Recommended Image/Map Sizes in FGU

[Korav]

I'm aware that in classic it was recommended that you should keep files as small as possible keeping them under 2048x2048. Obviously smaller files positively impact network performance, however has the overall guidance and recommendations changed with FGU?

[Trenloe]

As Unity is a 64-bit application it can use basically all of your computers memory. However - file size is still a restricting factor in share time to the players, and the number of pixels takes up memory and more CPU processing to display the image, move it, use LoS, etc.. So, you can open larger images in FGU - just don't go crazy and always optimize your images to reduce file size for improved share time to the players.

[Zacchaeus]

There isn't anything firm for Unity. Unity should be able to handle much larger image sizes (both resolution and size) but it's still good practice not to go overboard. You still have to upload images to your players and the bigger they are the longer images will take to upload and if there's LoS and other stuff on them then you could see some lag etc. So caution but no restrictions so far.

[pindercarl]

Image Size and It's Relation to Performance

1) The number one impact of image size is the associated network traffic. The file has to be sent from the GM to each of the connected players. Keep in mind, this is based on the file size of the image, not the number of pixels. If your image is contains layers, than the image file for each layer must be sent to the clients. Currently, the images do reside in memory, both in system RAM and on the GPU. This should be updated in a future release to reside only on the GPU, if memory is available.

2) Display size of the image has the greatest impact on performance. A 200px x 200px image displayed at 1000px x 1000px has the performance impact as a 2000px x 2000px image displayed at 1000px x 1000px. (FGU, for the most part, is pixel bound).

3) The complexity of line-of-sight definitions and number of tokens when LOS is enabled will impact performance. LOS calculations are done locally, so performance is not impacted by the host. LOS performance is independent from image size.

4) Each FX layer has an impact on performance. Keep this in mind if you are running your campaign on a computer with a 2000 series nVidia card and you have players running on an i5 laptop with integrated graphics hardware. The display size of the image has a direct correlation to the performance of FX layers.

I hope this helps.

[LordEntrails]

Carl, would mind re-explaining or expanding upon your second item? It's not clear to me. Thanks.

[pindercarl]

Carl, would mind re-explaining or expanding upon your second item? It's not clear to me. Thanks.

Sure. It's the number of pixels being drawn, not the number of pixels in the image, that impacts performance. So, a larger image window will perform slower than a smaller image window.

[LordEntrails]

Sure. It's the number of pixels being drawn, not the number of pixels in the image, that impacts performance. So, a larger image window will perform slower than a smaller image window.
Got it thx, wasn't sure that was what you were getting at.

[Weissrolf]

Concerning 1: What is the practical bandwidth limit of FGU's network implementation? FGC was abysmally slow even on local networks (as in kb/s instead of mb/s).

[Moon Wizard]

There are no plans to do network benchmarks at this point.

Regards,
JPG