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FishingBean Jul 21, 2019 @ 4:05pm
Any way to disable rain?
My computer isn't the best, so later into the days my computer chugs, but as soon as it rains, my pc just refuses to run the game. Any way to disable this? I figure the issue is because the rain is voxels and not a texture (example: Minecraft)
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Originally posted by YetiChow:
The rain actually is a particle effect shader, not voxels -- Stonehearth has several such particle effect shaders, although screen-wide rain is certainly one of the more "graphically expensive" ones.

There are mods which remove rainy weather, snow and blizzards; it would be possible to create a mod which preserves those events' effects (e.g. crop grown, effects on hearthlings) and just get rid of the graphics shaders...

If your computer is chugging in the later part of the day, it's likely one of two things -- either too many lights, or too many jobs waiting to be done. Given that you have issues with rain, I'd say it's likely a mix of both... any graphics card which can't support that kind of shader easily is likely to be quite old and low-powered, and such cards are usually found in equally low-powered computers, so I'd guess you're just barely meeting the minimum specs to run the game or might even have hardware that doesn't quite meet those specs.

However, there are some things you can do to improve performance (across the whole game), which gives your CPU a little more space to deal with allocating those complicated graphical shaders:

- break big tasks into small tasks wherever you can. For example, instead of mining a lot of rock, mine a little and let it get put in storage before you mine any more.

- keep storage areas close to work areas. Less walking = more working, both for your workers and your PC

- build one building at a time, and try to keep them small and simple. If you want to build a large building like a castle or a skyscraper, find ways to break it up into smaller sections (e.g. build each floor as its own building, or build a castle where every room/tower/main wall section is its own building)

- don't let enemies sit outside your town with no way in. If you absolutely have to do that, then don't build or mine while they're stuck out there -- it causes the game to look through every possible part of the map for a way into your town, and if you're mining or building while enemies are doing that they'll constantly keep trying, which means a ton more work for your computer. Enemies are coded to stop looking for ways in if they can't find one, but each time you change the map, they try again just in case you've made a path they can use.

- when placing light sources, try to limit how many shadows they cast -- e.g. build them in a corner of two solid walls so that they light up those walls but don't throw shadows from anything protruding out of those walls. Shadows are one of the most intense/difficult calculations the game has to do, and the game has a setting for how many shadows it will figure out at once (if you haven't already, I'd absolutely recommend turning that setting down low.)
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YetiChow Jul 21, 2019 @ 10:03pm 
The rain actually is a particle effect shader, not voxels -- Stonehearth has several such particle effect shaders, although screen-wide rain is certainly one of the more "graphically expensive" ones.

There are mods which remove rainy weather, snow and blizzards; it would be possible to create a mod which preserves those events' effects (e.g. crop grown, effects on hearthlings) and just get rid of the graphics shaders...

If your computer is chugging in the later part of the day, it's likely one of two things -- either too many lights, or too many jobs waiting to be done. Given that you have issues with rain, I'd say it's likely a mix of both... any graphics card which can't support that kind of shader easily is likely to be quite old and low-powered, and such cards are usually found in equally low-powered computers, so I'd guess you're just barely meeting the minimum specs to run the game or might even have hardware that doesn't quite meet those specs.

However, there are some things you can do to improve performance (across the whole game), which gives your CPU a little more space to deal with allocating those complicated graphical shaders:

- break big tasks into small tasks wherever you can. For example, instead of mining a lot of rock, mine a little and let it get put in storage before you mine any more.

- keep storage areas close to work areas. Less walking = more working, both for your workers and your PC

- build one building at a time, and try to keep them small and simple. If you want to build a large building like a castle or a skyscraper, find ways to break it up into smaller sections (e.g. build each floor as its own building, or build a castle where every room/tower/main wall section is its own building)

- don't let enemies sit outside your town with no way in. If you absolutely have to do that, then don't build or mine while they're stuck out there -- it causes the game to look through every possible part of the map for a way into your town, and if you're mining or building while enemies are doing that they'll constantly keep trying, which means a ton more work for your computer. Enemies are coded to stop looking for ways in if they can't find one, but each time you change the map, they try again just in case you've made a path they can use.

- when placing light sources, try to limit how many shadows they cast -- e.g. build them in a corner of two solid walls so that they light up those walls but don't throw shadows from anything protruding out of those walls. Shadows are one of the most intense/difficult calculations the game has to do, and the game has a setting for how many shadows it will figure out at once (if you haven't already, I'd absolutely recommend turning that setting down low.)
#1
FishingBean Jul 21, 2019 @ 10:19pm 
Thank you. And I meant the more into the game I got, not time of day. I blame more people, light particles, and all around just so much on screen. This is obviously remedies by zooming in or moving off of where all the processing power is used, but with the rain, that was an issue. I appreciate the help.
#2
YetiChow Jul 23, 2019 @ 8:03pm 
Originally posted by BeanDaddy:
Thank you. And I meant the more into the game I got, not time of day. I blame more people, light particles, and all around just so much on screen. This is obviously remedies by zooming in or moving off of where all the processing power is used, but with the rain, that was an issue. I appreciate the help.

Because the game simulates the entire map, moving the camera won't help save processing power (i.e. CPU/RAM); however it might help save graphical processor load (i.e. GPU) if there's less lighting and particle effects to draw to the screen.

Those tips around cutting down processor load will help if you're having trouble with "too much stuff going on", but it sounds like your GPU is being strained too. If you haven't already started changing the settings, I'd suggest you look at things like reducing the number of lights and shadows, lower the draw distance, etc. You may also get a large improvement by using BrunoSupremo's More Map Options mod, specifically the small map option (it dramatically reduces the amount of work that the game has to do to keep track of everything, and honestly that small map is still plenty big for 1-2 players.)
#3
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Stonehearth > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: Jul 21, 2019 @ 4:05pm
Posts: 3

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