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[Dakpilot]

Perhaps this should be in Tech help? but it relates to the base game, and its not really a request so i'll post here , can be moved to where it is deemed suitable 

Somewhere deep in the files of IL-2 is lurking a Bad Tree! just waiting to mess up your frame rates and make you think your GRX card is misbehaving, it is missing an Alpha level? or something, when reaching a certain (lod?) distance, frame rates go right down, and big stutters start to happen. At close in and far view all is fine and i get 60fps but during transition i drop to the low 20's

The first map i noticed this on is Viking Crete map, over the main city, this has always been a problem and put down to city density, however sometimes in slow mo you can spot some small trees that show up as green boxes and these are causing the slowdown as you transition through different LODs?

I assumed it was some mod tree that has been inherited somewhere and hard to track down

However i just had the same experience in the Slovakia summer map (noticeable in the QMB EastFront_Slovakia_summer armour mission)
observing a bunch of aircraft i also spotted a "green box" tree in the town, that had similar slow down stuttering effects.

I tried the same mission in a stock 4.11 vanilla untouched instal,l with excactly the same problem.

So i can only surmise that somewhere in the files there is a rogue tree that needs a simple fix

Perhaps some people with more map expertise could find this problem (i have tried and failed)

I am sure this could benefit a large amount of people and cure a lot of Mystery stuttering and FPs drops perhaps on many maps, it is hard to spot but it IS there 

Cheers Dakpilot

[SAS~Malone]

Dak, would you mind going through the tedious task of checking exactly which maps this happens on?
at least with that info, we can isolate the culprit easier.
also, can anyone else confirm Dak's findings, as i don't seem to have this problem on my maps.
oh, and what game version are you experiencing this with?

also, if anyone else has similar problems, would they mind contacting Dak, so that between them they could go through and find which maps this happens on, thus lightening the load from Dak to go through each and every map by himself.....

edit: Dak, can you check your console (shift+tab) when this stutter happens, and see if there are any clues there?

[Dakpilot]

I have this on the slovakia Map in a vanilla 4.11 install and in DBW1.7.1 and the Crete map, in Fmb it is easy to zoom inand see the tree but no way of identifying it

See my post in this thread to identify easily in Crete Map.

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,16851.240.html

Fly low over the city, pause and cycle through the views and you should spot the "sqare trees and see the frame rate change, i use fraps.

In the Slovakia summer map they are found in Nove Mesto Nad Vahom at 67.9/15.2 more like small bushes/trees and of lower res than all the others, there are not many of them in the town but these trees disapear before all the others when this happens the FPs drops, it is hard to spot them on this map but i defininetly saw some as Square green boxes for a second  fly towards the town in QMB EastFront_Slovakia_summer armour mission and you will see FPS changes when looking directly at the centre of the town

There are many more on the Crete map and easier to see the green "box" effect

I have not physically seen this on other maps but if these trees can be identfied and fixed maybe this could fix lots of "unknown" FPS issues on other maps where these trees are found

Cheers Dakpilot

[SAS~Tom2]

I overflew this topic - but I recall a similar experience but without the FPS drop.
When compiling maps last week or second to last, I noticed a well known issue in the Grand Canyon map:
BLocky trees, square pants alike, which look horrible.
I checked the load.ini or "VKG_Grand_Canyon_Texture_Supplement" and IIRC, the culprit was a mismatch in file aka resolution sizes between "Gaut-AlteredBush8aTL.tga", "Gaut-AlteredBush8a.tga", Gaut-AlteredBush8aTrunkTL.tga.


Also worth checking was the format and correct version of "\_tex\forest\Autumn\EARLY_AUTUMN"
"Wood1_A_E.tga" + "Wood2_A_E.tga". I also checked in the map's context NTL_\forest\summer\NTL_Darwin_Small.

Somewhere along was the culprit, like named above. IIRC it was "Gaut-AlteredBush8aTL.tga" and incorrect resolutions for its format in realtion to the trunk version.

No FPS stutters, but I have a nice card. (Not).
Here's the readme.

So maybe default tree textures are badly arranged somwewhere in between UP2/UP3
All three files need to be aligned, I think, e.g. 256x256 on the Gaut-AlteredBush8aTL.tga instead 512 and 512 and up you go. Or 256x128 for the "trunk". Instead 512x256.

Readme reg. Grand Canyon..tex supplement

"These are some forest and woods textures used by the Grand Canyon map.  These are included by default in UP, and came originally with Neil Lowe's NTL_Darwin map, and Gilb's 4 season repaint of Canon's Channel Map.  You do not need these files in your MODS folder if you are running Ultrapack.  Grand Canyon should load without them."



Now if you apologize, gonna head out and continue enjoying f#cking flu.

Tom


Edited

[Dakpilot]

I have these errors on Crete map and Slovakia

Code: [Select]

QuickQMBPro/EastFront_Slovakia_summer/EastFront_Slovakia_summerBlueArmor00.mis is Playing
INTERNAL ERROR: HierMesh: Can't find chunk 'HMask1_D0'
INTERNAL ERROR: HierMesh: Can't find chunk 'HMask2_D0'
warning: no files :

Code: [Select]

QuickQMBPro/Med_Crete/Med_Creterednone00.mis is Playing
INTERNAL ERROR: HierMesh: Can't find chunk 'Water7_D0'
INTERNAL ERROR: HierMesh: Can't find chunk 'Water44_D0'
warning: no files
I can take screen shots of these "blocky" trees so they are there, I think in Slovakia map these are not "mod" trees I have GTX260, not best card but over this town "Slovakia) FPS drops from 60 to 28 single A/C flying, and over Crete drops to 11, normally i have good rates over most big cities at low level
Directly underneath the JU-88 and above the A/C right wing

Should be obvious


**Edit ** added pics

Cheers Dakpilot

[Dakpilot]

Thanks for the tip, i put another alteredbush9a tree and trunk into my Tex file, which i renamed from one i know is good but had no joy...





Does anyone else have this problem over Crete? It is definitly these trees causing the slow down over the city, it can go down into single figures..

The problem over Slovakia is less so, but i get a drop of +- 20fps

I guess i should stop obsessing over these trees and go and fly over some other maps! its not like there aren't enough 

Cheers, Dakpilot

[Slikk]

@ Dakpilot

I think you might be on to something. I notice the same slowdown over Crete as well. I always thought it was the city itself, but when I zoon in, the slowdown goes away. And if it was the city itself, you would think that zooming in would make the FPS get worse, not better. So I think you might be on to something here.

[Uufflakke]

If that was the only problem object issue... 

There are some issues with .tga's of a few objects.

1. In your first screenshot of the above post I see an industrial area with something covered up underneath a green net.
   Just give it a try ingame and approach that object slowly and you will notice that from further away it has a roof over it but as soon as you move closer it disappears.
   (I've reported it already in the DBW bug topic a while ago.)
2. There is another tree object on the Slovakia map. The ones that are added in between buildings do have some green parts floating in air (an alpha layer thingie).
    (EDIT:after changing a line in the conf.ini these trees look way better, problem solved)
3. The trees you are talking about are lined up along streets and are somehow smaller than the ones added in between buildings.

An option is to filter out this tree out of the actors.static with Zuti's Actors Management.
Another option is to find this tree object somewhere in your install and replace it's .tga's by the .tga's of another tree which look similar but doesn't give you fps problems.
Don't forget to rename these new .tga's otherwise the map won't load.

[farang65]

just a little reminder,

Some time ago there was a problem with pink trees on a few maps.

You've got to look at these closely cause they could be porked trees or Fabian Fred's Bouganvillia (Pink0 Trees.

I've used some Pink Bouganvilla trees on the Snark Jungle map.

They are genuine but very prickly and dangerous 

Kirby

[vpmedia]

Its not only a trees bug (missing alpha channel, easy fix), but the city is also overpopulated (game engine issue). Stock cities are done using max 4-5 type of building for each section because game engine limitation, too many  objects in view cause the memory management go crazy between processor andd graphics card or someting like that (TD member at 1c forum posted about this, forgot exact details).  I get 24 fps zoomed out, 64 fps if I zoom in and I only see part of the city. Another hidden fps killer are the invisible airfield plates which are used to smooth out the runways, on the Malta map where you got several airfields at close distance (+ huge city) you can notice similar fps problems. Palm trees were also reported to cause fps issues.

[Dakpilot]

@ Slick

I am sure this issue with the big stuttering and slow down overcities in the Crete Map has been around since the release of the map, but there were no tree texture involved with the download as far as i know,
These tress are Definitely the cause of the slow down,  they are missing an alpha layer or something



As you fly towards or away they are blocky except at very close range and the drop to single figures happens



In red are the blocky trees, these are the same ones in yellow at close range, they are all over the city.

@Uufflakke

I tested this Tent/tarpaulin covered item in the small industrial area on the Slovakia map where it "grows" a roof, as the range increases





excactly as the roof appears frame retes drop by +- 25 FPS so there is really a problem with this object.

The small trees on Slovakia the map are also missing an alpha level at medium range and disapear completely at further range and also cause a FPS drop



These are the guilty subjects.

All of this i was able to produce on a Vanilla DBW install with no added files, these anomalies are within the SFS files of DBW or UP3 and it is beyond my capabilities  to locate them, also finding them with the static ini. checkng tool is beyond me, i tried LOL 

Some of these problems have been present for a long time, it would be nice to use the Crete map as it was intended, as it is a good one. And the problems on the Slovakia map must be there for everyone but maybe not noticed. Now that these have been identified it would be great if they could be sorted for the next DBW/UP update by someone with more skill than i have 

Cheers Dakpilot

P.s. @ farang65 I will be sure to avoid the pink prickly Bouganvillia trees (they are banished from my garden! i hate them (spiky!!) 

**EDIT**
@ vpmedia

Thanks for info, on the Crete map perhaps if the easy alpha problem with the trees are sorted, the overpopulated city may not be such a problem. As far as the Malta map is concerned i always change a mission to load the Malta42 version, as a lot of the issues with overpopulation of city, and invisible plates were sorted. i get much better FPS with this version.
One way of helping with Palms is to remove the shadow info in the static ini. i think Redko pointed this out, a small loss of imersion (shadows) to be able to fly over lots of palms(will do some experiments with this) going to shut up now or will get a reputation as a tree fanatic

[Uufflakke]

I added the alpha layer to the "blocky" looking trees and now everything is fine as you can see in the first screenshot.

I also repainted that fluorescent pink bougainville tree. It's still pink of course but not that cartoonish anymore. 

Both trees are in the download link.
Drop the extracted folder (3do) with it's content in the STD folder.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21365435/3do.rar