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sky lag

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 Jedi_Vogel
06-15-2004, 7:26 AM
#1
hehe, I couldn't search for "sky lag" due to these words being under the word size limit.

I had a very weird experience in testing my map (thus-far) in MP. When I looked up at the sky, the FPS dropped from 60-ish to 8. Not good. This doesn't happen in SP, which is why I find it odd.

I reduced my texture-drawing-quality value, which enabled me to test what I actually wanted to test but if there is sky on my map and the player is looking at it, it slows down almost to what I get online :lol:

Is this something I can avoid, or is it my computer's fault (again)?
 Codja X
06-15-2004, 8:01 AM
#2
Are you using a portal sky or a standard sky shader box?
 Jedi_Vogel
06-15-2004, 8:16 AM
#3
Standard Sky and as yet it's not even a box...just a brush covering up an open area textured with sky. Does the same on a window too...where the window is also just a small brush behind it covering up the open hole.
 Codja X
06-15-2004, 8:24 AM
#4
and you've caulked the non-visible sides?
 Jedi_Vogel
06-15-2004, 8:28 AM
#5
Of course :)
 Codja X
06-15-2004, 8:36 AM
#6
Bizarre!?:confused:

Sounds like it could be a driver issue. Have had problems like this before with other quake games?

The engine has used skyboxes since Half-life and Quake 2, so theoretically you should have problems on these games as well.

Give this a go, and if you're getting the same problem, it's a pc issue
 Jedi_Vogel
06-15-2004, 8:41 AM
#7
Bizarre was my word for it. I'm the author of the "Low FPS hardware issue" thread :lol:

My comp (laptop) was bought in september and I keep it up-to-date. I tried updating the graphics drivers, but both times messed up the comp. (I have some weird graphics card).

I'll just haveta keep developing on low-res and then pester people to test it on higher res ;)

Thanks anyway :)

P.S. the only otehr quake-driven game I have is Jedi Outcast :D
 Codja X
06-15-2004, 8:59 AM
#8
Does it do the same in that?

What about your sky shader - is it a standard JA one or is it a manually created one?
 Jedi_Vogel
06-15-2004, 9:00 AM
#9
I'm mapping in JA but I've never had any OFFLINE issues with MP in JO.

And it's the standard Yavin Sky. Haven't had time to learn to make my own yet what with mapping and trying to learn scripting and shader editing.

oh and eating and sleeping too, from time-to-time lol
 Codja X
06-15-2004, 9:34 AM
#10
Eating and sleeping is for wimps:) How on earth do you expect to become a master of mapping if you "eat" and "sleep". Bah! Amateurs!

it's strange this just happens on JA for you though. You could try compressing the textures - skies are usually about 1024x1024 and so can be a drain on video memory.

Try r_ext_compresstextures 1 in the console. Make sure r_drawsun is 0 - it doesn't do much in JA, but use it just in case.

What you may want to try as well is r_fastsky 1 - this removes the texture from the sky and paints it a yellowy colour. If it works better, then it might be the texture issue.
 zag
06-15-2004, 9:40 AM
#11
/r_fastsky 1 also gets rid of mirror floors
handy feature worth mentioning i think
 Jedi_Vogel
06-15-2004, 9:42 AM
#12
Thanks Codja, I'll give that a shot tonight :)
 Codja X
06-15-2004, 9:55 AM
#13
Originally posted by zag
/r_fastsky 1 also gets rid of mirror floors
handy feature worth mentioning i think

A lot of emphasis is placed on mapping properly in this forum and rightly so - this IS a mapping forum after all.

What people do tend to forget though is that there a literally hundreds of useful commands in the console that you can use to diagnose and sometimes, solve problems.

Maybe we (as in someone else) could compile a list and we'd have a sticky thread about it (unless it's been done already), but categorise them e.g.

[performance gain commands]
cg_shadows: 0 (no shadows) - fastest
1 (blob shadows) - fast
2 (stencil drawn) - slow

r_fastsky: 1 (draws sky normall) - medium
0 (doesn't use sky shader) - fast


[diagnostic commands]

r_showtris: 1 (shows triangles that are drawn by engine)
0 (doesn't)

etc etc.

What you all think? (sorry for hijacking the thread Mr. Vogel)
 Jedi_Vogel
06-15-2004, 10:00 AM
#14
No worries Codja :) but I agree with the above *nods*
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