qbismSuper8 builds

[mh]

Have a look at FitzQuake's "fog" command - it's what's most likely going to be compatible with the way fog is handled in current and future maps, and will also protect you well if a mod stuffcmds "fog" rather than sending an svc_fog (or setting it via worldspawn) - you'll be dealing with this kind of thing a lot if you ever implement Nehahra support so it makes sense to start off on a decent grounding.

[qbism]

[mankrip]

[qbism]

Balancing fog density and color.
quakespasm + honey.bsp:


upcoming super8 (a separate issue to address- a tendency toward green noticeable in foreground shading):

[qbism]

Build 72:

Support of fog worldspawn and entities in maps. "fog" console command. Built w/ latest Codeblocks Advanced, optimized for Core 2 (any issues w/ older machines?) Runs 20% faster per bigmap timedemo on an Core i3.

[revelator]

Thats quite a nice speed improvement seems atleast something works good with the 4.7.0 gcc.

[leileilol]

It crashes when I start it. It happens after it sets the video mode (and the video mode set is the only text you see)

AMD PHENOM FTW

[qbism]

The download has been updated to include three executables.
qbism.exe - should run on almost any PC, Pentium or higher.
qbism-icore.exe - optimized for icore, big speed gain, but requires Intel Core 2 or above. This includes the new i3, i5, and i7. I don't know if it will run on any newer AMDs.
qbism-athlon.exe - optimized to run on AMD Athlon XP and up.

[leileilol]

Sadly, the Athlon build doesn't run faster than the regular build for me. 28fps with fog.

[mh]

The icore build went maybe 10% faster in a timedemo demo1 for me. I tried a big map to see what kind of difference I'd get there but wasn't really able to tell - it seemed smoother but how much of that was my mind playing tricks because I wanted it to be smoother? Suggest an FPS counter.

For kicks I tried the Athlon build on my i7 - it went no faster (I didn't expect it to) but the good news is that it didn't crash or do anything nasty, so if one of those wacky players does this, at least it's not going to be any worse than the regular build. I'd call that a good result.

[revelator]

[leileilol]

fog could certainly use asm treatment (slowest thing in qbism right now). hell i'd like more asm in everything in general

especially for the functions D_DrawSurfaceBlock8RGBHQ_mip0, D_DrawSurfaceBlock8RGBHQ_mip1, D_DrawSurfaceBlock8RGBHQ_mip2 and D_DrawSurfaceBlock8RGBHQ_mip3 and I wonder if we can get a _mip4 just for drawing one texel per unblended light texel for Descent-style flat'ing

it's funny how in dec 2009-jan 2010 everyone was so apathetic about software engines not ever relevant to have QSB features as if there was no hope in them at all. and now we have lits and fog and alphas out the wazoo.....lol, the software renaissance should have happened years ago


Does func_ know about qbismsuper8?

[qbism]

performance: I used this short demo made in an area of saint.bsp with lots of geometry
Console 'cl_showfps 1' or 'timedemo hontest'

asm fog: Short of asm fog, maybe depth check could skip every 2 or 4 pixels; fog doesn't have to be precise. Maybe there's already a similar depth check in existing Quake asm functions.

color: super8 color is a minimal performance hit. It's running a second blocklights (blockcolors) and another lookup table blend in the mips functions, that's about it. The price is a lack of blending between color blocks, usually hidden but sometimes exposed at high contrast boundaries. For the super8 aesthetic, exposure of "how things are made" is acceptable. An hq asm option... that's something beautiful that should be brought into existence by... somebody. Was this ever attempted, asm or not, in an 8-bit engine prior to engoo?

renaissance: Much of the software interest revived with desire to port to 8-bit devices w/o 3D hardware (Dreamcast, DOS, Pocket PC, EGA 486 ThinkPad...). My own porting goals died as the machines died one-by-one through 2010 and 2011. But the tech goal had also become an aesthetic goal. It might take a big mod or TC project geared toward software rendering to really free it from apathy.

func: Haven't really promoted super8 at func yet, but a few of the more skilled and discerning mappers are aware.

CPU-specific math: I'm going to check that out!

[revelator]

If you are going to use the sse functions i posted replace the _MSC_VER with __SSE__ and add __SSE__ to the compiler defines in codeblocks build options (translates to -D__SSE__) else it only works if your compiler is msvc. Used it on realm and noticed a slight speedup so going to do a timedemo later today.

[revelator]

it does run faster but hard to tell by how much on my pc since its allready hitting hard on the speed limits.
does not affect load times though.