BOBII BDG_2.08 Update Released

[Sovien]

not that I'm sorry to be spending two weeks with my grandsons but it means it'll be nearly three weeks until I get my first opportunity to try this new and wonderful incarnation.

No tears, Baza. The grandsons have to go to bed at some point....and then you take to the virtual skies!

[attilla]

At last! Already downloaded the files last night.
Will test it tomorrow...

I think someone will miss me for a while

Great job guys. Keep going.

[Buddye]

At last! Already downloaded the files last night.
Will test it tomorrow...

I think someone will miss me for a while

Great job guys. Keep going.

Hi attilla, welcome to BOBII. Hope it all goes smooth for you and thanks for the post.

[Wheels_Up]

WOW.... This Sim just keeps getting better and better. Fantastic work to all the BDG.
Ive had this game on my various Pc's since the original Rowan game was released in the early 2000's. Im amazed at what has been achieved by the hardwork and generosity of the BDG.

Thank you all SO much

[stakenyf]

You guys are amazing!

Thanks a million.

[ben]

I tried out against the new AI yesterday. Wow! I got the sense my opponent got alarmed after pulling two or three standard moves to throw me and found me still on his tail. Then he started pulling every trick out of the bag...until he went into a spin. Was I imagining it or did he also throw in a few dummie moves? great stuff anyway. Buddeye is a god of the dark arts of coding.

[Sovien]

I got sometime last evening to give 2.08 a whirl. WOW! Been an absolute blast. You guys have done a great job with this patch! Unfortunately, I only got about 45 mins of time to test it out then I had to get to laying some tile in the house.

Only thing I noticed that is "potential issue" is it would seem loading time have increased for me. Not by much, but I did notice a change. I figured this could be due to updated terrain???

[stickman]

MultiSkin increases loading time. The terrain modifications should not.

[morgul]

Sovien, Do you have Norton AV or similar installed? I have and I find this and various Windows add ons increase my load times considerably. I use the bob2_config.EXE to stop background apps and fnd that makes a considerable difference to my load times.

[Sovien]

Sovien, Do you have Norton AV or similar installed? I have and I find this and various Windows add ons increase my load times considerably. I use the bob2_config.EXE to stop background apps and fnd that makes a considerable difference to my load times.

I do use AVG. I'll set the config.exe to kill it when I start BoB next time I'm home before I try to fly again.

Interesting about the multiskin. I would have thought the terrain would require more the skins...just seems like it would to me, but sometimes the logical answer is actually incorrect

[Buddye]

Hi Sovien,

The 2.08 loading is a direct function of your PC processor and memory speed.

The MultiSkin will increase the loading some (different on different PC's).

Here are some examples of loading times on my PC (measured by stop watch) with MutiSkin turned ON (You can turn it off in the BDG.txt to save some loading time).

TakeOff mission (default) first load = 34 seconds
TakeOff mission (default) second load = 13 seconds

Historic London Mission (LUF, He111) first load =52 Seconds
Historic London Mission (LUF, He111) second load =35 Seconds

[Osram]

Unlike say falcon4 we do not use a texture per tile. Instead, these terrain textures are generated on the fly.

[stickman]

Buddye..

Here are some examples of loading times on my PC (measured by stop watch) with MutiSkin turned ON (You can turn it off in the BDG.txt to save some loading time).

TakeOff mission (default) first load = 34 seconds
TakeOff mission (default) second load = 13 seconds

Historic London Mission (LUF, He111) first load =52 Seconds
Historic London Mission (LUF, He111) second load =35 Seconds

Here be mine, MULTI_SKIN_MODE=ENABLE
2nd load is without quitting game, and repeeating directly:

Landing mission (Spit) 1st load = 16 seconds
Landing mission (Spit) 2nd load = 16 seconds

End of the Defiant mission (Emil) 1st load = 34 seconds.
End of the Defiant mission (Emil) 2nd load = 32 seconds.
Eagle Day mission (ME110) 1st load =25 seconds.
Eagle Day mission (ME110) 2nd load =22 seconds.
Black Thursday Afternoon mission (Emil) 1st load = 39 seconds.
Black Thursday Afternoon mission (Emil) 2nd load = 39 seconds.
Airfield Attacks Kenley mission (D017) 1st load = 41 seconds.
Airfield Attacks Kenley mission (D017) 2nd load = 41 seconds.

This test was just after I first tried using Scott's stop_srv batch
that kills Windows background running turds.
With Vista.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS - Vista Home (SP1) 64 bit
CPU - Intel Core2 Quad (4 CPUs) Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz
RAM - 4 GB DDR2 800MHz each
GFX - NVIVIA GeForce 8500GT 512MB DDR2, PCIe / Driver 7.15.0011.6960
Sound - Onboard

[PV]

MultiSkin increases loading time. The terrain modifications should not.

Actually, I think they might. All Bader's new terrain tiles for 2.08 are 1024 on a side. 2.07 tiles were (almost all) 512 on a side, and that has been the case since the original release of BoB2, in fact back to BoB1 BDG 0.97 or so. I definitely noticed a longer load time when using the new textures - this was during development when I was using pretty much stock 2.07 for everything else, except the updated terrain (and multiskin always off).

...I considered it might be due to my Purbeck work, but I don't think I've added a significant increase to the overall complexity of the map. I haven't taken the time to really test it out. If anyone has the time and energy, they might want to try it: time the initial load of a basic mission in 2.07, with multiskin switched out. Then swap out only one of the possible culprits with the version from 2.08, and retime; first the content of the landmap2 folder, then the terrain files - I guess throw in the fartiles as well - from griddata and landscap folders.

[stickman]

PV,

Even when I was using an old computer,
none of your terrain mods made any difference to loading times,
for me.
Fear not !