The Vegastrike Benchmark TM

[chuck_starchaser]

Okay, folks; I got my new shader to compile in ATI' GPU Shader Analyzer, and it seems it will tax the power of even the newest videocards...
CineMut Opaque shader compiling
On the ATI side, nothing less than an HD 4870 will do (that's the latest).
Rather than looking at this in the negative (most videocards will need to choose default, rather than high shader), I choose to look at it in the positive: If this shader is so demanding, it may become a standard benchmark for hardware review sites like tomshardware and anandtech.
This would expose the Vegastrike engine to the masses of hardcore gamers that spend more than they earn on upgrading their GPU's. Imagine each time tomshardware reviews a new GPU/videocard, using the Vegastrike Benchmark TM.
Not ready yet; we'll need to have the shader and techniques working, plus we'll need art assets to utilize it; but I think it would not be a waste of time to start thinking about what a Vegastrike Benchmark might look like.

EDIT:
For those of you who haven't been following CineMut's development, this new shader will go where no man, woman or transistor has gone before: Unsurpassed levels of realism in material representation... You know when OEM's try to mix painted metal and molded plastic parts? They try like crazy to match their optical characteristics so that they look the same, and yet you can tell the paint from the plastic from a mile away? Well, CineMut will be able to differentiate paint from plastic same way. And much more... This is NOT meant to be a shader that plays second fiddle to any other engine's shader; it is going to be at the leading ... I mean THE bleeding edge.

[ace123]

We really need to get defined materials for ships. Though I suppose most of them can be assumed to be a semi-glossy metal if not otherwise defined.

Any chance it will work on an Intel decelerator :-p?
Regardless, I've got to try it out on my desktop machine which has an 8600GTS. Do you have directions on how to set it up with the new technique files?

Anyway, I've been working on stripping out some stuff in Vega Strike's dataset so you can start it up quickly.
I've got it down to about a second but it requires that some stuff is configured by hand before running it -- I was trying to work this into a mesher GUI.

[pyramid]

go where no man, woman or transistor has gone before

Yeah. Cheers (!) the pioneer of shader-on-transistor exploration!!!

A benchmark script might be written a python to move your ship along a predefined path in a benchmark system with loads of different planets, stations, and ships, and then finally jump you out to another system before spitting out the benchmark results. Though I doubt this is graphics specific, but rather capable of measuring the overall system performance.

[chuck_starchaser]

We really need to get defined materials for ships.

This will be the hardest part; I'm planning to put together a Blender library of materials; but Blender defines 3 textures per material; that's 12 channels altogether; probably enough, but not intuitive at all, since specular red will mean diffuse/specular balance, another channel will be dielectric constant; another dielectric blend, another shininess, and there's a few more parameters. Perhaps another good way would be to let artists have one texture per material, any color on transparency, and write a program that translates that into CineMut texture packing.

Though I suppose most of them can be assumed to be a semi-glossy metal if not otherwise defined.

Non metals are essential to have, for metals to shine.

Any chance it will work on an Intel decelerator :-p?

Well, this is gpu-heavy; not cpu-heavy. Unless you're asking about the Intel GPU... --what's it 740? LOL. That would die in a puff of smoke.

Regardless, I've got to try it out on my desktop machine which has an 8600GTS. Do you have directions on how to set it up with the new technique files?

Klauss is the man for that. I think it works out of the box; it worked for me.

Anyway, I've been working on stripping out some stuff in Vega Strike's dataset so you can start it up quickly.
I've got it down to about a second but it requires that some stuff is configured by hand before running it -- I was trying to work this into a mesher GUI.

YEY! That's going to be crucial.
BTW, we'll need keybindings while in view mode to vary the damage and LOD levels up and down; and another to switch between high, medium and low shaders.

[loki1950]

There is already a key binding for next shader

Code: Select all

<bind key="v" modifier="ctrl" command="NewShader"/>

Enjoy the Choice

[safemode]

Can't wait. No longer will we have to hear about reviews in terms of Crysis performance, which usually results in me vomiting from the thought of yet another cookie cutter FPS game, but in terms of Vegastrike performance.

You can play Cephid 17 no problem on machine A, but machine B is a Sol system gaming rig.

[chuck_starchaser]

Kryst! That's so true; nothing but FPS's and car racing games in benchmarks.
Just mindless arcades.
I think a benchmark could be like a total war scenario around a space station oribiting a planet, with 4 capital ships, a few destroyers, and a lot of fighters.
The planet would be the least polies but use a Klauss' two-pass shader, with self-shadowing clouds and whatnot.
The station could be a 200k polygon monstruosity; the capships 100k, the destroyers 50k each; and the ship the camera is sitting in has a 3D cockpit with a good, panoramic view, and the camera is turning around to look at ships that pass by.

EDIT:

@Pyramid: I missed your post; yeah; that's it.
@Loki1950: Great! Didn't know that one.

[www2]

@chuck

Nice work chuck.
I think that CineMud can become a spinoff project.
And B.T.W can your make test it on a nvidia card's/Shader emulator and made some screen shots in vegastrike of the current release?

[chuck_starchaser]

Thanks, but I got no screenshots yet. The shader merely compiles (both for ATI and NVidia), but I haven't even tried running it. To begin testing/debugging it I have to come up with a model with a texturing that adheres to the new texture packing --i.e.: red channel in spec texture means specular to diffuse balance; blue channel of the specular texture encodes the material's dielectric constant; etceteras; it won't work with the existing texture pack. I'm working on a motorcycle model to use for testing.
Additionally, I will need to setup a .technique file, which is a new file type used by Klauss' "Techniques" SVN branch. This Klauss said he can help me with.
And I will need cubemap support and a cubemap for an environment. Safemode is working on cubemap support. So, give it another week or so.

[Shark]

So, you will be able to show off the engine, but the game itself will still be at 0.5.0...

Personally, I'm not interested in a tech demo. Reeks too much of Duke Nukem'.