[Fury]

I'd like to know who does not use MV_Advanced.vp and why. Is there a very specific reason for that or do you experience slowdowns when you use MV_Advanced.vp? Note that FSO 3.6.12 has significantly better performance than 3.6.10, if you have previously dismissed MV_Advanced.vp due to performance reasons, can you please try again with 3.6.12 RC3.

In addition, if you have poor performance with MV_Advanced.vp, please also try MV_AbolishAnimGlows.vp with MV_Advanced.vp. It can be downloaded from sticky mediavps release topic.

I've begun to question the need for beam warmup particle effects, muzzle flashes, beam piercing effects (only in fsu svn at the moment) and so on to be in MV_Advanced. From what I've seen in BP2 beta-testing, all those seem to have minimal, if any performance impact in FSO 3.6.12. If this holds true to rest of the community, then MV_Advanced is only good for holding animated effects and maps as well as higher-resolution effects and maps.

Which means all effects could be in MV_Effects.vp, while MV_Advanced only makes them better looking.

[Spoon]

I for one dont understand why muzzle flashes are in advanced and not in the normal mediavp's

[TopAce]

I don't use MV_Advanced, but it's more like a tradition now than a rational decision. On my old comp, it slowed the game down considerably. I will try MV_Advanced soon, and tell you about my impressions.

[EDIT]Slowdown and increase in loading time is noticeable. To me, an increase in loading time and a drop in FPS isn't a worthwhile sacrifice while testing. The more time I gain, the more times I can test a given mission. For playing other mods, I will likely use MV_Advanced. I'm yet to see how well MV_Adv performs in a Battle of Endor, though.

[Fury]

Slower loading times are mostly caused by those animated glowmaps, of which there are 1790 maps. Use of the MV_AbolishAnimGlows.vp should get you some of the loading speed back. May also help with in-game performance too, depending how much video RAM you have.

[Mongoose]

I know that using MV_Advanced flat-out overwhelmed my Radeon X300 64MB, to the point where multiple ship and effect textures would become corrupted during larger missions.  I don't think I ever tried removing the animated glowmaps, though I'd imagine that would have made a significant difference.  At least the new card can handle everything with ease.

[Fury]

Well, I do believe that there needs to be some sensible line as to how old hardware can be supported. Video card that old should probably run with just MV_Core.

[Mongoose]

Actually, that card did just fine with everything but MV_Advanced enabled, which I think is a real testament to the efficiency improvements that have been made in the engine.  But yeah, at some point, there's not much sense in catering to people who would see a massive performance increase by buying a $40 card.