point_camera / func_monitor system load

predulus · 05-22-2007, 10:18 PM

Hi,

Just thinking about including some camera / monitors in my map, as they have them in RL in the environment I'm mapping.

Wondering what the system overhead per camera / monitor pair is?

Ideally I'd like to have at least 4 working monitors in one control room.

Cheers,
Pred

05-22-2007, 10:40 PM

well I have good news and bad news.

Good new you don't need to worry about how much load 4 monitors will put on your system. The bad news is because you can only have 1 active monitor texture inside of the same POV as another working reliabley. Some people have gotten more than 1 working but its hard to reproduce

lodle · 05-22-2007, 10:48 PM

is this for a mod or standard source game? If its for a mod you can change the code to have multi render targets thus multi cams.

predulus · 05-22-2007, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lodle

is this for a mod or standard source game? If its for a mod you can change the code to have multi render targets thus multi cams.

Standard CS.

VAB, is there much budget overhead in having 1 camera?

haymaker · 05-23-2007, 12:34 AM

I had a camera parented to a func_tracktrain , and a monitor triggered by player proximity. It lagged like a sonofa***** in a 10 person playtest (DM). Maybe its apples and oranges to you, but I decided the whole thing wasnt worthwhile, and opted for more efficient engine loading by eliminating it

lodle · 05-23-2007, 02:41 AM

well basicly your rendering the game twise now instead of once. So i would think about twise the render hit of before. Best way to test this is use +showbudget which shows how long things take to work. Do it once with out cam and once with and look at the render bar (need to go to same spot in the map as well) and see the effect.

Latrosicarius · 05-23-2007, 12:21 PM

Cameras aren't reliable anyway. Often in game, they just appear black or if they are even working, they don't update and they just show 1 frame. Even when they do update, it's such a bad quality image that you can't tell what's going on anyway.

If you want to have a control room, why not make four animated textures that "look" like TV feeds and apply them as decals to the "monitors".

To make an image look like a TV feed, take an image of the room, and in photoshop, draw in some static and horizontal lines moving down the image.

05-22-2007, 10:18 PM	#1
predulus Join Date: Dec 2005 Reputation: 0 Posts: 52	point_camera / func_monitor system load Hi, Just thinking about including some camera / monitors in my map, as they have them in RL in the environment I'm mapping. Wondering what the system overhead per camera / monitor pair is? Ideally I'd like to have at least 4 working monitors in one control room. Cheers, Pred

05-23-2007, 02:41 AM	#6
lodle Join Date: Mar 2006 Reputation: 36 Posts: 1,715	well basicly your rendering the game twise now instead of once. So i would think about twise the render hit of before. Best way to test this is use +showbudget which shows how long things take to work. Do it once with out cam and once with and look at the render bar (need to go to same spot in the map as well) and see the effect. Last edited by lodle: 05-23-2007 at 02:45 AM. Reason: spelling

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

05-22-2007, 10:40 PM	#2
Angry Beaver Guest Posts: n/a	well I have good news and bad news. Good new you don't need to worry about how much load 4 monitors will put on your system. The bad news is because you can only have 1 active monitor texture inside of the same POV as another working reliabley. Some people have gotten more than 1 working but its hard to reproduce

05-22-2007, 10:48 PM	#3
lodle Join Date: Mar 2006 Reputation: 36 Posts: 1,715	is this for a mod or standard source game? If its for a mod you can change the code to have multi render targets thus multi cams.

05-23-2007, 12:34 AM	#5
haymaker Join Date: Nov 2005 Reputation: 31 Posts: 1,296	I had a camera parented to a func_tracktrain , and a monitor triggered by player proximity. It lagged like a sonofa***** in a 10 person playtest (DM). Maybe its apples and oranges to you, but I decided the whole thing wasnt worthwhile, and opted for more efficient engine loading by eliminating it

05-23-2007, 12:21 PM	#7
Latrosicarius Join Date: Oct 2004 Reputation: 0 Posts: 279	Cameras aren't reliable anyway. Often in game, they just appear black or if they are even working, they don't update and they just show 1 frame. Even when they do update, it's such a bad quality image that you can't tell what's going on anyway. If you want to have a control room, why not make four animated textures that "look" like TV feeds and apply them as decals to the "monitors". To make an image look like a TV feed, take an image of the room, and in photoshop, draw in some static and horizontal lines moving down the image.