Hello everyone,

I know this could be a dumb question regarding creating games. I know some tips do make a game to run on low PCs, but I build a map and, currently, it is running very slow when I use stencil shadows.

The map is not big: 7 terrains (Terrain size horizontal and vertical with 1280, vertices horizontal and vertical with 128), I use this for the field, where player walks; then about 20 trees, a grass generator (I got from AUM and modified to fix my project - thanks George) and some models that act as the grass generator (invisible) and of course my character. The game runs in third person (adventure game). I'm using 7 lights sources, HiRes and dynamic (no sun). If I use stencil shadows... my FPS drop down like hell

Is that right? I have 2 PCs to work on:
Core 2 Duo with 3,25 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
This one runs slow when I use stencil shadows.

My other PC is:
Core 2 Quad
2 GB Ram
XFX 9600 GT
I did not test in this one yet.
What is the tip to use stencil shadows and not eat my FPS?


I search in the forum and find nothing about FPS

Thanks in advance

Just tried in my best PC, it worked good ¬¬
So I think it will depends on the PC for sure... it is all about graphic card...

During game development you should not count on
"but it runs good on a fast PC"

This is the approch wich makes you create a lot of errors
regarding the performance.
Its actually better to develop or at least regularily test your app on
a weaker PC.

For the performance:

-use LOD. (its the core method for higher FPS)
write your own LOD if needed
-give the user an optionmenu to turn on/off things
like shadows, shaders, the LOD distance
-dont use stancil shadows (they are slow and dont even look good), keep it limited to the playermodel if needed.
rather use the "baked" shadows from WED, or by altering the terrain-skin.
-dont use oversized textures, rather think about how to make
the texture look good in a lower resolution
-use shaders carefully, have a fallbackmethod for any
performance-hungry shader (even if it is only to be able
to turn it off)

bottom line:
your game will probably not nearly reach the quality of a
AAA game.
So reward the end-user at least by having
a decent FPS -even on older PCs-.

also, by limiting the ressource "detail" you make the game-development easier for yourself,
as you dont need to create masses of detail-object
to keep a consistent look.
World of Warcraft is a good example to create a good look without
using a lot of ressources (regarding the
texture resolution and detail of meshes and detail of ambient objects)
-> and it has very high FPS speed

Thanks for the infos Damocles...

Yes, I will test speacially in weaker PCs. I think I cannot use LOD yet, cause I have the Extra version (is it possible?). And for sure I cant use shader yet too (I will buy Comm edition asap).

Just other questions:
- What do you mean with "baked" shadows?
- I tried do put a shadow in my tress using "my.shadow = myshadow" but I cant manage to work. I dont know what I'm making wrong, I check the manual, I did the same and it did not work.
- I want to put stencil shadow only to character, but, as I said above, I cant.

Thanks again

Did you put the shadow as an entity?

Sure, did the same as manual says to