@namrog : I am using an Apple system currently, so it’s been my clean system, no malware or problems of that nature. That kind of stuff happens on my Windows system (which is why if i get a new system I will mostly disable any internet connections unless I need them specifically).
@paingate : This is all good information. I am curious to know what kind of system specs you are working with. I am looking right now at HP workstations like we used at Imageworks, and trying to max out what I think I’m willing to pay right now. There is a significant jump from the 3.0 processors to 3.4… really significant. I’m putting a spec sheet together to start with 8 cores, 64 GB ram, processor speed 3.0, and an NVIDIA Quadro K2200 4GB DL-DVI(I)+2xDP
I’m hoping that I will see a significant increase in my development time, but that doesn’t mean I’m not trying to make my game more playable on my slow system still.
I like your solution with the landscape, I’m going to give that a go, that is a serious contender for helping my game.
I also notice that the shadows in the recent 4.10 update have gotten significantly slower for landscapes. I have had to increase my settings on my landscape just to render, and even simple scenes are painfully slow to render, it all gets down to the landscape in that case, because the quads are too large, although this wasn’t an issue previously. I’m not sure what version update this changed, but it was recent.
I have been re-art directing my game, reducing texture sizes significantly, still removing normal maps and seeing if I can attain a more personal look.
I will look at replacing the fog with cards, good old school solution. I didn’t realize this was costing so much.
I am also still experimenting with removing shadows in the game, without it being obvious the shadows are missing. I know what you’re saying about dumping landscape because of the overall cost to a game. It’s far easier to keep things as interiors and I wish i could just abandon this, I guess i’m a bit stuck on this vision of making it like a world. There are some reasons for that too. I have been playing with making the visibility drop off in my world more though, so I’ll see how that goes as i move forward.
thanks for feedback.