Possible bug with Ambient Occlusion on High
-WildCat-
Cape Town, South Africa Join Date: 2008-07-19 Member: 64664Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Cape Town, South Africa Join Date: 2008-07-19 Member: 64664Members, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">Performance degraded with close proximity to walls</div>I've think I've discovered a bug with Ambient Occlusion when set to <!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->High<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->. It appears that performance is severely degraded when the camera comes into close proximity with any surface. When Ambient Occlusion is set to <!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->Medium<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> or <!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->Off<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->, this problem doesn't seem to occur. Here are some comparison screenshots:
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-comparison-01.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-comparison-02.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-comparison-03.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
My system specs are as follows:
- Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5Ghz (Overclocked to 4.5GHz)
- 8GB DDR3 1866Mhz RAM
- GeForce GTX 690 4GB
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (SP1)
- NVIDIA Driver version: 306.23
If the symptoms I'm describing are not caused by a bug and are rather an unavoidable side-effect of the way in which this type of Ambient Occlusion works, then I might suggest that you add a warning message when the user tries to set Ambient Occlusion to <!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->High<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->. Something like: "<i>This requires a PC from the future! Rather use Medium, lol!</i>" :P
In fact, <!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->Medium<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> Ambient Occlusion is pretty brutal as well but at least it's a consistent performance cost.
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That's about it for this report but, while I'm here, I'd like to also discuss another of my observations. I noticed that the application of Ambient Occlusion in NS2 is based on more than just the scene geometry. It appears that it also takes textures' normal maps into account. Here are a couple of animating comparison shots:
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-bumpmap-01.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" /><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-bumpmap-02.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
When I look at this, the geeky side of me says: "<i>Wow! That's a neat effect! I've never seen that in any other game. Nice one Unknown Worlds!</i>"
However, the artistic side of me says: "<i>Hmm... I wonder if that is for the best.</i>" You see, this effect often darkens parts of the texture that are supposed to be lit up by light that's hitting the surface at an angle. This is particularly noticeable in the second of my two animating comparison shots. It's debatable but I think that this might not be an improvement to the image quality.
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-comparison-01.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-comparison-02.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-comparison-03.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
My system specs are as follows:
- Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5Ghz (Overclocked to 4.5GHz)
- 8GB DDR3 1866Mhz RAM
- GeForce GTX 690 4GB
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (SP1)
- NVIDIA Driver version: 306.23
If the symptoms I'm describing are not caused by a bug and are rather an unavoidable side-effect of the way in which this type of Ambient Occlusion works, then I might suggest that you add a warning message when the user tries to set Ambient Occlusion to <!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->High<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->. Something like: "<i>This requires a PC from the future! Rather use Medium, lol!</i>" :P
In fact, <!--coloro:yellow--><span style="color:yellow"><!--/coloro-->Medium<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> Ambient Occlusion is pretty brutal as well but at least it's a consistent performance cost.
--------------------
That's about it for this report but, while I'm here, I'd like to also discuss another of my observations. I noticed that the application of Ambient Occlusion in NS2 is based on more than just the scene geometry. It appears that it also takes textures' normal maps into account. Here are a couple of animating comparison shots:
<img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-bumpmap-01.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" /><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee76/WildCatZA/NS2/ns2-ao-bumpmap-02.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
When I look at this, the geeky side of me says: "<i>Wow! That's a neat effect! I've never seen that in any other game. Nice one Unknown Worlds!</i>"
However, the artistic side of me says: "<i>Hmm... I wonder if that is for the best.</i>" You see, this effect often darkens parts of the texture that are supposed to be lit up by light that's hitting the surface at an angle. This is particularly noticeable in the second of my two animating comparison shots. It's debatable but I think that this might not be an improvement to the image quality.
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