Reduced Models to improve FPS - testers and feedback wanted

[.kju 3240]

Pretext

======

If you not familiar with the idea, you find further reading here, here and here.

Your part

========

a) Check if the process works for you

b) Share in here what effects you can measure FPS wise

c) and see visual quality wise by removing 1, 2 or more LODs

(first and/or last).

Atm you can only to go for the vegetation and object PBOs:

• plants_e.pbo
  
• structures_e.pbo
  

The unit/vehicle/weapon PBOs do not yet work.

Process

=======

1) First you need to get:

• BisDll_v1.14.rar (or newer)
  
• ResLodRemover_v1.2.rar (or newer)
  

from T_D's tools.

2) Second you need to get:

• DePbo3.30.rar (or newer)
  
• ExtractPbo1.77.rar (or newer)
  
• MakePbo1.75.rar (or newer)
  

From mikero's PboDll tool suite.

3) Finally the RemoveResLODs.bat batch file from PvPscene Tweaks.

4) Next put all dll, exe files and the batch file all in one very same folder.

Say you create a new folder on a secondary HDD with enough HDD space free

to process several hundred Megabytes.

5) Now drag and drop an object/vegetation PBO onto the RemoveResLODs.bat batch file.

6) You will be asked during the following process how many first and last LODs to remove.

7) Wait for the process to finish.

8) Put the newly created PBO called OLDNAME_reduced.pbo into a modfolder and load the game.

---

Watch the ImageShack slideshow to see the changes of removing

the highest Resolution LOD again and again (source pictures for HQ).

Please send your kudos to T_D and mikero for developing and providing the community

with such excellent and powerful tools!

FAQ

===

Q: Can you drop a modified PBO on the batch again?

A: Yes you can. Just make sure not to have the PBO in the same folder as the batch file.

Q: Can you remove too many Resolution LODs?

A: Technically not. The tool will always make sure to keep at least one.

Visually quality and FPS wise it is certainly not wise too remove too many.

Q: Can you remove LOD switching completely?

A: Technically yes, but think about the consequences. Resolution LODs are

in to use less complex models at distance to avoid FPS dragged down.

So if you remove too many or all but the highest Res LOD, you will run into

FPS issues.

That said for grass it may work to keep only the highest or second highest

Resolution LOD; therefore no longer have LOD switching for it and still

maintain a reasonable framerate.

So in general you may want to reduce the first or the first two Resolution

LOD. In addition maybe the last or two last Resolution LODs.

Q: How to test the FPS changes?

A: Unfortunately the BI benchmark missions are not suitable for that as the AI

easily influences the result and the missions are not too focused onto areas

with vegetation.

So it is up to you and the community to make a suitable benchmark mission.

It should be a simple camera sightseeing flight through demanding areas.

Q: Can this be used in MP

A: For now personal modifications can only be used with server that allow personal

addons (in other words have the signature system off).

The overall plan is to find out good settings, make an addon out of it, ask BI for the

permission, sign it and put it up for everyone to download.

Further reading

=============

Q: What is the WriteResLODsToFile.bat about?

A: It can generate you a list of the p3d files inside a PBO with their

respective number of Resolution Lods.

Q: What does this list help?

A: Some objects have only three Res LODs, while others have up to nine or

more. For example you may want to remove reduce the grass to one Res LOD,

while for trees you want modify them differently.

In other words in the end you want to customize the complexity reduced per

model / P3d file.

Q: What are the *BatchProcessing.bat files about?

A: They allow you to hard-wire the location of the tools used instead of

having all tools and the batch in one folder. At the top of the batch file you

can set your custom path.

Edited December 11, 2010 by .kju [PvPscene]

[Cyborg11 10]

Nice :)

But unfortunately it's useless for MP :( Because I don't think you are allowed to release the modified vegetation and objects so we won't have a signed key for it :(

But I will try it and see how much FPS I can get with this :)

[xmongx 0]

THANK YOU T_D, Mikero and PVPscene.

You really have made my day.

I had a crack at doing this recently with the older tools but obviously failed, ive used it to quickly remove the first two lods from plants_e (batch file makes it so easy) and have a massive grin on my face as a result, the OA vegetation was way too heavy for my old GPU (8800GTS) so AA was a big nono. After removing the first two lods all now seems fine.

I really cant thank you enough, its reduced my clutter a bit too too much i think but will spend some more time with the tools later today to get it just how i want.

Honestly...I cant thank you enough.

Edited December 11, 2010 by xmongx

[.kju 3240]

Added FAQ item in response to Cyborg11's valid point.

[mikero 79]

always nice to be appreciated xmongx. thank u

[.kju 3240]

Added batch file(s) to remove MipMaps (textures) thanks to T_D!

Get MipMapRemover_v1.3.rar from T_Ds place and the new batch files.

[ArmAriffic 10]

I love you :D

[rome 0]

post your pics guys.

[puzzola 10]

Hi, I tryed some modification to plants2*.pbo. It seems that I get the real boost in FPS by removing first 3 highest LODs on tree.

I benchmarked it, driving an M2 Humvee on a road cutting through a forest. It pass from 14/22 FPS to 25/33 FPS but the trees are ugly. By removing only first 2 LODs I get 19/27 FPS and the trees are good enough.

I have only 1 FPS boost If I remove first highest LOD from all others plants.pbo.

I can't remove lowest LOD because it hits too much my FPS (all -2H -1L, i get 9/14 FPS).

My specs:

Intel E6400 2.13Ghz overclocked to 2,25.

ATI HD5670 1 GB

XP pro 32bit

4 GB ram

Res: 1280x1024 rendered to 1600x1280

View distance: 2442

And now a question: what's the difference with mipmap remover?

[.kju 3240]

The MipMapRemover removes the 'textures', while the Resolution LODs are about

'faces/polygons' (think of bricks to build a lego model).

This is for example one main texture of the A10. It is 2048x2048. Mipmaps are

downscaled versions of the same texture applied when objects are further away.

http://img137.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=0001cai.jpg

So the MipMapRemover can remove the 2048x2048 texture (or more lower resolution

textures). This reduces the size of the texture and of the PBO significantly.

Suma said that the texture instances is very fast. So at least when you have

a 1 GB VRAM card, textures might not be a performance issue.

Still it is worth to test - it may reduce or remove micro stutters, if they are due to

texture loading from the HDD (and therefore the HDD read speed / transfer time to

RAM/VRAM is a bottleneck).

Edited December 13, 2010 by .kju [PvPscene]

[WillaCHilla 10]

After testing this tool the last weekend, I came to the following results:

First of all, for me it was important to minimize the switching clutter-LODs (one of the things which still annoys me with the current patch-status).

After some testing, the following adjustments with the tool gave the the best results for me (perhaps some further adjustments will follow, if I have more time for doing it):

• plants_e.pbo (OA) [highest LODs removed:1//lowest LODs removed:3]

• plants2_Clutter.pbo (arma²) [highest LODs removed:1//lowest LODs removed:3]

• plants2_Plant.pbo (arma²) [highest LODs removed:1//lowest LODs removed:3]

While using these modified .pbos there is no more visible LOD-changing (at least for me) for the clutter on both islands. Performance-wise, I lost a few FPS, but the results are so outstanding that I won't switch back for a little more performance.

I also wanted to test the effect for the structures.pbo, but after removing some LODs (DOS-dialogue confirmed successful LOD-removing) and creating an addon with it, the game wasn't able to enter the main-menu and locked up. Don't know exactly what happened here, will try to find a solution later.

On the whole, I'm very pleased with the results and thank you for offering this tool to the community. Hopefully a MP-usable version will be possible in the future.

[Shadow NX 1]

Pretty awesome idea i must say... especially as i always hoped someone would make it possible to edit the lods.

I guess it wont work well on my already bit too slow HD4870 with its 512MB VRam but i gotta try and remove some of the last lods as i always could pule when i got a paper tree on relative close distance.

Well i will try and post my results here.

And if nothing else works i get me a GTX570, hehe :D

[.kju 3240]

WillaCHilla can you try with the latest BIS.dll please.

T_D has just released an update last night. It was to fix the vehicles and units, but it

may help for the structures.pbo too.

Get BisDll_v1.15.rar from here.

[WillaCHilla 10]

WillaCHilla can you try with the latest BIS.dll please.

T_D has just released an update last night. It was to fix the vehicles and units, but it

may help for the structures.pbo too.

Get BisDll_v1.15.rar from here.

Will test it after work and report later this evening, maybe tomorrow.

[rome 0]

Can you tell us what "plants2_xxxx.pbo" refers too? Clutter? misc? Plant? etc..

i dont want to change evrything, just trees, bushes, and grass. But , except for "plants2_tree.pbo, i dunno which pbo to modify.

[WillaCHilla 10]

Can you tell us what "plants2_xxxx.pbo" refers too? Clutter? misc? Plant? etc..

i dont want to change evrything, just trees, bushes, and grass. But , except for "plants2_tree.pbo, i dunno which pbo to modify.

You can check with 'PboView' for example what files are included in the different .pbos.

[xmongx 0]

Anybody else having issues with the mipmap remover or am i just being dumb?

I used the batch file to remove the highest mipmap from plants_e but when i load takistan i get

Cannot open mipmap:

ca\plants_e\Clutter\data\c_grassgreenlong_ca.paa

[Rg 0]

Many thanks Kju. It's always nice to get a performance boost. :D

Tests..

Tweaked "plants_e.pbo"

Map = Takistan (2 different positions for pics)

fps (before -> after)

Pic#1 [1,0] = 55 -> 56 (+2%)

Pic#1 [1,3] = 55 -> 28 (-50%) (WillaCHilla, your crazy ;) )

Pic#1 [2,0] = 55 -> 61 (+10%)

Pic#1 [2,2] = 55 -> 57 (+4%)

Pic#1 [3,2] = 55 -> 55 (Warning, do not remove [3] first lods or you will get some disappearing trees (example in pics))

Pic#2 [1,0] = 48 -> 52 (+8%)

Pic#2 [1,3] = 48 -> 40 (-17%)

Pic#2 [2,0] = 48 -> 59 (+19%)

Pic#2 [2,2] = 48 -> 59 (+19%)

Pic#2 [3,2] = 48 -> 57 (Warning, do not remove [3] first lods or you will get some disappearing trees (example in pics))

I still think [2,0] is the best, which was the original "Vegetation_Low_Visuals_R_PROPER".

Pics (6mb rar)..

http://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/9639/PROPER_LOD_PICS.rar

- Labeled in parenthesis (First_LODs,Last_LODs)

ex. "PROPER_LOD_1(10)" ... Highest Lod removed, NO low LOD removed.

[Defunkt 431]

I still think [2,0] is the best, which was the original "Vegetation_Low_Visuals_R_PROPER".

Cool, thanks for posting. I and others in my group have been using Vegetation_Low_Visuals_R_PROPER since it was first posted, it's somehow satisfying to see it come out on top and great to now have the same available for OA.

Many thanks Kju.

Pssst.... he's not kju, he's PvPscene :p.

[WillaCHilla 10]

fps (before -> after)

Pic#1 [1,0] = 55 -> 56 (+2%)

Pic#1 [1,3] = 55 -> 28 (-50%) (WillaCHilla, your crazy ;) )

Pic#1 [2,0] = 55 -> 61 (+10%)

Pic#1 [2,2] = 55 -> 57 (+4%)

Pic#1 [3,2] = 55 -> 55

Pic#2 [1,0] = 48 -> 52 (+8%)

Pic#2 [1,3] = 48 -> 40 (-17%)

Pic#2 [2,0] = 48 -> 59 (+19%)

Pic#2 [2,2] = 48 -> 59 (+19%)

Pic#2 [3,2] = 48 -> 57

Well, perhaps a bit, but not too crazy :o.

After reading your post, I had to do a quick test with 'benchmark 08' (I took Takistan, because the LOD-changes seems to be a bit more performance-demanding here than in Chernarus).

w/o any LOD-changes [0,0] = 49

[plants_e.pbo//1,3] = 43 (-12,25%)

Important:

While testing the performance loss, I started CO only with resolution= 125% (2100x1310), terrainGrid=12.5 (normal). All others settings are equal to the ones in my signature.

I know, if I go in the editor for example and visit areas with more vegetation than presented in the benchmark, these drops can be a bit higher, but it does not feel so bad that you can't play it with the modified LODs. I will test and adjust the settings a bit more in near future, if I have a bit more time for doing this (Christmas is coming...).

[rome 0]

My objective is to minimize lod switching too, without any fps drop.

From what you posted RG, i'd say [2,1] would be the best for me. i'll try that.

Just to be sure, i have arma 2 CO purchased on steam, so:

-If i want to change OA plants.pbo i have to go there : D:\Jeux\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\Addons

-And for arma 2, i have to go there : D:\Jeux\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2\AddOns

Am i correct?

Edited December 14, 2010 by RoME

[Rg 0]

@WillaCHilla

I didn't even know we had a new benchmark for OA. :p

I just ran it a few times, but it really isn't a good test, since there aren't that many plants and the camera doesn't get too close. I purposely picked high density places in the screenshots I posted. Less LOD definitely looks better, but I personally can't justify the fps hit.

Benchmark 08

-------------

Low video settings to get very high fps..

1920x1080 - same render res

No AA

No shadows

No PP

No grass

Low object

VD = 1600

[0,0] = 73

[2,0] = 78

[1,3] = 60

@RoME

I don't have arma on steam, but that looks about right.

[orson 0]

Hi .. i tried this and got a massive fps boost , i deleted all the lods from the trees and bushes and just drew some onto my monitor with felt tip .

[Shadow NX 1]

If you would have read the thread completely you would know that it never deletes all Lods ;)

Or for me noone as either it doesnt work for me or -which is more likely- im too stupid to use it.

Tried many variants but cant see a difference nor a different performance ingame :(

[WillaCHilla 10]

@Rg

Yes, you're right.

The official benchmarks are not made very well for measuring exact values of performance in general. Because of the fighting AI (sometimes explosions, sometimes not), you will get different values in multiple runs of the benchmark, using the same settings each time. So n=3 at least is a must-have here.

Especially for measuring the performance of edited clutter.pbos, the way you did it is a way better for this.(The only reason why I used 'benchmark 08' was the lack of time, because I had to go to work shortly afterwards :) .)

If I remember right, there is a good benchmark-test created by sbsmac. Its only for chernarus, but perhaps it can be modified also for takistan, focused on the vegetation. With this we would be able to present results based on the same source.

@Shadow NX

Perhaps you should try some more extreme values for the modified LODs at first, like the ones RG presented:

Pic#1 [3,2] = 55 -> 55 (Warning, do not remove [3] first lods or you will get some disappearing trees (example in pics))

Then you will be save that you edited the different .pbos correctly at least. ;)