Optimizations - Patch 0.839

[Shadow]

Patch 0.839 of Din's Champion is now available on Steam.

This patch optimizes things better (fps, start up, & world building), fixes some hitches, makes player movement better, fixes some graphic issues, and fixes many other minor issues.

0.839 change list:

• now preload tiles around the viewing area slowly so less building of tiles all at once when you move (less hitches)
• now sort drawing surfaces a little better to have less texture changes
• now skip light passes on entities if no contribution from light and at least 1 other light has or will be drawn
• now skip light passes on blocks if no contribution from light and at least 1 other light has or will be drawn
• fixed settleAllLooseSolids, settleAllGases, and settleAllLiquids all looping over level total size instead of level tile size (NULL checks so not crashing but doing a lot of nothing)
• decreased StartLightIntensity from 2.0 to 1.6
• increased MaxSpeedAccelMult from 3.5 to 5.25
• increased MaxSpeedDecelMult from 3.0 to 4.5
• decreased GroundJumpImpulseMult penalty on several blocks (mud, tar, ice, etc)
• fixed blending with platforms (su-su-supernova)
• fixed a blending issue with wood and partial blocks sometimes (Nailclippins)
• new entities that show up on screen edge no longer fade in
• fixed lock pick experience using wrong level
• now cap objectiveLevel in experience stuff to 200
• added new dungeon tiles (look same as stone roof, but things can spawn on them, are tougher, and different name)
• no longer get fully explored or cleared bonus for levels (really doesn't make sense for this game)
• added new quick tip "It is wise to keep your entertainer NPCs at normal or work focus to keep them entertaining other NPCs."
• fixed HitEffectColor on grass, wood, brick, glass, clay roof, and stone roof blocks
• now only set 1 color for entities (instead of building array with all same values)
• fixed an unneeded sqrt call in LightingSystem::setupLight
• ifdefed out some Drox specific planet lighting (don't use)
• ifdefed out models on world map (don't use)
• ifdefed out shadow mapping support (don't use)
• ifdefed out more of the blended tiles support (don't use)
• ifdefed out Shader::buildBlendedTilesShader & Shader::buildRandomIconShader
• now WorldBlock::getFirstTextureName uses const String& so less String construction which can be slow when building a ton of blocks
• changed DatabaseEntry::getKeyValue, DatabaseEntry::getStringValue, and SimpleData::getDatabaseStringValue to const String& (should speed up some things, mostly startup)
• changed DatabaseEntry::getIntValue and DatabaseEntry::getFloatValue to use const String& instead of local var (should speed up some things, mostly startup)
• addKeyValue setBase now uses local emptyString instead of "" (less conversions for loading)
• removed a couple unnecessary checks in Database::getDatabaseEntry
• now convertCharacterStatNameToNum and convertDynamicCharacterStatNameToNum use hashes to be much quicker
• now minimize reading normal and dynamic stats on magic modifiers (there are a lot of modifiers and a lot of stats)
• now GameShared::getNpcChat uses hashes to speed up
• changed SimpleData::getDatabaseEntryName to use const String&
• sped up Database::getDatabaseEntry when looking for Base (now tries backwards in list a little)
• now Quest::syncLevelAndSeed calculates what seed it needs (much quicker than old way)
• fixed a potential memory leak in Game::createRandomQuest (not likely but better code)
• made Game::createRandomQuest kill a quest earlier in the process if quest level too low
• made it so quests that try to get shoved into a specific level that can't have them fail much quicker
• now use cached tile for updating loose solids, liquids, and gases when building world
• made settleAllLooseSolids, settleAllGases, and settleAllLiquids loop through tiles directly instead of calling getTile for each
• sped up some faction stuff a little
• changed PROTOCOL_VERSION to 149