A LOT of lights per scene!! Great discovery possible. - by Judith
Judith on 14/2/2008 at 21:25
This can be another major breakthrough in T3 editing, but It would be great if everyone who has T3Ed installed could do the following:
1. Create some enormous room, like 2560 x 2560, the height doesnt matter, can be half of that or less.
2. Press F6 or access the Level Properties from View tab.
3. Go to ZoneInfo property, expand it.
4. See MaxLightCount? Change the value to 20.
5. Put 20 lights in your scene, like 20 standing torches, do not turn the shadow casting off.
6. Add playerstart, complile, launch fraps or other FPS meter, launch the game through Play game or Send to xbox (T3ReleaseVersion.exe will give you better results).
7. Tell me your results here!
See what I got? :eek: :o :cheeky:
(
http://www.putfile.com/pic/7673182)
Inline Image:
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/2/4416171130.jpg(
http://www.putfile.com/pic/7673181)
Inline Image:
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/2/4416171134.jpgAnd these are the results from the slower .exe! If it isn't just my graphic card (GF 7900 GT is still not a bad card ;) ) it means we can have normal, realistic, detailed lightning with shadows everywhere...
By the way, those pillars are not Smeshes, those are BSP's! :eek:
Beleg Cúthalion on 14/2/2008 at 22:16
Will we get the guards that climb ladders before or short after Easter?
PS: Take care of the Thief Gen Discussion forum during weekend, I'm proud to have a little present to offer, too. ;)
Flux on 14/2/2008 at 23:01
Interesting, but I'm baffled about something.
What is your fps difference with maxlightcount=6 and maxlightcount=20?
Because I made the exact same room with 20 torches and I'm getting solid 70fps all over the place with 6 or 20 light count doesn't matter. (Amd3000, 2 gig ram with gf6800 gt). If I turn the vsync off I get in the same room 120-130 fps from time to time.
I should check for different result like with more ai in it . There are some situations you always get low fps no matter what optimization you can force into, I have to find one of these instances and check with maxlightcount settings.
Judith on 14/2/2008 at 23:22
Before changing the value I couldn't put more than 6 lights in any place without causing a massive performance drop (38 FPS), not to mention shadow casting. Funny though, I decreased the value back to 6 and it's still 75 FPS. It looks like it must be stored somewhere else. Not in user ini, I already checked.
Flux on 14/2/2008 at 23:39
Quote:
massive performance drop
Here is my theory on this. Whenever I see a massive performance drop in any level, without a logical cause, I alt-enter, kill the editor from task manager and back to game: fps rockets high!
Maybe this is something obvious but I tend to do this lately a lot. Makes me worry about less about performance, right? People will play the cooked ibt without a editor running in the background which has real-time preview enabled all the time.
By the way, I'm also surprised to see 20 lights in a big room. I added like 40 ai into that room and fps was like 25-40 all over the place even I scared some of them to run around.:p
And a small note: fps around 30 is perfectly playable for me since this is not a run around shooter.
Judith on 14/2/2008 at 23:45
Well, I can still have fun with 15 fps, that's no problem for me, though performance drops in T3 are strange in my case, since GF 6600 probably. I have either max 75 fps or half of if, nothing in between. This is why I try to keep it always at the maximum value, while I test my FM's, thinking that folks with slower PC's will suffer even more...
jtr7 on 14/2/2008 at 23:47
What you all are doing is great!
What would happen if you filled the room with 20 torch-bearing AI?:sly:
On a whim, I'm imagining the classic frightened and angry mob, about to go torch the local monstrous abomination.
Flux on 15/2/2008 at 00:16
Quote:
This is why I try to keep it always at the maximum value, while I test my FM's, thinking that folks with slower PC's will suffer even more...
This is exactly my concern also but I'm confused. Maybe with better cards this whole deal about "deadly shadows kill performance" will be a myth. Look at these screenshots. One has all shadow casting lights and the other one has omni-noshadows.
Inline Image:
http://images.bittersense.com/shadow2.jpgInline Image:
http://images.bittersense.com/shadow1.jpgThe fps difference is 1?:confused:
How can we explain this?
Searching older threads will tell you the exact opposite even with test rooms which has 4 lights and some statues in it.
In any case, what you're doing is great Judith, gives me more courage to try out new things:D
Also did you try this "kill editor" trick when encountering massive frame rate drops?
Shadak on 15/2/2008 at 00:17
Quote Posted by Judith
Well, I can still have fun with 15 fps, that's no problem for me, though performance drops in T3 are strange in my case, since GF 6600 probably. I have either max 75 fps or half of if, nothing in between.
It sounds like v-sync to me (which I like, I hate tearing). If you don't have it on in Thief 3 (I can't remember if it has the graphics option for it) then you may have it on in your general graphics card settings.
Judith on 15/2/2008 at 10:09
It is vsync for sure :) No, I haven't tried alt-tabbing or switching to task manager. I have difficulties in getting back to T3 while doing so, somehow there's nothing on the screen.
