[Dev Blog] #6 | Performance & General Updates

Portside · December 27, 2023

Dev Blog #6

~Performance Enhancements & General Updates~

Woah! I hope all of you enjoyed your holiday period; because I don't think any of the Dev Team have even had their holidays yet! We have been super, super, super busy from launch especially for performance. We have awesome news! PERFORMANCE IS HERE! We care, we listen, we act. As per our recent voting we have removed Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale entirely from the game's world. This means, in-game as of now we only have Portland as per the voting that took place on Discord. The reason for this is because we had only tested the performance enhancements for Portland as a "beta" stage, and it worked well. We then gave players the option if they wanted us to hold off on performance to do Staunton and Shoreside as well as Portland, or if you wanted us to remove those two islands and focus on Portland. You guys voted, so we went with you! By removing the other islands this allows us to focus entirely on Portland and not be spread as thin (which is awesome for everyone). With that being said, we can look into DLC Extensions in the future to model more on to Portland (and cool islands too maybe? ;D ).

After testing our performance enhancements and grabbing feedback from from the testers. Some people reported almost having 40FPS increase how crazy is that? All thanks to our guy Spooky! So, once we were confident that the fix worked; we got busy doing the migration behind closed doors. Today we're finally releasing the edit. The server will shutdown at some stage today/tomorrow to implement the patch; the downtime shouldn't be too long, we expect a few hours. It's at this point that we (staff) will test this fix internally on the live server to ensure that everything is working correctly. After ensuring that everything is indeed working as intended; it's at this point we will announce in Discord that the server is open to the public again.

THERE ARE IMPORTANT STEPS YOU NEED TO FOLLOW AFTER THE SERVER CLOSES TO THE PUBLIC!
Please, for the most efficient and smooth transition for you; navigate to your MTA Directory (YOURPATH\mods\deathmatch\resources). Preferably, you should delete everything from in here for the freshest start. However, this will mean that you need to download all server assets again. If this is something you do not want to do, you can simply remove the list of resources stated below;

1. Liberty_City
2. Liberty_Tex
3. Liberty_Water
4. Liberty_Mini
5. eagleLoader
6. custom_coronas

*Note: If you don't delete these resources, you may see weird GUI bugs or objects not aligning right in Portland. Whilst this is a very slim chance, it's better to remove the resources stated above just in case!

Anyway, on to our Dev Blog!

Key:

Removed: -
Added: +
Reworked/Fixed: //

// Fixed issues where ships were moving through the islands rather than sticking to their route.
- Disabled debug for Liberty_GPS due to road mapping and zone naming for all 3 islands completed
+ Added a missing dependencies to the startup files
+ Added custom vehicle plates to set Liberty City as default
+ Added nicer font display on vehicle plates
+ Added missing dependency vehicle plates to start up
+ Added a better prefix to loading vehatts for INFO output
// Moved leftover marker to Liberty City from bus system
// Updated script version to December 2023
// Patched weird output that sometimes gave infinite network trouble on /freecam for the client, due to missing min_mta_version I think as that is what the output was.
// Updated bus job vehicles to proper locations
// Updated trash job vehicles to proper locations
// Updated scripted job wages
+ Redone the Wiki Website to now use MySQL instead of PostgreSQL and updated to the latest wiki version.
// Updated /bans for /unban to display in Discord along with all logs to provide admin's username rather than character name (this is such an outdated thing to use in modern age)
// Vehicle plate font adjustments
+ Updates to TM's latest version of tm_controls. Fixes were GUI was behind radar. If player has minimap then show above, if player doesn't have minimap show in original position.
// Updates the player's release location for admin jail
// Increased /fpslimit from 70 to 300
- Disables Red County Tolls
// Added Department of Transport message when clicking on tolls (tolls aren't mapped for LC)
+ Adds support for changing from old zone to new zone -TM (could be useful for displaying zone names on screen, cell reception etc )
- Removes Shoreside Bridge Item - this is to be replaced by /gate maybe
- Disables moving Shoreside Bridge (now handled as a gate until we decide whether not we’re implementing toll systems)
// Updates release location for criminals
// Updates release message to criminals
// Updates the DMV route and location markers
// Increases threshold for failing test based on vehicle hp
// Updates the allowed hosts to include postimages.org for /look
- Removes blips from F11 due to Spooky's new support for /places
- Removed shitty ass code for /goto
+ Restricted /places so that only UA can add and delete places
+ Added postimages.org to allowedHosts for item texturing
+ Adds the /my action and automatically detects if there is an 's' at the end of the surname automatically prefixing 's or ' depending on the name. Example; Name is Raymond Sol so /my arm becomes sore. outputs as Raymond Sol's arm becomes sore. If the name is Raymond Sols then the output automatically detects this meaning /my arm becomes sore. becomes Raymond Sols' arm becomes sore as this is grammatically correct.
+ Adds postimg.cc and i.postimg.cc to the approvedhosts for /look and texture system
// Moves the limit from 36 characters to 60 character for URL uploads for vehicle wraps
// Replaces an instance of SD to LCPD for when a vehicle is impounded.
// Updates the impound location to LC
// Updates NPC for impounder
// Updates release locations for vehicles to the impound parking
- Removes toll bridge objects
// Updates dispatch to refer to LCPD instead of SD
// Updates an instance of vehicle descriptions showing SD as impounder instead of PD
// Updates abbreviations to include DMV, DMOV, DMoV and Department Of Motor Vehicles because people assume of requires a capital letter for some odd reason...
// Fixed UV Mapping for Sultan (midnightdrifter)
// Fixed UV Mapping for Police Rancher (midnightdrifter)
// Fixed UV Mapping for Huntley (midnightdrifter)
// Fixed UV Mapping for Police LS (midnightdrifter)
// Fixed UV Mapping for Polcice LV (midnightdrifter)
// Fixed UV Mapping for Police SF (midnightdrifter)
+ Added vehicle images to proper location for UCP to pull images for newly replaced vehicles (mod list)
// Updated positioning for Police LS (vehicle attachments)
// Updated positioning for Police LV (vehicle attachments)
// Updated positioning for Police SF (vehicle attachments)
// Updated positioning for FBI Rancher (vehicle attachments)
// Updated positioning for Burrito (vehicle attachments)
// Updated positioning for Police Ranger (vehicle attachments)
+ Updated positioning for Shortbase Rancher (vehicle attachments)
+ Updated positioning for Imponte DF890 (vehicle attachments)
+ Updated positioning for Long wheelbase speedo (vehicle attachments)
+ Updated positioning for Road Dog Bulldog Huntley (vehicle attachments)
+ Upped limit for strong on wallpaper/veh texture URLs
+ Adds replaced vehicles to the list to reflect latest mod updates for burrito, huntley, fbirancher and sultan
+ Fixes item drops
- Temporarily disable Spookyanims until they're named proper
+ Stop admins from taking fall damage (Spooky)
// Fixes SD to PD for /onduty
- Remove PayNSpray Doors from the map (Spooky)
+ Fixed several transparency issues (Spooky)
+ Added protection for /delnearbyitems and /delitem to not delete items which are admin protected (TM)
+ Fix taxi job going to Red County
+ Adds DoJ to be able to access /dep
// Updated register menu on main login panel
// Fixes a typo where it refers to Blueberry Bus Depot rather than Portland
// Fixes minimap issues with social system, inventory disappearing and not being able to toggle it properly in F10
+ Added minimap to disable when disabling HUD in top right (also disables playerstatbars, speed limits and navigation. Each individual setting can be re-enabled in F10, or all settings will get re-enabled when enabling HUD again,
// Fixes /sellfish location
// Fixes invisible wall issues in exteriors and interiors
// Fixes missing texture issues
+ Used LCS map due to better textures and better scripting capabilities (internal)
- Removes Shoreside Vale (Spooky)
- Removes Staunton Island (Spooky)
+ Adds Staunton Island as a low-poly object (for ambient scenery more than anything so it doesn't look bare with the bridge) (Spooky)
- Removes trash bags from Staunton & Shoreside
+ Introduces an RP zone with warnings for when you leave and enter zones (basically if you try to leave Portland island for now)
// Reworks bus routes
// Updates character selection screen
// Updates admin jail release point to Portland
// Updates Correctional Facility release point to Portland Correctional
// Updates the create character spawn points
+ Adds additional spawn points for create character
- Edited the minimap layout image to exclude tunnels
- Removes Schaffer Tunnel from gps locations
+ LOD fixes for construction site (Spooky)
+ Fixes The Great Water Disaster of 2023 v2 (Spooky)
- Removes a ramp in industrial zone

AND FINALLY ++++++++++++ FIXES MAP PEFORMANCE DRAINING ISSUES

Please note, if your performance is still subpar that there is nothing else we can do in terms of map improvements. The map is now at its most optimized state. From here, we can do script updates to improve optimization on our code, like the Liberty Minimap for example. It's the next thing on our list.