Which additions will hit performance the most

[Finkeren]

Most of us were pleasantly surprised at just how well BoS runs in its Alpha state, but obviously that is partly because a lot of elements that put a strain on CPU/GPU are still missing.

 

Currently there's no flying AI, no weapons effects and ballistics, relatively few ground units, no weather effects (though wind is there in the physics engine), semi-complete aircraft DM, ground units have no DM, few particle effects etc.

 

Which elements should we expect to hit performance the hardest?

 

I have confidence that the devs will work hard to keep improving performance, but honestly they'd have to be supernaturally skilled to keep at least the load times as short, as they are now.

[1./KG4_Blackwolf]

I was thinking the same thing last night. It runs great..oh wait there isn't a lot of stuff here yet or even the big map. I guess the devs will introduce a little at a time to see how far to push it.

[=RvE=Windmills]

Ground units/aircraft.

[Matt]

Based on previous experience with RoF, planes/units with multiple "turrets" (as in multi-seater planes or even tanks) cause the biggest performance hit.

 

It will be interesting to see how BoS will handle many (200+) ground units or many multi-seater AI planes.

[FuriousMeow]

Currently BoS is pushing 1.3GB on my video card at 2560x1600 and everything on max (except SSAO, that's off).

 

But in my experience with RoF, the VRAM usage doesn't go up significantly higher even with more aircraft in the skies and each flight using different skins. GPU usage is also between 70 and 90% usage. CPU is around 30 to 40%, but that will climb quite a bit with more ground objects and SP AI planes.

 

Also, there's going to be tweaking and optmizing so things will fluctuate wildly over the next few months I bet.

[BeastyBaiter]

From my experience in RoF, it's planes that will eat up your CPU unbelievably fast. They use the full FM, not a simplified form and that results in some pretty heavy demands. In RoF, what will bring my older system to a screeching halt is going out with a flight of two seaters with fighter escort and encountering an enemy flight of the same + some additional random planes running around (in addition to all the ground units/balloons). My poor 3 ghz quad core just can't handle that. End up flying at a forced 1/2 time compression until some stuff dies.

[Fifi]

Don't know what kind of clouds BOS will use, but they can hit perf quite a lot too.