Hi guys,
Today I would like to show you some cool results I've reached during the last 2 weeks.
I've worked on particle systems and general performance improvements.
PERFORMANCE
Using some cool tools from Intel I was able to better understand what part of engine code needed improvements.
With some fast and easy modifications I've gained about 3-6 and more fps in a variety of situations.
This is only a small part of what it can be made for optimizing the code so, step by step, the engine will be even faster and faster in the next future.
The system I've used for the performace tests is the usual:
- CPU Ryzen 1500x (4 core, 8 threads)
- GPU AMD radeon Rx 550 4 GB
- RAM 16 GB
For catching framerate, this time, I've used MSI afterburner tool. FPS stats are on the top left corner of the screen.
Following are some results from the easy game pack zombi town demo:
Also Haunted House benefited from code optimization:
Instead the city project scene of the Building Generation package has less more the same performances (it was just fast) except when the ocean is visible (also from the distance) as you can see from the following images:
PARTICLE SYSTEMS
Particle system were the real stick in the mud of S2ENGINE HD rendering system.
In particular particle systems reflecting light (no emissive) were too much fillrate/shading bounced.
For solving the problem I've used a technique that reduces the resolution of all the particle systems on screen by drawing them on a secondary render target, and then applying the result to the main screen with an upsampling shader. In this way a lot of fillrate is saved improving framerate.
This was particularly evident in the zombi town scene when grenades exploded, as you can see from the following image:
One of the advantages of this tech is that It automatically can support soft particles (thanks to the depth buffer use) without performance drops.
Soft particles solves the typical problem that makes a line visible when particle system intersects a surface (the line that separates the particle system from the surface).
Soft particles plus the increment in performances let me to insert into zombi scene some fog zones using the cloud objects (that ,technically, are fixed particle systems with disk shape), without framerate drops:
Note that there is no continuity solution between the fog particles and the ground, thanks to soft particles :).
For 2019.1.5 version I think this is all: curves, improved particles and improved performances.
All I've to do now are some small refinements and tests before releasing.
Hope you appreciate our efforts.
Stay tuned
PROFENIX STUDIO
