Graphical settings and performance Discussion

[Kaapeli47]

You can leave ideas to this topic for how to get the most suitable graphics and performance for Lambda Wars rather than getting the regular graphics from the source engine, which are more suitable for first-person-shooters and not so suitable for any top-view kind of games such as RTS games like Lambda Wars.

Now I'm not looking for the best and the most "Next-generated" graphics for Lambda Wars. I'm just looking for the best solution of what performance should the mod have and what kind of graphics settings should there be (besides low, medium and high) that suit better for an RTS SourceMod.

Note: Here are my PC specs for you to know that I'm not complaining about the performance with a wooden potato-PC:
Processor: AMD FX-6300 6-core 3.5GHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 1Gb (Looking forward to get a better one, GTX 960 or 970 or something)
Memory Modules: Kingston HyperX FURY 1600MHz 8Gb + G.Skill F3-1600C11D 1600MHz 8Gb (Overall 16Gb)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M USB3

Here are my video options and opinions about them:

Model/Texture Detail: Low
- The model detail, obviously, determines the detail of models, which in my opinion its lowest setting could be the mod's high setting and which would have even lower options. Its high setting's name would be changed to "ultra" and its medium setting's name would be changed to "very high". In some models I saw the difference, like rebels and stalkers and some other smaller units change into a more or less polygonal state, but in some cases though I quite didn't see it. For example, some combine models, especially the soldiers and metrocops, looked all the same and the only thing I saw when I lowered the option from highest to medium to lowest was the model's texture getting more "pixelated", but the polygons looked always the same. In their conclusion, the metrocops and the combine soldiers and some other models not changing their polygons should have an even lower setting on medium and low options such as reducing textures and polygons. Some models looked even perfect when the setting was low, such as the Strider, which is a big model, but in the lowest setting it has just the right details for the mod in my opinion.

The texture details were highly notable among high and low settings and I would consider the same for them as I mentioned in the model details; name the high setting to "ultra" and the medium setting to "very high" and keep the lowest setting but name it "high" and have even lower settings suitable for the mod.

Shader Detail: Low
- This setting controls the reflections and the "shines" of some textures, such as, reflecting and metallic textures. I only saw the difference not only in metal, but also in some bigger units' models, such as the hunter and the Strider and in some of the buildings. I find this setting just fine for the buildings but for the units I find them useless and squeamish-looking. For example, if you build a horde of hunters, let's say it contains 5 to 7 hunters, the shader setting will be 5 to 7 times detailed in the horde and it will drop the framerate. The setting shows but very badly in the models.

Effect Detail: Low
- I literally asked the effect detail's low setting "Why do you have got to be so high?!". This setting's low option should absolutely be the setting's high option and have lower options because you don't see or need that much of a detailed effect in the mod. Every bullet trail and some electric effects and so on must have lower settings because if you have lots of them, the framerate causes to drop immediately even in the lowest setting.


Anisotropic Filter : Bilinear
- This should have an even lower setting or just not exist at all, because I haven't seen any difference in the graphic whether was the anisotropic filter bilinear, trilinear, 8X or 16X. Also the frames still drop even though the filter doesn't show...

Multicore Rendering: Disabled
- On this setting I don't actually care if it exists or has other options than enabled and disabled. On the Source's regular settings the rendering just eats frames in this mod and that's why I've disabled it, but in my recommended settings so far it might not be so bad...

Antialiasing: None
- This is just a matter of opinion, but I don't have it on because I mentioned previously the Source's regular settings in this mod, which also drops frames even if it's on x2. This either couldn't be so bad in my recommended settings so far, though, so I've got nothing against that

Lighting: Simple Lighting
- Nothing against this either in my recommended options, but with the Source's regular settings in this mod, it drops the frames when on deferred option.

Post a reply if you have any ideas of what graphical settings should the mod have and what suits the best for it. Please let me also know what you think and tell me your opinions about what I've posted.

Thank you and goodbye for now...

[Mr. Darkness]

Well, about the part with multicore rendering, it all really depends on the user's specs. Precisely, the cores. Thus, multicore rendering allows the game to utilise more than one CPU core.

I can't tell you exactly what turning multicore rendering on in the Source engine does, however in game development, a game will generally have a game loop, which is responsible for processing user input, running the artificial intelligence, drawing graphics, and playing sound, amongst other things, but that's in short.

The graphics card does the bulk of the heavy lifting for the drawing of graphics, while part of the process and most of the rest of the loop will rely on processing power from the CPU.

This should provide potential increases in your frame rate.
BUT,
It may actually cause problems, but the general idea is that with it on, there are more computing resources available so you should get a higher, more consistent frame rate, and with it off, there are less resources available so you should get a lower frame rate.

At least, thats how Gmod and TF2 use this support. It is also used as standard option in TF2 from what I know.

But either way, once Source 2 is out, the changes for detail, filtering, textures, and so forth will not be required as Source 2 is probably more optimized than our Alien Swarm engine.

[BlitherPaladin9]

The idea is that mutlicore should help Lambda Wars in theory, but the problem is that Source cant spreed loads over the core equally, something that Valve Imrpoved upon in Source 2

[Kaapeli47]

Here are my recommendations for the Model/Texture, Shader and Effect Detail graphics settings IF they can be changed.

Model/Texture Detail:
New options:
Very Low / Low / Medium / High (=Source's Low) / Very High (=Source's Medium) / Ultra (=Source's High)

- The Low and medium options some models would have less polygons than the higher options.

Shader Detail:
I'm recommending the same options as Source has, but:
- On High setting the models would not be shaded but the buildings would be.
- Instead of High, the models would only be shaded on Very High.

Effect Detail:
New Options:
Low / Medium / High (=Source's Low) / Very High (=Source's Medium) / Ultra (=Source's High)

- On Low and Medium options the effects would be detailed less "polygonally".