Graphics Auto Adjust, unnecessary adjustments

[Zero Angel]

I've been watching my FPS closely while toggling graphics settings and i've noticed the following things.

:: Local Fog has no effect on FPS ::
Therefore this shouldnt be in the auto-adjust. In fact, it probably shouldnt even be an option, as those with this setting turned on are at a disadvantage against those who have it off.

:: Lighting one->none has no effect on FPS ::
Or not that i've noticed anyways. Again, should this be in the auto-adjust? Going from lighting one->none is a big shock on the eyes, especially on dark maps.

What are your thoughts/findings on these?

[Commando]

I agree with you if they have no effect on fps.  I personally turn fog off because it looks buggy on certain maps.  Especially in the middle of Dunes.  For some reason, certain parts of a construction rig and certain buildings will stick out while the rest is effected by the fog.  If the fog didn't look as buggy as it does, I would turn it on more often.

[Zero Angel]

Yeah, local fog can be an annoyance if its poorly implemented or too heavy-handed (dunes is a good example of that)

Also, I found that if the start point of the fog patch is high (ie:100) and the end point is low (ie:0), the fog is much less buggy looking, in fact you can do some nice gradient effects, especially if you set the global fog fog.height at the lowest points of the map (ie: swamp, providing reflections is turned off) then it seems to work good.

[Avatar]

Lights "One" vs "None" does have a decent effect on very low-end machines.  I have a P3-500 with GForce4 MX card and while it's very crappy looking turning off all lights does get rid of the last of the stutter.

Of course, I'd never actually play BZ2 on that machine...  

Too bad the feature can't auto-prioritize based on your machine's specs...  I also think it should be taking all options down to medium before taking any option to low.  Low should be an absolute last, desperate attempt to keep framerates up.

-Av-

[Jwk the Hemp Monkey]

if thats the case....then it should not be part of the settings because low end machines should ALWAYS have the settings on 'low' for everything if they are going to play multiplayer. I agree with zero

local fog and none-one light sources should not a part of the auto change.

Also, high res  - low res textures seems to have little to no affect on anything except low end machines.

anything that causes a massive visual change, but very little FPS change *except* for low end machines (which should have everything on low anyway) should not be changed by the auto-changer.

[Spawn]

to test the fog effect on fps you need to maximize everything if you want to test on a better machine.  I mean make new fog, with everything highest/most complicated.  if that affects fps, then fog DOES slow comp down, just not noticably unless a lower quality system.  you dont want to prevent people from using this to full extent now...

[Zero Angel]

Already did that.

Also, i have an idea re: testing.
Instead of ppl suggesting what to test, they should just test it themselves  

[Spacecomber]

Although I don't know if you can disable any of the auto-adjusting features (I haven't actually tried to see what happens if you just leave something out), you can make some changes to the points at which they set in, prioritizing the visual factors that do most affect fps so they are changed sooner, which hopefully will keep your fps from dipping to the point that the lights are turned out.

Besides prioritizing these graphics changes, you can set the fps cut-off points for when an effect is turned on and off.

[Bull Dog]

Well heres a guy that has done some testing.  Well sort of.  First I really think that having the lighting go from one to none shouldn't happen.  And I never have local fog on anyways.  So I really don't care about it.

[Spacecomber]

It's been long enough ago that I don't recall the details on how I went about this, but I think that these are based on a recording from the single player mission where you drop in from the sky mid-battle and then take over rebuilding the base before recovering a crystal (it might be called Counterattack).

Anyway, I checked FPS with all features on, and then I changed each feature, one at a time for each run, until eventually all settings were at their lowest.

All Graphics Feature On (except shadows are low, 3D cockpit is off, and PIII optimizations is OFF)    40 fps

Weather Off: 47 fps
Local Fog Off: 47 fps (no fog on this map)
Reflections Off: 48 fps
Particles Medium: 49 fps
Particle Low: 49 fps
Props Low: 50 fps
Sky Low: 52 fps
Terrain Medium: 56 fps
Light Sources One: 58 fps
Shadows Off: 59 fps
Props None: 62 fps
Sky None: 62 fps
Terrain Low: 62
Light Sources None: 65 fps
Object Detail Medium: 70 fps
Object Detail Low: 76

[Zero Angel]

Now that's some testing.

Looks like your baseline FPS is 47(no local fog, weather or reflections on that map).

Object detail is the biggest FPS hog? Damn, I never realized that. I always run with objects on HIGH, because I like to see where assault and rocket tanks are facing.

[Commando]

Object detail makes no difference to fps on my comp, which is why I griped for so long to have it removed from the adjuster.  It made no difference to fps, and it made it impossible to see where treaded units were aiming.

[Avatar]

Object detail along with view distance is directly responsible for how many polygons you're pushing through your vid card.  I can see where a modern vid card wouldn't be stressed by what BZ2 would consider 'high' polygon counts, but for medium and low end units it's got to be about the biggest influence on fps there is besides lighting/shadows.

That's why I push for LOD models for some of these 1500 poly models running around.  Set on 'medium' you'll see LOD models swapping in and out and for me at least it really helps the old fps count.

[Bull Dog]

ITs simple just modify the odf so that tracked unit lod file will only come on at great distances.

[Spacecomber]

Zero Angel, actually 40 fps is the baseline.  There is weather on the map and turning it off brings the fps up to 47.

The order in which I went through and lowered the graphics details in the above testing is roughly the order in which I like to see them change.  Weather is at the top, because it does make a big difference to fps, but I don't miss is too much when actually playing a game.

Particles is also one of the first things to be lowered in the hopes that this will help when you get those multi-ship furballs going and the fps takes a drastic hit as a result.

I hold off on changing object detail until the last, since as Commando said, you can't see what's really going on with lower object detail.  On the other hand, it does make a big difference for me.  So, if the game is getting ready to slide into single digit fps, those last couple of changes should be enough to keep things afloat until the action calms down.

I've posted this before, but here is one version of what I've used in my gameprefs to try and reflect the above mentioned rationale and order of changes.

Code Select Expand

// Sort order for which graphical features are dropped. These numbers
// must be between 1 and 100. The values in a sequence (e.g. SkyOff ->
// SkyLow -> SkyHigh) must be in increasing order. Entries in
// different sequences may have the same value. Lowest priority items
// (whose FPS matches) will be disabled. If nothing is disabled for a
// period, then it checks for things to enable, highest priority to
// lowest priority (whose FPS matches)

ObjsLow = 27
ObjsMed = 26
ObjsHigh = 25
LightsNone = 24
TerrainLow = 23
SkyNone = 22
PropsNone = 21
ShadowOff = 20
LightsOne = 19
TerrainMed = 18
SkyLow = 17
ShadowMed = 16
PropsMed = 15
SkyHigh = 14
TerrainHigh = 13
PropsHigh = 12
ParticleLow = 11
ParticleMed = 10
ParticleHigh = 9
ReflectionsOff = 8
LocalFogOff = 7
WeatherOff = 6
LightsAll = 5
ReflectionsOn = 4
LocalFogOn = 3
WeatherOn = 2
ShadowHigh = 1


// Framerate target for the above functions. These values must be
// between 15 and 999. There must be a spacing of at least 6 between
// sequenced values, e.g. SkyOff -> SkyLow -> SkyHigh. If the
// framerate is below than the value, it'll be applied. If above the
// value, and this is the top entry in the sequence, the feature will
// be applied.

ObjsLowFPS = 15.0
ObjsMedFPS = 21.0
ObjsHighFPS = 27.0 // People like this, so make it show back up first

LightsNoneFPS = 22.0
LightsOneFPS = 28.0
LightsAllFPS = 47.0

TerrainLowFPS = 23.0
TerrainMedFPS = 29.0
TerrainHighFPS = 37.0

SkyNoneFPS = 24.0
SkyLowFPS = 30.0
SkyHighFPS = 36.0

PropsNoneFPS = 25.0
PropsMedFPS = 33.0
PropsHighFPS = 39.0

ShadowOffFPS = 26.0
ShadowMedFPS = 32.0
ShadowHighFPS = 260.0 // buggy for most, so never enable (unless you want it to)

ParticleLowFPS = 34.0
ParticleMedFPS = 40.0
ParticleHighFPS = 46.0

ReflectionsOffFPS = 41.0
ReflectionsOnFPS = 48.0

LocalFogOffFPS = 42.0
LocalFogOnFPS = 50.0

WeatherOffFPS = 45.0
WeatherOnFPS = 51.0


Things like Fog and Weather can be annoying if they are constantly turning themselves on and off; so, try pushing up the On cut off to something higher to avoid this.  It will mean that once a feature is off it will stay off until there is a big rebound in FPS.