Burning Sands - A journey of learning and optimisation

[Rudd]

Hi all, thought I'd let you know about what I've been working on aside from helping community mappers and messing with maps currently in the build.

Burning Sands unfortunately had alot of issues that didn't crop up during testing, however thanks to both friends and fellow gamers I've had a large number of reports identifying the problems.

Burning Sands suffered from:

Memory CTDs

Why?
- Too many lightmap files
- Too many textures/texture pallets being loaded for objects
- Problem statics

Performance issues especially in the city

Why?
- Too may enterable buildings or high poly buildings close together
- Memory taken up in loading the map in the first place

Other bugs e.g. Combat areas in layer 64 had become messed up.

I'm confident this is all fixed and will be released with the next release, which will be done when its done.





She's still big and pretty despite my optimisations.

Heres a list of some the changes

Removed pavements (that was about 2000 objects, all had been lightmapped, so thats over 2000 textures not loaded, huzzah!)
Removed problem statics e.g. iraqi low apartments.
Optimised Lightmaps in both resolution and in selection of objects (was 55 atlases, now only 15!
Optimised terrain Lightmaps by decreasing resolution of FINAL LMs to 50% (note this achieves better quality and avoids offsetting colormaps than simply LMing on medium)
Replaced alot of enterable buildings with non-enterables/more optimised versions. This might sound bad to some people, but honestly I think spreading out the enterables will be good for both performance and gameplay. (muttrah being a prime example of this)
Removed a good number of destructable objects
created several more open spaces in the city (both for gamplay and FPS)
Removed alot of rocks (LOD issues)
Removed alot of mid east village statics
Lowered VD by 50m

These changes mean that alot more RAM is freed up during loading than before and also the FPS will be higher since theres fewer polys to render in the city, without sacrificing gameplay.

Also, for those of you who played the last public beta test - I've fixed the CTD on low terrain bug HUZZAH!


Gamplay changes

Asset and balance tweaks
Now all assets spawn in main base even at the start, exception is two MEC vehicles in the military base. This will prevent confusion.
AASv4 implemented



For you budding young mappers out there, remember all because it runs at 100FPS on your computer on local doesn't mean it'll behave like that on a public server. Optimisation is key!

Never use 3 objects where one will do, never use 3 kinds of objects when one kind will do.
Space out your enterables
Be selective with your lightmaps


I hope you enjoyed this humble blog, and I hope it reaffirms your belief that optimisation and fixing problems is at the fore of our minds.

Live Long and Prosper

[theflidgeface]

nice fixes lookin forward to playin the new version

[Shovel]

Looks awesome! Can we has minimap?

[Stealthgato]

Aww man, you removed the sidewalks? That gave the city a unique look in PR, really sad to see that go... Will it still be bright like the current version (a good thing IMO, looks really nice) or did the lighting get darker? Looking at those screens the city looks darker than before. Maybe an idea for a skirmish version, focusing on the building complex that's most to the West of the MEC's Munition Storage Bunkers, that complex could provide some very interesting firefights. Good thing in optimising it for people though, looking forward to having this map being overplayed Weirdly enough, so many people crash and lag on this map, for me it's one of the smoothest-running maps in PR, I've never crashed or had noticeable FPS drop (yes, playing online with 62 players, in the city, flying, in the desert), and yet in Fallujah which is so much smaller I get FPS drops often.

[Snazz]

Could the sidewalks/pavement be optimized for future use?

[BIGsmalll]

You forgot something at the end of this awesome fix...



HUZZAAAHHH!!!!

[Arnoldio]

Nice to see this getting optimised. I didnt have problems, but more people like me, the merrier!

[Curry]

Maybe an idea for a skirmish version, focusing on the building complex in the North-West corner of the MEC's Munition Storage Bunkers, that complex could provide some very interesting firefights.

+1. Or just a alternate layout for skirmish.

Will there be another public test, like last time on PRTA?

[hobbnob]

hmmm two apaches and havocs should be very interesting

[Cpl.Small]

Nice Rudd, the city looks absolutely amazing, so much detail in it, you've obviously been working hard... Well done

[Psyko]

good job broo.

looks splendid.

[Redamare]

good work fixing those issues ... ive only played on this map a hand full of times so i didnt notice any of the issues but thats not to say that i dont Believe it . . . theres always going to be bug fixes with maps for PR BF2 its just the nature of the beast

[karambaitos]

did you just imply that crashing on load didnt crop up in testing?
cuz thats a pretty hard thing to skip.

anyway i like the map it doesnt get boring

[Gozjh]

Nice, maby I can get more that 10 FPS in the city now

[Absolute Killer]

thanks rudd keep it up!

[Nakata]

First time I saw Burining Sands i thought it will be the next Kashan esert with a Muttrah city inside... Now it's playble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dr Rank]

Awesome work Rudd, looking forward to playing on the fixed up version

[AnimalMother.]

can't wait for this to be played, one of the saddest parts about 957 is that burning sands is never played such an awesome map

this map + 128 players on AASv4 is going to be immense