Project Offset: A storm is coming

coelurus · Post by **coelurus** » Tue 08 May, 2007 1:25 pm

GI is a very broad definition, precomputed radiance transfer is only a method to realize GI.

I didn't know of GI in Stalker, gonna check that out. Reiterating my statement however, I said that there was no GI in games today, only for tech demos in cramped spaces. If Stalker can't run its GI solution at interactive speeds on modern computers, I would consider it a tech demo.

Adding a "lighting technique" to an existing renderer is not very hard, what is hard is to incorporate scene-wide switches. Scene shadowing, procedural map generation and various caching systems for rendering can be horrible, especially if you already got a decent renderer going. Why didn't Doom3 switch from shadow volumes to shadow maps for dynamic shadows? Why not support both? Because it's a bitch to get both going, although it's a little easier these days with some extra caps to waste.

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Sun 20 May, 2007 2:15 pm

you know that astormiscomming site...
the text underneath it appears to be

AnmroyYd.p.YdabtoUrpD.nlcbi! - Esp. Warsaw and SkateHead

in ASCII and UTF8, I'm not sure it's supposed to be ASCII or UTF8, but it says something anyway..

odd..

edit: I suppose I should post my code, though it's not very good or anything..
I made a windows form prog for it, cause you can't copy-paste to console progs, without the clutter it does this when you hit the button: (C#)

Code: Select all

string[] args = textBox1.Text.Split(new char[] { ' ' });
byte[] chars = new byte[args.Length];
for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++)
{
          byte j = 0x80;
          for (int x = 0; x < 8; x++)
          {
                chars[i] += ((args[i][x] == '1') ? (byte)j : (byte)0);
                j >>= 1;
          }
}
richTextBox1.Text = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(chars);

edit again: the first part is "AlmostThereThanksForHelping!" in dvorak layout - see http://wbic16.xedoloh.com/dvorak.html for conversion

hop · Post by **hop** » Sun 20 May, 2007 3:22 pm

coelurus wrote:I didn't know of GI in Stalker, gonna check that out. Reiterating my statement however, I said that there was no GI in games today, only for tech demos in cramped spaces. If Stalker can't run its GI solution at interactive speeds on modern computers, I would consider it a tech demo.

Does a 4x4 core DDR3 1600 dual GF8800 SLI count as a moden PC? I assure you that'll run it at an interactive speed. I'm guessing just putting a GF8800 in my own PC would let me play with decent FPS, now it's only 10-20fps with GI enabled and everything at max (haven't tried lowering anything).

cause you can't copy-paste to console progs

You can. Use the context menu.

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Sun 20 May, 2007 3:33 pm

You can. Use the context menu.

too much effort for my, if I can't paste with ctrl V then I'll just give up (lazy? yes.)

that is not the point though. But there is no reason not to make a forms program instead of a console program.

anyway, it says: AlmostThereThanksForHelping! - Esp. Warsaw and SkateHead
they could just have put it there without going through all the effort of encoding it..

hop · Post by **hop** » Sun 20 May, 2007 4:34 pm

Enable quickedit mode.
Paste with rightmousebutton or copy with enter after mark/selecting with left mouse button.

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Sun 20 May, 2007 4:55 pm

it is completely besides the point here, but I found it easier to create a forms app in about 2 clicks (click form app, click ok) than getting copying and pasting to work properly in a command prompt

as I said, it is besides the point. I just wanted to tell everyone who didn't know it already what those odd numbers meant.

hop · Post by **hop** » Sun 20 May, 2007 4:58 pm

It is besides your point. I just wanted to tell you copy and pasting quickly in windows command line is 2 clicks away.

Halifax · Post by **Halifax** » Sun 20 May, 2007 7:16 pm

Really I think these days Unreal Engine 3 is the way to go. Or you can look at the specs and search the internet for tools that do the same thing and make your own SDK.

coelurus · Post by **coelurus** » Sun 20 May, 2007 8:18 pm

I don't count that as a modern PC, it's a super computer that will become a PC in 2 years or so

No sane person could have any decent argument for buying all that.

UE3.0 sure is the thing for now, it still looks about on par compared to the new Cryengine. And then there's the VTales engine, too bad it's closed :p

hop · Post by **hop** » Sun 20 May, 2007 9:35 pm

I have this (lol budget so shush Intel fanbois):

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 65w @ stock speed of 2GHz
2x512mb DDR2 PC6400
nForce 430 DVI
XFX GF7600 GT XXX @ 650/1600

I just tried GI with lower resolutions and that gives playable framerates.

Surely you agree such a $500 system is affordable as a modern PC and an addition of another $100 for a better GPU (GF7900) should categorize it as an affordable modern PC as well as more than capable of playing STALKER with GI on and all detail at max.

coelurus · Post by **coelurus** » Mon 21 May, 2007 10:38 am

I tried enabling GI, but either I messed up or it was an extremely slight effect (noticed no light bouncing with the flashlight). I changed the r2_gi* params according to what most sites say but I couldn't notice anything special, more than that the FPS dropped and the first scene with the old fellar was really dark and his eyes looked like shining marbles.

Got any tips or screenshots?

hop · Post by **hop** » Mon 21 May, 2007 11:08 am

What's your hardware and did you have all other settings at max?

I could upload more but upload services like imageshack suck and my router won't forward port 80 to my server any more for some reason.