I have heard that lightmapped levels work at a higher fps than realtime.

1. Is this true?
2. By what percentage might lightmapping increase fps?
3. What is the difference in terms of fps between F1, F2, F3 and F4?
4. Any disadvantages of lightmapping?

Not on my machine, but I can't say for others. Real time all the way!

Light mapping has been improved over the last couple of weeks, but in general most users still find that the real-time lighting system is faster and to be honest, will improve a lot more with DirectX11.

Lightmapping does help users with very low-end machines so that is the advantage for them, but memory usage will rise, so it's really what's best for yourself and your target users.

SC

I always had less frames (-5/6) with light mapping, that's why I'm not using it anymore.

I love the light mapping system, works a treat for me but saying that I can't wait for DirectX 11

lightmapping can cause weird shadow anomolies when inside buildings sometimes, so realtime is best for me, looking forward to the Dx11 lights too.

It's a strange fish this one. Lightmapping consolidates geometry and uses a more efficient system for static shadows, but uses the highest LOD for all baked geometry, whereas real-time can select lower LODs if available, has better occlusion opportunities and uses less texture bandwidth due to not needing the extra lightmap textures. For these reasons the performance is around the same, with gains either way based on your specific system. With DirectX 11, we will retain the light mapper for low-end systems who want lots of static shadows and also for some clever pre-baking of light and material information which the new engine will be able to use to create even more dramatic dynamic scenes.

Sounds great Lee, the best of both worlds

yes that does sound pretty awesome. roll on dx11.

It's a pity it doesn't give better performance, as that is what it was intended to do when introduced way back. Plus scenes can look way better with baking, when they work. Hopefully with DX11, baking will no longer be needed to create realistic looking indoor scenes.

What would be really useful as far as baking goes is to be able to bake only indoor areas, or specific parts of the map if you wanted to. It would speed things up and make indoor scenes look good without having to bake the entire map. You may have several indoor scenes that look a lot better baked, but are happy with real-time for the outdoor parts. The ability to mark them as the areas to bake would be a time saver, plus performance may be better with minimal baking in places. Of course there may be problems with that, but it would be useful if possible.

Thank all. Seems like trial and error is the order of the day.

Even the whole entity being replaced by some sort of marker or flag containing all the necessary related info, when not visible in the scene, so the engine has not care about those entities, at least till them remain invisibles.
Just m thoughts,

3com

The sub-grouping of entities within buildings, and prebaking them are both good ideas. I will let my brain cook them for a while...

I am using the latest download release V1.11.

I have a door using "doorauto" script.

My level is baked.

In level test PreBake (default Mode) the door does not work and open/close when the player is near to the door as it should.

If I call up the settings while standing in front of the door looking at it and change the mode to "Real Time" mode the door instantly opens. The door however even in Real Time mode only works and opens and closes once and then it remains with collision off and thus does nothing thereafter except allow the player to walk through it?

Something amiss there it seems and the door/script cant be used at all as far as I can see the choice being either not working at all which means the player cant get through the level or the door only works once and the player can walk endlessly back and forth through without it having any collision.

Thanks for the report uman! Any chance you could knock up a small level using default media so I can see the issue. I quickly made a level but could not reproduce it:

Hi Lee,

I am actually using non stock including the door which is a simple square model which behaves as a (FPSC) gate and animates as a single piece vertically so it may be something to do with my entities/settings or other issue if you cant reproduce it with stock media, I would not know.

I had used the stock auto door script and tried various other old auto door lua scripts floating around the forums or online but all had various problems with opening/closing the door correctly to allow player interaction.

I have now fixed the issue by using one of the aforementioned older forum distributed auto door scripts and adding some additional code to update it so I seem to be sorted with that one.

If no one else reports this then I guess it was something my end.

Thanks.

Peter

Okay, thanks for the update! If you want to send me the old door script you were using I can check it out of pure curiosity I like solving problems.

Hi Lee,

I had not been using a very old script from the forums I don't think.....though I had been using the door successfully for a while with a doorauto.lua script previously to the current last two releases. The script being one residing in my scripts folder which I had thought shipped with the product out of the box and had been added a few versions back by TGC? Perhaps not and I got it from the forums, placed it there and forgot that I did so? Anyway the door and script (dooraito.lua) stopped working in version releases V.1 and V11 so thats why I looked for a fix my end.....

Not being a coder as such I found that looking at the doorauto.lua script in the scripts folder and the older ones floating around the forums I found that the older ones made somewhat more sense to me and looked like being the easiest to edit/update perhaps....

Took me quite a few hours trial and error using different auto door scripts to find one best suited for me so I could logically see what was happening./not happening and correct it by adding and changing a little code....

Effectively easy if you know how I am sure but for a non scripter as such not so easy. Seems that the aforementioned doorauto.lua script in the scripts folder (did not work for me) differs from the older ones from around the forums in structure and content and which also no longer work for me thus a headache when none of them work until one finds the fix/work around.

I have attached two screen shots of door closed on approach and door open when closer of course where you can see though to more of the level. The door itself is just a simple square block (facing view) model and the wall cut out itself shapes the pyramid look. The door model has just a simple up down animation set and does not have a bone attached at all so perhaps that's the reason if it needs one, I don't know. Anyway it works now.

In will send you the updated script I am using. Perhaps it wont work for you. I will comment my amendment/addition.

Regards

Peter

Providing the doorauto.lua you are using now is the one shipped with the latest 1.111 then I am pleased you have it working now. If you like you can attach the script here, and then delete the file and go to Steam to select the Verify feature. It will replace the deleted doorauto.lua with a fresh copy from the official build. Of course, remember to back up everything so you don't lose precious progress. Also got your email so will be reading that a little later on

Hi all.
@LeeBamber, just wanted to say I love this GG you guys have created - I ride it every day!

For me light mapping has always looked worse, and would really love it if you could add a 'Please Confirm' dialog for all light mapping keys so we can say YES or NO before the engine does its work applying it. It is easy to hit F1 by mistake, and given the choice I would always choose NO.

That would be awesome!

Thanks for excellent software, and for spending time on the forums.

OldFlak....

No worries, added to the list.

Lee - awesome!!

Thanks for the help and being so accommodating - the GG and its team really are a great bunch!

OldFlak....