How much resources do tanks without tasks take?

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Hi guys

 

I was wondering something.

 

Lets say you created a DF server mission (for a lot of people 50+) which had several large columns of trucks, tanks and Flak (say adding up to 100-150 objects).

 

They would be just static objects placed in without any triggers and no waypoints etc. Would they take up many resources? The reason I ask is that I was wondering if you can give the impression of a large ground force/battle without impacting too much on the performance of the server.

 

I've seen some very cool missions built which are very complex but sometimes wonder if it's necessary for a large co-op mission and they can cause performance issues in larger missions. I rarely take much notice of what is happening on the ground even when bombing, it's just find the targets, blow them up and try not to die afterwards.

 

So in short do I really need to use many triggers or can I slap a load of stuff in there for the bomber guys to attack?

 

Cheers

 

Emil

[Lippisch]

They shouldn't consume many resources - I read on the forum that someone tested a mission with ~200 ground units and about 10 aircraft - but I guess it would take a while to load the mission. You could give the impression of mostly static tanks and set waypoints for a few reinforcements to move through the formation, maybe based on a trigger if the front-line is defeated by the enemy army. Take into account the historical unit strength - about 500 tanks and aircraft to each side with offensives involving up to 200 tanks and up to 100 aircraft per side. Anti tank guns and AAA were few with the Soviets before the counter-offensive (Uranus) and their units where generally decimated leading up to this point so feel free to have the ground battle a bit biased. 

Edited December 12, 2015 by Lippisch

[6./ZG26_Emil]

They shouldn't consume many resources - I read on the forum that someone tested a mission with ~200 ground units and about 10 aircraft - but I guess it would take a while to load the mission. You could give the impression of mostly static tanks and set waypoints for a few reinforcements to move through the formation, maybe based on a trigger if the front-line is defeated by the enemy army. Take into account the historical unit strength - about 500 tanks and aircraft to each side with offensives involving up to 200 tanks and up to 100 aircraft per side. Anti tank guns and AAA were few with the Soviets before the counter-offensive (Uranus) and their units where generally decimated leading up to this point so feel free to have the ground battle a bit biased. 

 

Thanks that was what I was wondering, it seems we could make a lively looking battlefield and it's not an issue for me if they're moving or not but I want to keep CPU usage down to a minimum. I imagine lots of triggers will take up resources. Also it's a lot quicker and easier to just slap a bunch of vehicles in there if they're not being told to do something.

[Lippisch]

Thanks that was what I was wondering, it seems we could make a lively looking battlefield and it's not an issue for me if they're moving or not but I want to keep CPU usage down to a minimum. I imagine lots of triggers will take up resources. Also it's a lot quicker and easier to just slap a bunch of vehicles in there if they're not being told to do something.

 

I just tested it out. 60 objects total. 35 German vs. 25 Russian. 5 Russian trucks with a single waypoint, 5 KV'1 engaging Panzers across a river, the remainder was static. GAZ-AA trucks could engage if I flew over. On the German side, 5 Stugs with a single waypoint and 5 Panzers with 3 waypoints - each have a Formation trigger as well. 5 more Panzers were engaging the KV'1's per above, the remaining 20 units were static but could engage targets (ie. they were AI activated rather than dumb objects (because I'm not sure how the game sets Nationality to these, and whether you could get points by destroying them).

Tick Delay stayed at about 2 with no aircraft.

 

I tried to spawn 4 Stukas in the air as well but I guess I haven't done it right, because it's not working! With only me spawned in a 109, the Tick Delay was about 4... the lower this number the more players you could handle on the server. Under 20 is reportedly best. A.I Aircraft demand more resources vs. players I assume, due to the AI component, but I'm so far unable to spawn any to test their load on the server.

 

I think the bigger problem with spawning 100 objects in the vicinity along with aircraft would be the demand on the player's graphics card. My units were placed in and around a large city but I'd say I lost between 5-10 fps on average. 

[TP_Jacko]

The biggest drain appears to be AI aircraft in a MP. I think I get to about 15 before things get really messed up like additional aircraft don't spawn of only one of the flight. Prangster did a test mission sometime back with about 200 objects and it played out ok.

 

I have been looking into how Panzer divisions were deployed so would be interested how you set up the ground objects to give a feel of a large ground battle.

[6./ZG26_Emil]

The biggest drain appears to be AI aircraft in a MP. I think I get to about 15 before things get really messed up like additional aircraft don't spawn of only one of the flight. Prangster did a test mission sometime back with about 200 objects and it played out ok.

 

I have been looking into how Panzer divisions were deployed so would be interested how you set up the ground objects to give a feel of a large ground battle.

 

Thanks Jacko I'm probably not going to get started until after Xmas things are just too crazy at the moment.

 

Basically I was more wondering if you can literally just dump a load of objects (trucks and tranks) on to the map without using triggers....I know it works and I know people use the triggers to reduce CPU usage but if we were to just throw in a load of tanks, trucks and Arty without a spawn trigger (and few commands) and leave them static would a mission still run ok like that? If so then making some of the missions I have planned will be much easier and quicker.

 

I want to build a few PVP co-op missions so unlike a single player mission which are often very complicated with nots of stuff going on I'm not fussed too much about tanks going to point A which then causes X to happen and so on and so on....I want to keep them very simple and focus of getting lots of players in the air with as little impact as possible on performance plus be able to churn them our rapidly.

 

I've noticed that people often build missions which have lots of ground objects i.e. blocks (WOL for example) so I wonder what is the difference between a static block and a tank that has been given no command? I can imagine there is some difference as the tank is looking for things to shoot and will have more draw on the CPU but if it's kept as simple as possible with less commands would it matter that much?

 

Hopefully that makes my thinking a little clearer

[coconut]

Tanks and planes are always doing something, but this something can be pretty close to nothing if you give them Force Complete order with high priority.

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Tanks and planes are always doing something, but this something can be pretty close to nothing if you give them Force Complete order with high priority.

 

Hi Coconut yes I understand that but what impact would there be if they're just placed on to the map without orders, commands or trigger? 

 

I made a couple of missions a while back and did that with AAA and it was fine but then it was just me on my own server.

[coconut]

I think the default, without any explicit order, might be the same as Force Complete medium priority, which should cause units to do more scanning than at high priority. I don't know if that will translate to less CPU usage, but it's worth a try.

[6./ZG26_Emil]

I think the default, without any explicit order, might be the same as Force Complete medium priority, which should cause units to do more scanning than at high priority. I don't know if that will translate to less CPU usage, but it's worth a try.

 

Thanks Coconut...I'm lazy and just want to get something up and running and avoid getting sucked in to replicating the 'clever stuff' which is what I found myself doing the first time around in Jan/Feb this year