[IMPORTANT] Using torches/fires/candles

[cmp]

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The screenshot above is taken in the "Bandit Hideout" map, and I'm standing where most of the action happens.
How many torches/fires/candles do you see? 2? 3 ?4
How many torches/fires/candles can the engine see? More than 20, and it will render all of their fire effects, no matter if there's a tree, a hill or twenty walls between you and them.

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The performance impact from that is pretty big. If the map has water and you have reflections enabled, it will be twice as big.

So, when you're making a map, please adhere to the following guidelines:
1) use objects that emit particles sparingly. Especially placing dozens of them in an area where people go rarely adds very little to the map, while still decreasing performance for everyone.
2) use torch_night instead of torch, unless you want to place it in a poorly lit area indoors.

Here's another good example of please-kill-my-FPS:

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[Tydeus]

Any idea why some foliage heavy maps have input lag issues more than others? Are certain trees just more taxing, do you know? If so, could we limit the usage of those specific trees?

[cmp]

Give me a few examples of such maps and I'll check the bottlenecks.

[Mustikki]

Gonna do some hotfixes for maps with higher fps usage.

[Elindor]

Yeah Mustikki, if we (mappers) submit maps that you think will cause lag issues, definitely let us know and we will revise them before putting them into rotation.

[Lech]

Wow, i didn't though the renderer is so bad.

[Elindor]

Unfortunately it is Lech.

One thing people can do is just turn off particle systems in their options - video settings.
that tends to help a lot

[cmp]

Sure, but having to turn off particle systems on a high end PC because a mapper put torches everywhere is ridiculous.

[Elindor]

I agree.

[Muunilinst]

get better pc ure living in 21 century lazy ...

[Digglez]

ZOMG devs trying to instill common sense in map making?
Whats next, some sort of review process before maps get put into rotation?!


Very cool that you will be doing some retrofixing Musti.  THere used to be a siege map with green moat, siege tower way on the left side...used to be one of my favs...but it had a ton of torches so people hated it

[Elindor]

I agree that maps should get more testing before being put in - but unfortunately Digglez, the average player assumes there is more of a "map team" than there is. 

Heres the issue with mapping:

- very few people make maps
- the map editor is atrocious
- who would beta test maps?  you need to have many players on either side to really test it

These are issues that arise, and most of the player base is rude and unhelpful about maps and mappers. 

Basically, crpg is a mod - and we get to "beta test" maps as players

NOW - what needs to happen is players need a better way (and a better attitude) of reporting issues, and addressing balance concerns, so that mappers can make adjustments based on a wide sampling of results on their maps.

Perhaps there can be information gathered as to the result of each round of a map (siege that is).  So after 2 weeks of a map being in rotation, a dev could say "Elindor, on Rochester, attackers have won 200 rounds, and defense has only won 115" or something, and I could look into what might be causing that....since you would hope attacker/defender wins/losses should be RELATIVELY close if its balanced.

[cmp]

get better pc ure living in 21 century lazy ...

- Intel i7 860
- AMD Radeon HD5870
- 8GB RAM
- you really don't know what you're talking about, so you'd better just shut up

[Kreczor]

I agree that maps should get more testing before being put in - but unfortunately Digglez, the average player assumes there is more of a "map team" than there is. 

Heres the issue with mapping:

- very few people make maps
- the map editor is atrocious
- who would beta test maps?  you need to have many players on either side to really test it

These are issues that arise, and most of the player base is rude and unhelpful about maps and mappers. 

Basically, crpg is a mod - and we get to "beta test" maps as players

NOW - what needs to happen is players need a better way (and a better attitude) of reporting issues, and addressing balance concerns, so that mappers can make adjustments based on a wide sampling of results on their maps.

Perhaps there can be information gathered as to the result of each round of a map (siege that is).  So after 2 weeks of a map being in rotation, a dev could say "Elindor, on Rochester, attackers have won 200 rounds, and defense has only won 115" or something, and I could look into what might be causing that....since you would hope attacker/defender wins/losses should be RELATIVELY close if its balanced.

We should get a small ~10 player server specifically for beta testing maps, region wouldn't matter as we'd be looking for exploits in the map and such. It'd really help for some feedback based on bigger issues.

Also, since it wouldn't be a big server it could technically not require expensive server equipment, I won't run it off of my computer because it's not built for that but it's an option.

[Elindor]

Could be bigger technically Kreczor, since performance (FPS) is not a factor. 
But yeah it could be run on a less than premium server.

This would be good for testing spawns, doors, potential balance issues, etc...

Not sure how to get people onto it though...maybe its done at scheduled times and the volunteers get x2-x3 during the duration of the testing.