Performance with many objects

[jpro]

Given the results we've gotten so far I went ahead and came up with an algorithm that generates a "chunk" of 8x8x8 cubes with no inner faces. I say "cube" but each part of the overall chunk is no longer a cube persay, but an object that is capable of creating only the faces (which are planes) that it's instructed to. So an inner cube has no faces at all where an outside one has 1-3.

Previously I was creating (8^3)*6 faces = 3,072 faces for a chunk of this size. Now it's (8*2)*6 = 96. However, after plugging this back into my dynamic terrain generation and generating about 15 chunks I was disappointed to find the FPS dropping quickly. 15 chunks is about 1,440 planes, half of which are back culled, which I would assume can be rendered quite easily. My computer isn't too old.... Core 2 Duo @ 3.0 GHz, 4 GB RAM, modern graphics card, but I get about 30 FPS.

Are these results typical? I tried reusing the same plane and compiling it like we discussed above, but the results were similar.

Edit: I want to thank you again for looking into these issues. I'm a professional developer but don't have a lot of experience (yet) with graphics. It really is a whole new set of challenges.

[EgonOlsen]

Sounds pretty low to me...then again, i'm not really sure if i understood correctly what you are doing there. A screen shot and the log output (as usual... ) might help. Also make sure that vsync is disabled or at least set to "application request" in your graphics card's settings.

This terrain demo renders at around 65 fps on a similar setup to yours. The terrain consists of 130.000 faces and is rendered four times for each frame (2 times for the texture blending and 2 times for the water reflection effect). In addition, up to 1500 trees are visible per frame.

[jpro]

Yeah, that's pretty conclusive. There's something I could/should be doing to my plane creation to make it render faster... I assume the same compile, clone steps as above? I will do a thorough test of those techniques tonight.

[EgonOlsen]

Yes, should be the same steps as above. You'll spot it in the logs, if it actually compiles something...

[jpro]

Screenshot of what I'm rendering:



Log output:

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run:
Java version is: 1.6.0_20
-> support for BufferedImage
Version helper for 1.5+ initialized!
-> using BufferedImage
Software renderer (OpenGL mode) initialized
Software renderer disposed
Current mode:800 x 600 x 32 @75Hz
Driver is: atiu9p64 aticfx64 aticfx64 atiu9pag aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64/null on ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine supported and used!
FBO supported and used!
OpenGL renderer initialized (using 4 texture stages)
Loading Texture...res/grid.jpg
created new chunk
created new chunk
created new chunk
created new chunk
created new chunk
created new chunk
created new chunk
created new chunk
created new chunk
Compiling source object...
Subobject of object 1/object3 compiled using 2 vertices in 0ms!
Object 1/object3 compiled to 1 subobjects in 4ms!
Object 3/object5 precompiled!
Object 5/object7 precompiled!
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... this goes on for awhile! Had to truncate it because the forum software wouldn't let me put this many characters in one post.


The class which creates the planes does so with methods like this:

Code Select Expand


private static void initModel() {
        if(MODEL == null) {
            MODEL = Primitives.getPlane(1, 1);
            MODEL.build();
            MODEL.compile();
        }
    }

public void drawTop() {
        renderable = true;

        Object3D plane = new Object3D(MODEL, true);
        plane.rotateX((float)Math.toRadians(90));
        plane.translate(position.x, position.y-0.5f, position.z);
        //plane.setCollisionMode(Object3D.COLLISION_CHECK_OTHERS);
        plane.setTexture("grid");
        plane.build();
        plane.shareCompiledData(MODEL);
        plane.compile();
        planes.add(plane);
    }
public Object3D[] getObjects() {
        return planes.toArray(new Object3D[0]);
    }


In that screenshot I made 38 chunks 4*4*4 which is ((4*4)*6 ) * 38 = 3648 planes/quads/faces. Within each chunk there are no inner faces being created. There's nothing else in the scene. You can see the FPS I'm achieving there (obviously FRAPS kills this a bit).

I'm not running any Config flags, just using default settings. Renderer is:

FrameBuffer buffer = new FrameBuffer(800, 600, FrameBuffer.SAMPLINGMODE_HARDWARE_ONLY);
buffer.disableRenderer(IRenderer.RENDERER_SOFTWARE);
buffer.enableRenderer(IRenderer.RENDERER_OPENGL, IRenderer.MODE_OPENGL);

[jpro]

An important thing I should note is that the planes *between* chunks, the ones on the chunk edge, are always rendered. This was a design decision to allow chunks to be wholly separate entities. Each chunk does not know the contents of its neighbors and thus assumes it must render its outside faces. After this latest test I don't know if that design decision is going to hold up.

[jpro]

I solved this by eliminating all shared faces. I had assumed that overdrawing between the chunks wouldn't be a big deal but that proved false. Thanks for all your help.