Bump maps in Amdeneir - need your input!

[Talad]

Hi,
as of latest update to release 0.5.6 (about 1 week ago) we added to amdeneir the "bump mapping" shader. In simple words is a graphical effect which makes items look more real by manipulating the light effect on them. For example if you look at the ground in amdeneir you will see now that each small stone has a light effect and looks like it "bumps" out of the flat surface. The same has been applied to all items in amdeneir, walls, lamps, signs, chairs, ... The visual result should be a way more realistic look, and gives to PS finally something other commercial games have since long time.

The question is if the new effect is working well on your machine or not, or if it's slowing down your PC too much. We would like to extend this technique to every single level in PS, but we need a validation from the current players that's going to work.

In case you don't see any difference, go and check if you have lowered the graphical settings in pslaunch, turn those up because with some low settings you will not be able to see the difference.

If you really have time, you could reinstall a fresh 0.5.6 and compare the visuals and performances before and after the update.

Thanks.

[LigH]

The cobblestone effect is visible where the crystal shines on the road. Rather decent (edges might get more depth?) but in general credible.



Unfortunately, there is more aliasing (texel flickering) in the distance.

And I have a lot of tearing while running -- it seems that PlaneShift does not get in sync with the vertical retrace signal.

GeForce 9600 GT, 1680x1050 windowed, AMD Phenom X4; highest shader settings.

I could imagine it may be worse on a GeForce 6800 GS, can test this probably tomorrow.

[weltall]

you can set vsync on the nvidia control panel

[LigH]

As if I didn't know ...

The driver is set to "VSync: Default on". Still I see some kind of tearing: it looks like the street texture sometimes shudders forth and back.

If I look exactly downwards in 1st-person view and turn around myself, I can clearly see the flickering.

Somehow I believe that the Nvidia Control Panel is only able to recomment VSync in OpenGL, but not to enforce.

P.P.S.: Not even nHancer was able to enforce it. Forced triple buffering, enabling or disabling of filter optimizations - still tearing or something similar.
__

PS: I see tiny black spikes here and there on the cobblestones if the camera is close.

The grass patches seem to have a structure too, where they are lit.

[LigH]

GeForce 6800 GS: Works perfectly. Not even any little black spikes visible. And no tearing with a CRT monitor.

[weltall]

i've to think that's not the framebuffer being caught while it's being written but something else if vsync force doesn't work....

[LigH]

In my opinion it is acceptable. Just a bit irritating.

I hope more textures can use it without too much further hardware limitation.

[Xordan]

I hope more textures can use it without too much further hardware limitation.

Normal mapping (which is what's actually being used here, not bump mapping) should be well supported by any decent graphics cards produced within the last 10 years.
Memory requirements will go up, but that's not really avoidable.

[LigH]

Unfortunately, there are still so many users of e.g. intel GMA 9xx or similar low-featured on-board solutions; one of their most serious issues - besides missing render and shader features - is shared memory.

If you want to play a game, use gaming hardware. PlaneShift and the CrystalSpace 3D engine are "getting mature"; getting closer to Doom 3 and Riddick, technically.

[Elvicat]

from what i can see amdeneir is actually running better now on my aging rig than it did when the city first came out, it was rather slow and clunky and looks a litle bit beter now too.
specs
pentium 4 HT 3.2GHz @ 3.36GHz
2.5gb ddr1
geforce 7800gs 256mb agp slightly overclocked

heres the ps settings i use

antialising 0
anistropic 0
texture quality high
shaders high
enable grass on
enable weather on
enable vbo on
background loading off
particles high