So Lee finally got the Reloaded BETA up to 60 frames per second.



The next BETA v1.004 will see a huge increase due to fixing a rendering issue where all the grass was previously being rendered to the shadow camera and skipping the reflection camera render pass when there are no water pixels visible in the main camera view.



In addition to this Lee has now got the quad texturing system working (thanks to some help from the Dark Imposters author) where objects in the distance will now be replaced by a 2 polygon billboard. This will also be adjustable so you can set the distance where objects start being replaced with quads.



Finally Lee is also looking at using a quad system for terrain so distant terrain can also be replaced with a much lower polygon model and to include occlusion culling for sections of terrain. It will also be possible to set a new map as flat and have the engine render the ground as a much lower polygon model.



I think we will see a really big improvement in performance once all of these things are included in the new BETA. The quad system is also expected to help resolve the occlusion 'popping' issue with objects appearing unexpectedly as they will now transition to a quad rather than being completely occluded.



Rick has tested the latest internal build and has also reported a significant 'jump' in performance and this is without the new quad system being fully integrated.