Request for reduced sprites per unit mod

[GShock]

You won't believe it, but I have had problems with games 10 times less hw consuming than my hw allowed until i found out some games have problems with antialiasing.

For instance I have been playing Blood Bowl and by the intermission the game was stuttering so badly it was unplayable. I tried all possible settings but nothing helped... then suddendly I decided I had to solve this:

1) I found out laptop cards are worked so that in order to save battery life and even when plugged to the AC, they were being slowed down which of course downgrades the performances a lot. (downloaded cool utility that solves this)

2) I downgraded the Nvidia control panel from quality to performance, eventually I touched one of the antialiasing options that the application (the bb game in this case) wouldn't hamper with and this solved it all. Mind it solved it even after I set the options of 1) back to default.

So... it doesn't really have the game sometimes it's the hardware settings.
Anyway the solution doesn't lie in modding the OOBs. Norb needs to program the % of men shown on the field exactly as the trees % setting is doing now. This must be in preferences, not in modding options. It's a VERY important graphic setting.

[norb]

It's funny because for years all I was ever asked was to get MORE men on the field. This release is the first time I've ever been asked to show less

[Jubal Early]

Davinci There were OOBs for TC2M that had reduced artillery I’ve been trying to find them. There was one battery for each division in all of them. Perhaps they could be converted to use with SOW.

[ADukes]

http://www.norbsoftdev.com/index.php?op ... 4&id=16540

[Jubal Early]

I have installed the SDK and have been looking through the various files but I can’t figure out yet how to reduce the sprite per unit ratio. I really want to reduce the number of infantry and cavalry sprites by 50% to help with my FPS problem.
Anyone figured out if this can be done and if so where to change it?

[norb]

I think it's part of the map ini files.

[GShock]

Norb, changing the RGT displayed sprites also has something to do with the map size? If so, why? Could you explain briefly pls?

[Jim]

GShock wrote:

Norb, changing the RGT displayed sprites also has something to do with the map size? If so, why? Could you explain briefly pls?

There is an interplay between the number of sprites, the size of the sprites, and the length of the unit in line, called unit frontage. The stock settings are 1 sprite per 4 historical soldiers. The sprites are larger than life, about 12 ft tall as scaled to the map. The spacing in line, set in drills.csv has an infantry regiment covering 89% of the unit frontage that they would have in 1863.

We spent some time adjusting these parameters to get a reasonable balance between sprite size, appearance in line, and unit frontage. There is no magic formula, only various compromises. In TC2M, the sprites were smaller, but the unit coverages were far short of historical.

If you reduce the sprites by 1/2 to a 1:8 ratio, then the appearance in line will be less line-like and more skirmish like. If you move the troops closer together, then the unit frontages are reduced by 1/2. If you make the sprites bigger, then the map graphics such as trees, buildings and fences have to be rescaled as well.

There are no easy answers here, just decisions about which set of compromises and variations from history you choose to accept.

-Jim

[GShock]

Are these parameters editable by SDK? I mean spacing, size and ratio.

Was that you who spoke about the target type affecting the accuracy of the shooter? Is this somehow the table I've been asking for to get the things modded right when the time comes? In other words is this thing visible or is it hard-coded? Is these such thing regarding the facing of the tgt in regards with the shooter?

I didn't install the sdk yet and I don't plan to for about 3 more days (too busy atm and I know what's gonna happen when I install it, lol!) that's why I m asking.

[Jim]

GShock wrote:

Are these parameters editable by SDK? I mean spacing, size and ratio.

Was that you who spoke about the target type affecting the accuracy of the shooter? Is this somehow the table I've been asking for to get the things modded right when the time comes? In other words is this thing visible or is it hard-coded? Is these such thing regarding the facing of the tgt in regards with the shooter?

I didn't install the sdk yet and I don't plan to for about 3 more days (too busy atm and I know what's gonna happen when I install it, lol!) that's why I m asking.

The sprite spacing in a formation is set in drills.csv, the sprite scaling is set in gfx.csv and the sprite ratio is definable but I have not written that part of the SDK yet so I don't have the details down.

For accuracy, infantry and artillery use a different system. For artillery, the target type does not affect the accuracy of the weapon. The subroutine initially calculates the probability that the round passes through a rectangle defining the target unit. These are different sizes for different unit classes e.g. cav regiment vs artillery gun. If the rectangle is hit, then there is a second 'dice roll' to estimate the percent of the rectangle that represents target and not empty space. The basic accuracy of the gun is in artytables.csv and the rest of those values are hardcoded. If the ammo type is shell or shrapnel, there is an additional dice roll based on values in munitions.csv that represent the probability of the fuse exploding the shell in the kill zone. Finally if there is a kill then there is a final dice roll to calculate the number of kills up to the max set in munitions.csv.

-Jim