Undertow Games Forum

Mirocaine wrote:
They're doing a 3 tree per tile method? My previous calculations based on the SCP-860 article image was around 50 trees in view at almost any given time, each tree being around 200 polys total (10,000 polys in view possibly max; adding in the monster [4-5,000 polys] + foliage could be around 16-20,000 polys total at most.)

The test was lagging horridly though thanks to my awful Windows PC, so it was a bit hard to test. I think the The fog density should be reduced a bit, everything felt quite unclear and I found it difficult personally to navigate the forest following the red path tiles. No need to worry about this PC and increasing the frame time to generate, cause this thing can barely run even minecraft at the lowest graphical settings. :P

Sorry, made a typo there. I have 4 'trees' per tile, as to test the generation bottleneck. Just to be clear, does the entire game lag? Or does your FPS drop only in the forest? Turn on the debughud in the forest, and make note of any changes in FPS when EventState2 reaches 124.

May I ask what does the new forest monster looks like?

MonocleBios wrote:Sorry, made a typo there. I have 4 'trees' per tile, as to test the generation bottleneck. Just to be clear, does the entire game lag? Or does your FPS drop only in the forest? Turn on the debughud in the forest, and make note of any changes in FPS when EventState2 reaches 124.

No, the entire game lags when I turn to face even a simple 1,000 poly model, looking down at the floor gives me 30+ fps. This windows laptop was definitely not built with gaming in mind. ( might have to resort to other people testing Desdemona + SCP-860 now )

Moonsaber wrote:May I ask what does the new forest monster looks like?

I'll send you a PM with all info.

Mirocaine wrote:

MonocleBios wrote:Sorry, made a typo there. I have 4 'trees' per tile, as to test the generation bottleneck. Just to be clear, does the entire game lag? Or does your FPS drop only in the forest? Turn on the debughud in the forest, and make note of any changes in FPS when EventState2 reaches 124.

No, the entire game lags when I turn to face even a simple 1,000 poly model, looking down at the floor gives me 30+ fps. This windows laptop was definitely not built with gaming in mind. ( might have to resort to other people testing Desdemona + SCP-860 now )

Moonsaber wrote:May I ask what does the new forest monster looks like?

I'll send you a PM with all info.

Gimme da .exe, and didn't you say the new forest monster would be some sort of nature golem?

Miro, I can rig/animate it. I messed around with your old one, slapped on textures and did a basic rig.
Glad to see people are making progress even if Regalis is away!

Some new concept art for the creature has been created recently, It'll definitely be something unique. I'm still working on sculpting it, got a full schedule and still have to finish that entire list of needed environment assets for SCP-860. Luckily I laid down most of the ground work, so it just needs to be edited a bit.

Destructoid wrote:Gimme da .exe, and didn't you say the new forest monster would be some sort of nature golem?

.EXE is on the last page. Yes, it may be something similiar to that, a few things were leaked during my upload of the monster's assets.

mrpeanut188 wrote:Miro, I can rig/animate it. I messed around with your old one, slapped on textures and did a basic rig.
Glad to see people are making progress even if Regalis is away!

If you feel confident I can give it to you when I enter the Rig/Anim phase. (Quadruped animation is a bitch). I'll be using Blender's Rigify Add-on with it changed for compatibility with the monster.

Just for clarification, does anyone else have significant issues with frame-times in the forest? I have a pretty decent graphics card, so I can't tell if things are generating/displaying too much per frame for the average card.

MonocleBios wrote:Just for clarification, does anyone else have significant issues with frame-times in the forest? I have a pretty decent graphics card, so I can't tell if things are generating/displaying too much per frame for the average card.

Personally your current generation method for the forest seems great to me. The Windows Laptop I was testing it on is awful though and should not even have the liberty to run minecraft at bare minimum settings. Most people have at least a 'decent' graphics card and should handle it just fine. When I finish the other assets like the low poly tree's + flora, it should be even faster than the current 1k+ poly Class-D slender-tree placeholders. =)

Uhh, on a small sidenote, is the forest still technically infinite? I worry that some players might want to start sprinting as fast as they can sideways and end up falling off the map before the creature gets them. Also as well, Are the 'special' tiles still generating (Tile with the giant hole in the ground)? I wasn't able to see or go too far last time I tested due to lag. (Once again please disregaurd my windows laptop in response to your forest generation method, because it is a disgrace to gaming).

Mirocaine wrote:
Personally your current generation method for the forest seems great to me. The Windows Laptop I was testing it on is awful though and should not even have the liberty to run minecraft at bare minimum settings. Most people have at least a 'decent' graphics card and should handle it just fine. When I finish the other assets like the low poly tree's + flora, it should be even faster than the current 1k+ poly Class-D slender-tree placeholders. =)

Uhh, on a small sidenote, is the forest still technically infinite? I worry that some players might want to start sprinting as fast as they can sideways and end up falling off the map before the creature gets them. Also as well, Are the 'special' tiles still generating (Tile with the giant hole in the ground)? I wasn't able to see or go too far last time I tested due to lag. (Once again please disregaurd my windows laptop in response to your forest generation method, because it is a disgrace to gaming).

Special tiles are still being generated.

The forest is still static at 125*25 ATM. As of now we have two possible ways of making it wider:
1. Wrap the edges of the forest. Not sure how noticeable this will be, but would likely include the disorienting factor you're looking for.
2. Create tiles as the player reaches the sides of the forest. I'm pretty sure it would work. But we'd have to find another way of disorienting the player.

MonocleBios wrote:2. Create tiles as the player reaches the sides of the forest. I'm pretty sure it would work. But we'd have to find another way of disorienting the player.

Hmm, sudden gusts of wind and leaves blowing around come to mind when disorientation is mentioned. But shouldn't the thick fog as is compensate for having the tiles generating in plain sight?

I kinda feel like there should be some sort of warning not to stray from the path, however. Perhaps, once the player has gone away from the center enough, the eyes of the monster will flash briefly in the distance, accompanied by a growl. Something that would make the player think "Nope, wrong way." and head right back to the path. If they continue though, the monster can just spawn somewhere nearby and hunt the player down. (An example that comes to mind are the leeches from HL2, which keep the player from going out into the ocean.)