Of water and waves

[wraitii]

You shouldn't have that setting with the latest patch, are you sure your SVN is properly updated?

[FeXoR]

You shouldn't have that setting with the latest patch, are you sure your SVN is properly updated?

Yes, I did it again and I don't have any modified files (not in the game directory nor in the cache).

The "superfancywater = false" came from my old local.cfg I emptied now. I emptied the cache as well.

Still the same.

I now see in the default.cfg:

waternormals = true
waterrealdepth = true
waterfoam = false
watercoastalwaves = false
waterrefraction = true
waterreflection = true
watershadows = false

Guess that are the new settings. What to change?

EDIT:

Works with only "waternormals = false" changed.

Works with settings as above but "waterrealdepth = false", too.

Same with "waterrefraction = false"...

And with "waterreflection = false".

Conclusion:

So if I turn ANY ONE false additionally to the ones set false by default it works (and the look depend on what's turned off).

So it seams to work properly and is a graphic card issue. Sorry for me crying out ^^.

But... what's the least needed? Testing...

Edited November 5, 2012 by FeXoR

[wraitii]

sounds like I messed something up in my latest SVN commit, I'll check.

edit: definitely not getting it, and your latest edit indicate it's pretty weird. Could you repost your mainlog ?

edit2: wait, wasn't it with you I already had encountered an issue on IRC? Seems like the same deal.

[FeXoR]

sounds like I messed something up in my latest SVN commit, I'll check.

edit: definitely not getting it, and your latest edit indicate it's pretty weird. Could you repost your mainlog ?

edit2: wait, wasn't it with you I already had encountered an issue on IRC? Seems like the same deal.

Yes! Thats why I said it seams to be a graphic card issue. Mine does not seam to have not enough ?whatever? to enable it all. But it looks great with many settings. ("waterreflection = true" and "waternormals = true" seams vital).

Edited November 5, 2012 by FeXoR

[wraitii]

Do you mean this is the error that appears when you activate the waves?

[fabio]

It kind of highlights why we need a real settings window, though.

Eventually the configurable options should be removed from default.cfg and local.cfg and put in a xml file used by both the graphic engine and the option menu, so that every option could have:

• a short description (used for screen display);
  
• a long description (used in the tooltip);
  
• requirements (e.g. OpenGL 1.5, ARB_XXX extension, ...); if the requirements are not respected the option should be "greyed out" definitively;
  
• requirement for "enabled by default";
  
• dependencies (e.g. advanced water may require water reflection); the option should be "greyed out" until the dependencies are also enabled;
  

This should permits to configure these options without touching the code and also avoid syncing between the .cfg and the menu which can use the xml. Custom config can be saved in user.cfg.

Also a couple of command line option could be added:

• safe -> start with the minimum settings;
  
• default -> start with the default setting, avoiding customized settings.
  

[plumo]

I just tried the Belgian Bog map.

This is my system: Windows 7 64, i5-2500K, 8 GB ram, GTX 560 Ti (with latest beta drivers, 310,XX)

When I reveal map (no AI player selected) and I completely zoom out in the middle of the map (with the lakes), I get around 15-16 FPS (with all effects enabled).

Without refraction, this becomes 18-19 FPS. If I turn off all water effects I get around 30 FPS.

[historic_bruno]

Eventually the configurable options should be removed from default.cfg and local.cfg and put in a xml file used by both the graphic engine and the option menu

I like this idea. For one thing, using XML would eliminate the need for having our own custom parser, and it's a fairly flexible format. The tradeoff would be slightly less readability for people who don't understand XML, but an in-games options menu would mostly negate that concern.

[wraitii]

Just so I know... This new shader causes hardware issues for some people who don't have the hardware to run it, but they probably don't know why, and this is going to cause bug reports when Alpha 12 rolls around.

I believe I should try to add some sort of quick check/limitation to the parameters, however: I have no way to tell users that it's because of their hardware that they can't use feature X or Y. Furthermore, I don't believe I can deactivate a ticking box?

[FeXoR]

My favorite water settings (My hardware can't handle all turned "true", too):

waterbinormals = true

waternormals = true
waterrealdepth = false
waterfoam = false
watercoastalwaves = false
waterrefraction = true
waterreflection = true
watershadows = false

shadows = true

[zoot]

Edit3: could some testers report on performance, too? On my computer, the difference between superfancywater = false and superfancywater = true is basically 0.2 ms, negligible enough. Mainly, I'm considering making the "normal" water also use the depth buffer for depth, it'd give a much nicer result.

I am not sure what the status of this is, but if I enable "Use actual depth" the FPS drops pretty badly from 30-70 fps on some maps to 7 FPS.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I am not sure what the status of this is, but if I enable "Use actual depth" the FPS drops pretty badly from 30-70 fps on some maps to 7 FPS.

Also, it seems like the deeper the water, the more lag I get with "Use actual depth"? Perhaps there should be a depth at which is stops rendering based on water 'murkiness'?

[wraitii]

There should be no additional lag for water getting deeper or not… I'm not too sure about these kind of things, but you may want to ask Myconid, such a bad lag sounds really not normal.

[myconid]

Just a thought, but perhaps you could consider splitting the shaders and the code in TerrainRenderer into fancywater and superfancywater, with separate methods and shaders for each. It might lead to some code duplication, however I think it's worth it as it'd make things much easier to read/debug.

[Josh]

I've got a weird bug with the water when use actual depth is on. It looks like this:

When I zoom out the spacing increases, when I zoom in the spacing decreases. The lines otherwise are stationary.

Edited November 17, 2012 by Josh

[WhiteTreePaladin]

All the water effects don't work on Intel integrated graphics (sandy bridge HD 2500) anymore. Not even the reflections. I guess that was supported by the fixed renderer? Oh well. Wouldn't have had a good framerate anyway.

[wraitii]

WhiteTreePaladin: That's not supposed to be normal, however I've changed the settings to force the use of the fixed fucntionon some graphic cards, which might just include the HD 2500. I guess it could be changed.

[fabio]

I like this idea. For one thing, using XML would eliminate the need for having our own custom parser, and it's a fairly flexible format. The tradeoff would be slightly less readability for people who don't understand XML, but an in-games options menu would mostly negate that concern.

Another excuse for a separate game settings, menu and game GUI overlap @ standard windowed mode (1024x768):

Edited November 26, 2012 by fabio

[Josh]

Another excuse for a separate game settings, menu and game GUI overlap @ standard windowed mode (1024x768):

The Settings menu also overlaps for me at 1600x900.

(BTW I'd still like to see this fixed)

[Almin]

Hey there, I recently updated from svn and recompiled and now the water looks like this:

But some time ago it looked really great, like this:

Now I wonder, whether this change is really expected to look like this or whether it is rather some kind of bug? Because I would say that the waves in the second (and old) screenshot look better than in the first (new) one, but maybe that's just mho.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Almin

[feneur]

As far as I can tell most of that is due to different map settings between the two screen shots, the waviness seems to be set a lot higher in the lower one (though there seems to be something a bit weird with the colors of the waves, so depending on how long ago that screenshot is taken it might have been a bit different. You should see something very much like the lower one if the map settings are similar in either case though ).

[wraitii]

My internet is giving me a little trouble, could you reupload the image in JPG or something?

[Lion.Kanzen]

In my Other Laptop all fine, only needs Run more Optimized, more improved FPS rate , GOOD WORK.

[Almin]

Sorry, they were too big.

The old (and good) one:

The new one:

[historic_bruno]

menu and game GUI overlap @ standard windowed mode (1024x768):

Fixed in r12943

The old (and good) one:

That one is buggy, look at the black "holes" in the water. For the other differences, perhaps the map settings were tweaked?