks incredibly clean and realistic. No fog, no blur, no random graying. The atmosphere looks incredibly real, and it's satisfying to look at it.

I hope my PC can handle it.

[Reinchard2]

Thanks to all for help, but this new decorate function it was not a good idea. Here I post some screens for example (look at framerate). I think I should remove the grass and will be ok without it.

Here is how it works with new decorate code:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here is how it work with my old simple decorate:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And finally here is how it works (ad looks) without this damn grass:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Dynamo]

Perhaps you could try to remove most of the grass but not all of it.

[Reinchard2]

I remove grass, mayve after beta tests I will know what number of grass actors I must use.