[REL] Reduced Traffic Mod v1.2
 

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 (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. ;)

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?

What exactly do you mean by that?

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.

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

thanks! :rock:

:arrgh!:

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

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.:)

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.

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 :)

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.

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

Sounds interesting
 

Where can I download from please?

You can download it here.

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

seems to work nice!

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.