[SOLVED] decals and performance

[Rob]

I noticed when using multiple decals the performs goes down a lot, I have an area in which I used 25 decals with only 3 textures but this cut down my framerate by 50 frames

The worst thing about this is that it decreases the framerate for the entire scene, I tried settign the decal distance under render settings > common but for some reason this doesnt do anything

 

So what can i do about this?

 

I just did another test with just 5 decals with only 2 individual textures and it still cuts my framerate by 50 frames so what could be going wrong?

[manguste]

The bug is confirmed, a decal distance option is not working indeed. Passed to developers.

 

As for the performance drop, you can disable decals with a distance (when fixed) or use life time and fade time options to decrease the time a decal is rendered on the screen. Please, provide us a test scene (or at least more details+a screenshot) so we can give any other advices.

[Rob]

Here is a screenshot of the decals, used about 25 decals to add details to an area similar to what Unigine did in the tropic demo

 

I use 2x 1024x1024 texture for the cracks and damage and 1 512x512 texture for the stripes

As I was testing this I noticed the fps going down fast, even when using only 5 decals the fps drops,

atm im using the orthographic projection decals but it doesnt really matter which one I use as the framedrop will be present with any type of decal

 

All of the decals are using an alpha channel and the material is set to src alpha / one minus src alpha, I copied these material settings directly from the tropic demo

the textures are saved as DXT 5 also the same as the decal textures in the tropic demo

 

Atm im considering using a plane mesh with all the details textured on it as this clearly isnt working as the fps drops

but something must be wrong on my end if I cant even use 5 decals with 2x 1024x1024 textures

[manguste]

Now it's more clear, but still not enough information, I'm afraid. Can't reproduce such performance drop. Please send us:

• A test scene with these decals and materials.
  
• A log file so we can check your configuration.
  

[Rob]

Where do I find a log file?

Will try to produce a test scene as our scene is much too large

 

Could it have something to do with the overlap detail materials of the terrain perhaps? Was wodnering about that since the tropic demo doesnt use those

[manguste]

Where do I find a log file?

It's <UnigineSDK>/bin/log.html.

[Rob]

Here is the log file, I do have to mention that I have a replacement gfx card in my pc at the moment

so I cant really see the difference of fps as I am having a low fps anyway for the moment

 

I also atached the decal textures

Decaltextures.rar

log.html

[manguste]

Rob,

 

First of all, you can see the decal projection area is wasted at the edges increasing the polygon count.

 

 

You can create a rectangular texture for your decal and adjust the projection area via Aspect parameter. This way, instead of a full square a narrower area will used for projection (lesser polygon count, less problems with fill rate in case of overlapping decals).

 

 

Secondly, use decals masks to avoid situations when decals are project on all objects. Especially if these objects are high-poly ones, skipping them and projecting decals only on the floor can be really good performance-wise.

[Rob]

Rob,

 

First of all, you can see the decal projection area is wasted at the edges increasing the polygon count.

 

 

You can create a rectangular texture for your decal and adjust the projection area via Aspect parameter. This way, instead of a full square a narrower area will used for projection (lesser polygon count, less problems with fill rate in case of overlapping decals).

 

 

Secondly, use decals masks to avoid situations when decals are project on all objects. Especially if these objects are high-poly ones, skipping them and projecting decals only on the floor can be really good performance-wise.

 

Oke will give this a go as soon as I have a replacement gfx card to see if I can get better performance, thanks for the tips

[frustum]

Decal distance has been fixed.

[manguste]

Plus rendering of decals is optimized: improved culling gave a performance increase.