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cyber-menace

Frame Rate Problem. Need beta testers!

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My newest map that I'm working on seems to be having a few frame rate problems. I thought it might have been the extreme number of monsters, but it seems to have the same problems even when the level is empty of monsters. I've tried reducing the detail a bit and such, but it's still going uncontrolably slow in some areas. I really need the help of beta testers that know a few things about editing with zdoom to check out my map in its current state. You can play through it and look at it in an editor if you need too. I really need to get this thing going a bit smoother.

If you want to beta test this map get it here.
http://www24.brinkster.com/doom231ca/dtca20beta.htm

EDIT: Oh yes, the screenshot is a bit out of date. It's missing the last third of the roof, but you can't really see it in the screenshot so it doesn't really matter.

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Judging by the screenshot, it's not weird that your framerate is low. You have way too much lines in view really. Some kind of structure with one-sided lines near the middle would probably reduce the problems a bit.

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I suppose I could always make the centre platform a centre bunker instead. That would allow less lines to be in view. Right now looking from the upper-right hand corner to the lower-left hand corner causes the worst problem...

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Yes, many sidedefs kill your framerate very easily. But when you cant see them from the point your are viewing from, they will not take down the framerate (or at least a lot less). Like Erik says, make "gaps of void" in your level that have 1 sideded linedefs. That will block the players view so that you dont see that many sidedefs at once.

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I've got some work to do right now, but when I have some free time I'll edit the map and post the results of putting a 1-sided structure in the centre of the map. It might alter gameplay a bit, but it's the only thing I can think of.

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A map I released a while back had a slow framerate. It was okay until I added the little terrain height changes through the entire map, which took it down to a little under 35 FPS on my machine.

It really only hurt when you're standing and facing too much of the rest of the level though, so I don't think it was much of a problem.

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Yes, but my was probably more like 10 FPS on the bad spot and an average of 45 FPS in the good spot. So you can see, it's not too great.

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Heh I just played it and when looking away from the center of the map I was perfectly fine, then when looking at the center I got like 5 fps, then when the 200 zombies spawned I was lucky to get 1 fps anywhere.

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You must not have a very good computer. Ok so there's 500, but this is supposed to be a difficult arena type level. I really gotta fix the centre of my map, but I have exams at this time so I'm lucky to sit down at the computer for 5 minutes!

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Also try reducing your visplanes. Okay, easier said then done but in a nutshell -- try to make the differences in floor\ceiling height and floor\ceiling textures a little less, if that's not already the case (haven't played your map).

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exile said:

Also try reducing your visplanes. Okay, easier said then done but in a nutshell -- try to make the differences in floor\ceiling height and floor\ceiling textures a little less, if that's not already the case (haven't played your map).



I thing using a few slopes instead of narrow stair-like constucts also might help. There's a lot of extremely narrow sectors in there.

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Graf Zahl - I know but, there's no room for slopes. When it doubt, use a ladder. I tried my best to remove useless things a little bit back, and it made a good difference, yet not enough...

exile - I can't lower the ceiling height. I have a massive construct (Not shown in screenshot) That requires an extra high ceiling height. If you don't think so, then you'll have to play the map.

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Well I put in the one-sided building. I replaced the centre platform with it. It HIGHLY increased gameplay and framerate. The framerate still suffers a little bit when you look from one of the four corners into the centre though, but it's a lot better than before. Now it is playable from all angles!

This means I'm going to have to edit a whole whack of scripts, but it's better than nothing. Now even slow computers shouldn't reduced too much and it actually runs smooth if your closer to the centre! I guess players can use this new found quickened frame rate in a stratagy of some sort.

One way I did notice the frame rate however, back when it was still like it is in the downloadable one, DB's 3d mode became useless because I couldn't move very quickly at all, it was terrible. It's better now though.

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Ok, I've done some work on the frame rate problem. All I need now is for a few people to try it out now, tell me if it's running good for you, and if the changes affect the gameplay too badly.

If you have a poor computer and the map isn't running very well, please post your computer statistics here.

If the same people who tried it before, try it again I would be most thankful. Their opinion on the change in gameplay probably would receive the highest priority.

Thanks...

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most of the map runs at least decent for me

here are my specs:

Pentium 4 3 Ghz
512mb RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 XT
Zdoom Port

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Mine's only

AMD Athlon 1 GHZ
256 MB RAM
128 MB Video Card

but it still runs pretty good except in 3 or 4 places on the map. I think it's good enough to be released, now I just need to make it deathmatch compatable.

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On my AMD K6/2-400, I get 7-30 fps outdooors, depends where I am and where I look, average is 15. But when those seargents are spawned, framerate drops to 1 fps and the map is unplayable unless godmode is on.

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Perhaps I never updated my wad. No, maybe I haven't, but anyways I must have a different version. It runs fine now, and if you want to play a working version wait a week or two for me to finish my touchups.

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