Performance slowdowns with lo poly models? [solved]

If you are a new Irrlicht Engine user, and have a newbie-question, this is the forum for you. You may also post general programming questions here.
Malebolge
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:24 pm

Post by Malebolge »

Halifax wrote:Well I'm afraid to say it does appear to be the number of bones, especially with that low-end of a card. I wouldn't say that you should scale back the number of bones, but rather scale back the number of players on the screen at one point.

Also, in comparison, Gears of War only has about 700 bones on the screen at maximum usually. You have 40 * 22 bones = 880 bones on screen at a time.

But anyways, just curious as I could possibly provide better help, what do you need that many characters on screen for? Like, what type of game is it?
It's a zombie apocalypse action game but we want a strategic overview so we'd like to handle animations and everything the same way strategy games do. We're going for a Warcraft 3 kind of graphic quality and specs. While Crysis looks gorgeous, i'm hoping my friends are able to play the games i make :P How many bones per character you think W3 had?
Halifax
Posts: 1424
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:40 pm
Location: $9D95

Post by Halifax »

I have no idea, but your not hitting anywhere near the amount of bones that were in one character for Crysis. There models verge on the number of ~250 bones.

But at any rate, what I recommend, is you do this. Have a maximum number of enemies cap in your program, and put an option in your game that allows the player to select the option. So for example:

Code: Select all

LOW - 8 players on screen max
MEDIUM - 16 players on screen max
HIGH - 40 player on screen max
ULTRA - unlimited number of players on screen
That's how I would recommend that you do it. That way, it gives the user a certain level of control as well.
TheQuestion = 2B || !2B
Malebolge
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:24 pm

Post by Malebolge »

Thanks to all who responded. They were simple to much bones. We are going to remove some of them from the meshes and give player the option to reduce maximum enemies cap.

Thanks again.
rogerborg
Admin
Posts: 3590
Joined: Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:36 am
Location: Scotland - gonnae no slag aff mah Engleesh
Contact:

Post by rogerborg »

Again: if you haven't done a release build of Irrlicht and your app, then I'd do so now. The difference in performance can be surprising.
Please upload candidate patches to the tracker.
Need help now? IRC to #irrlicht on irc.freenode.net
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Malebolge
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:24 pm

Post by Malebolge »

rogerborg wrote:Again: if you haven't done a release build of Irrlicht and your app, then I'd do so now. The difference in performance can be surprising.
thanks, i´ll do that too.
The Creator
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:04 pm

Post by The Creator »

I was wondering if you could suggest some other kind of animation that i could use instead of using bones and the skin modifier.

I tried posing the mesh to export it in the diferent frames of the "running" animation, to try to simulate the animation by rendering the "first frame" mesh, then the second one, and like that with the rest of the running animation, but without using a skeleton is almost impossible to pose the mesh in any possition, i tried selecting different vertices' groups but it's horrible, it's impossible to even flex one knee.

I don't know if i explained myself correctly, it sounds a bit weird. I can try to explain better if you want.
Post Reply