Must go faster

[tReed]

Hello,
Im having issues with the most recent stable build of darkplaces. The frame rate is 5-29 FPS, 20 fps average. Not sure why.

My rig should be able to easily handle it:
Alienware M15x
Core i7 720 1.6ghz /2.8 turbo
Nvidia geforce gtx 260 overclocked to 725/1782/1102
4gb ddr3 @ 1333mhz
Win7 64 bit

settings are 1920 x 1080 (native), 32 bpp, no AA, 4x AF, no vsync, tex comp on, Full lighting and shadows with HDR, QRP textures with normals and offset mapping (no relief mapping) SMC, dpwater, weather effects, reforged skins,Novis 0, reflective textures.

Ive tried checking nv control panel, doing a system recovery (complete reformat) , updating to the latest nvidia driver, tinkering with the console variables, deleting config, adjusting game settings to the lowest levels (even then only got 79 fps)

Nothing seems to work. any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Travis

[FC Zvyozdochka]

i myself got lighting on at full settings, effects at high
got webangels pretty_water
inkub0's rt-lights
lit and dlit files
all hi-poly models there are for ammo, weapons and monsters, animated ammo-boxes
sevens SMC with death-effects on, using version A which has jakub's effects
webangels animated and reflecting textures,
rain & fog for all maps,
and have both offsetmapping and reliefmapping on

Just like I'm doing you've only got reliefmapping in addition.

and i myself get like 40-80fps on average
but then again, i got a beast of a computer

I've got powerful enough comp at workplace with core i5, 12gb RAM and Nvidia Quadro, it is great for CAD programs, but sucks ingame, I can't even play with rtlights on cause Quadro video-card only delivers 1-2FPS with it
DP is extremely sensitive to video-card as we can see.

But it is really possible to make it faster by decreasing number of RTLights. Actually modern games doesn't have all lights realtime AFAIK they combine a very few number of realtime lights with ambient lightmaps.

[talisa]

i myself got lighting on at full settings, effects at high
got webangels pretty_water
inkub0's rt-lights
lit and dlit files
all hi-poly models there are for ammo, weapons and monsters, animated ammo-boxes
sevens SMC with death-effects on, using version A which has jakub's effects
webangels animated and reflecting textures,
rain & fog for all maps,
and have both offsetmapping and reliefmapping on

and i myself get like 40-80fps on average


but then again, i got a beast of a computer


EDIT: btw with the gtx480 i had before turning reliefmapping on made quake pretty much unplayable too

[FC Zvyozdochka]

yes i have reliefmapping on myself, totally love it.

So I do, it looks very accurately, this is seen especially well in Hipnotic start map near those computers. And that parallax occlusion looks pretty cool and realistic.
But this option drops my average FPS down to 8-15, which is not enough for playing

erm.... my fps is something like somewhere between 40-80 on average i think.

Cool. I've only got 20-30 fps with RTWorld turned on and reliefmapping off.
I'm now trying to make new relight for original maps+mission packs, which will include both RTLights (but their number is much decreased) and special lightmaps to work with together RTL. Lexa2 is helping me with that.
That will increase average FPS up to 1.5-2 times compared with existing relights and it seems to look even better.

[talisa]

@FC
yes i have reliefmapping on myself, totally love it.
it makes the world of quake look so much more amazing IMO

erm.... my fps is something like somewhere between 40-80 on average i think.
it all depends on moments with which effects are visible on screen, like big particle-effects close to view and pretty_water, especially when theres big water surfaces it can drop, or when sky is being reflected it sometimes drops a lot. but rarely ever it goes lower then 20.

so i still get a pretty decent framerate imo even with all these effects

[FC Zvyozdochka]

yes, for normal maps to work you need to enable offsetmapping, different name but they are the same thing.

You are a little bit wrond, splitterface. Offset/reliefmapping enables only normalmap's texture alpha channel which affects offset only. Color channels of the normalmap texture only affects shading of the surface and it does not depends on r_glsl_offsetmapping cvar.

ven i sometimes at moments get fps drops up to 15fps while i got a core i7 950 3ghz, 12GB ram and a MSI geforce GTX580 twin frozr II OC

I wonder if someone will ever make Q1 engine both beautiful and not braking
Splitter, do you play with reliefmapping on? What's your average fps?

[talisa]

try using this build instead: darkplaces-20110702.zip

i personally use that build too.
it was recommended to me by seven for supporting everything the SMC needs and having good performance

[tReed]

I had the best luck with build 20110203. it tripled my framerates in most cases
there is an issue that all the menu and hud graphics are extremely dark. I almost
cant even see them. Is there something that can be done to fix this?

Also it dosent seem to support some of the particle effects, such as enforcer laser, and the lava/slime monster effects. Anyway to fix this?

Thanks,
Travis

[talisa]

yes, for normal maps to work you need to enable offsetmapping, different name but they are the same thing.
if you dont enable offsetmapping having normal maps installed does absolutely nothing
offsetmapping is a collective name for both normal maps and bumpmaps

however having offsetmapping enabled causes a huge performance-drop too,
and thus its advisable to only use it if you have an extremely fast videocard.

even i sometimes at moments get fps drops up to 15fps while i got a core i7 950 3ghz, 12GB ram and a MSI geforce GTX580 twin frozr II OC

[tReed]

Thanks Seven, i will try these.

sometimes it seems that as i progress through a level, my frame rate progressivly gets worse until i am left crawling through the slipgate at 1 -3 fps.
then at the start of the next level, the frame rate goes back up. does the engine have to draw the whole level at once, even the parts that cant be seen at you present location?

Also do you even need offset mapping if you have normal maps?

Sorry, the extent of my knowledge doesnt extend much past knowing how to play the game.

Thanks for the help,
Travis

[Seven]

So of course why dont i go back to that build? The biggest reason is i dont know what build it was. Anyone know of a list of previous builds?

Hello Travis,

if you want, you can try one of these.

Good luck.
Seven

PS: You should switch of HDR and use rtlights. That will bring back fps.

[MH]

Another thing is if you play mp the players who have that enabled can see you underwater

They can't. The server uses it's own PVS when sending entities to the client, and if the server has different vis data to what the client is using, it doesn't matter a damn if the client can see underwater or around corners or halfway to the moon - the server will only send entities based on it's vis data. The client in NQ is a dumb terminal; it has no control over or say in any of this stuff.

[tReed]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will do some tinkering tonight and see what i can determine.

Its strange though, I upgraded to this current dp build and since then i have had slow fps. The previous dp build i had (dont remember which one) used the same settings i am using now, but as long as i kept the gpu overclocked, it never dipped below 60 fps, and i was using rygels ultra textures and 8x AF.

So of course why dont i go back to that build? The biggest reason is i dont know what build it was. Anyone know of a list of previous builds?

Perhaps it just this particular build, but what would make this build run so much slower?

Thanks for the help,
Travis

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Last I checked its impossible to use a vis'd map (clientside) on a server that doesn't also have the exact same vis'd map serverside.

If the server doesn't have vis'd map, nothing happens. It's not a big deal in multiplayer, as no one uses it.

Tons of us do however use r_novis 1 and r_wateralpha .5 , as this is how it used to be done, its sort of etched in memory now. I don't know many people who take DarkPlaces online for a intent to be competitive. I do know its used tons for RQ COOP!

[Cobalt]

Transparent water....I think that ought to be something that the mapper decides on when they make the map. All maps with transparent water would seem kind of disproportional in the context of the original ID world concepts anyway.

Another thing is if you play mp the players who have that enabled can see you underwater, and its not a fair game uless everyone has it set on. Letting the map/ worldspawn decide would be the best way to go IMO, then at least there is some control over regulating it so that client resources are not soaked up like this so often.

Transparent water in any engine will make your fps suffer, IF you are using r_novis to accomplish this. r_novis just draws the entire map with out any culling. The best way for clear water is to VIS the map, then just use r_wateralpha 0.%0.