IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

TheIdiot's new mod set on Isla Nublar

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IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by TheIdiot »

Well folks - it's time for a really big announcement and change regarding the development of RTJP.

Following some random testing on friend's computers, I discovered a major problem with RTJP~Nublar, the level I've been showing off for the last year or so. While it ran fine on powerful modern computers, a couple of my friends with mid-range PCs found the level to lag horribly. The game was running at 20 Frames-Per-Second maximum, and in the Visitor Center it bogged down to 8 or 9. It seems 20000 objects covering a 4096x heightmap just doesn't work, and the fact that the island is only 1/6th covered tells me that RTJP's original objective of creating a fully open-world Isla Nublar simply is not possible in Trespasser. :( Everyone has the right to enjoy our dinosaurs, and with the current state of the level's play-ability, I feel that most Trespassers will be unable to smoothly run the level.

Before you say "RTJP is dead!", I will tell you my NEW plan. Basically I plan to cut the original story and locations of RTJP into about 10 different smaller levels, each about the size of a regular Trespasser level. The story and exploration will be almost 100% intact, but the only difference will be that you will linearly move through the game, level-to-level, like in the original. Of course, there will be plenty of different paths to explore and things to find so that you'll be revisiting levels (or just browsing them in TresEd :P ), finding cool new stuff. Overall the core of the mod remains intact.

That being said, this is still basically another complete restart to RTJP (the fourth time now!). Currently, I've already placed every single road on the island, have made a superior and more realistic heightmap, and am in the process of laying down the beginnings of the first level. Fortunately a lot of the assets are already made, and, due to the substantial reduction in scale, I will be able to reach the level of detail I want with this mod - nothing to the level of Beach~HD, don't worry. This also guarantees the release of the levels as they are finished, meaning that regardless of how long it takes to finish the mod, you'll be getting releases much, much more frequently. :wink:

This version of RTJP will be the definitive final version. It's definitely doable and I am no longer worried about so many problems that I was having with the larger RTJP.

The RTJP~Nublar level will not be released in the forseeable future as it contains so much content that will be exclusive to the final releases. I will definitely however share it once most of the assets that are in it have been released as part of the final RTJP.

"Creation is an act of sheer will - and next time, it will be flawless!"
Last edited by TheIdiot on Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by Deagles4life »

"It's still the flea circus. It's all an illusion." lol just placing the responding quote

It sucks about the engine and computer processing limitations, but I hope you keep a copy of the old full size one so I can play it on my beastly computer when the full version of RTJP is released!
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

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"It's still the flea circus. It's all an illusion."
"We never had a stable framerate, that's the illusion! I was overwhelmed by the scale of this island, but I made a mistake, too - I didn't have enough respect for the engine, and it's crashing now!" :P
It sucks about the engine and computer processing limitations, but I hope you keep a copy of the old full size one so I can play it on my beastly computer when the full version of RTJP is released!
I will definitely release the old one later, as I said. I understand that there are plenty of people who can run the old version at 45 FPS, such as myself, but I want to make sure everyone is able to play the mod at decent enough performance.

Update on the island: Working hard to get the base heightmap looking good. Once the simple grayscale image is finished, I'll import it through TresEd and GUIApp - something I could not do with older versions as I lacked the ability to properly import heightmaps - and begin on the finer details. So far it looks significantly more realistic and superior to any of my previous maps - I really tried to get the mountains looking like those in Kauai, with the steep roots and thin, craggy summits. Additionally, the coastline is now guaranteed to be 100% film-accurate as I started with an actual outline of the island. Will post screenshots as soon as I get the mountains down.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by machf »

Sounds like what happened to JPDS...
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

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machf wrote:Sounds like what happened to JPDS...
:lol: Pretty much, that's what I said to Draco. It just isn't possible in Tres, even with CE.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by tatu »

I think JPDS main issue was that it exceeded the max amount of objects, not FPS issues. Also note that JPDS came out years before the CE patch.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by TheKritter71 »

I think I remember mentioning this a long time ago, one big map is not possible for the size of the island. You'd have to spare out the map into smaller sections.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

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TheKritter71 wrote:I think I remember mentioning this a long time ago, one big map is not possible for the size of the island. You'd have to spare out the map into smaller sections.
Well, it's possible, but the detail would have to be perhaps even less than retail Trespasser. I wonder how poorly the game would run if you covered the entire map of Isla Sorna (all the levels combined) from Tres with appropriate filling... :sick:
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by tatu »

How well is the map with FPS if you play with regular Tres settings (CE without drawdistance for example). Check out "Trespasser: Legacy - Part 1" level, as it have some huge detail in it. And I even think it uses almost 65000 objects in one not so huge level. It also uses ATX instead of CE.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

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tatu wrote:How well is the map with FPS if you play with regular Tres settings (CE without drawdistance for example). Check out "Trespasser: Legacy - Part 1" level, as it have some huge detail in it. And I even think it uses almost 65000 objects in one not so huge level. It also uses ATX instead of CE.
That's actually a very good point - I'll look into that. All of CE's settings are set to normal Tres values, I don't have anything higher than usual. The only things that are cranked up are in the level itself, and these are terrain resolution (which I have tested thoroughly and haven't experienced any change in FPS by increasing it) and FarClipDist, but all that does is draw the terrain further - I have objects culling at a standard range.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by Draconisaurus »

Good luck for the 4th run!
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

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Draconisaurus wrote:Good luck for the 4th run!
:P Well considering my lucky number is 65, it might take a *few* restarts before I start feeling lucky...


UPDATE: The island heightmap is nearing completion, I'm currently in the process of smoothing out the mountains and elevation and fiddling with a few extra heights here and there. The mountains look great already, although I'm not totally satisfied with the height of Mount Sibo at the moment. The heightmap is of course just a rough outline as the further details will be filled in as the levels progress.

Speaking of levels, the game's story and progression has been finalized, with the grand total of levels set on Isla Nublar coming out to 9, plus a pair of extras that are not top-priority and simply act as a prologue. Everything present in my original open-world draft is still there, so nothing has been skimped on!
The fact that each level will now be much, much smaller also brings back the concept of upgrades and breakable weapons due to the fact that I am no longer worried about exceeding the object limit as no level will likely end up with more than 25000 objects as I find that this is where stability and performance begins to crumble (RTJP~Nublar had 28000ish), with the highest extreme I am willing to reach being 30000. Additionally, thanks to the recent update in TresCE, it *might* even be possible to carry over any weapon or object from one level into the next, though I will have to look into how this is achievable through the scripting.

I hope to get the heightmap finalized soon. I do not intend to show much of the island this time around in screenshots as I want to allow you to discover everything yourself - there might be a few vague shots here and there, but nothing spectacular. :wink: Additionally, nothing I show in screenshots will be WIP from this point on, so what you see is what you get (unless of course I refine things later without foresight of this).
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by Draconisaurus »

TheIdiot wrote:The fact that each level will now be much, much smaller also brings back the concept of upgrades and breakable weapons
Additionally, thanks to the recent update in TresCE, it *might* even be possible to carry over any weapon or object from one level into the next, though I will have to look into how this is achievable through the scripting.
:o Yay! I wonder about the custom objs passing through levels.. Sounds complicated :|
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by TheIdiot »

:o Yay! I wonder about the custom objs passing through levels.. Sounds complicated :|
Well, if I can figure out the basic scripting, it shouldn't really be too hard (I hope). The custom, combined objects will simply be CInstances after all since the CEntityAttached thing is impractical.
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Re: IMPORTANT: Big Changes to RTJP!

Post by Second Illiteration »

It would be nice if there was some way to go back and forth between levels and have whatever effects on the environment you made saved in. In that way you could create a huge island that was broken up into small levels but felt open
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