[REL] Reduced Traffic Mod v1.2

[Excalibur Bane]

Reduced Traffic Mod v1.2

What is the purpose of this mod?

The goal in creating this mod was to to remove all non-essential traffic from the game that does not have any significant effect on gameplay, in order to make the game experience much smoother. It should offer a significant performance boost to both the graphics engine as well as the GUI responsiveness when operating at high time compression settings. You can also expect a fairly decent reduction in load times from the main menu to in-game, or from your office to in-game as well.

This is not a mod for those who enjoy the extra immersion that all the extra traffic gives, nor is it historically accurate or correct. That's not the purpose of it. It's designed to allow those with slower systems (Or those looking for a higher frame rate) to enjoy the graphics engine to it's fullest by removing much of the load off the CPU due to constantly having to track so many ships in the background.I've done extensive testing over the last three days, and I've found no issues or problems. With my system configuration (Athlon XP 3200+, 1 GB of RAM, GF7600 GT) I'm able to run the game with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled, while having almost all settings at maximum, and get a solid 24 fps. As with most things though, your mileage will vary. I hope this mod is useful to you and enjoy :)

Where I can download it?

You can find the latest version here (http://files.filefront.com/Reduced_Traffic_Mod.rar/;8377395;/fileinfo.html) (Thanks for the mirror, Sneeky!)

Installation Instructions

My mod is JSGME compatible, simply extract all the files from the RAR archive into the MODS subfolder of your main SH4 directory, and enable it using JSGME.

NOTE: As with installing any mod, it is recommended to return to port, exit the game and then activate the mod. I've done limited testing of activating while at sea, and I've encountered no problems, but do so at your own risk.

Compatiblity

This mod will function on any version of SH4 past, present or future due to the fact that it simply modifies the campaign mission files. It is not compatible with any other mods that modify the friendly campaign mission files (and a few enemy mission files).

Version History

v1.2

- Removed most friendly assets (air, land, sea) and removed some more enemy coastal traffic (sampans, tugs, junks). Friendly taskforces and scripted battles remain untouched as they are very small and would offer little to no gain by removing them.

- Added a readme file with proper information.

- Added version history.

v1.1

Internal release.

v1.0

Initial release.

Contact Information

If you encounter any problems while using this mod, please post in this thread and I will help you as best I can. Constructive comments and suggestions for future versions, are also welcome. Feel free to email me at the address included in the mod.

Finally, please give me credit if you intend to use this mod or alter it for use in your mod. Although, I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody is ever going to want to use this in any other mods. ;)

[PULSEOX]

I would be interested in trying it out. I play with all settings on low and get 8-15 fps. I really don't see a lot of "difference" between medium and low setting visually-so maybe this would help. After all if I didn't like it I could always go back, right?

[switch.dota]

Granted, by removing these layers, the tradeoff is that the world is less realistic and feels less alive but this might be a sacrifice that those who are having trouble getting the game to run smoothly because of the background tracking of ships, etc. are willing to make.

What exactly do you mean by that?

[Excalibur Bane]

Well, besides running the GUI and the graphics engine, the game is contantly tracking the position of stuff in the game world, which is very taxing on the CPU because of the raw data that needs to be processed and the general lack of decent coding. SH3 had precisely the same problem, clearly they didn't give much time to tightening up the code in SH4.

For example, removing the layer for friendly merchants, would get rid of all of the junk merchants coming off the west coast of the US. For gameplay purposes, this would have no effect. Unless you plan on cruising around and shooting up your own merchant vessels :D

It really depends on how much a person wants to sacrifice in terms of immersion, realism, etc to get a smoother game experience. You could remove coastal traffic althogether, both friendly and enemy, because they consist of nothing but Sampans, Fishing boats and Junks. Again, not terribly important to gameplay since they don't represent major targets, they are more irritants then anything else but they do contribute to the game's atmosphere.

[Fercyful]

sounds very insteresting :up: please can you release your campaign like a mod so we can try it,

thanks! :rock:

:arrgh!:

[Hartmann]

Another interesting thing could be reduce the size of convois and task forces. or reduce coastal traffic :hmm:

[Excalibur Bane]

Well, at the moment, I'm just looking at removing ALL coastal traffic. Friendly and enemy. The consist is nothing vital at all. Fishing boats mostly, some sampans, a few junks, etc. The non-major friendly merchants (French, Dutch, Australian) are gonna go as well. They have some rather pointless routes along the west coast to Pearl. Beyond that, some of the consists of the merchants are just odd. A netherland large coastal freighter going from the west coast to Pearl? That's a touch strange but okay ;)

As I said before, it's hard to find a balance that pleases everyone without having ten different versions, all with minor changes. So, I'm just going to test out removing those two items which are major enough to hopefully see some decent performance gain. It can be further reduced of course, but I'll see how this works out and go from there.

I've had very little time today to work on anything, but I'll have something up by tommorow for testing and feedback.:)

[Excalibur Bane]

Okay. I have a test version up and ready to be tested :)

This is just a prelimary version, so I haven't bothered with a readme or any kind of version numbering. It removes the Japanese coastal traffic, as well as the non-major powers coastal traffic and there merchants as well. I did some basic testing, and transition from the menu to ingame is about 10-15% better on my system. Performance with time acceleration (particularly high levels) is considerably smoother as well.

It's in JSGME format, so simply extract it to the mods folder in your SH4 directory, and enable it in JSGME and you'll be all set. You can download it here (http://home.cogeco.ca/~jeremy.matte/Performance RND Layers.rar).

I didn't encounter any problems with it, but if you do, just let me know here. It'd be great if you guys could post results with it as well. Not looking for exact numbers, just a general idea.

My system specs:
Athlon XP 3200+
1 GB of RAM
GF 7600 GT

So, enjoy :)

[PULSEOX]

I just tried out your mod, and so far, it seems great. The first thing I noticed was the game loaded up a lot faster. (seemed like twice as fast).
Where I was getting 7-12 fps before, now it seems to consistently average around 12- 17 fps. Nice work, Thanks!

[Excalibur Bane]

I just tried out your mod, and so far, it seems great. The first thing I noticed was the game loaded up a lot faster. (seemed like twice as fast).
Where I was getting 7-12 fps before, now it seems to consistently average around 12- 17 fps. Nice work, Thanks!

Well, at least one person is enjoying it. ;)

Further tweaks could be made to reduce load as well, it really is a matter of taste. Friendly merchants of all kinds could be removed, friendly taskforces, airbases, etc. They are a nice touch to have, but not when you have a slower system and it cripples gameplay. Atmosphere vs. performance I guess.

Of course you'll still only be able to speed it up by a certain amount, before you run into limitations with the system and the graphics engine.

[PULSEOX]

Yes, I;ve noticed the game runs smoother and I can TC at a higher level-2500 seems best.

[cpomd]

Where can I download from please?

[Excalibur Bane]

Where can I download from please?

You can download it here (http://home.cogeco.ca/~jeremy.matte/Performance%20RND%20Layers.rar).

[Fercyful]

hey! thanks, will try when arrive home :arrgh!:

seems to work nice!

[PAW]

Just dropping into say that i'm also interested (and thankyou). TC 1024 was fine for SH3 but along comes the pacific ocean and 1024 just doesn't do it. Also, all the coastal traffic (especially in friendly ports) was a major pain. Mean't I actually tended to sail around midway (If i felt I could afford the fuel) just to avoid the juddering frames at high TC.

[Excalibur Bane]

Thanks, good to know it's proving useful. If the interest is there, I can provide an even higher performance layer that removes the friendly stuff in port as well as the friendly taskforces altogether. This is what I've been using myself, I've got very good results with this. Not sure how many people would be interested in this though.

I might split them upto into two versions, a "heavy" and a "light" performance RND layer. We'll see :)

[PULSEOX]

I would definitely be interested in the "Heavy" version. While all the friendly traffic is nice if you have a system that can handle it-it is unnecessary and just slows things down to a crawl on marginal systems.
If it means I can raise my fps to a enjoyable level and have less choppy gameplay-I'd be glad to sacrifice the "friendly" traffic all together!
Thanks Again!

[cpomd]

My Spec is 1.4Mhz Intel P4, 6200 nvidia graphics, 1GB Ram and I found a small around 5 or so FPS improvement so i would definitely like a Heavy version to try out.
Tia

[Excalibur Bane]

Alrighty, new version is up. Oooh, it looks like a real mod now. Fancy that. ;)

I hope I got it written properly and everything is correct...:hmm:

[Webster]

this sounds very user friendly and it should be very popular since most buyers of sh4 find thier computers have trouble running it. maybe now they can enjoy it without spending money to upgrade thier computers just to play a game.

doing the "heavy" and "light" versions are a good way to go depending on your system you can decide which is the best fit. as you said, "this was a problem in sh3 as well", will you do this same mod for sh3 as well?

i think many people who like playing silent hunter, do so because they love the "game" and don't need a history accurate simulation so speeding up loading times and fps might be worth the cost of losing some eye candy.

[Bluesub 6]

"remove some enemy coastal traffic(sampans,tugs,junks)" thank you,this have made more difficulties that other traffic.
Good job:up:

[Excalibur Bane]

this sounds very user friendly and it should be very popular since most buyers of sh4 find thier computers have trouble running it. maybe now they can enjoy it without spending money to upgrade thier computers just to play a game.

doing the "heavy" and "light" versions are a good way to go depending on your system you can decide which is the best fit. as you said, "this was a problem in sh3 as well", will you do this same mod for sh3 as well?

i think many people who like playing silent hunter, do so because they love the "game" and don't need a history accurate simulation so speeding up loading times and fps might be worth the cost of losing some eye candy.

SH3 is a different story altogether, the traffic in it is not nearly as crippling as SH4. I don't have any plans to make a similiar mod for SH3 at the moment. I decided to drop the light version of the mod for SH4 as well, because it simply wasn't providing enough of a performance gain.

People play the game the way they wish, though I'm fairly certain most people here are very realism oriented (kinda goes without saying;) ) but this mod is here just to present people with options. The mod doesn't remove anything that would affect gameplay at all, it simply removes the eye-candy that some people can't afford to having running in the background. Granted, you could say it does affect gameplay to a degree because you will rarely have to figure out if your detecting friend or foe but I don't think that's a big deal personally. :)

[Navigator857]

Just ran your mod, works fantastic. Saw a great improvement in TC and loading times. Much appreciated. :p

[Excalibur Bane]

Glad you guys are enjoying it! :up:

[Webster]

just tried it, my grafics went from cartoonish to movie looking when i activated your mod. this will be a manditory fix for my old computer. the only times i get reduced fps now is when aircraft are diving, but i had that in sh3 as well.

is " Reduced Traffic Mod v1.2" the "heavy" version or are you still working on that one?

[Excalibur Bane]

Yes, this is most definately the heavy version. There is nothing left to remove that wouldn't have a serious impact on gameplay. :-?

[Webster]

Yes, this is most definately the heavy version. There is nothing left to remove that wouldn't have a serious impact on gameplay. :-?

ok, thanks

i suspect almost anyone without a new computer or anyone who upgraded to vista will be needing this mod.

very nice work, thank you

[Excalibur Bane]

Just a quick note: If you decide to use this with the beta 1.3 patch that's floating around, you will most likely not get much of an improvement, as the new code they put in for various additions to the game has not been optimized with the beta patch.

It should work just fine with the official 1.3 patch when it's released. :)

[Von Tonner]

Excalibur Bane
The mod doesn't remove anything that would affect gameplay at all, it simply removes the eye-candy that some people can't afford to having running in the background. Granted, you could say it does affect gameplay to a degree because you will rarely have to figure out if your detecting friend or foe but I don't think that's a big deal personally.
This mod sounds great and one I would want to use when I am patched up to 1.3 BUT, my concern is the sampans etc, Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that if you allowed a sampan or fishing boat to sight you, chances were you would soon find a destroyer looking for you as they had radioed your position in. It happened to me but this could have been purely coincedental.

[Excalibur Bane]

Very likely true. However, I don't think it will spawn a DD, it would simply bring down some planes on you from a nearby airbase. In any event, pretend you got sighted by a pretend sampan and had to make a pretend crash dive to avoid getting bombed by a couple of make-believe Emily's and your all set. :88)

[tater]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there is no way to call surface combatants, except perhaps if they are already in render range (~20 nm). Easy enough to test, male a mission with a sampan "fleet" and a DD ~20 miles away parallel with the player sub close aboard the sampans and see what happens.

[Bluesub 6]

Now, Patch 1.3 is down.
Is the Mod compatible ?

[Excalibur Bane]

It is quite compatible. As I stated, this simply changes a few .mis files and basically swaps them with empty ones. I've been testing it with the 1.3 patch for a few days now and they seem to have added additional load somewhere, as I'm not seeing as great a performance increase as I did when I installed it on 1.2. Odd. Additional testing is definately gonna be required. :-?

[Bluesub 6]

I can wait:sunny:

[Excalibur Bane]

So with some further testing, the slowdown is not related to my mod or the modifications it makes. The 1.3 patch only modifies a single file relating to my mod as well, so the version that is there is 1.3 compatible and should work fine. Woot! :up:

[Fercyful]

"they seem to have added additional load somewhere"

ouch :cry: :damn:

please where did you notice that? at ports? ... I ask cos I didn´t try the 1.3 patch yet

thanks!

:arrgh!:

[Excalibur Bane]

It's everywhere. I suspect it's the improved AI chewing up more CPU time, but there is little that can be done about that. :(

[Fercyful]

I understand, thanks for the report... mmm... maybe I will keep playing with 1.2 if the fps in 1.3 is too bad... :damn: today I will finally test it.

:arrgh!:

[Webster]

from what i understand, 1.3 fixed parts of the game that were not originally working, like some AI stuff and 3D rendering so that must be the culprit.

[AkbarGulag]

I seem to be getting a 404 error for that download page.

Has anyone got this mirrored anywhere? Or know an alternate link?

Cheers,

Akbar

[davelacey]

I'm getting a '404' also - hopefully EB can shed some light on this. :)

[linerkiller]

im new on this forum...this mod interest me a lot..but when I try to download it i obtain an error message.
Thanks
LK

[Excalibur Bane]

My apologies fellas, in the move to my new place, my ISP saw fit to nuke everything in my webspace, instead of transferring it with the rest of my service. :(

Unfortunately, I didn't have a backup of the mod on my system at the time either. So unless a user has a copy of it floating around, I'll have to create it from scratch again and that could take a bit of time. I'll try to have it up again soon, anyone who did get a copy, please PM me.

Remind to back my own mod up in the future.:oops:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM :up: linerkiller


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[linerkiller]

thanks comrades!...
i'm very happy to be here with all you!!
Hoping in a good SHIV trip
LK

[ReallyDedPoet]

Link here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=627559&posted=1#post627559


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