I have no idea where to post this I'm using A6...
I have a very big problem with the FPS dropping.

Look at this scene :


With only a few trees (~280 faces) (Count of : Ent 87 , Vis 80 , Func 87) visible on screen , and a lot invisible because of a very simple LOD system , and 4 terrains (101x101 verts) with a Multi-Texture shader the FPS drops between 20-30. If I remove the 4 terrains and the water the FPS jumps to 60...If I remove the trees the FPS jumps again to 60. Can it be because of the shader ? I want to keep the trees , but I also want to keep the terrains I cant work without both.


EDIT : I made a new terrain (50x50 verts) and there is improvement , but on some places again the FPS drops when I look at a group of trees(it doesnt happen a lot like before). Why is everybody using these trees when they're FPS killers ?

How large are the Texture bitmaps?
Make some Test...

-Create a simple Scene (A block with default Tex) and 3 Trees on it.
-Disable FPS_MAX
-Check how much FPS do you have
-increase the Value of Trees (Up to 100)

Few weeks ago i have testet my Character Model with animation and testet how much drops the FPS with more then 100 Models.
1 Model has 3540 Faces / One single 1024*1024 Tex. And it Runs with Around 22-25 FPS ( All 132 Models / ~460K Faces vis).

maybe Reduce the Texture Size or the visible model amount...

test it !

cYa Sebastian

P.S. Still using A6 too!

I'll try your suggestions later
I tested yesterday with a lot of modified trees again from loopix (I had to delete half of a palm to lower its poly)
and I got around 200 or 300 models without dropping the FPS. I also added some plants (at the end I had 400 plants and 160 trees and it lowered the FPS only when I got close to some of the plants , but only with a few plants. Its a little strange. From a few meters it doesnt lower the FPS)

There's a strange quirk i've noticed with some video cards, they tend to slow down a heap when textures need to be scaled larger than 1:1 on the screen. That's why fps slows down when you're close to particles.

What type of system are you running?

I've got:
core i5 750 (quad-core 2.66ghz)
2 Radeon HD 5770's in crossfire
4gb's ddr3 2000mhz

That can show ~5000 trees at 22-25 fps, nothing else in the scene. But when more trees are added over about 6000, frame rate drops to about 5 fps.

(edit: the trees i'm using are from loopix's tropical pack, the first palm tree)

I used those trees too.
My config :
Pentium 2.0GHz. Dual
GeForce 8500GT x2 on SLI
2GB Ram (I think ddr2 but I'm not shure,might be 3)

And the third palm tree (mdl__palmt3.mdl) x80 + 4 terrains and water slows down to 25-30 FPS. Without the 4 terrains and water it brings it up again to 60.
Modified tree (with twice less polys) can be shown around 300 or 400 I think , + 200 plants , without lowering the FPS (again with a terrain(modified 1 x 50x50 verts instead of 101x101 x 4 terrains) and water)
By the way , did you mean it slows down if a texture is scaled or not ? My plants are scaled x2 (trees also , and terrain x5 I think ...too lazy to make them bigger by hand)

I dont think the scaling should be possible for this, i think this are some very big Textures...
Let us know all Technical Values (Skin Size of each Model / Visible Polygone Value).
And create a Screenshot of the Debug View (Press F11).
Maybe this could be better for helping you...

cYa Sebastian

Here's two screenshots. One only a few degrees right and less visible trees (but thats no guarantee,sometimes it lowers the FPS even with 28-30 or less trees visible from close range.) but it fixes my FPS to 60. The other with a few more visible trees lowers it to 30.


And the second :

Model properties :
MDL 7
Skins = 1
Texture resolution : 256x512 pixels , 96dpi. , 24 bit. , 388kb. RGB (not shure about file type because I exported it to BMP) without Alpha channels.
Verts = 186
Faces = 277

Terrain :
Verts = 50x50
Triangle size = 100x100
Skins = 6
Skin 1 = Blendmap 3MB BMP , 1024x1024 pixels , 71dpi. , 24 bit.
Skin 2 = Sand 768Kb. BMP , 512x512 pixels , 96 dpi. , 24 bit.
Skin 3 = Rock 768Kb. BMP , 512x512 pixels , 96 dpi. , 24 bit.
Skin 4 = Grass 192Kb. BMP , 256x256 pixels , 71dpi. , 24bit.
Skin 5 = Grass
Skin 6 = Rock

All Terrain textures are external btw.
I wont post for the sky and water because I'm getting sleepy , unless its urgent. If you want them too I'll post them tommorow.
Its strange that I have more than 80 trees with twice less polys and more than 400 other grass and plants objects , but it doesnt lower the FPS. If I change the trees to this tree or the not-modified palm tree (without any other models except terrain , water and sky cube) it slows down.

PS.: Trees further than 10000 quants become invisible thru script. They're 60 quants high scaled to 20x,20y,20z to get a better picture in your mind. I'm using a shader for the water too (reflective) and also the render2texture plugin. The trees have some material to fix the opacity or something like that , otherwise they dissapear most of the time (only certain parts of them wich intersect with the terrain).

Sorry i dont know why your FPS drops, maybe Publish and let me Test it...
I Have a 2,2GHZ Dual Core / GeForce 8600GT / 2GB Ramm

cYa Sebastian

Hi again from a fresh copy of Windows.
I was gonna post that I shouldnt give you any files , because I accidentaly copied the worst virus ever on my home computer , but it messed up my system so I couldnt even open the forum to write
I reinstalled my Windows and now I have a huge problem :|

*HELP*
My shader no more shows in-game. My water doesnt reflect anything anymore. :| My config is the same as before , even has the same programs as before
I cant believe how unlucky I am.

PS.: Now with the new Windows I got a message about SLI (I forgot I had it) and I turned it on...nothing changed. Still low FPS even with the modified (lower poly) models sometimes.

Do you have installed the latest DirectX ? Very Confusing the whole Problems ^^
Do you use now an other Edition of Windows or the same as before?

cYa Sebastian