Daemoc Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 Is there much of a performance hit when using a high number of lights if they do not cast shadows? I have done tests with a ton of lights without issue myself, but I have pretty stout hardware. Lets say I make a catwalk and I have lights running along both sides. I was wondering how much of an impact on low spec hardware it would be if I gave each light a small point light. No shadows of course. Is there a soft limit I should not go over per map? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yue Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 In my case, only with one light I have performance problems, my hardawre is about 15 years ago, in that case complex scenes would be for exclusive use of medium or high range. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reepblue Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 Lights are cheap, it's the shadows you have to worry about for the most part. 1 Quote Cyclone - Ultra Game System - Component Preprocessor - Tex2TGA - Darkness Awaits Template (Leadwerks) If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemoc Posted June 27, 2019 Author Share Posted June 27, 2019 I think I am going to run a few test maps with 10's to 100's of lights without shadows and see what the impact is on some low spec hardware. Some very simple maps, just a cube maybe? Something to really isolate the lights impact. I have access to a few windows machines with integrated graphics at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reepblue Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 I recall doing a similar test myself and I don't remember lights without shadows decreasing performance. 1 Quote Cyclone - Ultra Game System - Component Preprocessor - Tex2TGA - Darkness Awaits Template (Leadwerks) If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 The slow step tends to be lights (especially point lights) that get redrawn each frame. 1 1 Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution Daemoc Posted July 2, 2019 Author Solution Share Posted July 2, 2019 I ran a few tests myself and there is a definite impact on frame rate when a lot of lights are involved. It was odd though, the impact seemed to be non-linear. 1-10 really had no impact at all. 10-30 had a steady impact. 50+ tanked the frame rate in a hurry. I don't know how hardware dependent this is either. The most important thing I learned is that you can have 10,000 lights on your map with no impact as long as they are not all being drawn at the same time. I will try to keep the light's on screen count under 10. I will also have to make sure the "detail" lights can be turned of on low spec machines. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 On 7/2/2019 at 4:17 PM, Daemoc said: The most important thing I learned is that you can have 10,000 lights on your map with no impact as long as they are not all being drawn at the same time. I will try to keep the light's on screen count under 10. I will also have to make sure the "detail" lights can be turned of on low spec machines. I think this will be easy to do in a top-down game. 1 1 Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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