Loss of frame rate ONLY when viewing aircraft head-on with exhaust trail

[jetjak73 0]

i noticed something last night while flying about in WOV. I went to external view and panned around my ride. I was getting great frames until i went to a nose-on view, looking at the plane from head-on. The frames dropped considerably by 20 or more. My immediate sense was that it had to do with the exhaust trail. I also noticed that explosions seen close up resulted in dramatic drops in frames, versus explosions viewed from a mile or greater. Both instances having to do with particles, i believe. Nothing remarkable you might think, but here's the kicker. I do not get a drop in frames when viewing a smoke trail from the side (be it exhaust or a burning a/c). I only get a frame rate loss when viewing a smoke trail head-on. So my thinking is that the graphics engine is doing some sort of layering of one particle image "on top of" another when displaying smoke/particles head-on. I'm wondering if there is a graphics card setting to resolve this...shaders?

 

jj

Edited February 1, 2007 by jetjak73

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Interesting stuff.

 

Test ~~> look head on, with smoke trail, engage afterburners. The smoke turns off when afterburners are running. See if framerate goes up and down with the afterburner on and off. BE SURE to allow time for the smoke trail to dissipate and regenerate. It lasts some time.

 

Particle density. Head on they all overlap, that is interesting. I *may* have noticed the same thing in making stem clouds. Looking from the side, okay. Taking external camera to the top and looking down the stem interior, lower framerate. I didn't conduct any experiments with this, just hazy kinda memory about this.

 

What happens when you look tail on, from behind the smoke trail?

 

One thing you might could do is reduce the EmissionRate of the particles.

Edited February 2, 2007 by Lexx_Luthor