Too many units slowing you down?
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Too many units slowing you down?
I don't know about other users, but I've found that the the engine slows down quite a lot when there are too many units onscreen. You can solve this problem by setting the unit-icon distance really low, but that can get annoying. What if, instead of specifying a minimum distance in which to show detailed units, how about an option to specify the total number of units which will be rendered at a time? Essentially, the unit-icon distance would change as more units become visible. I'm not much of a programmer, but I don't think it would be terribly hard to accomplish.
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
If you only render a few units, you are at a disadvantage to other users, as a number of units are literally 'invisible.' Almost all spring games have a changeable unit limit, I'd recommend you use that.
Additionally, this kind of problem is experienced by lots of people, because games like BA tend to have a lot more units than most commercial RTS games, and the engine has a much less restricted zoom feature.
Additionally, this kind of problem is experienced by lots of people, because games like BA tend to have a lot more units than most commercial RTS games, and the engine has a much less restricted zoom feature.
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
If this really is a problem for you, enable the FPS manager widget. If you 
own a dual core CPU, you might want to try the methods listed in this topic:
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... ed#p365046
own a dual core CPU, you might want to try the methods listed in this topic:http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... ed#p365046
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luckywaldo7
- Posts: 1398
- Joined: 17 Sep 2008, 04:36
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
I usually play with the icon settings pretty low. On the other hand, CA and S44 have very good icon sets so I can always tell exactly what units I am looking at.
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
Those are helpful ideas, but I really think this could be useful. It wouldn't be much of a tactical disadvantage to represent units as icons; you can still tell what they are. The only way I can get the engine to run smoothly with 100-plus units onscreen is if the unit-icon distance is set really low. However, when I'm not trying to see so many at once, it's nice to let the engine render the more distant ones; the visuals are part of what make this a great game.
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
Invisibility might a problem, though you could always render distant units just as icons and save that way.
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
I rarely have problems with the rendering, usually the framerate drops because of the units moving.
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
What are your system specs, out of curiosity?
Do you have the problem when units are simply in view, or do they have to be trying to move somewhere?
What settings are you using? Most importantly, screen res, reflections, shadows, and water settings?
In my experience with a few different grades of computer, Spring is more of a burden on the CPU than the graphics card... being able to view units as icons is really more of a feature to help with how hard it is to see units when you're zoomed out than because computers can't handle the detail.
If you're playing a TA-based mod, such as BA, SA, or CA, unit detail is so extremely low that the number of units onscreen will have virtually no effect - unless you have shadows turned on. The bigger burden is almost always on your CPU, which has to handle pathfinding for all those units.
I'm trying to be clear since I don't know what your level of technical knowledge is but I think I'm just repeating myself...
Even I only get 40 fps or so with shadows turned on and ~1500 units onscreen... </smug>
Do you have the problem when units are simply in view, or do they have to be trying to move somewhere?
What settings are you using? Most importantly, screen res, reflections, shadows, and water settings?
In my experience with a few different grades of computer, Spring is more of a burden on the CPU than the graphics card... being able to view units as icons is really more of a feature to help with how hard it is to see units when you're zoomed out than because computers can't handle the detail.
If you're playing a TA-based mod, such as BA, SA, or CA, unit detail is so extremely low that the number of units onscreen will have virtually no effect - unless you have shadows turned on. The bigger burden is almost always on your CPU, which has to handle pathfinding for all those units.
I'm trying to be clear since I don't know what your level of technical knowledge is but I think I'm just repeating myself...
Even I only get 40 fps or so with shadows turned on and ~1500 units onscreen... </smug>
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
I guess pathfinding is a big part of the problem... I don't have much trouble with stationary units, but I also don't have the problems when I can't see the moving units.
I couldn't tell you my system specs offhand, but I'm running a year-old machine with Windows Vista. It's not the fastest computer on the block, but that's kind of the point I'm making - a person with a middlin' computer should have options to be able to enjoy this game as much as the hardcore dude with a dedicated gaming rig.
I couldn't tell you my system specs offhand, but I'm running a year-old machine with Windows Vista. It's not the fastest computer on the block, but that's kind of the point I'm making - a person with a middlin' computer should have options to be able to enjoy this game as much as the hardcore dude with a dedicated gaming rig.
Re: Too many units slowing you down?
Hmm... If there really is a huge difference just from having the units offscreen it can't just be pathfinding. It sounds like you probably have a really low-end integrated graphics chip. You didn't mention it but I assume you've already turned off shadows, reflective/refractive water, and reflective units, and updated your graphics drivers?
I would make a new post in the LUA forum. Drawing or not drawing units over a certain number is probably something that could be easily done with an LUA widget, and you're more likely to get someone to do an LUA for you than you are to get the engine devs to do something.
I would make a new post in the LUA forum. Drawing or not drawing units over a certain number is probably something that could be easily done with an LUA widget, and you're more likely to get someone to do an LUA for you than you are to get the engine devs to do something.