Small Mod compilation

[Focalor]

Not sure if this applies to Q1 and DarkPlaces, but in Q2 it's preferable to have a frame rate of 120 if you're using a moniter with a 60hz refresh rate in order to eliminate all ugly "screen tearing" when looking around quickly. Any frame rate equal to or a multiple of your moniters refresh rate is optimal. For another example, if your moniter is running 70hz, you'd want a rate of 140fps (70 x 2 = 140). However, I dunno that DP has a setting to set the fps like Q2 clients do. If so, something to consider for buttery smooth performance.

[Mugwump]

I still have a 4/3 screen myself and I set my FOV at 100. I remember reading Seven's personal config once, he uses 96.5.

Deleting effectinfo.txt gave me a boost of about 20fps, but it also got rid of all the gore related effects.

Instead of outright deleting effectinfo.txt, search for the blood effects section inside the file. You want to keep that. Gibs are directly following the blood section, so keep them too if you like and delete everything else.

[Focalor]

When Q1 came out, everyone had square CRT monitors, and a 90 degree fov was suitable. But these days, most folks use wider flatpanel monitors, and I'd assume you're one of those people judging from the dimensions of those screenshots. So a slightly wider than 90 fov would actually be more correct for that aspect ratio. You can also experiment with fov settings to make mouse aiming speed more fine tuned and comfortable. I still use an old standard ratio square LCD flat monitor, but I typically use an fov of 100 to 110 anyway just to help make aiming quick flick shots more snappy and accurate feeling.

Also, if you're having sluggish game performance, you might wanna try disabling the realtime lighting and shadow effects of the client. It's huge performance killer on less than stellar video cards.

[Avalan]

I have no other mods, I also already disabled dust/snow/rain. Deleting effectinfo.txt gave me a boost of about 20fps, but it also got rid of all the gore related effects.

No mods


SMC compilation


Seems the mod also forces wider fov.

[Mugwump]

That's odd. Maybe try disabling particle explosions and projectile trails? Also environmental effects like flying dust/embers.

Are you using Pretty Water and HD textures? These can be performance hogs on slower systems.

[Avalan]

Thank you all for your replies! I managed to disable new monsters completely it seems, I also changed fire particles to sprites as suggested, but not one changed improved my fps. I don't know if this is normal, but this compilation literally halves my fps. In areas where I have 100fps without the mod, now I have 50 or even less. The game is unplayable for me when fps are lower than 60 (where most games I can play just fine until fps drop below 30).

[talisa]

the SMC also has lovely sprite-frames which also look great and have a much smaller impact on framerate due to being animated sprites

you can use them by changing 'flamestyle' to 1


the particle-flames can actually have a quite massive impact on performance if used in combination with DP-pretty_water
cuz of the engine having to render each particle-flame twice due to reflections

[Mugwump]

The SMC config file is very easy, if a bit tedious, to edit yourself. Just open the .pk3, which is just a renamed .zip, with WinRAR or whatever archiver you use and double-click on smc_config.cfg inside to open the file in Notepad. You can then tweak every value to your liking and save it when you're done (WinRAR will update the archive with the modified file).

You might wanna keep hydras in. They bring a very welcome variety in underwater areas and they're much more interesting to fight than rotfish. My hydras' replacement factor is set at 30% and it's perfect this way. I think this is the default setting?

Also, I don't think particle flames have that big of an impact on framerate and they look much better than id's polygon flames.

[Focalor]

Also, I couldnt find an option in the config file as to how to disable new optional monsters.

I had that same problem. Unfortunately there isn't really one single simple variable to change to turn off ALL the new included monsters and behaviors. You'll have to go down the list and carefully read each line and tweak the appropriate settings to turn them off. And even more unfortunately, I don't think ALL the settings for all the monsters and their behaviors are contained in just one section. From what I remember, there were a few that were scattered into other sections appearing earlier in the file.

I'll attach a copy of the smc config I tweaked for myself and you can probably use it to compare it to a default install one and hopefully make the necessary tweaks to your own config.

[Avalan]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here and the reason I created the account . Can I please have config file for this mod with everything disabled BUT the gore effects? The rest of the compilation is very fps heavy for my low spec laptop, and gore is the main reason I downloaded this compilation. Also, I couldnt find an option in the config file as to how to disable new optional monsters. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

[Mugwump]

OK, so I managed to copy the surface "bubbles" (more like fumes, really) from the E1M1 effects you sent me a while ago. For the actual bubbles inside the slime, I added air_bubbles entities every 32x32 units, but is there a better way to do this? I mean, it's OK for a small pool but for larger ones like in E1M1, this method would need a lot of air_bubbles entities.

The boiling sound I can manage, I just need to find a good sound loop.

I also copied the slipgate red fog effect from the starting point of E1M1 (oddly named "exit") but I would like to know if you use the same values for the end level slipgates, just to remain coherent.

The only thing I really have no idea how to tackle is the lava ball sounds, so I'm really gonna need your help with that.

[Mugwump]

Hi Seven!

I've been studying your weather and particle tutorials. I'm currently making an .ent + effectinfo for the start map of Gotshun's lost levels.

I implemented rain, lava haze and lava sounds but I need some guidance or examples for:
- sounds for the lava balls,
- bubbles and boiling sound in slime,
- slipgate red fog (this map pack uses hipnotic and apparently fog isn't automatic like in base SMC).

[Mr.Burns]

...you saw what we did there

Anyway, back to the SMC topic.

@Seven: Due to personal reasons I haven't had much chance to experiment with the latest versions of SMC, so please forgive me if you have already covered this, but is there an option to enable the nails to ricochet off walls a couple of times? This was always a very useful feature when playing Painkeep (so I suppose the code could be lifted from that ) as you could bounce nails around corners to flush out campers. It also made the basic Nailgun a bit more useful. Don't worry if it's not implemented as I'm sure you have bigger fish to fry, I just thought it might be fun.

Keep up the excellent work

Monty

[Mugwump]

Heh yeah, plus it goes well with Quad.

[Mr.Burns]

Nothing up, just a little artistic license Given the hard hitting nature of Quake I always considered "Damage" would be a good name for a server. Luckily Polarite agreed.