Low Fps With Torque 3D demo

#1 NVidia GeForce 6100
Very old card, poor fillrate.

I've no idea what the demo looks like, but try this:

Find Prefs.cs (maybe under game/scripts/client) and change
$pref::lightManager = "Advanced Lighting";
to
$pref::lightManager = "Basic Lighting";

Annoyingly there is no way to do this from the Options Screen.

#2 You can actually change from Basic Lighting to Advanced Lighting(and vise-versa) right under the menu item titled "Lighting".

#3 Yes, with the editor open... it is likely the option should be in the options dialog.

#4 I have a 2.6g Dual Core, 4 Megs memory, Xp3 and a nVidia 8600 GT with 512 memory and the demo runs like a snail.

With the lowest options and 1024x768 with nothing much in the room FPS are ok but if you have any screen with lotsa stuff, FPS just drop off. When I set the lighting etc. on in the options, FPS were so bad I could see the bullet travelling from my gun in jerky motion.

There is quite a way to go with this one short of spending heaps on new hardware.

I am disappointed.

#5 Yeah, that's an awful video card for AL, your only choice with that thing is only using Basic Lighting.

#6 @Steven Garcia
Wasn't certain whether the editor came with the demo.

However, as a note, feel free to add "change Lighting in OptionsDlg" to your - no doubt - absurdly long list of things people would like.

It'd be helpful for end-users post completed game shipping.

#7 @Michael Hall

Were you referring to his NVidia GeForce 6100 or my NVidia 8600 GT512 or both?

#8 @Justin:
Given that our posts were simultaneous I'm pretty sure I was referring the 6100, although that 8600 would be the minimum I would even consider trying Advanced Lighting with. I say this using and successfully dev'ing with a lowly 7150 ;)

Quote:it is likely the option should be in the options dialog.

I like that thought! For some reason I want to say that's been mentioned somewhere before....

#9 A number of the Torque 3D developers are running on nVidia 8600 Mobile's with both 256 MB and 512 MB of video memory and Advanced Lighting runs reasonably well for us.

The thing to keep in mind with Advanced Lighting is that it is extremely cutting edge and aimed at the next several generations of video cards.

The concern with putting the Light Manager in the options dialog is that ultimately which Light Manager a user should be using is something that should be controlled by the game and not necessarily by the end user (it is tricky to build artwork that looks good in both).

Since a lot of Torque games ship with the stock options dialog, I am hesitant to expose a feature that could allow the user to easily switch your game into a setting that it was never intended to be run in.

We are going to be doing a pretty thorough pass on how the options dialog works and how best for users and developers to interface with it.

#10

Quote:I've no idea what the demo looks like, but try this:

Find Prefs.cs (maybe under game/scripts/client) and change
$pref::lightManager = "Advanced Lighting";
to
$pref::lightManager = "Basic Lighting";

Steve you give me HOPE, I was STUCK thinking WHY I can't see more than 9fps in Torque 3D having a proper hardware.... I turn on Basic Lighting and .... :) you gift an smile to me, now I got Over 60 and 70 fps un Burg even checking ON (Post FX, SSAO, Edge antialiasing, HDR, Light Rays).... my question is WTF is Advanced Lighting? :S Why GG release torque whith that lightManager as default generating this POOR frame rate... :S

#11

Quote:
Over 60 and 70 fps un Burg even

Burg is "super fancy" for showing off.
My fps is single figures on my old 256mb 7900GS, and not much better with Basic Lighting.

My own levels run great, better than ever.

#12 has anyone actually created a minumum hardware requirement for Advanced Lighting? or Done some FPS tests for the older hardware. I know that im concerned about creating a game, and not being able to use its full features. or getting a poor fps due to only having mid level hardware. I mean even myself i have a 1gb Radeon HD 3600 and i get fine rates, but i know alot of folks that have 256 setups and its well.. less then stellar.

#13 Its hard to put an exact min-hardware requirement on a game engine because performance is highly dependent on the game you create.

I can say for sure AL requires SM 3.0 and support for either R16G16B16A16F or R16G16B16A16 and GFXFormatR32F texture formats (all SM 3.0 cards can that i know of).

GPU memory requirements depend on your screen resolution and how many textures in your game.

CPU requirements depend mostly on how many things your drawing to the screen and gamplay (physics, AI, etc).

If i had to cite a recommended target it would say a Geforce 8800, a 2GHz processor, 1GB of ram.

As MattF said we plan to have a revamped settings dialog aimed at your end users with lots of knobs behind the scenes for you as developers to define what compromises in quality/performance to make for your game.

What is really cool is that our Pacific demo looks good in BL... at least as good as Crysis on low settings and performs alot better. I think for some games falling back to BL for lower end systems is very reasonable.

#14 id even suggest have a Basic Lighting, a Mid Level Lighting, and Advanced Level lighting option maybe? I have seen several games with these itmes, where you can completely turn off features from the option page, which is player hardware determined, and the game designers could not worry so much about said items.

#15 Truth be told 9600 and up. My opinion and nVidia's(may be related to $ hehe).

Out of the box on my machine:

FullSize

FullSize

#16 ok hmm ok that does point to a few things.. what do you get when you crank the graphics to max, SSOA and the rest of it activated. I see 61 there.. and thats with a much better Graphics Card then I have. Im certainly going to have to sift through which features we will actually need and use to save some fps somewhere.

#17 Some more:

Set1

Set2

#18

Quote:
Edward:
id even suggest have a Basic Lighting, a Mid Level Lighting, and Advanced Level lighting option maybe?

Mid Level Lighting would kinda be Advanced but with all Shadows set to off. Even fairly older GPUs (like my 7900) run well like that.

Personal Opinion HDR is way too much contrast at stock settings.

Just to note what I previously said about Burg performance, it's not actually that bad on my 7900, 50+ in BL, 15-20 in AL, FC@1280x800

#19 yah, even modern games that i play, i almost always turn off shadows, and get a huge FPS boost. So i can definitly see that as a option.

#20 Well T3D the engine is not gonna have a 'Mid Level Lighting'... we have no place defining what that is.

Its up to you... the developer... who knows the level of quality and requirements for your game that should decide what low/medium/high settings are.

Frankly the current Options screen is mixed up... presenting real end user options along with developer options. Thats what we hope to rectify in 1.1.... the options screen will be redesigned for game players with the developer being able to easily adjust what is exposed to them.