There is a map I have been working on for a while. I've been slowly pecking away at the map giving every inch of it as much love and detail as I possibly can. I can't even remember when I actually started building this map as I have been working on it for quite a while.
Anyway, as you could imagine working on a large map and giving it lots of details will add to that doodad count quite a bit. The in game lag is starting to get a bit noticeable. I'm starting to think maybe I will have to start looking for any doodads I can dispose of, but I'd rather that be a last resort so I am wondering if there are any good techniques to increase fps in big maps.
I see no other way that to remove some doodads. When you're already thinking about the performance, you'll rather like to remove all of one type of doodads. For example, having two identical rocks over one will only take a nano-second to load, but having two rocks of different types with different texture and model, will take a lot longer to load, since there are more file-textures & models to be loaded into memory.
So instead of removing doodads here and there, try finding some doodads types, that you find rather boring/bad/not fitting, and remove all of it's type. As well as removing some of those doodads you only use one time for example.
I have this in the back of my head all the time, and even though my map is HUGE, and I have ton of doodads all over the place, I have just fine frame-rates on my 128Mb gfx-card.
I hope this helps you out somehow, and I hope your map wont suffer to hard from the doodads disposal
There's two golden rules for improving a terrain for performance;
1) Whenever you use the 'add texture' button, you paint a texture ON the existing texture. Both get put in the map, but texture B won't be seen because A is on top of it. You can test this yourself - open up a new map and paint a circle of texture #1. Click 'add texture' and put #2 on top of it. Continue until #8. Now use the 'remove texture' and start removing #8 back through #1 - you'll notice each layer coming back up independantly. This can severely increase map size and loading time if you use the 'add texture' button. Use the 'replace texture' button whenever possible to prevent this.
2) Scale doodads up. A forest of 100 trees takes more loading time than a forest of 50 scaled up trees, and it'll look and feel the same.
Aside from that
Also, remove doodads that won't be seen. Unless you modify the camera in your map, it will only ever take three angles, two of which are roughly the same as the main one. Focus your efforts on improving the view from that side. Don't fill up areas that will never be seen with foliage or such.
And on a last note - if you're using the 'generate foliage' button, get some holy water from your local church and decontaminate your PC. That button is the devil and should never be pushed.
And on a last note - if you're using the 'generate foliage' button, get some holy water from your local church and decontaminate your PC. That button is the devil and should never be pushed.
Even if you set up foilage to appear in specific areas using allow/disallow?
That's acceptable if you're making a melee map and/or low on time. If you have time or otherwise want a plain good terrain, manually placing stuff wins over generate foliage every time. I think I've yet to see a map with the function that I didn't dislike the terrain of. It makes maps look so generic, like just... grass with plants, and that's it.
I've been trying that 'replace texture' method and I notice that its increment is pretty much comparable to 255 which is too fast for me. My own computer is fast enough to run large maps just fine but I was wondering, can you replicate the add texture effect of blended terrain by using replace texture? It surely would reduce load time, even if minor, if it removes layers below your current.
Yes, you can, that was my whole point. The 'add' function is in terms of where and in what amounts the texture is applied exactly the same as the replace function.
@Mozared: Go
You can always edit your foliage, if you use your brain :P It still doesn't look very good, but at least you have grass that you can move with the wind. If people don't know how to use it though, I agree: Do not touch it :>
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There is a map I have been working on for a while. I've been slowly pecking away at the map giving every inch of it as much love and detail as I possibly can. I can't even remember when I actually started building this map as I have been working on it for quite a while.
Anyway, as you could imagine working on a large map and giving it lots of details will add to that doodad count quite a bit. The in game lag is starting to get a bit noticeable. I'm starting to think maybe I will have to start looking for any doodads I can dispose of, but I'd rather that be a last resort so I am wondering if there are any good techniques to increase fps in big maps.
@JakeCake26: Go
Thanks a lot for your tip. More tips would be highly appreciated! :)
There's two golden rules for improving a terrain for performance;
1) Whenever you use the 'add texture' button, you paint a texture ON the existing texture. Both get put in the map, but texture B won't be seen because A is on top of it. You can test this yourself - open up a new map and paint a circle of texture #1. Click 'add texture' and put #2 on top of it. Continue until #8. Now use the 'remove texture' and start removing #8 back through #1 - you'll notice each layer coming back up independantly. This can severely increase map size and loading time if you use the 'add texture' button. Use the 'replace texture' button whenever possible to prevent this.
2) Scale doodads up. A forest of 100 trees takes more loading time than a forest of 50 scaled up trees, and it'll look and feel the same.
Aside from that
Also, remove doodads that won't be seen. Unless you modify the camera in your map, it will only ever take three angles, two of which are roughly the same as the main one. Focus your efforts on improving the view from that side. Don't fill up areas that will never be seen with foliage or such.
And on a last note - if you're using the 'generate foliage' button, get some holy water from your local church and decontaminate your PC. That button is the devil and should never be pushed.
Even if you set up foilage to appear in specific areas using allow/disallow?
@Writhes: Go
That's acceptable if you're making a melee map and/or low on time. If you have time or otherwise want a plain good terrain, manually placing stuff wins over generate foliage every time. I think I've yet to see a map with the function that I didn't dislike the terrain of. It makes maps look so generic, like just... grass with plants, and that's it.
@Writhes: Go
Feel like showing us some screenshots of your love :)?
@Mozared: Go
personally, I use replace texture. Only use add when I want both layers seen at the same time.
I've been trying that 'replace texture' method and I notice that its increment is pretty much comparable to 255 which is too fast for me. My own computer is fast enough to run large maps just fine but I was wondering, can you replicate the add texture effect of blended terrain by using replace texture? It surely would reduce load time, even if minor, if it removes layers below your current.
Yes, you can, that was my whole point. The 'add' function is in terms of where and in what amounts the texture is applied exactly the same as the replace function.
@Mozared: Go You can always edit your foliage, if you use your brain :P It still doesn't look very good, but at least you have grass that you can move with the wind. If people don't know how to use it though, I agree: Do not touch it :>