New DarkPlaces beta released

[seanstar]

new builds uploaded...the newest version gave me 10 more fps in timedemo results.

[Seven]

Seanstar,

the new build you mentioned 2 days ago, was an autobuild.
DarkPlaces is continuously developed. So autobuilds are made (uploaded) almost every day.


LordHavoc wrote in the above post on 9th april:

After my changes on the 8th the offsetmapping is disabled on all quake textures (not replacement textures).

But I cannot activate offsetmapping for external (replacement) textures as well.


A new beta build has been made on the 1st may (yesterday).
Unfortunately offsetmapping is still deactivated.

I compared the FPS (without offsetmapping) with the build from 3rd february.
They are identical.
So, if anybody wants offsetmapping, it makes more sense to use the build from 3rd february.


Can anybody activate offsetmapping with the newest beta from yesterday ?

Regards,
Seven

[Spinvis]

New beta released today, get it here: darkplacesenginewindowsonly20110518beta1.zip

[Seven]

Thank you for mentioning Spinvis.

I�d like to mention though that the performance/fps is worse/less compared to february 3rd build.
As well as the offsetmapping/parallax mapping is still deactivated.

[BEEF34T3R]

Seven, I use fast and stable autobuild_20110203, thanks for the advice Is it still the best in your opinion?

LordHavoc, I tried different dp builds, different nvidia drivers, but always had an issue:
At stable 60 FPS with VSync DP goes with small, but very noticable dalays, while at 75Hz/FPS it runs smooth. Unfortunately, my monitor, like most modern casual screens, does not support FullHD res at more then 60Hz. So, I played around with DP cvars (CPU/FPS limit options) - got no results. Finally, found the "solution" - disabled OpenGL extinsions for DP in nvidia drivers - DP ran smooth at 60Hz, but that turned off lot's of beauty (parallax mapping, other shader effects).
So, is there the way to make DP with all GL features run lag-free at 60Hz?

Thanks for your great contribution to the Quake evolution!

[NightFright]

Sorry for slightly bumping this, but are there any news about this broken offsetmapping feature? I just wanted to fire up Quake again after a few months and realized it didn't work. Even with DPQuake June 24 build, the involved commands still do not have any effect.

For the time being, I will be using the Feb 3 autobuild which has been provided by Seven.

[LordHavoc]

LordHavoc, I tried different dp builds, different nvidia drivers, but always had an issue:
At stable 60 FPS with VSync DP goes with small, but very noticable dalays, while at 75Hz/FPS it runs smooth. Unfortunately, my monitor, like most modern casual screens, does not support FullHD res at more then 60Hz. So, I played around with DP cvars (CPU/FPS limit options) - got no results. Finally, found the "solution" - disabled OpenGL extinsions for DP in nvidia drivers - DP ran smooth at 60Hz, but that turned off lot's of beauty (parallax mapping, other shader effects).
So, is there the way to make DP with all GL features run lag-free at 60Hz?

Thanks for your great contribution to the Quake evolution!

You can use vid_gl20 0 instead of the "disable opengl extensions" thing, same result more or less (although performing a bit better than disabling all opengl extensions), but still disables the shader effects.

Your explanation of the problem is too vague to act on however.

You can try vid_dx9 1 instead if you want to try the Direct3D9 renderer.

You might try disabling multithreading in the NVIDIA drivers.

[LordHavoc]

Sorry for slightly bumping this, but are there any news about this broken offsetmapping feature? I just wanted to fire up Quake again after a few months and realized it didn't work. Even with DPQuake June 24 build, the involved commands still do not have any effect.

Please describe the problem.

[NightFright]

Well, it is just like Seven wrote in this post here. I can't activate normal mapping with the r_glsl_offsetmapping 1 command. Highres textures stay "flat". Feb 3, 2011 build works fine. I have directly compared this older build with the most recent one, there is no doubt about it.

I tried with the texture packs from the QRP site (map textures + normal map addon) and DP June 25, 2011 build. BTW, QRP also released the first full texture pack for SoA yesterday, cool stuff (even though so far without normal maps, as far as I could see).

[LordHavoc]

Well, it is just like Seven wrote in this post here. I can't activate normal mapping with the r_glsl_offsetmapping 1 command. Highres textures stay "flat". Feb 3, 2011 build works fine. I have directly compared this older build with the most recent one, there is no doubt about it.

I've been unable to reproduce his problem, so I'm asking you to describe it please.

What values are r_glsl_offsetmapping, r_shadow_bumpscale_basetexture, r_shadow_bumpscale_bumptexture, and do the affected textures have a _norm or _bump file with them?

[turtlevan]

I've been unable to reproduce his problem, so I'm asking you to describe it please.

What values are r_glsl_offsetmapping, r_shadow_bumpscale_basetexture, r_shadow_bumpscale_bumptexture, and do the affected textures have a _norm or _bump file with them?

r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping doesn't work for me after february builds too

I'm not sure about the values of the other cvars you mention here. i bet monster or seven will know

[Seven]

Hello LordHavoc,

I want to try to bring a little light into the confusion.

The offsetmappping feature is deactivated from your autobuild 8th april 2011 till today.
You speak about it in your post here (see also your post here)

We are using QRP replacement textures (diffuse + normals) (for world textures).

In previous builds (before 8th april) offsetmapping can be easily activated by using this cvar:
"r_glsl_offsetmapping" "1"

This is now no longer possible.
All other cvars (that you mentioned above) are default.
The console tells my, that the "r_glsl_offsetmapping" is "1", but the offset effect is not there.
You can easily test it on your own computer.
So of course "r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping" is also not working from that date on.



Now, let us go back one more step to understand the whole story.
It began with my post regarding an issue with offsetmapping in your autobuild after 3rd february 2011.
In this autobuild the offsetmapping effect still worked, but a major change in visual was introduced.
I described this here

The issue is a little hard to describe, but people can confirm it.
Please let me try again:
After 3rd february build, DarkPlaces emulates a normal texture if no external normal texture is present (when you activate the offsetmapping cvar).
That is what is newly introduced in the build after 3rd february.
The visual impact is shown in my comparism screenshot in above link.
The emulated normal acts like a external normal that has an alpha channel.
This leads to the corrupted look as you see it on the screenshot. My-Key from QRP also confirmed that visual here.


Now, to summarize it:
- offsetmapping doesnt work from build 8th april 2011 on
- There has been a major change in the offsetmapping code after 3rd february 2011 (but it still worked fine as long as an external normal is present)

Please simulate it in your computer.

maybe there is just a new cvar, that has to be set to make the offsetmapping feature work in newer builds.
Unfortunately none of has managed to find out which...


To answer your questions regarding the cvar settings from your posts above:
- r_glsl_offsetmapping = 1
- r_shadow_bumpscale_basetexture = 0 (=default)
- r_shadow_bumpscale_bumptexture (doesnt exist. You maybe mean: r_shadow_bumpscale_bumpmap = 4 (=default)
- mod_noshader_default_offsetmapping = 1 (=default)
- mod_q3shader_default_offsetmapping = 1 (=default)


Please help us to bring back our beloved offsetmapping feature LordHavoc

Thank you very much for your help !

Kind Regards,
Seven

[smoketetsu]

I noticed that too but I was almost thinking it was just a mac specific bug (I run darkplaces on the mac) after a certain point in the nightlies offset mapping doesn't seem to work for me. I can run a later version it's off.. but then immediately go back to an earlier version and it's on.

[NightFright]

I have the same settings as Seven (variables + normal maps from QRP v1.0), just to add that. It's actually pretty reproducable: Use Feb 3 build --> normal mapping, use recent build (no changes in variables at all) --> no normal mapping.

By the way, I am very pleased about the civilized way this topic is handled. No flaming, friendly statements of facts - even though it's a considerable glitch. Remarkable! ^^

[LordHavoc]

Okay, should be fixed in the next autobuild...