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Titanfall Tech Interview with PCGH.de / particle and physics to blame for FPS drops

ekim

Member
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Titanfall-PC-257364/Specials/Titanfall-Interview-Technik-1112495/

Google Translate link

PCGH: Bei der Titanfall Beta haben es uns die schnellen, effektgeladenen Kämpfe sehr angetan. Zudem waren wir beeindruckt, wie stabil das Spiel für eine Beta lief. Uns sind aber auch ein paar stärkere Drops bei sehr action-geladenen Szenen aufgefallen. Wird die Retail-Version flüssiger laufen?

Richard Baker: Bei Titanfall handelt es sich ja um ein Online-Only-Game, also werden wir versuchen, auch nach dem Release einen sehr guten Support zu bieten. Es gibt noch einige Punkte, die die Performance verbessern können und an denen wir noch arbeiten. Wir versuchen etwa, das Partikel-Rendering besser auf mehrere Prozessorkerne zu verteilen. Hier gibt es noch Leistungspotenzial, genau wie bei der Physik-Berechnung. Daher brechen die Bildraten auch ein, wenn Tonnen simulierter Physik-Objekte durch die Gegend fliegen und unzählige Partikel dargestellt werden. Daher arbeiten wir auch daran, diese beiden Systeme noch zu verbessern. Und dann haben wir uns natürlich um viele Dinge gekümmert, die uns während der Beta aufgefallen sind. Außerdem haben wir SLI- und Crossfire-Probleme behoben, dort bekommt man jetzt bessere Performance bei höheren Auflösungen. Und natürlich werden wir generell noch weiter an dem Spiel schrauben, nachdem es ausgeliefert wurde. Also werden wir auch in Zukunft weiterhin Features hinzufügen und die Performance verbessern.
--> (Titanfall translates to "Case of Titanium" :D )
PCGH: In the case of titanium beta there were very impressed the fast, effective charged fights. We were impressed with how stable into the game for a beta. But also a few more drops, we noticed at very action-packed scenes. Will the retail version run more smoothly?

Richard Baker: With titanium case, it is indeed an online-only game, so we will try to provide a very good support after the release. There are still some points that may improve performance and to which we are still working. We try as to better distribute the particle rendering on multiple processor cores. There is potential power, just like physics calculation. Therefore, the frame rates a break even when tons of simulated physics objects flying through the area and countless particles are shown. Therefore, we are also working to improve these two systems are still working. And then of course we have taken care of many things that we noticed during the beta. We have also resolved SLI and Crossfire problems, you can eat there now better performance at higher resolutions. And of course we will generally continue to [work on the] game after it was delivered. So we will in the future continue to add features and improve performance.

Much more at the link
 

tauke

Member
I'm not sure how much changes they made with the Source Engine but it still needs further optimizations as Insane texture is not that really detail to me compared to Maldo HD Texture mod for Crysis 2.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
PCGH: Gibt es sonst noch etwas, was ihr uns und unseren Lesern gerne erzählen würdet?

Richard Baker: Ja, wir haben noch einen interessanten Punkt: Wir haben lange mit Tile-Based und Deferred-Rendering-Technologien experimentiert, bis wir den Look erhalten haben, den wir für unser Spiel haben wollten. Als wir das dann mit dem Forward-Renderer mit statischem Licht probierten, – das ist ja einer der größten Unterschiede gegenüber dem Deferred Renderer mit seinen vielen dynamischen Lichtquellen – haben wir praktisch den gleichen Look erhalten. Das ist ein interessanter Punkt, denn in letzter Zeit setzten ja fast alle Studios auf Deferred Renderer. Es ist interessant zu sehen, dass man eine sehr ähnliche visuelle Qualität auch mit statischen Lichtquellen erzielen kann. Man bekommt natürlich nicht die hohe Dynamik mit unzähligen beweglichen Lichtern, aber wir haben festgestellt, dass wir diese für unser Spiel auch gar nicht brauchen. Außerdem haben wir nicht die Probleme mit der Hardware-Kantenglättung, die bei einem Deferred Renderer und Transparenz entstehen.

-- English google translate --

PCGH: Is there anything else you would like to tell us and our readers?

Richard Baker: Yes, we still have an interesting point: We have long experimented with Tile-Based and deferred rendering technology until we get the look we wanted for our game. When we then tried with the forward renderer with static light - that's one of the biggest differences from the deferred renderer with its many dynamic light sources - we practically get the same look. This is an interesting point, because lately translated almost all studios on deferred renderer. It is interesting to see that you can achieve a very similar visual quality with static light sources. Of course you do not get the high dynamics with countless moving lights, but we have found that we do not need this for our game. Moreover, we do not have the problems with the hardware anti-aliasing, resulting in a deferred renderer and transparency.
 

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
PCGH: Gibt es sonst noch etwas, was ihr uns und unseren Lesern gerne erzählen würdet?

Richard Baker: Ja, wir haben noch einen interessanten Punkt: Wir haben lange mit Tile-Based und Deferred-Rendering-Technologien experimentiert, bis wir den Look erhalten haben, den wir für unser Spiel haben wollten. Als wir das dann mit dem Forward-Renderer mit statischem Licht probierten, – das ist ja einer der größten Unterschiede gegenüber dem Deferred Renderer mit seinen vielen dynamischen Lichtquellen – haben wir praktisch den gleichen Look erhalten. Das ist ein interessanter Punkt, denn in letzter Zeit setzten ja fast alle Studios auf Deferred Renderer. Es ist interessant zu sehen, dass man eine sehr ähnliche visuelle Qualität auch mit statischen Lichtquellen erzielen kann. Man bekommt natürlich nicht die hohe Dynamik mit unzähligen beweglichen Lichtern, aber wir haben festgestellt, dass wir diese für unser Spiel auch gar nicht brauchen. Außerdem haben wir nicht die Probleme mit der Hardware-Kantenglättung, die bei einem Deferred Renderer und Transparenz entstehen.

-- English google translate --

PCGH: Is there anything else you would like to tell us and our readers?

Richard Baker: Yes, we still have an interesting point: We have long experimented with Tile-Based and deferred rendering technology until we get the look we wanted for our game. When we then tried with the forward renderer with static light - that's one of the biggest differences from the deferred renderer with its many dynamic light sources - we practically get the same look. This is an interesting point, because lately translated almost all studios on deferred renderer. It is interesting to see that you can achieve a very similar visual quality with static light sources. Of course you do not get the high dynamics with countless moving lights, but we have found that we do not need this for our game. Moreover, we do not have the problems with the hardware anti-aliasing, resulting in a deferred renderer and transparency.

That's interesting. Too bad they didn't elaborate on why they haven't used the tile-based approach.
 

MaLDo

Member
I'm not sure how much changes they made with the Source Engine but it still needs further optimizations as Insane texture is not that really detail to me compared to Maldo HD Texture mod for Crysis 2.

I think there is something wrong in how Titanfall handle textures. I don't know if is a compression problem or missing mipmaps problem. Some of them show a visual glicth at medium and far distance similar to when a texture hasn't mipmap levels created. Mipmap levels reduce memory usage.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
The performance is pretty crappy right now. i7 4770k and 780Ti and I get drops. Shouldnt happen for how the game looks.
Just you wait until they unlock the last core. Then that game will really fly.

(Yes, one core is locked in the PC version of Titanfall.)
 
I'm glad they acknowledge the bad performance - hopefully it can be improved quickly. The tacked on campaign can be excused if it just runs well since the gameplay is so fun.
 

Yaoibot

Member
SO its dropping FPS on pc. The beta dropped on my sli 570 setup at 1080p. Needs some tweeking me thinks.

SLI settings almost always need a tweak from NVidia or the developer. Otherwise it runs ass well as a single card, or often worse. I don't think FFXIV even supports it yet, its been a while though so don't quote me on that.

Oh, and if you have Xfire, g'luck. That shit is always broken.
 

TheD

The Detective
Too bad that if that screenshot I saw in that other thread is any indication, the particles are primitive and ugly without soft geometry intersection.
 

Rizsparky

Member
Too bad that if that screenshot I saw in that other thread is any indication, the particles are primitive and ugly without soft geometry intersection.

This is actually a good thing, since it points to the code being unoptimized (which can be remedied) rather than the game actually being graphically intensive.
 

BigTnaples

Todd Howard's Secret GAF Account
There is a mode called campaign. It is tacked on. I don't know what else you want me to call it.


Doesn't feel tacked on at all. Feels very integrated really. What with all the dialogue, both during and post mission, even from grunts, and given the maps all have very detailed events, and inner workings that change in since with campaign notes. All feels very fluid.


Sure the characters and story are pretty throw away, but they weren't supposed to be anything special. It's about giving context and making the player feel as if they are a small piece of something happening around them.
 

pooptest

Member
Do they have a solution for this? Not much action going on at all. I'm sure it's just a hiccup, but...

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