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[Levi]

What's the frame rate hit with lights on as opposed to not having lights.

On my old Nvidia GTX 550Ti, all those cockpit lights are consuming about 35 frames when you're inside. When you're a few meters(let's say 5) away from the cockpit, it consumes about 10 frames.

In the cockpit:
- Lights Off: 75 FPS
- Lights On: 40 FPS

Five meters away:
- Lights Off: 80 FPS
- Lights On: 70 FPS

Note that there are quite a lot of lights (32 to be precise), and I think that Outerra does a very good job, considering the amount of lights in a relatively small area.
Also, each MFD panel is being illuminated by two lights each. With the upcoming emissive texture support, that will no longer be necessary.

Wow! 
New HDR seems to give cool results with lights!

That's right, the new HDR is awesome!

[Uriah]

Outstanding work! 

I've tested upwards of 3000 lights simultaneously with moderate frame rate impact, at medium distances. There are 53 lights in total on the MiG-29 with many of them being turned off at a time, and my conclusion is that the performance demand is negligible for up to a few hundred lights on an aircraft.

I had an idea to add a variable to the top of a script that anyone could easily change between 0 and 1 to set the lights for high (1) or low (0) performance. You can set the high performance lights to not switch on if the value equals 0, leaving only the most necessary ones. In low performance mode, when camera view mode is greater than 0, many of the cockpit lights would be off to further reduce frame rate impact. I use something similar to this in the MiG, so the spot lights I use pointing downwards do not illuminate the ground when the camera is outside of  the aircraft.

For the navigation lights I found the spot lights work best, and by tuning the reflector size, angle and blur it looks very realistic. I also tend not to use point lights much, but in some cases, I use them in conjunction with a spot light at the same position so you get the best of both the omni and directional parameters.

Regards,
Uriah

[Levi]

Yep, it seems that there's some nice optimization behind the lighting system.

That's a pretty good idea that I might use, because not everybody owns a high end graphics card. I've already added a variable to turn off all the lights if the user want so.

I'm almost not using point lights neither. You have much more control over the spotlights than the point lights, although those can be useful in some cases.

[HiFlyer]

I'm very interested in the frame rate impact of the new lighting.

I tried an experiment with three separate vehicles on the edge of the lower Himalayan airport runway, all at 19:00 hours and all at strictly default settings.

The results were interesting but not conclusive, except to make the point that the lights should be used very carefully.

MIG 29:
Internal Framerate: 56FPS
External Framerate: Up to 70FPS

Very wide variation during camera movement.

Lowest framerate: 50FPS

TATRA
Internal Framerate: 80FPS
External light on: 69FPS
External and Internal lights on: 67FPS

Small variations with camera movement.

Lowest Framerate: 62FPS

4RUNNER
Internal Framerate: 72
Front lights on: 65FPS
All exterior lights on: 34FPS
All exterior/Interior lights on: 34FPS

Small variations with camera movement.

Lowest frame rate in the 20s

Note: Lower framerates persist in close  to medium proximity to vehicle.

[thx_nb]

I have the same experience, at least with the 4runner, except I normally have about 30 fps (everything on highest, 2xmsaa).
Front lights on means losing a few frames, but with all external lights on it drops to about 8/9 fps.
Framerate recovers by taking some distance and with "my back to the vehicle/light".

[josem75]

Levi that´s so cute! It looks like Kit (the fantastic car) xD. Great job with those lights-

Talking about FPS. I have similar some people here (30fps day with all max and 8xfsaa, and 20 fps at night. With 4runner all lights 15 fps. The problem is when sunrise and sunset. Fps go below 10-8.  But its conected with trees shadows, if i quit them go to 20 fps again. Maybe is something "fixeable" in the future.
Its posible nvidia cards put more performance than ati? its my feelling. I am using now ati r9 280x by the way. 

[HiFlyer]

Framerates in Outerra always drop precipitously for me near the ground, even with all grass turned off. After experimenting quite a bit, I partially suspect that all the trees are giving a pretty big cumulative whack to framerates, but that doesn't seem to be the whole story.

Up in the air, I get closer to 100FPS and occasionally things will go crazy and I will get closer to 200FPS.

I really would love to see a test made with hundreds of point lights.......

[Acetone]

 The problem is when sunrise and sunset. Fps go below 10-8.  But its conected with trees shadows, if i quit them go to 20 fps again. Maybe is something "fixeable" in the future.
Its posible nvidia cards put more performance than ati? its my feelling. I am using now ati r9 280x by the way.

When the sun is really low at the horizon, it seems like the stretched shadows affect the framerate a lot more than during day.

Talking about FPS. I have similar some people here (30fps day with all max and 8xfsaa, and 20 fps at night.
Its posible nvidia cards put more performance than ati? its my feelling. I am using now ati r9 280x by the way. 

30fps max is really low, I think you could have a better experience without affecting too much the image quality. Use MSAA x2, x8 is not really usefull unless for screenshots. I don't use fxaa since the image looks a lot less sharp with it, but it's only a matter of taste

You should avoid high settings for grass and shadows, FPS impact on the ground is way too much visible. You can also avoid max settings for terrain texture resolution. From my experience, only two settings really change Outerra's visual quality (in a way you can clearly feel it in-game): MSAA (versus no-antialiasing) and terrain resolution 

[Levi]

Download v1.0
(February 24, 2015)

Version 1.0 released on February 24, 2015

Warning: To avoid instrument vanishing, make sure you have min_obj_size in eng.cfg set to 1.0 or less.

Notes:
- The code that display digits on the panels is an improved version of Uriah's code (thank you for providing it). It's now shorter and much easier to add new numbers.
- New and better technique for making complex animations, such as the landing gear retraction, using axis integrators.
- Most of cockpit stuff such as buttons, switches, etc are completely remodeled, and other parts have been corrected and optimized.
- Number of textures have been drastically reduced from about 260, down to 28 (without gauges, which are 25 textures).

Some features:
- Four versions:
    Black                  | Carries two GBU-10 bombs.
    Camo                  | Carries two GBU-31 bombs.
    Grey                   | Carries two GBU-10 bombs.
    StarsAndStripes    | No weapons.

- Up to eight different camera positions (use 'V' key).
- Avionics:
    Altimeter.
    Radar Altimeter + red light on, when altitude above ground level is below 100 ft.
    RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator).
    Drift Angle Indicator.
    Angle of attack (AoA) Indicator.
    GForce Indicator.
    Airspeed Indicator.
    Vertical Speed Indicator.
    Left MFD display - ADI data:
        Heading rose + digits.
    Right MFD display - ENG data:
        Throttle position.
        N1% (left & right engine) displayed in digits and bars.
        N2% (left & right engine) displayed in digits and bars.
    Engine panel:
        N1% (left & right engine) displayed in digits.
        N2% (left & right engine) displayed in digits.
    Fuel quantity panel:
        Total fuel displayed with a needle + digits.
        Left & Right tank displayed in digits (This needs some changes though. There are 3 tanks in FDM, but the digits only shows the content in the left tank)

- Lighting System:
  Note: You can turn most of the lights Off by editing the script (ALT+E). The Control panel for lights is located at the top of the script.
    Exterior:
        Landing & Taxi Lights | Turned on only when gears are extended.
        Rotary Beacon Light   | Turned on only when gears are extended.
        Navigation Lights.
    Cockpit:
        Nav GPS blue light on.
        Ambient green light.
        Instrumentation/panels/gauges lights.
        Canopy light.
        Landing gear position lights | each light corresponds to the actual gear position.
        Warning lights based on AoA and Overspeed(more than 536.177 knots).
        Chute deployment && Jett. lights.

- Fully animated Landing Gear (locked when the aircraft is on the ground).
- The maximum steering angle on the nose gear changes dynamically based on the aircraft's velocity.
    This allows you to make sharp turns (87 degrees) at low speeds (very useful when taxiing).
    At high speeds, this allows you to make precise corrections when taking off/landing, due to the limited steering angle.
- Animated Flight Control Surfaces.
- Animated Cowl Flaps (closed at speeds above 40 knots).
- Extendable weapon racks (use 'FLAPS' key).
- Working Drag Chute | FDM + deploy and wind (a fake and random one) animation. It deploys when all wheels on ground, throttle <= 10% and speed >= 50 knots.
- Animated Cockpit Controls:
    Yoke.
    Rudder Pedals.
    Throttle lever.
    Gears lever.
- Extendable Tailhook (waiting for extended keyboard functionality).
- Animated canopy + it's handle + shade flaps (opens when the speed is less than 0.5 knots, and brakes are applied.)
- Sounds:
    5 samples for each engine (when outside the cockpit).
    4 samples for each engine (when inside the cockpit).
    Canopy.
    Cockpit electrical[?].
    Stall.
    Overspeed.
    Gears (retract/extend).
    Touch & Roll | a sound event for each wheel.

Release Video:

[KW71]

Looks awesome!! Different sound with open/closed cockpit, great!!!

Thanks a lot, Levi!!! I can't wait to return my home to give it a try a few minutes! ¡Oh, friday, you are so distant!".

[Levi]

Also available at www.outerramods.com

Looks awesome!! Different sound with open/closed cockpit, great!!!

Thanks a lot, Levi!!! I can't wait to return my home to give it a try a few minutes! ¡Oh, friday, you are so distant!".

[Fighter117]

Thank's a lot mate !

[Revolver]

 Congratulating. Very nice.

[Acetone]

And thus, one time again, Levi brought joy to the heart of Outerrans.

Seriously, it's incredible. Working MFD, lights, sounds, hell, even a visible working parachute! 

Awesome job, can't wait to test it 

[M7]

Thanks again Levi for this great addition!! Nice to see that the feature set is expanding with each new planes!!!