NanoBlobs 0.41 + NTAI 8.0.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 11:16

It's still pretty bloody awful, even with standing archers and no shadows. With 30 Archers firing during a given 3-second window, FPS drops from 100+ to 40-ish. The big problem, though, is that the framerate does not improve if the trails/explosions are offscreen. Which means that there's something at the engine level that's not being done very efficiently. I'll go over to Development and ask what, if anything, I can do to mitigate this.

This may sound stupid, but I hadn't played with the smoke-trails very much, so their incredibly ugly effect on framerate was a new one to me. I used to wonder why the Raven rockets seemed so laggy- the answer is... they are laggy, it's not just the "wobble".

Das Bruce · Post by **Das Bruce** » 23 Mar 2006, 11:27

Check the cpu usage graphs in debug mode.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 11:46

Hmm. Going to try something, now that I have looked at smoke really close-up...

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 11:57

Yup, there is a solution, at least partway. Still sucks up FPS, still is bad with shadows on, but at least it's not a total framerate-killer. And it only looks slightly less good. Acceptable, I think, and with a few other optimizations, I could keep total speed about the same, and have this visual effect.

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 23 Mar 2006, 12:03

what did you do?

PS

I really think you should write some wiki articles about your knownlage about the game :) and the s3o format.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 12:36

The short version of what I did was that I reduced the number of particles through a series of kludges. And now that I know it works, I will do some more kludges, because I know where the FPS is getting killed.

I would give a lot for the ability to make my own explosions at this point- while the default ones are pretty, I am pretty sure I could make them just as pretty, but not use as many particles

And I will be happy to share my "knowledge" when I feel I have some. I'm still reaching around in the dark, to be honest, and most of the time, my solutions are one-time-kludges, not permanent best-method solutions. Such is game design.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 13:08

The relevant number is on the bottom left

This is with shadows off, of course, but it's still acceptable.

emo_boy · Post by **emo_boy** » 23 Mar 2006, 13:09

love the smoke and the mod is really sweet as well ... however with like 4 more units it wud probably the greatest mod out there

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 13:27

I dunno about that. At any rate, I do have more things planned.

emo_boy · Post by **emo_boy** » 23 Mar 2006, 13:29

ok i understand. Might u have any screenshots of the new map that u want to post cause im really interested in what it looks like

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 13:34

I'm waiting for Hrmph to take a last whack at it. He resized the colormap, but the metalmap, etc, aren't quite there yet. He's been busy with other things, but I don't want to release it in an unfinished state.

Drone_Fragger · Post by **Drone_Fragger** » 23 Mar 2006, 18:34

I could help model if you want. You'd probebly have to touch the models up and texture them, but at least its less strain on you.

FLOZi · Post by **FLOZi** » 23 Mar 2006, 20:08

Could you post the weapon tdf for those? Might be handy for AATA ballistic rockets too - although I think it would bork hightrajectory.

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 23 Mar 2006, 20:37

70 FPS is 'acceptable'
O,o
i run at 60 dropping to 25-30 ingame ;.;

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 23 Mar 2006, 22:55

@Drone_Fragger:

If you want to help, I need animators (scriptors) more than any other skillset. Modeling is the easy part, and while I would like to have another skinner, I can live without one. However, while I'm a fairly good animator, that part takes about as long as the modeling/skinning does, at least right now. I seem to be speeding up on that end, though... speeding up in general, really, now that I'm getting comfortable with everything I need to do.

@FLOZi:

What I did would definately break HiTrajectory, unfortunately, because I'm using a "guided missile" that is not really a guided missile, essentially. I'll post the TDF when I am sure that I've squeezed all of the optimization I can out, but it's definately acceptable right now. As you can also (hopefully) see, I have figured out that the smoketrail is based on a Z position on the model, not based of the missile_flare as you might expect. This is both good and bad. And I dumped the Flare bitmap by doing a couple of things. Now I just need to ask about Smoke, and figure that out. I will go to Development and do that.

Archangel of Death · Post by **Archangel of Death** » 24 Mar 2006, 00:58

Argh, if you want to change the explosions, smoke, flares, grass, smoke clouds, and more, try looking at the \base\spring\springbitmaps_v061.sdz. Ones in your mod file will replace ones from that directory. (You never noticed AA has different explosions?

)

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 24 Mar 2006, 01:34

@Archangel:

Did some experiments, and my records are in Development already, just didn't document it this morning, was in a hurry to go to bed

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 26 Mar 2006, 06:39

0.35b has been released. Decided to make this one public, instead of semi-private.

Changelog:

Code: Select all

Archers have been changed rather dramatically, in a variety of ways.  New missile models, much lower rates of fire (but more effective damage), angle-restrictions (thanks to Caydr), and more.  Basically, Archers have a definate *point* in this version, like they should, but are well-balanced and fun.  Plus they're a bit more visually pretty, for those who can see them in full glory.

SquareRooks have weapons that have a shorter range than in previous versions, about 3X movement speed, and better resistance to Archer fire.  They are now what they should be, in most respects- a close-in assault unit.  However, they still lack the chainguns suggested by GuiltySpark- that will wait for the upcoming major version change with the Demon, etc.- that will be at least a week away, though, so please be patient!

Holders have been altered a bit, to make them relevant as anti-Wolf defensive units, among other things.  Basically, they're pretty useful at this point, and a Holder backed by a Spire is a pretty cost-effective defensive post.

That's pretty much it, really. It doesn't sound like much, but the combined effects of these changes have resulted in a mod that's 100% more polished for human-vs-human play. Much thanks to everybody who has helped me playtest this week, and I will be running more playtests as the new content gets put in.

FireCrack · Post by **FireCrack** » 26 Mar 2006, 08:21

Link in fist post ins not working...

yuritch · Post by **yuritch** » 26 Mar 2006, 10:21

The link isn't working for me too. Maybe the file isn't uploaded yet?

Spring RTS Engine

NanoBlobs 0.41 + NTAI 8.0.

Broken link