Bardic on 27/10/2005 at 22:45
Heh, it's like someone else said, you can make something so overly complicated and then have someone else suggest an easy solution.
Hiding and unhiding the smeshes is excellent with or without out the low poly smeshes, it would be nice if the game clipped objects at a certain distance anyways, but if you were willing to make the links and volumes, you could travel a huge distance. Overlapping volumes so when you enter a second one both sets are shown, and when you leave the first it's linked smeshes get hidden. I have some stuff to try when I get home.
More effort but it could be worth it for certain situations.
Bardic on 28/10/2005 at 05:39
OK, a huge room with 1,700+ plant and tree smeshes runs OK. 15fps up to 45 or so as you walk to the other side. Add 51 standing torches dispersed among them drops it to 3fps up to maybe 20 at the other end. But turn up the level brightness and get rid of the torches and it looks like you are out for an evening stroll. Then the brightnes can be turned back down when you enter a building or whatever.
I tried again with 2000 chairs spread out. It choked on the build all when it tried to take each chair leg out of the navmesh. I set the floor to not add to navmesh and it built it just fine. It dropped to 5fps but never below that, and it was still 15-20 from the middle of the room.
Ziemanskye on 28/10/2005 at 11:06
(I might be mis-remembering)
The UnrealEngine 2 guide is not to have more than 1500 objects in view at once from what I remember - because more smeshes is still more processing, even if it is more efficient than bsp geometry.
Torches though, they're bad. Flesh runs fine so long as nothing is lit!
Part of my problem with distances/scale in Flesh is the rather odd self-appointed minimum limit of 10fps on my system (I use the ingame counter, and it never goes over 33 on my system anyway).
A lot of the OMs run at around 6-8, but on those rare occasions it drops lower it becomes almost unplayable, so I aim higher. Some of the FMs out now drop lower than that and I've already whined about it.
But if you want to build a hill it's just a shame we don't have the Terrain features. They'd certainly make my current project a lot easier.
rujuro on 28/10/2005 at 13:42
Quick question: Is it possible to change the ambient level in game while the game is running? How do you do it? I tried at various points, but had no luck.
Krypt on 28/10/2005 at 18:33
Quote Posted by rujuro
Quick question: Is it possible to change the ambient level in game while the game is running? How do you do it? I tried at various points, but had no luck.
Not as far as I know. :(
Bardic on 28/10/2005 at 19:13
I'm looking into changing Ambient brightness using a script, I think Krypt is right and it may not be possible.
I've managed to add in a levelinfo__1 actor and set a triggerscript link between it and a volume. The problem is, it isn't the first one created by the level automatically, I'm not sure how to select that first one, and if you get in there you can't select the AmbientBrightness property in a script. I'll keep trying, or maybe just have to have a load zone in between sections
Also these are extremes, I can't imagine getting that many objects placed and looking good, Even that many plants. But if I can find an OK way to make the terrain more hilly, I'm thinking a nice little stream running through with some trees around it, maybe a farmer's field, a few plants here and there.
rujuro on 28/10/2005 at 21:19
Well, another option is to use alot of Vertex Ambient lights. This is what I have been doing (for gameplay purposes my level requires that the ambient be very localised). Not sure exactly how they hit performance, but I'm pretty sure it's far less than the normal types. Downside is they have falloff, so you have to work around that.
Does anyone know if this is correct? Are they more efficient?
Ziemanskye on 28/10/2005 at 21:44
Yes.
They don't catch the normal maps though, so things can look a bit flat with them, but they don't hurt performance as much as say, OmniNoShadows
ascottk on 28/10/2005 at 23:47
Quote Posted by Bardic
I'm looking into changing Ambient brightness using a script, I think Krypt is right and it may not be possible.
I've managed to add in a levelinfo__1 actor and set a triggerscript link between it and a volume. The problem is, it isn't the first one created by the level automatically, I'm not sure how to select that first one, and if you get in there you can't select the AmbientBrightness property in a script. I'll keep trying, or maybe just have to have a load zone in between sections
Also these are extremes, I can't imagine getting that many objects placed and looking good, Even that many plants. But if I can find an OK way to make the terrain more hilly, I'm thinking a nice little stream running through with some trees around it, maybe a farmer's field, a few plants here and there.
You could alter the screen tinting with a script (look at how the cradle level is done).
Krypt on 29/10/2005 at 22:30
AmbientVertex lights are super cheap performance-wise, but are pretty difficult to use and I'm not sure if they even work correctly. They are supposed to ambiently light every vertex the radius encompasses with whatever light settings you enter. However a lot of times when I tried to use them I had to make the radius really huge and it still wouldn't light stuff that was well within its radius, or would light it only very dimly or unevenly. I ended up never using them except the rare case where I wanted to brighten up a room just slightly and couldn't afford another OmniNoShadow. If you make one with a massive radius that encompasses your entire level and then script the values on it to change you may be able to achieve the effect you're looking for, Bardic. Be sure to turn off the ambient light level in your LevelInfo before trying this though, because they would add together and wash everything out.
