Any way to reduce lag near large stations

[xxx514]

Hello,

I wish to ask if there is any way to avoid massive FPS drop when player builds very large station. I dont like to scatter facilities around universe and transport wares between my stations. So ive build two large stations in different systems that are manufacturing every possible ware, each has about 10 production buildings, and many others for supply them. Unlucky, current way of rendering of game makes such construction to greatly reduce FPS. I wonder if there is any solution.

[chew-ie]

Don't build large stations. Sorry but that's about it one can do. The X series doesn't impose limits on the player - but the hard consequence of that is that people destroy their performance by overdoing it.

[Caedes91]

The game needs a system to convert all the modules into one mesh instead of rendering each module individually.

[xxx514]

That's what I had in mind - the larger station is, the more rendering power is needed what leads to clogging of game engine. Therefore I started to wonder, what is needed to reduce that effect. But is it even doable?

[Lollando]

Hi all!,

As other users have already mentioned (for example: <Now merged. Alan Phipps. ), being near very large and complex stations can impact performance.

I thought, why not consider the idea of a leveling system for modules?

For example, if I need to increase storage space (solid, liquid, etc.), instead of building another dedicated module, I can level up an existing one, with effects and costs exactly identical to building a separate module (resources required for creation, increased production rate/storage space, required construction time, need for a construction ship, etc.), except for better performance since only one module is actually rendered by the graphics card.

Of course, it's always possible to actually build a separate module, for those who want to achieve a certain aesthetic result or for non-production modules.

This would allow station expansion without killing performance.

Currently, I can create more "compact" stations by enabling overlapping in construction mode, but they still require a significant amount of graphics performance since the game still has to render all the modules (even if they're perfectly overlapped and appear as only one).

This applies to production and warehouse modules, not defense platforms, docking stations, long-range radars, etc;
For recycling stations, production and consumption would increase as if a new module were built (except for scrap drop zones).

Do you think this is a good idea?

[Blaze1st]

Disabling screen space reflections and lowering shadow detail will give you the biggest bang for the buck.

[xxx514]

Hi all!,

As other users have already mentioned (for example: <Now merged. Alan Phipps. ), being near very large and complex stations can impact performance.

I thought, why not consider the idea of a leveling system for modules?

For example, if I need to increase storage space (solid, liquid, etc.), instead of building another dedicated module, I can level up an existing one, with effects and costs exactly identical to building a separate module (resources required for creation, increased production rate/storage space, required construction time, need for a construction ship, etc.), except for better performance since only one module is actually rendered by the graphics card.

Of course, it's always possible to actually build a separate module, for those who want to achieve a certain aesthetic result or for non-production modules.

This would allow station expansion without killing performance.

Currently, I can create more "compact" stations by enabling overlapping in construction mode, but they still require a significant amount of graphics performance since the game still has to render all the modules (even if they're perfectly overlapped and appear as only one).

This applies to production and warehouse modules, not defense platforms, docking stations, long-range radars, etc;
For recycling stations, production and consumption would increase as if a new module were built (except for scrap drop zones).

Do you think this is a good idea?

Imho he got the point, and that may be exactly what is needed. Also it reminded me a mod for Farming Simulator 22, where player can "upgrade" buildings by large % of its current worth, incrasing production rates and storage AND save game engine rendering power for not creating more 3D objects ingame. Mod itself has limit of 10 levels of upgrades, but each next level costs more than previous one. Therefore I think it wont be very problematic to implement such mechanism in X4 production modules for player use.

[Lollando]

I don't know if it's easy or not, but I hope they do... or at least consider the idea.

I don't know if it's worth increasing the cost during leveling (unless there's some bonus, beyond performance... ), otherwise the user will be encouraged to build a new module from scratch instead upgrade; FPS would become a gameplay metric where "if you want more performance (FPS), pay a fee in credits" .

X4 has received plenty of criticism about performance, but many of these are also user-driven, such as huge HQs, useful for speeding up terraforming operations, or "autonomous ship production centers."

Such an option would be truly great, in my opinion.