10.05.2008, 17:00
I have modelled 90% of Slovakia objects and worked on placing them on the Slovak map.
There are 3 factors that impact the FPS:
1. Maximum distance visibility of objects and LOD switch visibility. This is out of scope for you guys. That was something I had to adjust in order to get the right balance. I had to do it 3 times to get it about right. Otherwise it would kill your machines.
2. Total number of objects in view. It seems that as soon as IL-2 engine reaches some sort of critical limit of object count, it suffers a very noticeable drop of FPS. I don't know what the limit is though. It's a trial and error thing you must test yourself. Focus especially on this one. Make the towns smaller in their size. Cities on some old maps are unrealistically huuuuuuuge.
3. The diversity of objects. More different objects you place in your map (especially in heavy populated areas), the more significant impact on performance.
Better quality (in terms of 3D modelling & texturing) of Slovak objects has NO IMPACT on your FPS. We have tested them for months. They have a bit higher visibility distance but this is a very low resource killer. Again, we have tested for a long time.
Old maps use about 5 different house objects per city/village (I think). They are also not much densly placed and their maximum distance and LOD distances are lower than Slovak ones.
@deavis: Try to fly right over Berlin. If Berlin is a FPS killer for you, Slovakia will be as well. I have a much much older PC than you do and I am able to run Slovakia ok. Yes, the big Slovak cities (about 5 of them) are a real problem, but this map is intended to be fully playable in couple years. We aimed at the future. However, small and medium towns should be very smooth with your machine. If they are not, I am sorry to point out that it's a hardware or software issue on your end.
There are 3 factors that impact the FPS:
1. Maximum distance visibility of objects and LOD switch visibility. This is out of scope for you guys. That was something I had to adjust in order to get the right balance. I had to do it 3 times to get it about right. Otherwise it would kill your machines.
2. Total number of objects in view. It seems that as soon as IL-2 engine reaches some sort of critical limit of object count, it suffers a very noticeable drop of FPS. I don't know what the limit is though. It's a trial and error thing you must test yourself. Focus especially on this one. Make the towns smaller in their size. Cities on some old maps are unrealistically huuuuuuuge.
3. The diversity of objects. More different objects you place in your map (especially in heavy populated areas), the more significant impact on performance.
Better quality (in terms of 3D modelling & texturing) of Slovak objects has NO IMPACT on your FPS. We have tested them for months. They have a bit higher visibility distance but this is a very low resource killer. Again, we have tested for a long time.
Old maps use about 5 different house objects per city/village (I think). They are also not much densly placed and their maximum distance and LOD distances are lower than Slovak ones.
@deavis: Try to fly right over Berlin. If Berlin is a FPS killer for you, Slovakia will be as well. I have a much much older PC than you do and I am able to run Slovakia ok. Yes, the big Slovak cities (about 5 of them) are a real problem, but this map is intended to be fully playable in couple years. We aimed at the future. However, small and medium towns should be very smooth with your machine. If they are not, I am sorry to point out that it's a hardware or software issue on your end.