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Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wings of Dawn => WoD Archive => Topic started by: Enigmatic Entity on May 05, 2011, 07:49:12 pm

Title: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Enigmatic Entity on May 05, 2011, 07:49:12 pm: Really cool campaign so far, I like it as much as BP AoA, though it is very different.

One thing, in larger battles with many ships, FPS gets really low and changing texture and model detail doesn't do much. Does it have to do with any lighting settings?

Currently the only way to fix this is to look away or blow them up quicker - I like the second option ;)
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Spoon on May 06, 2011, 06:37:13 am: Glad to hear you are enjoying it, pity to hear about your performance issues.
Which missions are giving your pc a hard time?

I do not think lighting flag settings add or degrade much to performance in Freespace. Try disabling glow, enviroment and specular maps in the launcher and see if that helps.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: -Norbert- on May 06, 2011, 07:06:17 am: Maybe post-processing too, if you got it enabled in the first place.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: MatthTheGeek on May 06, 2011, 07:53:58 am: If he has a computer able to post-process, he wouldn't be having performance issues in the first place.

There isn't much you can do, I'm afraid. Buy a new GPU.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: The E on May 06, 2011, 07:56:52 am: Without knowing the setup details, it's hard to say.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Enigmatic Entity on May 06, 2011, 09:00:45 am: nVidia Quadro NVS 285 128mB
intel c2d 1.8GHz
1GB RAM

It works well enough for most things, maybe it is just because the ships used env. maps. Such is the campaign that I have finished it before trying to fix the problems, so well done on the campaign, very nice story and ideas! I'm not one to analyse these things though, so a lot of campaigns are going to be "good" to me, but this one is on par with BP in a way.

Except, the character who's name fits the campaign title best has a role like, this small---> .
I thought she'd have a greater role than that, but oh well, is the best looking head ani so I enjoyed when she was in missions XD... :nervous:

Spoiler:
The space Stigs were cool...
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Enzo03 on May 06, 2011, 05:21:22 pm: :-\ BP runs better for me than WoD and looks a hell of a lot better too.
I'm not sure that should be the case, but that's what it is.

It's the main thing I dislike about WoD.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Shivan Hunter on May 06, 2011, 05:29:16 pm: No, it "shouldn't" be. WoD ships have no LODs, and some people think that since they're generally less detailed that this is acceptable. WoD can manage larger battles than, say, WiH with steve-o's capships, but in doing so it slows down PCs about as much as some WiH missions.

(Don't get me wrong, I love WoD, but LODs are kind of important)

Env mapping shouldn't be much of a problem from what I know. (If a specular map has an alpha channel at all, and most of them do, then envmapping is drawn for that ship; it's just that they're much more prominent on some WoD ships).

Unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do to lower the impact of unoptimized ships except, well, optimize tham.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: The E on May 06, 2011, 05:32:28 pm: Actually, if you aren't using shaders, environment mapping is the most expensive effect. Turning it off makes a large impact.

With shaders, the difference is negligible.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Spoon on May 06, 2011, 07:22:46 pm: Quote from: Shivan Hunter on May 06, 2011, 05:29:16 pm
No, it "shouldn't" be. WoD ships have no LODs, and some people think that since they're generally less detailed that this is acceptable. WoD can manage larger battles than, say, WiH with steve-o's capships, but in doing so it slows down PCs about as much as some WiH missions.

(Don't get me wrong, I love WoD, but LODs are kind of important)

Env mapping shouldn't be much of a problem from what I know. (If a specular map has an alpha channel at all, and most of them do, then envmapping is drawn for that ship; it's just that they're much more prominent on some WoD ships).

Unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do to lower the impact of unoptimized ships except, well, optimize tham.
FTUhlan.pof
Detail 0: 5123 polys
Detail 1: 2576

corvette3t-01.pof
Detail 0: 13266
Detail 1: 1746

Tethis.pof
Detail 0: 47284
Detail 1: 13014
---
RayIII.pof
Detail 0: 3424
Detail 1: 1480

Battleaxe.pof
Detail 0: 3912
Detail 1: 1644

Challenger.pof
Detail 0: 5382
Detail 1: 1688

WoD ships in most cases don't have lod2-3's. Thing is, you can have 10 battleaxes on screen and it wouldn't come close to a single steve-o frigate in terms of poly count.
If there are performance issues, they are not caused by polycount. (Unless you are on a intelgrated, but then you are beyond help)
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Destiny on May 06, 2011, 10:46:49 pm: I think Spoon's right actually. Having a single UEF capship on my screen drops my FPS a lot while I can stash WoD ships on my screen and still have 60 fps on a 9500GT.

A 128MB GPU is kinda...well. I'm not sure, but it does seem kinda lacking, although it probably is sufficient for Enigmatic Entity.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Jellyfish on May 06, 2011, 11:00:06 pm: It is also a Quadro, which if I recall isn't a GPU geared towards gaming.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Quanto on May 07, 2011, 01:55:11 am: Just cause it has nVidia stamped on the pbc, doesn't mean its got the power.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: headdie on May 07, 2011, 04:06:29 am: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12312_na/12312_na.HTML

is this is correct you would probably be better off with an modern integrated card for gaming, certainly all the write up in the link is that the card is an office rather than gaming card
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: The E on May 07, 2011, 04:23:44 am: Yep, that it is. It's really a card made for 2D operations, not 3D graphics. With only 128 MB of memory available (in a split 64MB integrated/64MB stolen from main memory configuration), it's really not something that should be used for gaming. Not to mention that it lacks shader processors.....

If you can, you should invest in a new card, because that one was crap even back in 2006 when it was released.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: Enigmatic Entity on May 07, 2011, 10:46:54 am: That would make sense, since the computer is a HP DC 7700 designed-for-businesses tower. Only has to last until I can get enough for a custom PC. I can't do much to this one I don't think, unless I can find a cheap GPU somewhere that is better than this. I can handle 12FPS all day, but big 3FPS lag everytime I face a large battle sucks...

But thanks for the extra info about my card, hadn't read much about it. I will keep an eye out for a GPU, since "commercial" PC's only let you upgrade RAM, GPU and perhaps CPU, anything else and you may as well get a new PC.b :)
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: The E on May 07, 2011, 10:48:06 am: Ummm....

A better GPU, (as in, a current mid-range card) costs less than 100€/$.
Title: Re: Why does this garbage trashcan ship slow my computer?
Post by: headdie on May 07, 2011, 11:11:59 am: as an interim something like http://www.dabs.com/products/zotac-geforce-8400gs-512mb-pci-express-dvi-low-profile-7479.html would make a useful interim fix for £24.25