Id tech 5?

(Nail) #41

I’m not confused,
Wolfenstein is based on the ET:QW modified tech4 engine, version 1.4 as stated by id Software
in the Whinenstein forums

(Joe999) #42

[QUOTE=shirosae;194748]If I understand correctly, they’ve written a completely new renderer*.

*that supports stuff like virtual texturing, using shadow buffers rather than shadow volumes, and so probably won’t look anything like idtech4.

I kinda suspect that half of the reason they’ve done all the rewriting is specifically to deal with the idtech4 choppiness. Just a guess, though.[/QUOTE]

i hope they’ve rewritten the timing stuff as well, not only the renderer. because from what i could find out through config changes that’s where the choppiness happens. it really doesn’t depend on the renderer.

take quake wars as an example: i turned off everything and it still had this hickup every second. see the pic below. i recorded it, created an image sequence and aligned a red line at a fixed point of an object in every image of the sequence. see the gap (4th to 5th line on the right)? that’s what happens on my sys (and several others i’ve tested) every second. the gap is small, maybe that’s why most don’t notice it. but i do. and others do as well. i had a talk on irc where people didn’t notice it before, but when i told them where/how to look, they noticed it as well.

someone said that it will be fixed for brink (fingers crossed), but then i ask myself why it wasn’t fixed for quake wars or any other id tech 4 game. only a beta will tell. although i’m not sure if i will be giefed one, because if it still hitches, i’m going to be very annoying … here’s the screenie i was talking about:

(shirosae) #43

Oh I know what the hitching is; the stuttering is pretty easily the worst thing about ETQW. In many ways, all I’m looking for with Brink is a game as fun as ETQW except on an engine without the same flaws.

I tend not to wonder why the hitching was present in Doom3 and Quake4 (although as I understand Q4 is much better now?), because my impression of id is that over the past few years they’ve gone absolutely mad. None of their insane casual-game silliness surprises me any more.

As far as ETQW goes, we do know that there were a bunch of things that SD were aware of but didn’t have time to finish before release. Animation interpolation doesn’t run in unlocked frames, because the latter was a fairly late on hack. The pure system is silly. Autodownload doesn’t do megatextures.

I’m kinda optimistic with Brink, because SD have been pretty honest about the flaws in ETQW.

(engiebenjy) #44

I always noticed the stutter in ETQW more when using the assault rifle where instead of “bang-bang-bang-bang” it tended to go “bang-gap-bang-bang”. I will also admit to trying the leaked wolf beta just to look to see if this stutter was still there and without doubt it still is.

I hope (and expect :o) considering the time splash have spent on this engine they have removed the stutter

(RR2DO2) #45

engiebenjy, that’s a different issue from Joe’s and that has been solved in Brink (the audio code has had some very major changes)

As far as the issue Joe is mentioning, we are aware of it and have spent time in the past looking at it and will keep investigating it. It is distinctly marked in our project back log as an item. However, I would suggest that people stop droning on about it as that approach just doesn’t have the effect desired.

(engiebenjy) #46

Wicked :slight_smile:

:stroggbanana:

(Bezzy) #47

I remember the audio thing being fixed maybe the first month I joined here (about a year and a half ago), and yeah, the difference was night and day. I’m not sure but I think it was something to do with audio processing being in the main loop? Or was it audio memory not being assigned in the right chunk size? :confused: GORDOOOONNNNN!

Anyway. That’s fixed, but add to that the dynamic duo of Chris Sweetman and Simon Price, and audio becomes a cut above. Trust me. The attention to detail in the gunfire alone, and how it’s modelled… it makes my eardrums dance when I hear the sound of a pistol shot reverberate around my skull.

And more stuff I can’t say but makes me excited every time I think about it.

(tokamak) #48

Perhaps one tiny QW patch then?:smiley:

(RR2DO2) #49

It wasn’t a little fix :stuck_out_tongue:

(Slade05) #50

Come on SD, give us some EAX.
Preferably horribly exagerrated, like in DooM 3 dungeons when baron of hell stomps around!

(DarkangelUK) #51

Here’s an Id Tech 5 PDF presentation, there’s some stuff on virtual texturing in side it.

Looking at the engine, I think i’ll be turning console gamer pretty soon ¬_¬

http://s09.idav.ucdavis.edu/talks/05-JP_id_Tech_5_Challenges.pdf

(Floris) #52

[QUOTE=DarkangelUK;195036]Here’s an Id Tech 5 PDF presentation, there’s some stuff on virtual texturing in side it.

Looking at the engine, I think i’ll be turning console gamer pretty soon ¬_¬

http://s09.idav.ucdavis.edu/talks/05-JP_id_Tech_5_Challenges.pdf[/QUOTE]

Why? Doom 4 is most likely running at just 30 frames on consoles while they try to keep the PC version running at 60 fps.

(SockDog) #53

Engine wise the worst thing that will happen is that it’ll become less efficient on the PC and more so on consoles. Much like GTA IV though, if you have a good/great PC it’ll still firmly shame a console.

My biggest concern beyond that is actual game design which can’t be fixed with an upgrade.

Actually, to contradict myself. One area of id Tech 5 that might be an issue on the PC is the fact that the GPU tech hasn’t advanced whereas on the PC it has. Would id code new techniques into the engine if only the PC could take advantage of them?

(maggol) #54

I can download another GB, if that patch fixed the hiccup

Please release another patch for QW, i will donate if that necessary

(acidrain) #55

He didn’t mean the fix would be a big download, but rather that it would take a lot of effort to implement.

There won’t be another ETQW patch, guys. :slight_smile:

(deadlights) #56

Great news on the audio fix.

(tokamak) #57

I really wish you guys didn’t point on the hick-up to me. I always knew there was something off but couldn’t quite pin point it. And now it’s more obvious than ever.

(digibob) #58

[QUOTE=Bezzy;194987]I remember the audio thing being fixed maybe the first month I joined here (about a year and a half ago), and yeah, the difference was night and day. I’m not sure but I think it was something to do with audio processing being in the main loop? Or was it audio memory not being assigned in the right chunk size? :confused: GORDOOOONNNNN!
[/QUOTE]

The old audio code used to submit buffers to DirectSound in large chunks, think it was around 90ms or so’s worth of sound at a time. Since the game code tic ran at 30hz (33ms), this meant that whenever the game code submitted a new sound, there could a variable delay before the sound actually started playing. This took a lot of juggling to work around, and in the end I still wasn’t hugely happy with the solution.

We have moved over to using the XAudio2 API now however, which is a much nicer API to work with, especially as a lot of the annoying fiddly bits are handled for you. Write once, compile twice (it runs on the 360 as well!) is also very handy, as it cuts down on the number of APIs we have to support, and thus, the code we have to write.

(murka) #59

There are a few issues that i haven’t noticed being mentioned yet:

  • Threaded renderer - turning it on causes FPS to be uncapped(com_unlock_timingMethod 1, com_unlock_maxFPS 120), causing unstable framerate(150-300 for ex).

    [li]Off-Screen rendering - I know you guys fixed a major bug with it(mostly for ATI users), but one thing exists. When i rendered a clip at the res of 2560x1440, i noticed effects such as heat haze, scope and slipgate being wrong.[/li]I have ATI HD4850
    Images: link Only editing was downscaling them by 4x.
(Ca9ine) #60

I doubt id Software has given id Tech 5 to anyone else, when their own game Rage isn’t even out.

ET:QW id Tech 4 engine has it’s quirks, but I’m quite sure SD is fully aware, and as they say the highly modified id Tech 4 will make BRINK run excellent.