Framerate hit for difs which are entirely out of view
by Orion Elenzil · in Torque Game Engine · 05/12/2007 (12:22 pm) · 9 replies
Hey all -
i'm struggling w/ a little framerate problem in TGE here -
i have an urban scene,
with some sixty or so DIF buildings in it.
when i stand at the far edge of my city and look away from it,
so that nearly the DIFs (except the one i'm standing on) are totally behind me
or at least entirely out of view,
the framerate on my machine is about 110FPS.
now, if i go and delete all the DIFs except the one i'm standing on,
the framerate from the exact same empty view goes up to 170FPS!
i'm trying to figure out why these out-of-view DIFs are causing a framerate hit.
i'm running server and client in a single instance. (aka "single-player mode")
perhaps i should compare actual server / client to make sure it's not some server-side slowdown.
some of the buildings are pretty close together
and we occasionally get Zone Manager errors,
but we clean those up.
there are about 37 NPC avatars in the environment,
and when the DIFs are removed, they fall into the ocean and get respawned
back on the one DIF i'm standing on. i wonder if it could be the CPU used to
calculate who's in what zone, etc.
anyhow,
any thoughts appreciated.
i'm struggling w/ a little framerate problem in TGE here -
i have an urban scene,
with some sixty or so DIF buildings in it.
when i stand at the far edge of my city and look away from it,
so that nearly the DIFs (except the one i'm standing on) are totally behind me
or at least entirely out of view,
the framerate on my machine is about 110FPS.
now, if i go and delete all the DIFs except the one i'm standing on,
the framerate from the exact same empty view goes up to 170FPS!
i'm trying to figure out why these out-of-view DIFs are causing a framerate hit.
i'm running server and client in a single instance. (aka "single-player mode")
perhaps i should compare actual server / client to make sure it's not some server-side slowdown.
some of the buildings are pretty close together
and we occasionally get Zone Manager errors,
but we clean those up.
there are about 37 NPC avatars in the environment,
and when the DIFs are removed, they fall into the ocean and get respawned
back on the one DIF i'm standing on. i wonder if it could be the CPU used to
calculate who's in what zone, etc.
anyhow,
any thoughts appreciated.
About the author
#2
thanks for writing.
i believe TGE does cull DIFs and other objects when they're not in the view frustum. - at least it should.
.. yes, i believe it is in most/some cases.
for instance if i run a near empty mission, the framerate is 160.
i then add 35 copies of a particular DIF behind the camera, and it stays right at 160.
this particular DIF is moderately complex inside, but basically a box outside, and is well-portalized,
so perhaps it's not such a good test.
i'm hoping to find one or two of my sixty DIFs which are the culprits, but i'm a bit dubious.
05/12/2007 (2:17 pm)
Her Robert,thanks for writing.
i believe TGE does cull DIFs and other objects when they're not in the view frustum. - at least it should.
.. yes, i believe it is in most/some cases.
for instance if i run a near empty mission, the framerate is 160.
i then add 35 copies of a particular DIF behind the camera, and it stays right at 160.
this particular DIF is moderately complex inside, but basically a box outside, and is well-portalized,
so perhaps it's not such a good test.
i'm hoping to find one or two of my sixty DIFs which are the culprits, but i'm a bit dubious.
#3
05/12/2007 (3:20 pm)
Can you run the profiler and see where it spends most of its time? SceneTraversal?
#4
That's #define ENABLE_PROFILER and then profilerEnable() and profilerDump(), yeah ?
my current suspicion is that it's due to DIFs who's bounding boxes overlap.
05/12/2007 (4:54 pm)
I'm actually not that familar w/ the profiler.That's #define ENABLE_PROFILER and then profilerEnable() and profilerDump(), yeah ?
my current suspicion is that it's due to DIFs who's bounding boxes overlap.
#5
05/12/2007 (4:57 pm)
[5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] ==>profilerDump(); [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] Profiler Data Dump: [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] Ordered by non-sub total time - [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] %NSTime % Time Invoke # Name [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 20.714 33.651 464 AdvanceObjects [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 9.953 54.270 286 CanvasRenderControls [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 9.294 32.565 30682 SceneStateRenderImage [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 8.911 11.258 14536 Player_PhysicsSection [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 7.842 7.842 1283 IRO_RenderARB_FC [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 7.189 7.464 1860 TSShapeInstanceRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 6.060 18.721 286 AdvanceClientTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 3.702 3.702 4602 DrawText [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.347 2.347 9065 Player_UpdatePos [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.169 2.169 286 RegisterLights [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.169 2.169 1283 IRO_RenderDynamicLights [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.100 2.962 286 BuildSceneTree [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.770 39.927 286 SceneGraphRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.642 1.642 286 SkyRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.555 12.902 15544 Player_ProcessTick [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.269 1.269 10126 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.246 1.246 286 ServerNetProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.118 1.118 286 CanvasPreRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.115 1.115 1283 ISAPL_Setup [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.043 9.093 1144 ShapeBaseRenderObject [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.944 0.944 286 SwapBuffers [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.738 0.738 286 SimAdvanceTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.583 0.583 1283 ISAPL_Merge [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.570 0.781 1283 InteriorPrepRenderImage [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.461 6.607 572 PlayerRenderPrimary [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.458 33.023 286 TraverseScene [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.365 40.291 286 GameRenderWorld [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.286 19.187 286 ClientProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.284 0.284 1283 IRO_UpdateAnimatedLights [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.271 0.271 1860 TSShapeInstanceMaterials [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.234 0.234 286 ClientNetProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.212 0.212 17110 UpdateActionThread [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.172 8.014 1283 IRO_RenderSolids [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.168 0.168 286 WinGetInput [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.129 0.129 1283 InteriorTraverseZone [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.113 99.562 286 MainTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.082 0.211 1283 InteriorZoneTraversal [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.077 1.776 1283 InteriorSetupActivePolyList [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.076 0.245 2432 GetLightingAmbientColor [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.057 99.449 286 ProcessTimeEvent [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.056 0.056 286 MainNet [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.054 0.054 1283 IRO_GetZones [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.052 0.090 286 WinMessages [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.051 0.052 42 ProcessInputEvent [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.049 1.189 572 ShapeBaseRenderPrimary [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.045 12.356 1283 InteriorRenderObject [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.039 21.640 286 AdvanceServerTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.039 0.039 286 MainCURLObjects [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.018 0.018 76 InteriorScanZoneNew [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.015 1.791 1283 IRO_ComputeActivePolys [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.015 0.042 286 WinConsole [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.012 100.000 286 MainLoop [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.011 0.011 286 WinProcessInput [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.011 0.322 286 MainPlatform [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.010 56.342 286 RenderFrame [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.010 0.010 572 PlayerRenderShadow [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.006 0.006 286 MainConsoleAndDebug [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.005 21.644 286 ServerProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.004 0.004 1860 TSShapeInstanceRenderBillboards [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.004 0.004 286 BuildFogTexture [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.004 0.004 286 MainJournal [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.002 0.002 572 ShapeBaseRenderShadow
#6
05/12/2007 (4:57 pm)
[5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] Ordered by stack trace total time - [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] % Time % NSTime Invoke # Name [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 12.780 -87.220 0 ROOT [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 100.000 0.012 286 MainLoop [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 99.562 0.113 286 MainTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 99.449 0.057 286 ProcessTimeEvent [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 56.342 0.010 286 RenderFrame [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 54.270 9.953 286 CanvasRenderControls [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 40.291 0.365 286 GameRenderWorld [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 39.927 1.770 286 SceneGraphRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 33.023 0.458 286 TraverseScene [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 32.565 9.294 30682 SceneStateRenderImage [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 12.356 0.045 1283 InteriorRenderObject [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 8.014 0.172 1283 IRO_RenderSolids [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 7.842 7.842 1283 IRO_RenderARB_FC [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.169 2.169 1283 IRO_RenderDynamicLights [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.791 0.015 1283 IRO_ComputeActivePolys [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.776 0.077 1283 InteriorSetupActivePolyList [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.115 1.115 1283 ISAPL_Setup [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.583 0.583 1283 ISAPL_Merge [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.284 0.284 1283 IRO_UpdateAnimatedLights [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.054 0.054 1283 IRO_GetZones [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 9.093 1.043 1144 ShapeBaseRenderObject [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 6.607 0.461 572 PlayerRenderPrimary [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 6.144 6.039 572 TSShapeInstanceRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.104 0.104 572 TSShapeInstanceMaterials [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.001 0.001 572 TSShapeInstanceRenderBillboards [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.001 0.001 572 GetLightingAmbientColor [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.189 0.049 572 ShapeBaseRenderPrimary [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.140 1.062 572 TSShapeInstanceRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.076 0.076 572 TSShapeInstanceMaterials [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.001 0.001 572 TSShapeInstanceRenderBillboards [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.243 0.074 1144 GetLightingAmbientColor [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.169 0.169 226 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.010 0.010 572 PlayerRenderShadow [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.002 0.002 572 ShapeBaseRenderShadow [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.642 1.642 286 SkyRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.180 0.088 716 TSShapeInstanceRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.091 0.091 716 TSShapeInstanceMaterials [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.001 0.001 716 TSShapeInstanceRenderBillboards [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.001 0.001 716 GetLightingAmbientColor [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.962 2.100 286 BuildSceneTree [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.781 0.570 1283 InteriorPrepRenderImage [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.211 0.082 1283 InteriorZoneTraversal [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.129 0.129 1283 InteriorTraverseZone [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.080 0.080 292 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.169 2.169 286 RegisterLights [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.004 0.004 286 BuildFogTexture [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 3.702 3.702 4602 DrawText [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.324 0.324 858 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.118 1.118 286 CanvasPreRender [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.944 0.944 286 SwapBuffers [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 21.644 0.005 286 ServerProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 21.640 0.039 286 AdvanceServerTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 21.600 9.158 232 AdvanceObjects [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 12.421 1.341 8816 Player_ProcessTick [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 10.992 8.712 8816 Player_PhysicsSection [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 2.280 2.280 8816 Player_UpdatePos [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.088 0.088 8816 UpdateActionThread [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.017 0.017 28 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.005 0.005 19 InteriorScanZoneNew [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 19.187 0.286 286 ClientProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 18.721 6.060 286 AdvanceClientTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 12.051 11.556 232 AdvanceObjects [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.481 0.214 6728 Player_ProcessTick [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.266 0.200 5720 Player_PhysicsSection [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.067 0.067 249 Player_UpdatePos [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.014 0.014 57 InteriorScanZoneNew [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.487 0.487 8294 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.124 0.124 8294 UpdateActionThread [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.181 0.181 400 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 1.246 1.246 286 ServerNetProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.738 0.738 286 SimAdvanceTime [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.234 0.234 286 ClientNetProcess [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.322 0.011 286 MainPlatform [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.168 0.168 286 WinGetInput [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.090 0.052 286 WinMessages [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.026 0.025 20 ProcessInputEvent [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.001 0.001 2 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.012 0.012 26 ContainerCastRay [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.042 0.015 286 WinConsole [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.027 0.027 22 ProcessInputEvent [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.011 0.011 286 WinProcessInput [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.056 0.056 286 MainNet [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.039 0.039 286 MainCURLObjects [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.006 0.006 286 MainConsoleAndDebug [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 0.004 0.004 286 MainJournal
#7
And, try to run profiler in both cases - with DIFs behind, and without and see where is a major "change" (if any). And, try removing AIPlayers from scene too (with and w/out DIFs). So after you will have four dumps - enough information to see/compare.
05/13/2007 (5:09 am)
Looks like this is a major hit on performance (server-side btw):[5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 21.600 9.158 232 AdvanceObjects [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 12.421 1.341 8816 Player_ProcessTick [5/12/07 16:56:17][Inf][General] 10.992 8.712 8816 Player_PhysicsSection
And, try to run profiler in both cases - with DIFs behind, and without and see where is a major "change" (if any). And, try removing AIPlayers from scene too (with and w/out DIFs). So after you will have four dumps - enough information to see/compare.
#8
yes, we're taking a hit with NPCs,
which we should do something about,
but there's something else going on just around DIFs which i'd like to track down.
if i delete all NPCs the framerate improves from a baseline up to 112% of that.
however there's this one fairly simple DIF which if delete it yields 108%,
which seems like an awful lot for a DIF which is totally behind the player.
aha: if i even just *move* the DIF to a different location where it's not overlapping other DIFs,
i get that same 108%.
05/13/2007 (12:05 pm)
Heya.yes, we're taking a hit with NPCs,
which we should do something about,
but there's something else going on just around DIFs which i'd like to track down.
if i delete all NPCs the framerate improves from a baseline up to 112% of that.
however there's this one fairly simple DIF which if delete it yields 108%,
which seems like an awful lot for a DIF which is totally behind the player.
aha: if i even just *move* the DIF to a different location where it's not overlapping other DIFs,
i get that same 108%.
#9
05/13/2007 (6:35 pm)
Hmm... that's strange. I know that it's a big issue when you have errors of overlapping DIF zones with each others, but if you say - when you move it out and still get the same..... not sure about that. I'll try to find some time tomorrow (it's 5:30am here already) to run some tests on this and give a reply on results (with profiler).
Torque Owner Robert Buckley
Soooo, if im not mistaken, even though the objects are out of view, they are still being rendered.
I dont know if there is thoughts of culling being integrated in the future but it looks like you are on your own for that...