New Map? - Discussion

[Pollux]

If you really want to know how good performance is, please read this entire post. This one is about Chaos as a lot of you have been talking about it. Please also read my previous post on V4B1 so you can compare the two maps and judge how much better performance will be for you.

V4B1 Performance: https://www.fearlessrp.net/showthread.ph...#pid815692
Ranox Performance: https://www.fearlessrp.net/showthread.ph...#pid815718

Anything drawn with the wireframe is what is being rendered on someone's screen, this is a debug tool used to help with visibility optimisation when making maps. Shadows have also been disabled and fullbright is on, so the map looks a lot worse than what it normally is. I am only going to be looking at performance, not at how a map looks or at functions of a building. I am going to do one map per post, as i'm easily going to reach the character limit in these posts.

Each section will gain a score out of 10. The scores mean the following:
0: No optimisation
1-3: Poor
4-6: Decent
7-10: Good

Wireframe guide:
Models: Cyan
Sprites: Green
Displacements: White
Decals and Overlays: Yellow
Areaportals: Green

Chaos

Going to split this one up into three sections: City, Desert and Lake.

Summary

I'm going to keep this one shorter as the map is very similar to V4B1. The creator of this has tried to fix many of the issues V4B1 had but the map still has some key issues. The map is large but only split up into three quite open areas, this results in undesirable performance due to source really not liking open areas much. An approach like Ranox or the original V33X (map this is developed from) is better due to their closed small areas. 

City

Let's start with a 360 from the nexus front:

https://youtu.be/OfSHujHf-Xs

It's actually a bit better than V4B1, that isn't saying much though. It's very obvious the creator of this took a very long time to carefully try fix the city up. While he did do an amazing job from what I would've considered unfixable, it still is a long way to the almost perfect score Ranox obtained with its city.

I'm going to lock the render system to the nexus front and take a look around again.

Mainstreet still has the exact same issue, nothing you can really do about all-glass shops and an all-glass nexus.

Spoiler: Mainstreet rendered as if player is at nexus front

The firestation is better, with just the front rooms being rendered

Spoiler: Firestation rendered as if player is at nexus front

The hospital is being rendered even though the player is out of view. Only the reception is being drawn inside the actual building though.

Spoiler: Hospital rendered as if player is at nexus front

Half of AM-PM is drawn, ideally should be a small section but it's alright.

Spoiler: AM-PM rendered as if player is at nexus front

Half of this bank(?) is being drawn too

Spoiler: Bank rendered as if player is at nexus front

The ground floor of the office building gets rendered, not the side paths of it though.

Spoiler: Office ground floor rendered as if player is at nexus front

Almost this entire weird office building is rendered as it's all glass

Spoiler: Small office rendered as if player is at nexus front

Overall this is a lot better than V4B1. There is a lot less rendered objects due to optimisation attempts. Lets look at backstreet though, as this was one of the key issues with V4B1. Only some of the backstreet shops are rendered, apartments above the shop aren't rendered at all.

Spoiler: Backstreet shops rendered as if player is at nexus front

Some of the apartments are being rendered, not all of them though.

Spoiler: Backstreet apartments rendered as if player is at nexus front

The izzies palace street isn't even rendered at all!

Spoiler: Izzies palace street rendered as if player is at nexus front

This is already a massive improvement over V4B1, who drew almost everything in the city while at the nexus front. One key issue however still exists which is the nexus.

The nexus is still rendering even if the player is at the nexus front.

Spoiler: Nexus rendered as if player is at nexus front

The nexus floors are all being rendered fully, as if the player was up there.

Spoiler: Nexus courthouse floor rendered as if player is at nexus front

Spoiler: Nexus presidential floor rendered as if player is at nexus front

While this is annoying, it does seem like the props in the nexus have been reduced (apart from the lobby).

We're going to unlock the render system and take a look around buildings.

The nexus garage and jails have been massively improved from V4B1. They no longer draw anything outside of their areas.

Spoiler: Nexus garage and jails

Izzies palace has also been improved, with it only rendering whatever the player can see when outside.

Spoiler: Izzies palace

Several of the trees in the city now also have LOD changing based on the players distance to it. Some trees disappear unless the player is close. There have also been a lot more areaportals added to the city to stop unnecessary objects being rendered.


For example, the hospital does not draw anything outside of it.

Spoiler: Hospital not drawing objects

This is also true for the majority of buildings in the city

Spoiler: ANPM not drawing objects

The nexus however still renders everything below it.

Spoiler: Nexus rendering everything in the city

The maps open design also means that the player is rendering the majority of the city by just being on mainstreet.

Spoiler: Player rendering from mainstreet

Here's a quick fly over the city's roads, starting from the desert road and ending at the lake tunnel.

https://youtu.be/5I7U94cv42o

City overall score:

6/10 - There's been a major effort to optimise the messy base this map started from and it definitely isn't unappreciated. The main issue with this map lies with the design, especially with the use of glass. The player can simply render way too much at once, this issue will only get worse when there's large prop buildings placed in the city, cars driving around, players interacting and even during the occasional shootout. A dupe placed in any of the two mainstreet stores will affect everyone in the city, as they're all in view of it.

Desert

The desert is a very large and flat area. It contains a few building but they are spread out over a large distance. As this is such a big area, the map is mostly relying on the shorter render distance to help with performance.

MTL seems to effectively hide props inside buildings

Spoiler: MTL hiding props

Being inside does not seem to stop world props from outside being rendered

Spoiler: MTL not hiding world props

This seems to occur in mostly all the buildings here.

Spoiler: Club building not hiding world props

The windows in this building mean it's drawing everything outside even though you can't see through them.

Spoiler: Window making everything draw

The large rock walls on the side do not block things from being rendered behind them.

Spoiler: Power plant being rendered through wall

The industrial factory from V4B1 also still renders objects inside of it.

Spoiler: Industrial factory not hiding props

That all being said, there isn't many entities here in the first place. The map in general runs well because it's so empty and spaced out. The render distance seems to be lower to help with this, as I cannot get all of MTL within the same render instance.

Desert overall score 

5/10 - This is a very large and open area, meaning it is very hard to optimise. The creator has kept objects to a minimum while also spacing them all out. This combined with the render distance really does reduce how much the game needs to process. While this is great on an empty map, as you add players and dupes this will become an issue. If there's a large clan dupe in the area, performance will also decrease for anyone inside the desert. While this is to be expected, this map only has three different areas (City, Desert, Lake). Instead of separating the map up into many smaller areas, the creator has gone for three big ones. While this makes the map feel a lot more bigger and spaced out, it also comes with performance issues as source simply isn't made for this.

Lake

Like most maps, this is the biggest area. Due to it being such a big open area, the creator has again gone for minimal buildings and items while also spacing them out. This is the view coming from the desert tunnel.

Spoiler: Lake from desert tunnel

For whatever reason, tides seems to be rendering the lobby as you enter.

Spoiler: Tides render from desert tunnel

The tides corridors render everything while the rooms are well optimised.

Spoiler: Tides room

The path to the lake is pretty simple with just trees, water and a road. Only one of the trees seem to have LOD varying with distance.

Spoiler: Road to lake cabins

The cabins themselves are also extremely spread out too

Spoiler: Cabins spread out

The cabins do block most things outside of them, but not all.

Spoiler: Cabins blocking some world props but not all

This area has a lot of trees, none of which had LOD support. Some do disappear after a short distance though.

Spoiler: A lot of trees

Lake overall score:
4/10 - Similar to the situation at industrial, this is a very large open area which is very spaced out. Unlike industrial, this area has a lot of detailed trees. This is a very pretty area but performance does drop a bit as expected. The houses are alright but some of the rooms block a very small amount of props. While the area alone isn't too bad, my concern is with players and props. The only thing in this area preventing it all from being rendered is the render distance. Any dupe across the lake will be rendered for pretty much anyone in this area and with only three areas, this does become an issue.

Chaos conclusion/TL;DR

City Score: 6/10
Desert Score: 5/10
Lake Score: 4/10

Map overall: 5.5/10

The map is very pretty and does offer large areas with good frames. My only concern with this map is the frames dropping quickly as soon as you factor in vehicles, players and dupes. There aren't really many places you can place a dupe where it won't affect the entire area you're inside, this is an issue with this map as it only has three large areas. I do want to stress this map is likely optimised enough to be considered as a new map for FL. While the score is lower than Ranox, it is still decent.

So that should be the two most common maps mentioned here tested. I'm happy to quickly look around any further maps you guys suggest, it won't be in as much detail though unless it gains a lot of support. I'll likely just fly around and spot out any key issues I find instead of explaining everything and taking a ton of screenshots for each area.