Must go faster

[tReed]

Hello,
Im having issues with the most recent stable build of darkplaces. The frame rate is 5-29 FPS, 20 fps average. Not sure why.

My rig should be able to easily handle it:
Alienware M15x
Core i7 720 1.6ghz /2.8 turbo
Nvidia geforce gtx 260 overclocked to 725/1782/1102
4gb ddr3 @ 1333mhz
Win7 64 bit

settings are 1920 x 1080 (native), 32 bpp, no AA, 4x AF, no vsync, tex comp on, Full lighting and shadows with HDR, QRP textures with normals and offset mapping (no relief mapping) SMC, dpwater, weather effects, reforged skins,Novis 0, reflective textures.

Ive tried checking nv control panel, doing a system recovery (complete reformat) , updating to the latest nvidia driver, tinkering with the console variables, deleting config, adjusting game settings to the lowest levels (even then only got 79 fps)

Nothing seems to work. any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Travis

[grave_digga]

To much eye candy. Pretty water is a fps killer and the reflective stuff also and offset mapping is the greatest killer. Every addon gets you lesser fps. Try to find out which gets you the most drop and try to live without it.

[Phenom]

Yea transparent water in Qrack cuts my FPS in half... DP out of the box makes my PC cry.

[R00k]

Transparent water in any engine will make your fps suffer, IF you are using r_novis to accomplish this. r_novis just draws the entire map with out any culling. The best way for clear water is to VIS the map, then just use r_wateralpha 0.%0.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Quake > LordHavoc's DarkPlaces Quake Modification - FPS Ports



I recommend setting up your DarkPlaces to your liking (avoid tweaking the REAL TIME) , then once you've got DP running effeciently without any RT effects, go back and enable them one by one, and tweak as needed.

They are really snazzy effects but murder FPS.

[Cobalt]

Transparent water....I think that ought to be something that the mapper decides on when they make the map. All maps with transparent water would seem kind of disproportional in the context of the original ID world concepts anyway.

Another thing is if you play mp the players who have that enabled can see you underwater, and its not a fair game uless everyone has it set on. Letting the map/ worldspawn decide would be the best way to go IMO, then at least there is some control over regulating it so that client resources are not soaked up like this so often.

Transparent water in any engine will make your fps suffer, IF you are using r_novis to accomplish this. r_novis just draws the entire map with out any culling. The best way for clear water is to VIS the map, then just use r_wateralpha 0.%0.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Last I checked its impossible to use a vis'd map (clientside) on a server that doesn't also have the exact same vis'd map serverside.

If the server doesn't have vis'd map, nothing happens. It's not a big deal in multiplayer, as no one uses it.

Tons of us do however use r_novis 1 and r_wateralpha .5 , as this is how it used to be done, its sort of etched in memory now. I don't know many people who take DarkPlaces online for a intent to be competitive. I do know its used tons for RQ COOP!

[tReed]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will do some tinkering tonight and see what i can determine.

Its strange though, I upgraded to this current dp build and since then i have had slow fps. The previous dp build i had (dont remember which one) used the same settings i am using now, but as long as i kept the gpu overclocked, it never dipped below 60 fps, and i was using rygels ultra textures and 8x AF.

So of course why dont i go back to that build? The biggest reason is i dont know what build it was. Anyone know of a list of previous builds?

Perhaps it just this particular build, but what would make this build run so much slower?

Thanks for the help,
Travis

[MH]

Another thing is if you play mp the players who have that enabled can see you underwater

They can't. The server uses it's own PVS when sending entities to the client, and if the server has different vis data to what the client is using, it doesn't matter a damn if the client can see underwater or around corners or halfway to the moon - the server will only send entities based on it's vis data. The client in NQ is a dumb terminal; it has no control over or say in any of this stuff.

[Seven]

So of course why dont i go back to that build? The biggest reason is i dont know what build it was. Anyone know of a list of previous builds?

Hello Travis,

if you want, you can try one of these.

Good luck.
Seven

PS: You should switch of HDR and use rtlights. That will bring back fps.

[tReed]

Thanks Seven, i will try these.

sometimes it seems that as i progress through a level, my frame rate progressivly gets worse until i am left crawling through the slipgate at 1 -3 fps.
then at the start of the next level, the frame rate goes back up. does the engine have to draw the whole level at once, even the parts that cant be seen at you present location?

Also do you even need offset mapping if you have normal maps?

Sorry, the extent of my knowledge doesnt extend much past knowing how to play the game.

Thanks for the help,
Travis

[talisa]

yes, for normal maps to work you need to enable offsetmapping, different name but they are the same thing.
if you dont enable offsetmapping having normal maps installed does absolutely nothing
offsetmapping is a collective name for both normal maps and bumpmaps

however having offsetmapping enabled causes a huge performance-drop too,
and thus its advisable to only use it if you have an extremely fast videocard.

even i sometimes at moments get fps drops up to 15fps while i got a core i7 950 3ghz, 12GB ram and a MSI geforce GTX580 twin frozr II OC

[tReed]

I had the best luck with build 20110203. it tripled my framerates in most cases
there is an issue that all the menu and hud graphics are extremely dark. I almost
cant even see them. Is there something that can be done to fix this?

Also it dosent seem to support some of the particle effects, such as enforcer laser, and the lava/slime monster effects. Anyway to fix this?

Thanks,
Travis

[talisa]

try using this build instead: darkplaces-20110702.zip

i personally use that build too.
it was recommended to me by seven for supporting everything the SMC needs and having good performance

[FC Zvyozdochka]

yes, for normal maps to work you need to enable offsetmapping, different name but they are the same thing.

You are a little bit wrond, splitterface. Offset/reliefmapping enables only normalmap's texture alpha channel which affects offset only. Color channels of the normalmap texture only affects shading of the surface and it does not depends on r_glsl_offsetmapping cvar.

ven i sometimes at moments get fps drops up to 15fps while i got a core i7 950 3ghz, 12GB ram and a MSI geforce GTX580 twin frozr II OC

I wonder if someone will ever make Q1 engine both beautiful and not braking
Splitter, do you play with reliefmapping on? What's your average fps?