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general:faqs_users [2006-09-27 09:58] Carsten Replaced "MDK" with "SDK" |
general:faqs_users [2008-08-04 11:29] Carsten Added FAQ about Windows Firewalls |
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| - | ====== FAQs for Users (about the Ca3DE-Demo) ====== | + | ====== User FAQs ====== |
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| + | ===== Why does my Personal Firewall report Ca3DE.exe? ===== | ||
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| + | When you start the Ca3D-Engine, it internally starts a client and a server, then connects to itself when a new map is loaded. | ||
| + | This is done even for pure single-player games, and thus your Windows or Personal Firewall reports that ''Ca3DE.exe'' is establishing a network connection. | ||
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| + | Therefore, please set your Firewall to not block Ca3DE from network access. | ||
| + | If you do not plan to host a Ca3DE game server or join a Ca3DE internet game, there is of course no harm in blocking access from and to the internet for ''Ca3DE.exe'', but for single-player games, basic access to the local network is required. | ||
| ===== Where can I learn more about 3D programming or game engines? ===== | ===== Where can I learn more about 3D programming or game engines? ===== | ||
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| //Ca3DE// also refers to the file name of the main engine executable that comes with each demo. And lastly, the names of my development tools are prefixed with "Ca..." as well, e.g. //CaBSP//, //CaPVS// and //CaLight//. | //Ca3DE// also refers to the file name of the main engine executable that comes with each demo. And lastly, the names of my development tools are prefixed with "Ca..." as well, e.g. //CaBSP//, //CaPVS// and //CaLight//. | ||
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| - | For your information, there is a Glossary in the user manual that has definitions for all of these terms, i.e. what each of the above mentioned programs is good for. (You only need them for development, so please refer to the Ca3DE-SDK if you are really interested in them.) | ||
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| Here is a list of options and suggestions that might help with the performance. You may simply try them out, and see what works best for your system. However, please note that most of these options //will buy you faster rendering at the cost of decreased image quality//. | Here is a list of options and suggestions that might help with the performance. You may simply try them out, and see what works best for your system. However, please note that most of these options //will buy you faster rendering at the cost of decreased image quality//. | ||
| + | * **Vertical synchronization.** People frequently report that their frame-rate seems to be capped to 60 or 30 (or another multiple of 15) FPS. This is usually because //vertical synchronization// is enabled for your graphics board. Please see the Wikipedia article at [[wp>Vertical_synchronization]] for technical details on the matter. \\ Find the related setting in the control panel of your graphics driver to disable the vertical synchronization. Your graphics driver and board will then render the frames without the delay inherent to vertical synchronization, which in turn increases the FPS. | ||
| * **Video memory and texture size.** If your graphics board has too little video memory to store all the textures simultaneously that Ca3DE needs for rendering a single frame, the FPS usually suffers significantly. In this case you can set a lower texture quality in the initial Options dialog. \\ This effectively scales all textures down to not exceed a maximum size, and therefore improves the chances that they all fit into video RAM simultaneously. Another option is to add physical memory to your graphics board. 128 MB normally work well, 256 MB are even better and can store the textures even in maximum resolution. | * **Video memory and texture size.** If your graphics board has too little video memory to store all the textures simultaneously that Ca3DE needs for rendering a single frame, the FPS usually suffers significantly. In this case you can set a lower texture quality in the initial Options dialog. \\ This effectively scales all textures down to not exceed a maximum size, and therefore improves the chances that they all fit into video RAM simultaneously. Another option is to add physical memory to your graphics board. 128 MB normally work well, 256 MB are even better and can store the textures even in maximum resolution. | ||
| * **Display resolution.** The default display resolution of Ca3DE is 1024*768. That setting has been proven a good compromise between image quality and frame-rate, but you might decrease it within the console in order to increase the frame-rate. Reducing to 800*600 or even to 640*480 helps a lot. | * **Display resolution.** The default display resolution of Ca3DE is 1024*768. That setting has been proven a good compromise between image quality and frame-rate, but you might decrease it within the console in order to increase the frame-rate. Reducing to 800*600 or even to 640*480 helps a lot. | ||
| - | * **Pixel fill-rate.** The most common reason for low FPS is that dynamic lighting and shadows consume a //very high pixel fill-rate//. Besides reducing the display resolution as mentioned above, the most effective way to improve FPS in this case is to turn dynamic lighting and shadow effects entirely off. However, please note that much of the Ca3DE image quality and atmosphere depends on these effects, and turning these effects off //is not recommended!// If you want to do that anyway, enter "r_style 4" into the in-game console, which is activated by the ~ key (US keyboard layout) or the ^ key (German keyboard layout). | + | * **Pixel fill-rate.** A common reason for low FPS is that dynamic lighting and shadows consume a //very high pixel fill-rate//. Besides reducing the display resolution as mentioned above, an effective way to improve FPS in this case is to turn dynamic lighting and shadow effects entirely off. \\ One way to achieve this is to set the ''cl_maxLights'' console variable to ''0''. This can be done in the game console or by putting the statement<code lua>cl_maxLights=0;</code> into your ''config.lua'' file. \\ When Ca3DE is run from the command-line, it is also possible to specify a renderer DLL that makes use of less graphics features. For example, you might try the OpenGL 1.2 renderer in order to increase the FPS:<code>C:\...\Projects\Ca3D-Engine> Ca3DE.exe -clRenderer ..\Libs\build\win32\vc8\release\MaterialSystem\RendererOpenGL12.dll</code> |
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| + | ===== What is the registration code for the forum? ===== | ||
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| + | The registration code is **8226**. | ||
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| + | If you wonder why it is so hard to register at the Ca3DE forums, the answer is: //spammers//! | ||
| + | Both humans and robots register themselves aggressively, just in order to place their advertisements, improve their Google rankings, etc. | ||
| + | Both the registration code and the visual confirmation are unforunately required to make sure that only interested and motivated humans can register themselves to the Ca3DE forums. I'm very sorry about this inconvenience, but it is required to make the forums a nicer place for everyone. :-) | ||
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| + | You may also read my post at [[http://www.ca3d-engine.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2084#2084|Information for new forum members]] for more details. | ||
| + | All that being said, I'd be happy to welcome you at the Ca3DE forums! :-D | ||
general/faqs_users.txt · Last modified: 2015-05-18 22:09 (external edit)