Precise Limitations of the Battlefield Engine

[O.Ortega]

Hey guys,

I know I'm not the only one to want first world cities for Project Reality Maps, but I can't find the first post to suggest it. I seem to remember a key objection being performance issues, so I wondered what the known limits of the PR engine are. I know a bit of the network limitations of PR in that PR has poor networking code that means that you can only have like 300 dynamic objects i.e. destroyable walls. What I wonder about is if you tried to make a first world map city with static buildings, what would limit what you can have in the map? Is there a rough limit on the number of polygons you can have for game objects?

[rPoXoTauJIo]

Just buy crappy laptop, and test map, once fps lower than 30, map is too heavy

[Mats391]

You cant have more than 1023 bullets in a magazine. After 1023 the next possible amount is infinity.

[Mineral]

You can only have 255 ladders on a map.

[LiamBai]

8 is the maximum number of seats you can have per vehicle.

[MasterX]

Engine can't use more than 2gb of memory (32bits).

[Vista]

You can have a maximum of 0 fastropes on PR.

[Simple-jack1969]

You can have a maximum of 0 fastropes on PR.

[Nitneuc]

Engine can't use more than 2gb of memory (32bits).

Wasn't that addressed with final 1.5 patch ? It's listed in the features of its changelog at least :

Allowed BF2.exe to use more than 2Gb RAM

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=285978

[PLODDITHANLEY]

That's wrong or why would new COOP Kashan crash on 32bit OS....

[rPoXoTauJIo]

Maximum python supported version - 2.3.4

[Simple-jack1969]

You can only have 255 ladders on a map.

I never knew until now how much I wanted to know this

[MaxTheSilva96]

You can only have 255 ladders on a map.

I wonder what happens if thers someone climbing all ladders at the same time.

[PatrickLA_CA]

They go up.

[O.Ortega]

Thanks for the info guys. I can see that the RAM issue would be the biggest constraint, assuming that you can have enough objects to use up all of the allowed RAM without breaking the engine. You'd think that the Battlefield engine would be very efficient considering what it is capable of versus other shooters' engines, but we don't know what goes on in that engine. It's entirely possible that the engine was just made to be "good enough" - the engine doesn't seem to scale with the CPU and RAM you give to it.

I actually don't see why PR maps would lag for anyone, unless there was some bugs and weaknesses in the engine that made maps that are light on polygons etc by todays standards still not work properly. I guess we won't see a PR first world map any time soon, although if I can pick up 3ds Max and import some first world buildings into the editor I'd like to see what happens.

[Mats391]

The main issue i see are not client performance issues. Those can be resolved by modifying the viewdistance etc. The big issue is server side lag similar to what you experience on Shijia or Wanda on some servers. That most likely comes from collision checks and having too many objects on the map. In a big city map i can see this becoming an issues rather quickly.

[O.Ortega]

I forgot the whole server issue. Yeah, it would be a lot of effort for a server to have a city map, although I think that you would only want a small city map in any case. I'm thinking like Fallujah size at most. A city map would quickly lose it's charm if there was 2+ square kilometers of buildings to secure and/or keep an eye on. The number of ambush possibilities would be huge for example. You could decrease the number of buildings further by having the map be a coastal city. Perhaps something like Beirut but smaller.

[MaxTheSilva96]

I forgot the whole server issue. Yeah, it would be a lot of effort for a server to have a city map, although I think that you would only want a small city map in any case. I'm thinking like Fallujah size at most. A city map would quickly lose it's charm if there was 2+ square kilometers of buildings to secure and/or keep an eye on. The number of ambush possibilities would be huge for example. You could decrease the number of buildings further by having the map be a coastal city. Perhaps something like Beirut but smaller.

I don't know, but i think you are describring Muttrah City...

[Heavy Death]

Isn't the maximum number of ladders more like 25 not 225?

[Serathis]

I'm fairly sure the devs already pushed past the engines limits. The original BF2 devs should look at this game.