Planetside 2's first performance update.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Me and many others who play Planetside 2 have been waiting more than a month to get the first performance update but the wait is now over. The patch is now available to download through the launcher and you can play PS2 in silky smooth glory finally. There are going to be more performance updates in the future to do with particle effects and the such as they have been disabled until a later date. I do hope the performance has been increased dramatically. Patch notes will be in the post and the link below.

 

 

General:

 

Refactored game rendering to better utilize multiple CPU cores. The same has been done for UI rendering.

Optimized the CPU cost of some purely aesthetic physics objects

Added adaptive complexity levels for physics simulations based on current client performance

Disabled redundant physics processing between remotely-simulated vehicles

Improved simulations between complex compound shapes, primarily vehicles

Sound emitter optimization

Numerous optimizations have been done to remote character processing to reduce the cost of per-player processing.

We found that players getting in and out of vehicles was causing some performance issues. This has been addressed and is working as expected, now.

Audio asset clean-up

Added a frame rate smoothing option. (This is on by default and trust us, you probably want this. It will make your frame rate smoother and reduce spikes. Your FPS counter will show as lower overall, but that’s not a bad thing.)

Adjusted the default graphics settings. (If you push Reset to Default, it will set the graphics settings appropriate for your system.)

 

FX:

Vehicle debris pieces updated

All bullet impacts optimized

 

Animation:

 

Implemented new scatterblend node to provide more fluid third person movement and a performance improvement

Reorganized the networks to eliminate redundancies and reduce the overall network size

Created level of detail version of the third person network. This allows code to switch to less expensive version of the network based on how far away the player is from the camera. This provided our largest performance improvement at approximately a 50% improvement for network processor time.

Consolidated the number of active nodes and pass downs in the network. This simplified the network and insured that costly additive nodes were only active when they were necessary.

Removed state machines that could be replaced with blend trees. Blend trees are more efficient than state machines.

 

Art:

 

Optimization pass on First Person arms

Improved usage of textures on various vehicles

Optimization pass on Ace Tool and Ammo Pack

 

Memory:

 

Fixed several client crashes (We’re not done with these and should have more coming soon.)

Fixed a few client memory leaks (Not done here either. Still investigating some memory optimizations to help with crashes related to memory.)

 

UI:

 

Overhead indicator system overhauled for performance

The HUD, Centralized HUD, as well as the health and shield bars have been redesigned with a new look to increase performance

Fixed Scaleform garbage collection spikes

Optimizing UI advance processing

Faster communication between AS3 and C++/LUA

Faster subsequent map load times

Faster retrieval of localized strings

Platoon UI optimizations and polish

Player kill notification revamp

Kill spam notification revamp

Fixed various existing and potential memory leaks

UI HUD Updates:

 

Minimap optimizations: more logic in C++ e.g. alpha updates such as fading and blinking instead of AS3 tweening, throttling via time slicing, recon indicator updates, recon motion dart detects enemies properly on the minimap, fixed AMS exclusion radius not appearing properly, increased default zoom level

Compass optimizations: controlled directly from C++

Weapon info optimizations ( bullet count, reload warning, blinking etc )

Vitals optimizations and revamp ( health, shield, etc )

Facility info / squad list will show when minimap is expanded if screen height >= 1080

Fixed issue with sunderers not showing ‘gives ammo’ or ‘gives repair’ icon within 100m

Now show the HUD facility indicator when you are inside a region but outside of the facility radius

Fixed issues with HUD indicators blinking in when they first initialize

Optimized Indar:

 

Reduced ecosystem masks

Reduced polycount on most environment objects

Reduced occlusion calculations from most environment objects

Reduced texture usage on some environment objects

Removed redundant objects, replaced with visually similar ones

Adjusted LOD distances

 

Non Performance

 

Highlights:

 

No more double loading screens

Changed recommended server calculation to improve faction balance

AI turret should no longer shoot itself

AV turrets and their projectiles should no longer disappear in large fights

Numerous client focus and cursor fixes such as preventing windows from appearing above the client in full screen windowed mode and the Windows cursor appearing on loading

We’ve disabled GPU particles until further notice. (Due to some our optimizations, GPU particles don’t work quite right and we need to spend some time to fix them up.)

 

General:

 

All spawn timers are now the same at 15 seconds. Previously the spawn timers would scale based on location or type from 14-18 seconds, with the majority of spawns being at 18 seconds.

Squad deploy will no longer drop pod players into the center of a bases. It will instead spawn the player at the closest hard spawn point to the squad leader, which includes facility spawn points, deployed Sunderers, and squad spawn beacons

The Infiltrator’s recon dart will now send found enemies to the minimap of all allies in a 150m radius. Previously this tool had a range limit of 50 meters

Increased the drop speed of drop pods. They now accelerate as they approach the ground. Collision damage multiplier reduced to account for the higher pod velocity.

Reduced the horizontal movement speed of drop pods so they land closer to their origin points

Improved look of bullet hit impacts in low settings

Fix to sending tells across servers

Improved particle effects on vehicle deaths for TR and NC

 

World:

 

Amerish sky settings have been shifted 12 hours. If you don’t like the onset of evenings on Indar or Esamir, Amerish has bright sunny skies waiting for you

Indar lighting slightly darkend at dawn and dusk

Some outposts on Indar received minor gameplay adjustments.

Zurvan Amp Station has had its secondary spawn room removed and now resembles the other amp stations

Dahaka Amp Station now has gate shield generators

Indar Lattice Additions:

 

The Crown <-> Crossroads Watchtower

Vanu Archives <-> NS Secure Data Lab

Quartz Ridge Camp <-> Indar Comm Array

Ceres Hydroponics <-> Galaxy Solar Plant

Crimson Bluff Tower <-> NS Material Storage

Benson Construction <-> Alkali Shipping

 

UI:

 

We've renamed the Indar Warpgates to geographical names. So you will now see the "Indar Northern Warpgate" instead of the "Indar TR Warpgate"

The squad list now has icons for players inside MANA turrets or Drop Pods

The Flash and Harasser mini-map icons have been made more distinct from each other

Enemy vehicles will no longer show an occupancy count

 

Bug Fixes:

 

Fixed shotgun pellet count tooltip. Instead of saying, "The amount or pellets each time the shotgun fires" the tooltip now says, "Single-shot Pellet Count / Pellet Spread"

Added 1x sight for VS Eridani SX5G

Fixed an issue where Resupply and Repair Sunderer icons would not display when within 100 meters of the vehicle

Fixed an issue where The Smoke Screen Utility tooltip on the loadout menu has a different duration value than the cert rank for Sunderers

Fixed gravity lifts in the Frostbite Harbor spawn rooms to function correctly

The AV turrets at West Highlands Checkpoint should no longer be floating

Fixed floating turrets at West Highlands Checkpoint and The Stronghold

Removed erroneous painfields around Indar

Fixed an issue where the two projectiles would sometimes be visible when firing the Recon Detect Device when only one was fired

Fixed issue where lower ranks of Sunderer Proximity Repair could not repair Sunderers that had a higher rank equipped.

Depot Bundles and store items have had a pass to ensure correct faction usage is written in their descriptions

Fixed cases where the player’s corpse wasn’t removed from the world after declining a revive

Regions that cannot be captured will no longer show up as reinforcements or instant action spawn points

Removed the visibility cap on rockets and placed explosives. They should always show in heavy battles now

Players can no longer use the quick action menu to track enemy players

Fixed the player standing from crouch in third person when shot while holding certain items

Fixed the Striker not animating in first person after firing

Glass added to cockpit of Mosquito

 

 

 

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/pu01-patch-notes-11-12.157453/

[Vitalius]

I haven't been in Planetside 2 in forever. I might have to come back once all the performance updates are done.

[Gunjob]

I might have to install PS2 again. 

[techswede]

This looks really good^^ It's been really smooth for me so far though.

 

I haven't been in Planetside 2 in forever. I might have to come back once all the performance updates are done.

Add CptHopeless on Connery if you start playing again .

edit: It's a vanu character. Just thought i'd add that

[kuddlesworth9419]

Im Rebel scum so if anyone wants to join me in-game I am with the New Conglomerate. kuddlesworth55 is my in-game name. The k is not capital. I'm on Miller server.

[Guest]

Maybe it'll actually be playable on fx cpus

[techswede]

Im Rebel scum so if anyone wants to join me in-game I am with the New Conglomerate. kuddlesworth55 is my in-game name. The k is not capital.

server?

[kuddlesworth9419]

server?

Sorry it's Miller.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Maybe it'll actually be playable on fx cpus

Hopefully. It would mean more people can play on it. I have an i7 myself but even with that the game before ran terribly. I just hope this update is something that goes down in history as a turning point in the way that devs release a game. From now on I hope that they properly optimize a game before hand or at least SOE will optimize the game before it is released unlike PS2 was from the start.

[Agons]

Woot!

[techswede]

Sorry it's Miller.

awesome   i've got a lvl 12 NC character on miller

[TheMissxu]

I'm excited. Too bad my server is still down.

[Guest]

Lol cod ghosts. Dual titans = 40fps

[kuddlesworth9419]

Lol cod ghosts. Dual titans = 40fps

Yes well lets all just forget that any of the Call of Duty games exist. Except for number 2 that one was actually really good. The rest though are just terrible. Not very good games in my opinion but I never liked that genre. Now Planetside 2 is a different story, in my opinion by far the best First Person shooter out there at the moment. If only Battlefield was like Planetside 2 because then we would have a game of the century on our hands. 

[Jack.EXE]

Refactored game rendering to better utilize multiple CPU cores. The same has been done for UI rendering.

 

Finally!

[maddogl]

so i can now play the game well *runs to steam and starts download*

[Jack.EXE]

Maybe it'll actually be playable on fx cpus

Hopefully on Phenom Too. basically AMD in general.

[techswede]

Naaw.. i wanted to check it out now that the patch was done.. "server unavailable".. Guess i'll have to be patient

[Humbug]

Great that the update finally came, but reading through that changelog you can't help feeling that this is mostly stuff that should have been prioritized before releasing the game.

 

Anyway i'm glad they finally got around to it.

[BernardoSLR]

This game was never a thing for me, but I might install it again to give it another go. As for CoD Ghosts, only one thing to say: lol fail.

[bcredeur97]

What's the best server guys?? I'm on matters on but it's been so empty lately..... Waterson didn't seem much better.

[EChondo]

Vanu Sovereignty is life, Vanu Sovereignty love.

[techswede]

Did a test run. a steady 60-70fps (can drop to 50 in combat)... so pretty much unchanged. But it feels smoother and things load a bit faster.

[Hirad123]

I might have to install PS2 again.

lol same. I'm thinking about it.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Did a test run. a steady 60-70fps (can drop to 50 in combat)... so pretty much unchanged. But it feels smoother and things load a bit faster.

You crazy man. My game runs so much better know. I have maxed all the settings and have 6Km render distance. I'm getting about 15-20 fps higher than I did before and in big battles I'm never going below 40 fps. Before the patch I was going into the 20's at times and that was with mid-low settings enabled and a very low render distance. Perhaps you just need more GPU horsepower. It's forcing my 680 to 70% at the most. My CPU is still the bottleneck but that will probably be different for others. I have an i7 2600 non K.