   Demo up for critiquing.
  I have this 3d demo that will eventually be turned into a game.The demo is a running demo of my so called Engine - which is my first to actually implement such a thing, if it is one.> arrow keys to move "indicator"> a,d,s,w for typical camera movement> enter to fire cannon> esc to exitYou can read more details in the readme file.I would basiclly like replies, suggestions, criticisms...etc, as well as your computer specs and the framerate you get.If you can download it (only 1 mb) and test it a bit and reply back here, i''d be grateful. maybe you would like to help me..which is always possible.thanks again.http://edan.48thfloor.com/demos 
  I get approx 12fps.Specs:Pentium III 850mhzintel 810e graphics160Mb RAMThe only problem I can see is it is very dark(Seems like there is no lighting) when the camera is directly above the terrain. ;  Holy cow!12 fps???I get approximately 55 fps.any ideas what i can do?well, for one thing, i will optimize code (using intel''s VTune 4.5)Also, i noticed that it does get dark when up and close.i do havfe world lighting on though...i think its the materials and some other renderstates or texturestates that is the problem.thanks alot for the input.ill be sure to remedy the mentioned things. ;  On my AMD 1ghz, 512 meg ram, TNT2 16 meg vid ram, I am gettint 34 fps.A recommendation I have is to change the cannon's arrow to some sort of cylinder, because it's extremely hard to tell where the arrow is pointing without turning the camera.Also it seems that your cannonball leaves a crater in the terrain. This is good, but when the cannonball hits the same place it doesn't do any more damage except maybe to a spot next to the previous crater.Other than that (and maybe having a few more monsters  ) good job, keep it up.  [edited by - Erzengeldeslichtes on August 1, 2003 1:33:26 PM];  specs: 1ghz p3 512mb, 32mb geforce2go (dx7 style gpu)20 fps normal view, 11 fps zoom out view - this seems lower than what i''m use to - window size didn''t affect fps - are you using something in dx which might be cpu dependent on some systems, like vertex shaders? how many tris total per frame? stencil buffer ops are really slow on this gpu, are you using the stencil buffer for anything?suggestions:- make the link a clicky- indicate dx8 requirement somewhere other than in readme- download size is 1.8mb, not 1.0critique/suggestions:- ballistics is off - increasing angle on cannon always increases shot distance - need to add gravity calc?- rotating view and then stopping always has skybox rotate to same position one frame (or more) late - looks like the skybox is not the sky but a box that rotates at a different speed than the terrain- cannon grows in length the more it''s elevated - gets to be "infinite" length when pointing almost straight up- monsters appear to slide not walk - need to make some sort of scaling adjustment or slow down animation of monsters - could also cause whole scene to shake as monsters step?- monsters are not rendered correctly - there''s degenerate triangles connecting part of monsters body to its left arm- zooming out causes seams between different LODs to be seen as visible artifacts- camera system is uhmm, "bad", imho - i would much prefer a viewpoint "behind" the cannon, or at least one more level with the cannon and the monsters; whole scene was just too small for a typical arcade type rendering - monster model looks great but couldn''t really see any detail because of camera paths- cannon shot was too quick imho for arcade style play - i think a "heavy" cannon shot that takes several seconds to "land" would be more arcady - closeup zoom to see where the shot lands would also be cool - maybe a behind-the-shot viewpoint?- i didn''t see any ground deformation - nice explosions though- replace shot line traces with smoke trails?- needs a real cannon and a real cannon balli see a lot of possibilities for this if you stick with it.hope this helps. ;  This is strange people.I have a Pentium 2 ghz, 256 ram, and mobility radeon.im not doing anything fancy that utilizes any special features of my video card - nothing.I compiled it under release mode using VS 6.0.One thing I will do that will definitely boost performance is lowering the terrain level of detail. I believe everything from the camera point to the very first seam-line in the terrain is at full detail (so many many poly''s being drawn there).  i will push back the detail a bit there.i will also get some optimizations that i was saving for very last since i was getting decent frames (over 55) on my machine. but since this is so choppy on everybody else''s i better start now and try to target somewhere in the 100''s frames per second if that is even feasible.One thing i want to note:The terrain map is intentionally that small - i didnt want it too big. I wanted the feeling of a 3d isometric view so the user feels like he/she is not missing anything on the terrain (since there will be more monster in all directions).Also, the higher the cursor moves, the higher the velocity. the length of it is also an indicator of the velocity magnitude. hopefully all that stuff will be replaced by an actual cannon (anybody know where i can get one?) and a power meter.There are two skyboxes. one is static. the other one is inside the static one, is alpha blended, and rotates.im not sure how to improve the camera without making it too compicated to use and stuff. right now it seems simple. left/right and zoom in/zoom out.Thanks guys. Would anybody like to help on any particular thing such as monster entities, AI, terrain, or just approaching some of the issues mentioned above???;  it appeared like the base of the area was flashing white, it was driving me nuts so i shut it offAMD 1.4 ghz 512ddr ram NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400~42 fps   [edited by - drekkar on August 1, 2003 10:30:43 PM];  steady 80 fps here.P4 2.4Ghz512mb DDRRadeon 8500LEI don't like the fact that the camera casts a shadow when moving closer but that's personnal taste I reckon, pretty nice.   [edited by - xMcBainx on August 1, 2003 10:41:44 PM];  Now that is interesting, but not surprising.You have a computer that resembles the internal specs of mine, namely a pentium 4 with a radeon chip.So what does this mean???Does this basically mean that ATI''s Radeon gpu simply kicks butt no matter how terrible the coding? Probably does.;  I wouldnt say that.. there wasnt any GOOD nvidia card in there...but my guess would be that the GPU matters very much.... maybe try to optimise the number, of graphic API calls, use vertex arrays etc etc