Dividing a level that is to BIG
by Greyfort · in Torque 3D Professional · 11/26/2011 (6:06 pm) · 3 replies
I have a level it is way to big causing lag, I would like to divide it up and put in zone triggers. what would be the most time effective?
1) make copies of level, then adjust copies to represent the sections of the big level, then add triggers so players can zone between the new copies. was my idea.
Does anyone know of a faster or better way?
1) make copies of level, then adjust copies to represent the sections of the big level, then add triggers so players can zone between the new copies. was my idea.
Does anyone know of a faster or better way?
About the author
Computer programming/repair,3D Modeling,anim,Game Dev.
#2
11/27/2011 (6:48 am)
What sort of level do you have, and what is causing the lag? Running the profiler should give you some hints. If it's simply having to render tons of assets, and your lines of sight aren't too long, you might consider adding Zones and Portals to the level to occlude objects that aren't always visible. 
#3
1) overly large and detailed terrain, terrain hold its entirety in memory as far as i know, also having more and more textures on the terrain also degrades performance.
2) Water, water is very expensive as far as performance is concerned, or rather it can be if the settings are not quite right.
3) masses of unoptimised and high poly models, if you want to see a badly made game level, pick any one of the torque/GG levels, and learn how not to do stuff, high poly models with no decent LOD optimisations, lots of dynamic shiney also hurts performance.
Make sure your levels contain optimised assets, having a nicely LODed model is often spoiled by the fact that the low poly model still uses a lot of textures.
There are also a bunch of techniques for removing things that cannot be seen, some are in the engine, some require additional coding.
You also didn't post your system specs, theres a wide range of configuration specific optimisations that can be made also. One of the most common mistakes is to use far too many high resolution textures, this can cause even some of the best graphics cards to lag.
11/27/2011 (8:29 am)
I'd have to ask a similar question, other than running the mission on a computer thats not suitable and assuming theres not an errent script/code loop somewhere, the 3 main issues that can cause slowdown are.1) overly large and detailed terrain, terrain hold its entirety in memory as far as i know, also having more and more textures on the terrain also degrades performance.
2) Water, water is very expensive as far as performance is concerned, or rather it can be if the settings are not quite right.
3) masses of unoptimised and high poly models, if you want to see a badly made game level, pick any one of the torque/GG levels, and learn how not to do stuff, high poly models with no decent LOD optimisations, lots of dynamic shiney also hurts performance.
Make sure your levels contain optimised assets, having a nicely LODed model is often spoiled by the fact that the low poly model still uses a lot of textures.
There are also a bunch of techniques for removing things that cannot be seen, some are in the engine, some require additional coding.
You also didn't post your system specs, theres a wide range of configuration specific optimisations that can be made also. One of the most common mistakes is to use far too many high resolution textures, this can cause even some of the best graphics cards to lag.
Torque 3D Owner Paul Yoskowitz
WinterLeaf Entertainment
you can also go with less detail on the terrain itself, or try a smaller zone and adjust the size down of all the models you use.