Vikom
Viktor joined
I started to work with CryEngine Sandbox twelve years ago. (damn, already 13 years?) I also work with Game Maker and I'm learning with Unreal Engine 4.
Razor Sharp: Main square
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Description
Maybe you ask why I have posted image of this mostly empty place.
Using LODs and billboard LODs I managed to double the view distance. Originally, you couldn't see from one end to a second end of the square. As you can see now, even the boulevard behind it can be seen.
Another good news is: I have managed to think out a way of loading ground textures, which is effective and even quick. Until now, loadings of ground textures meant ~1-2 second freezes and it didn't even work properly. Now all of those problems seem to be gone!
nice work! but LOD's ? seriously ? how much poly have a non LOD ?
about groundtextures:
in devkid i have had a similar problem with weapondrops, which are generated in runtime and could cause such 1 sec freezes.
i solved this problem by a precatch routine, which simply steps trough all enemies and her weaponpacks and create on start the geometries and shaders for.
the freeze is so not gone, but collected to one big freeze before the map really start, so it looks like its during loading sequence.
the crytek delivered ccgf precatch model geometry tool cause mostly wrong or broken models, so i can't use it.
Most of the 3d stuff are just geometry bodies. As you can see, the "park" lamps reduce number of the bodies. The closest ones are made by 3 cones and 2 cylinders, the distant ones are just 1 c & 1 c. Trees are made by a cone and an ellipsoid, the distance reduces sides of those bodies and the most distant ones switch into billboard. All those buildings are LOD's too. Normally, you would see a detailed texture with transparent windows and a different texture for the 0th floor.
Originally I also was pre-loading those textures while entering the level. Since the map is divided itno smaller "map blocks" and you can freely travel among them, the freezes would still be annoying.
Now a tile of terrain (map block have 100 terrain tiles) load it's texture when you approach it and then it doesn't disappear until you leave the level. Now there's sometimes a micro freeze (I have problems to spot them) and that's all. Always before the freezes were actually ruining the gameplay. Never more!
i use the trick with hidden boxes under the surface which already have textures loaded which i need later, maybe this would help you?
what for a polycount did you have without LOD's, with LOD's and what are the FPS boosts ?
and how many polys can the engine show to achieve, lets say 50 FPS ?