Question about props

zombiehellmonkey

<div class="IPBDescription">to Spark experts</div>I want my map to be able to run as well on low to mid range cards as high range cards and therefore I want to know if excessive prop usage on a map will contribute to lag on slower machines.

Blasphemy

I have been pretty excessive with props, and I have found that more of my problems stem from too many lights than too many props. As long as you don't go overboard you should be fine making walls with props.

Just be sure to set wall props to not cast shadows as flashlights etc. will do shadow calculations unnecessarily. A question of mine though is if you make prop walls with 'no shadows' checked, will you need to place wall geometry behind it so it wouldn't cast flashlights into a nearby hallway? And if so, how taxing on the engine would it be in comparison to just leaving cast shadows checked.

Industry

As far as I know NS2 instances props in memory. When you render the prop in game it puts that prop into a spot in memory then every other time that prop is needed it references back to the one prop in memory rather than allocating more memory to store the prop again. So basically 100 different props are going to cause more performance problems than 100 of the same prop. As long as you aren't going crazy and using every prop in the editor you should be fine.

The bigger thing that will affect the performance of your map is the occlusion geometry.

zombiehellmonkey

<!--quoteo(post=1945146:date=Jun 20 2012, 07:29 AM:name=Industry)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Industry @ Jun 20 2012, 07:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1945146"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As far as I know NS2 instances props in memory. When you render the prop in game it puts that prop into a spot in memory then every other time that prop is needed it references back to the one prop in memory rather than allocating more memory to store the prop again. So basically 100 different props are going to cause more performance problems than 100 of the same prop. As long as you aren't going crazy and using every prop in the editor you should be fine.

The bigger thing that will affect the performance of your map is the occlusion geometry.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Thanks Industry, that is good to know about the prop instances - I assume it works in a similar way with textures too?

I have been sticking to a narrow range of props so far. I know that shadows on more geometrically complex props can cause a lot of slowdown.

Kouji_San

Good occlusion culling is also a must, but going over the detail level might indeed bog down low to mid range cards (memory @ less then 1024Mb)

Have a look at areas in summit for example and use r_stats in the console, this will give you a good idea of how many polygons should be the maximum visible in areas. It also keeps in mind the amount of traffic going on in those areas as well (marines/aliens/structures)


And don't go overboard with shadowcasting lights or LOADS upon LOADS of lights in an area, as this has a much bigged impact on the performance

Obraxis

You want to try and keep the number of lights per-room at around 200. Any more than 300 and you start to get really bad performance, especially with shadow casting lights. Try and use shadow casting lights only where necessary and the least amount of props possible, with tight occlusion mesh and your map should run just fine.