Help with optimization

[Mailman]

I've done almost everything I can think of to optimize this map. *I've tweaked shadow detail and sectored it to the best of my ability, but in the middle area, I can't seem to get above 35-40fps at any resolution. *I've uploaded a screenshot with stats, but I need some help deciphering it:

http://www.hit-squad.net/screenshots/townsquare_unoptimized.jpg

Thanks!

(Edited by Mailman at 4:28 pm on Sep. 26, 2001)

[pompey]

35-40fps, what u moaning about!!!!
mines about 12fps at the centre!

[KILLIGULA]

Mailman that's the exact same problem I'm having with Dendera and I can't figure it out. No matter how I sector it it's still 30fps at the main temple.....

Do you have a lot of models? My temple has 2 models in the front. Maybe they are slowing things down. Just a thought.....

[SuperMang!]

unless those models have an ungodly amount of polys, i dont see any way that only two models can slow down a map. models render 50% faster than architecture.

[sh0dan]

Mail: You have a fairly many sectors visible (155) - that quite a lot - that probably the biggest CPU hog. However  besides that your numbers seem fairly balanced. You should probably use /wlb_bshowtriangles=1 and walk a little around to see if you could put up any occluders of pretenders to minimize the number of visible sectors.

Pretenders are really great if used with logic. Some people think "I don't have to use a pretender on this door, beacuse it's never seen from very far away" - but if they check with /wld_bsh... the engine often draws something inside the door. Many pretenders can be done without visual dregradation when seen from the player point-of-view.


SLAP: No - the thing that takes time on your map is world geometry. But IMO it isn't that bad with some some sectoring in 99% of the time. You can never lower the amount of visible polys by sectoring. If your geometry is visible - it will be rendered. Therefore your cannot always expect a better performance if most of your level is visible at the same time.

[KILLIGULA]

I see. I might just leave my simple sectoring and release the damn finished map once and for all.....

[Mailman]

could the sector number be high because i have a lot of brushes that I used merge layers on? *I thought merging layers allowed you to keep poly counts lower and speed things up (especially if detail brushes).

As far as sectors used for vis calculations, I've got it sectored almost perfectly.  At any point in the map, it only renders what is needed, for the most part.

(Edited by Mailman at 1:40 pm on Sep. 27, 2001)

[ZeroVelocity]

Are you running the map from the editor? When I was running my map through the editor it ran at 30-40 fps, but when I tried it in-game it ran at 90+ fps.

[Mailman]

I run it in game (in mod) at all resolutions.

[Bwian]

Mailman, check out the wireframe modes (8 i think, to keep textures visible). Find out what's making the most of your polygons, find where things might be overdrawing too much, etc.

Biggest thing I could recommend is probably mipping your lampposts/trafficlights, if you aren't already (or aren't in the model data yet either). For the farthest ones, you don't want to be rendering lots of 8-sided cylinders for instance.

[LSD]

I would guess a lot of your sectors are indeed caused by layering geometry. While Poly count does slow things down, a high sector count does too. Try merging some of your layered objects together (not to the main worldbase, just to each other) That might help... though your map is simple enough that I have my doubts you can improve it much more. Also, make heavy use of mipping, it does help a lot with the poly count. 1200 tris in view is a fair amount, and I am willing to bet if you could get that lower it would run better. BTW, what machine spec are you running on. For some folks 35 fps is considered respectable.

[Mailman]

PIII-800
256MB RAM
GeForce 2 GTS 64MB

I've merged a lot of objects to each other and gained a decent increase of 5-10fps in places.  Also, the stoplights are now models, but the stoplight bulbs remain brushes for lighting purposes (they blink).

I am capable of maintaining 70fps in croteam's levels, unless there's a lot going on.