Speed improvment

[Aiwendil]

Thanks to a hint from a well known dev with and affection for Klyros it seems it's possible to improve the performance of the graphics of PlaneShift slightly. After getting some positive feedback about this I thought it's maybe worth sharing.

Open your planeshift.cfg file in a text editor (The file is in the config directory of PlaneShift: Linux: "~/.PlaneShift", MacOSX: "~/Library/Application Data/PlaneShift", Windows: "%AppData%\PlaneShift")
Then add a

Code: [Select]

PlaneShift.Loading.ForceCuller = default
line to the end of it. This should enable hardware culling in PS. It might lead to some small graphic artifacts but seems to give a noticeable performance boost to some people. Try it out. To get rid of it again just delete that line again.

[LigH]

I believe the hardware culler also "fixes" the transparency issues with the heightfield maps (at least hides the issue).

Or is this just a coincidence, and the alpha maps were fixed with the update 0.5.8.1?

No — transparent heightfield landscapes without this line, solid ones with. Maybe just darkness behind them. Unfortunately, water looks striped where the sky mirrors in the shader.

[shrapnel]

I believe the hardware culler also fixes the transparency issues with the heightfield maps.

Or is this just a coincidence, and the alpha maps were fixed with the update 0.5.8.1?

They (the transparency issues) don't seem to be repaired.

[LigH]

You are right. It is just not so obvious anymore, but the transparency holes are still present. It just doesn't draw what's behind, so you don't see any sharp textures or edges through them.

[shrapnel]

It's also a bit of a craps-shoot as far as any speed up. Of course there may be more to it than just the culling (or lack of hardware enhancements thereof) behind it. I know it isn't my specs:

(1) Phenem II X4 955BE OC'd 3.7Ghz
(4x2GB) 8GB DDR3 (1648) RAM (slightly OC'd from 1600) 8-8-8-24-33-2T
(1) Radeon HD5870 (Catalyst 11.9... yes I know, 11.11 is available)

Anyway, there IS some slight improvements, even if it is just not being able to see what's below the terrain you walk/run/ride on.

[weltall]

it depends on how much the cpu is hindering the main loop and how much the gpu can handle *geometry* . a 3.75ghz cpu even if amd will rarely hinder the main loop due to the culler running