Clouds,grass,shadows performance mod

[Gerhard Blake]

Mr. Kegetys strikes back:

I did a few more performance mods for some parts that I found annoying still in v1.00.14101 (nothing major though):

lowclouds: Simplifies the clouds and smoke effects to reduce the framerate hit from them. Esp. visible when flying into clouds and with runway dust when taking off etc.

lowgrass: Simplifies the grass pixel shader for reduced FPS hit, especially from the high grass. Makes the grass a bit ugly though as it will lose the gounds based coloring.

lowshadows: Simplifies the shadow mapping, it does't have a huge effect, but maybe useful as a middle ground between keeping the shadows on or off for lower end video cards. Makes the shadows lose the softness but reduces the fps hit a bit.

All three are downloadable here: http://junk.kegetys.net/lowcgsmod.zip

Use is the same as previousy, with:
-mod=lowclouds
-mod=lowgrass
-mod=lowshadows
commandline parameters when sfsMod is installed. (sfsMod readme has more info)

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3273765/Re_Performance_improvement_mod.html#Post3273765

[Gerhard Blake]

April 22 Beta patch didn't improve cloud performance it seems.

[Strike]

yeah but DO use this at your own risk. If steam starts detecting altered files in your game directory whilst playing online you MIGHT get an account ban. I'm not taking that risk :)

[JumpingHubert]

they have to invite kegety to their team..

[Blue Scorpion]

they have to invite kegety to their team..
Not to knock the guy, but most anyone with a basic development background could do the same; he is simply hooking into the games code allowing him to force the use of an altered shader instead of the default using a command line switch. As for the shaders themselves, anyone can change the shaders with a text editor and a little basic knowledge after extracting them from the .sfs file. Now, if he were to improve image quality, and reduce frame rates, then they may want to hire him; but so far, all he is doing is reducing image quality to increase the fps, when 1C's aim is to improve both.

However, it should be pointed out, hooking into code also happens to be exactly the same technique used for producing cheats and online hacks. This is the reason using it under steam will result in an account wide VAC ban, which renders all games tied to your account permanently unusable online; it is a term of service, that steam imposes on developers wishing to use steam and is not optional. Luthier also recently announced that they would now pursue bans for using any altered code.

[JumpingHubert]

Some procedures are easy in theory but the practical findings maybe are not as easy. huhhh my english...:grin:

[irR4tiOn4L]

Any risk using this offline with a steam installation? Or is it only a problem online? The dust and cloud slowdowns just give me the sh**s

[Volksieg]

Sadly they don't actually work anymore since, i think, a couple of patches ago(?).

The nomipmaps one "seems" to work inasmuch as the game starts up, instead of crashing immediately, but I saw no visual or performance differences.

Sorry :(

[irR4tiOn4L]

Actually, they work for me!

I'm only using the reduced clouds and smoke one, but BOY what a difference it makes! I no longer fear clouds or looking in the rearview mirror on takeoff! And it looks just about as good anyway!

[Volksieg]

On that note.... I'll give it another go then. lol (Just remembering not to use them online.... way too paranoid for that.) :D

[Volksieg]

And...... you are absolutely right irR4tiOn4L. It does work. :) Didn't see any performance boost whatsoever with the lowshadows but, with the lowclouds, I was able to move up to my native resolution and high textures (From medium). I had a quick look at the lowgrass but it was just too ugly for words. :D

[irR4tiOn4L]

And...... you are absolutely right irR4tiOn4L. It does work. :) Didn't see any performance boost whatsoever with the lowshadows but, with the lowclouds, I was able to move up to my native resolution and high textures (From medium). I had a quick look at the lowgrass but it was just too ugly for words. :D

On my GTX 470 I only really needed the low clouds/dust too, the rest runs fine (including grass). Huge difference for very little loss in cloud detail and some loss in dust density (who cares).