upgrade the fragnetics server and put more beasties in the game..
buy 3D models for mundane things like tools, trees, items,
buy textures..

Birthday party in the tavern... now thats roleplay to the extreme.

I wonder if there is a way that you can split the Lanscape Height Field Mesh up into little Quadrants.. then the adaptive loader could load only those within range..

I think this is going to be a big problem if the Team is considering using more and larger outdoor areas.


I mean ether way it would look silly to have mountains just dissapearing and re-appearing past a certain point but atleast the game would be playable in the open areas...
(hence why I sugested fog in another thread)

Also maybe asking the CS team if they could implement progressive mesh... which reduces the poly count of far away objects.... I've noticed that the curvature and smootheness of hills far away stays pretty much constant as you move toward and away from hills... which suggests to me that a hill 500 miles away is rendered with the same polycount as if it was right next to you... This could reduce the kind of intense lag we're seing in the wilderness areas..

A game like FarCry uses progressive meshes on their landscapes. If you look closely the mountains appear to change in form slightly as you move closer and further form them...
This is the alrogythm in the background reducing the polygon count of further away mountains..

you can mix and match DDR chips from what I know they will just clock down to the lowest common denominator.. ie the slowest DDR chip or the Motherboard if its controller is slow..

But DDR2 is a completely different chip with a different slot so they dont fit into DDR sockets..

DDR2 has a lower latency but a higher transfer rate.. it also uses less power and is more reliable. but I dont know of many motherboards out there that you can buy cheeply that support DDR2..

DDR2 is really QDR or Quad Data rate.. just like rambus (thats why rambus are suing at the moment)... that means that data is not only transferred on the rise and fall of every clock cycle but also in between.

If I was you.. considering that most systems only have about 2-3 ddr slots.. I would see how many slots I had left and then Try to fill them with the Highest capacity Sticks I could find for a good price.. at the moment the good  price point is 1 x 1 GB Memory module..

Just finished my testing...

I have discovered the following...

FOR Windows XP

YOU need a huge page file.. if its too small the game will crash after a while. .. say if you have 512 - 768 MB of ram your page file should be about double that

I tried Playing with the adaptive distance reduced and it does make a huge difference in all areas except the wilderness..

What I have noticed is that the wilderness area seems to be the only place where it still tries to draw the entire landscape (hills etc) no matter what setting your adaptive distance is on.

the trees, shrubs and other objects arent drawn past the adaptive limit but the hills ARE.

All other areas filter out the objects like walls etc  past the adaptive distance limit and so they arent drawn... (speeds things up nicely)

I presume the Rolling Hills wilderness area doesnt do this because the Adaptive distance probably works on an Mesh by Mesh basis... and because the hills are one big Height Field Mesh.. it just tries to draw the whole thing...


And so for users with limited memory... in their cards.. I dont think you can optimise the Wilderness much..

which also validates the point about inconsitant falling damage...

if you can jump down the well and have NO damage.. and then you die from using a staggared drop approach.. (ie breaking up the drop into 3 smaller drops)

then isnt that a contradiction in the laws of physics?

your teacher might argue that using school computers to read about games isnt a productive use of school time or resources
he he he he

Tough luck, is all I can say. There is absolutely no reason to complain.

If you want a game to be successful and appeal to a broad audience comments like those arent helpful.
Especially when the aims of the Planeshift team are said to be focussed on Realism and Creating an involving Roleplay experience...

what I mean by this.. and this is the bugbear of almost every 3D game that was created in the beginning.. and that is things like ladders and ledges are too easy to fall off and die..


in planeshift you can slide down a small hill (yes slide not fall) and die.. or walk up to a ladder and fall to your doom.

many games have countered the ladder problem by realising that when a player walks into a ladder his intention is to CLIMB down it.. and so they have built in Climbing functionality that takes over as soon as you walk into the ladder (an excellend improvement)

Other games deal with the sliding to your doom or dropping to your doom issue by simply taking away almost all of your hp if the intention is for you to be able to jump down there..
and if the intention is for you not to be able to jump down there then you die..


The problems that many players are having with the whole falling concept in Planeshift is that it isnt consistant...
Some drops like the very steep 2-3 storey drop in  the death realm cause no damage at all.
Other drops like a 1 storey drop from one level of hydlaa to the other cause minimal damage

But if your in the wilderness and you slide down a storey or 2.. (not drop)... then you die instantly.
In the Laanx dungeon entrance you also die from 1 storey drops...
Also if your in the Arena and you run down stairs sometimes it can be fatal...

If you want to make the dungeon area more restrictive to lower level players then consider putting a horde of hungry monsters that attack as soon as you drop down..
or just putting more deadly, agressive monsters in general..

the point is... Dropping to your doom really does kill the game play experience.... in some areas like the death realm its nescessary to give a sense of danger... (no argument there) but as for entrances to places.. ie pathways built by someone to access an area.. then the whole notion of death by drop is unrealistic...