Griff Normalmapped ships & Simple Shader mode - Anybody?

[Griff]

Hello everyone, sorry for starting another thread about these ships.
Is anybody using this oxp in simple shader mode because their frame rate drops too low if they use full shader mode?
I'm busy working through all the shaders, tidying them up and i'm wondering whether to make the glow maps available in simple shader mode, obviously i won't do this if most players computers are already struggling with simple shader mode.

[Diziet Sma]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine most people who use simple shaders would be doing so because of limited shader support by their graphics card, not the framerate per se...

[Corny]

I'm one of the people Dizzy mentioned and I'd appreciate more fancy stuff with simple shaders

[Griff]

OK, I think i'll make the light maps work in simple shader mode for this OXP, they adds quite a lot to the overall effect of the ships in game without a great deal of extra sums for the video card to do, i can always change it back again if it does end up slowing things down

so in simple shader mode you'll get
normal mapping
specular mapping
glow maps

Full shader mode adds
Random Decals
Random 'paint' recolouring
Engine & laser gun heat glows

[Corny]

This is, for example, the effect that the engines glow orange, right?
Once I saw it on a computer with full shaders, I was like "WHAT it can look like this? I want that, too!"

[Griff]

no, i've left that out of simple shader mode, but i'll be adding the 'hull lights' back in, i could post up various flavours of shader with diferent effects enabled/disabled in them to see which ones bog down the graphics cards though if you'd like to test

[DaddyHoggy]

no, i've left that out of simple shader mode, but i'll be adding the 'hull lights' back in, i could post up various flavours of shader with diferent effects enabled/disabled in them to see which ones bog down the graphics cards though if you'd like to test

That sounds like a fantastic idea Griff - nice one - and thanks (even though I can run full shaders on 3 of the four machines I have access to/Oolite on - the fourth (until I replace the GF2 (or is it a 3?)) would appreciate some snazzier graphics with simple shaders.

[goran]

I for one don't use full shaders 'couse my rig (iMac G5 with GF5200FX) can't cope with them. 8-12 FPS is not playable.

[Griff]

wow, i wouldn't like to try docking at 8-12 FPS! does your frame rate improve in simple shader mode?

prehaps i should explain more what i'm doing - when you set Oolite to simple shader mode you can check for this in your oxp and skip the more taxing shader effects.
I'm wondering now if i've been too cautious in deciding what effects are switched off in simple shader mode and since i'm having a thorough tidy up of all the shaders in the griff_normalmapped_ships.oxp at the moment, now seems like a good time to find out if i've been too strict with simple shader mode for this oxp.

[goran]

Simple shaders are somewhat more playable with fps in 18-25fps ballpark. I'm turning the shaders on from time to time only to check Your and some others marvelous work.