Can we have a particle pack from 2.24d included in the offical release and make the more intensive ones optional?
No, don't be a dumbass. The old ones were hardcoded into the game, they weren't proper particle systems. On top of that, they're smaller and have less visblocking, so people would use them to gain an advantage. Mayama has been testing, and particles aren't the FPS drain problem, people are just blaming it on that. Changing to DX8 and keeping the particles proves this. It's something else, and we're looking for it. But stop blaming particles.
Hmm, you force this new big black smoke and reduces fps to the pits and when people want to use back the smoke which were fine for all previous versions, you call them trying use an advantage? I don't like this reasoning. The smoke doesn't really make the opponent invisible to you! That's the point. If you want the smoke to block people's views then do so! Not inbetween. I'm not using the word particles anymore anyway. The problem only became very bad for me around 2.30, I might have missed a patch or two. I know it because I took a long time off Empires and when I came back I was shocked at how bad the tank fights were. I could barely control my tank at close quarters and so I was forced to come here and rant. As you know, games are different from real life, it should be playable. For people like us, reverting to these new fancy smoke particles have no advantage for us! 60 fps to 20 fps is not the same as 100 fps to 60 fps. I dunno if you actually bother about us with the lousy computers at all. Mine is lousy but others maybe not. It's sad if Empires were to actually lose players to some fancy smoke effects. If you insist that using those modified packs are cheating then I can't play anymore. I've been playing for all versions since 2.30 btw. Probably what we need now is just a simple pack using old smoke effects from maybe pre-2.30 to shut us up. I'm trying to compare 2.25 and 2.30 and the modified particle pack and so far the results have been convincing.
Yes, I read his post. I'm not dumb. But we have to agree it's the smoke effect definitely. The major difference between 2.25 and 2.30 is mostly the new smoke effects. There are minor fps drops from the new explosive effects too. The problem with these new effects is that they cause low fps through the duration of the effect. However, the old ones only cause low fps for maybe 1/3 of the effect. It's because the smoke also lingers longer. Something like this:
Whilst the particles do affect very very low end systems, most of the FPS problems people are having currently aren't particle related. I too dislike the smoke, but not from an FPS perspective, just simply because it gets in my way, although I've started trying to use it to my advantage, and that's actually been pretty fun. But I still wouldn't object to it being removed. But having separate effects where one set of effects blocks your vision less is unacceptable, and repeating that effect but lowering your FPS less is incredibly difficult to do. Like I said, I don't mind it being removed, but you can stop whining about getting a separate set of advantageous particles, because that certainly won't happen.
agreed i'm not arguing over fps now that i got a new computer but could we please have a little less smoke?
Be specific. You have r_part*/mat_part/cl_part* cvars and cmds to control particles. You can measure time game spent simulating and rendering specific particle effects. It doesn't even require cheats to be on. Attach particle profiler output and we can optimize specific effects and not just try to improve 200 of them just because you get slow down with 1 of them.
i rather have smoke than shaking of the hud. let's just remove the fucking smoke. if you want smoke, throw some smoke grenades or some shit
...Wait, wait. What. Tis current version. If you only just joined us, how can you compare anything? Logical derp. Also, unlabelled graph axis! We don't need your kind around here.
Hurp durp graphs, but that's pretty much the same I said about any of all these new smoke sources, the first new nuke impact effect, too, but to a faaar lesser contend as the arty impact effect, while 1 effect is nice, as longer as it lasts as more effects get drawn upon each other and everywhere. A 2 seconds smoke screen for an arty shell .... bleh ... but most of them are fine now, for me anyway, since I can effort a new PC once in a half decade. :p If you want to test if the particles are causing it, use the cheap particle set empty made, if it still works ...
the lag isn't really the issue, can we just have particles with less smoke please? all this smoke kinda gets really annoying; and sometimes, just to piss of your teamates, you can random shoot he and nukes at them, and some of them with old computers lag like crazy, while those with newer ones have to endure basically an extremely concentrated but ephemeral smoke grenade
Is there a reason for hella smoke so we can't see all the cool destruction and flames and flying bodies? The smoke is blocking some cool ass visuals. Maybe in the empires world smoke doesn't exist.
yea, like some of the visuals are actually really cool, but the thing is, the fucking smoke makes it so that you can't even see the visuals that are causing the smoke in the first place :\ please, just from a gameplay perspective, could we please have less smoke in our particles?
Well now people with better computers are having an advantage over people with lousier computers. At least back then, the playing field was more even. Doesn't it make sense? Ah, anyway, I'll just use one of those improved particle packs to play in the meanwhile.
smoke and particles that look like pieces of ground (esp visible for arties) create the immersion of real explosions on real battlefields (i know its far from realistic, we dont want it realistic and that realisticly the smoke would last way longer ...) computer games are only as good as immersive their controlls, graphics, sounds and general game mechanics are. do you remember when we had no dynamic lights when weapons where fired? it added a lot, sure its also helpful to determine where enemies are, but the best was that the enviroment got lit, creating a better impression of fighting on an actual battlefield. the smoke is good, learn to live with it, learn to exploit it to your advantage. hopefully sv_pure will be standard on servers after the steam release so noone can cheat their way around ...
