Long loads times on clean TGE 1.5.2

#1 If you're using the stronghold mission, it takes a long, long time to generate the initial lightmaps.

#2 I finally realized that after testing it on 4 different computers. I have been out of pocket over the past year and a half and have not had much time to do anything. I am just trying to get my head back into this right now. I have been using a HEAVLY modified TGE 1.3 and thought I would just check out TGE 1.5.2 to see what has changed. I guess John has done quite a few changes in the lighting system and GG has made allot of changes also.

Thanks for the reply David..


Jackie

#3 That's why it is important to generate the lightmaps and then ship it with the generated ones. That way your customers don't have to go through that long wait!

#4 @David Blake: Hello again we keep running into each other. Good to see ya again. I am having the same problem and need to solve it, could you expand on how to generate a lightmap as you mentioned above.

#5 Once the lighting is generated for the first time, you should have a .ml (mission lighting) file in the folder where you loaded the mission. Those are the files you need to include. I would recommend removing all of them to avoid any duplication. And then loading each mission to compile lighting. That way you will have a clean set to work with.

#6 @David: Thanks for the answer. I was afraid that was the case. I still have exceptionally long load times even after the mission lighting has been done. I noticed something strange in my console.log and would like to share it and hopefully understand it. I get the following in the 3rd stage of loading the mission file.

Starting scene lighting...
  Starting TGE based scene lighting...
    Lighting with light #1 (TGE vector light)...
      Lighting object 1 of 21...
      Object lighting complete (3.000 seconds)
      Lighting interior object 2 of 21 (base/data/interiors/SculptureGalleria/SculptureGalleria.dif)...
      Object lighting complete (0.000 seconds)
      ....
      ....
      Lighting interior object 21 of 21 (base/data/interiors/Cathedral/cathedral.dif)...
      Object lighting complete (0.000 seconds)
  TGE based scene lighting complete (3.890 seconds)

Then right after that I get this group.

Starting Synapse Gaming Lighting Pack scene lighting...
    Lighting object 1 of 21...
    Object lighting complete (0.031 seconds)
    Lighting interior object 2 of 21 (base/data/interiors/SculptureGalleria/SculptureGalleria.dif)...
    Object lighting complete (22.547 seconds)
    Lighting interior object 3 of 21 (base/data/interiors/NGM/NGM.dif)...
    Object lighting complete (7.000 seconds)
    ....
    ....
    Lighting interior object 21 of 21 (base/data/interiors/Cathedral/cathedral.dif)...
    Object lighting complete (14.141 seconds)
  Synapse Gaming Lighting Pack scene lighting complete (147.984 seconds)

Then I get Lighting Kit stats. But what is wierd is I am Lighting the scene twice. I don't understand and would like to actually get rid of the Lighting Kit, it's just way too slow and makes loading and relighting agonizing. It always wants to relight and seriously puts a break in the creative process of world building.
Thanks for bearing with me.

#7 Use draft relighting and filtered relights to lower the "during development" re-lighting times--it's what they are there for :)

#8 @Stephen: Thanks for the info, I never thought of that. But I still don't understand why I am lighting the scene/buildings 2 times. Wouldn't once be enough? Also can I turn off the lighting kit?
Once again thanks.

#9 It isn't actually relighting the scene twice. It is making two passes, each performing a different type of relight. The lighting engine is kind of a mishmash of old and new technologies. The original TGE lighting is still used I think on terrain wheras the Synapse lighting is used on buildings. Or maybe I have that backwards :ponder:

Turning off the lightmap generation entirely would somewhat reduce the visual quality of the world. But in some instances, like where day turns to night, it can be necessary. To do this I just deleted the lightmap file, commented out the relighting call in the .cs files, and recompiled the source code with the mUseGLLighting flag enabled.

Good luck with finding a setup that works for you.