Regarding calculation of objects

[skellborn]

Hi guys,
i've got a question regarding the way the game is telling the GPU what to calculate.
I'm not very informed on this subject so please forgive any stupidity and stuff
I'm currently planning a new map, which will get quite big.
I noticed on my earlier maps, that the game is calculating more, than is actually visible on the screen (e.g. if i am in a cave, the scenery outside the cave in the direction of the camera seems to get calculated as well - i noticed it with framedrops at places where i should have had three to four times the fps, if the cave would have been the only scenery on the map)

https://imgur.com/a/aeHes
https://imgur.com/a/2KDS4

Maybe these two screenshots will help to explain what i mean (The yellow number to the upper left corner is the current fps-count, which is similar for both, even though i would have expected way more for the first one)

I guess it's just the way, the game is calculating things, but i'm asking anyways:
Is there any way or are there any specific blocks, which will change anything about that?
I don't have big hopes, but i hope you can help me anyways!

Cheers guys

[TMarc]

The game engine does not calculate what is inside objects if they are done properly, e.g. with single faced textures.
Tunnels are also such objects. Sometimes, at buggy tunnel parts, or with the custom camera, or in replay editor, you can get behind the tunnel walls - then you see they are suddently transparent from behind.
This is commonly used in games or 3D applications to reduce the required calculations.

Probably your "cave" walls are simply same "outside" material than all the other objects, therefore there is no difference during gameplay, and the game engine still calculates everyhting else.
Optimized video drivers would perhaps detect that the walls are not transparent, but they are relatively far away, not creating really closed zones, and your system is powerful enough so you don't see any impact.

You can also test with adding a tunnel with original tunnel blocks below your landscape, and drive once above the tunnel, and once inside the tunnel, to see if that has a different impact.

[skellborn]

Ty for your answer.
Even though i'm a bit confused
I wasn't talking about calculating the inside of objects (i also tried building a cave with nadeo blocks (like in the screenshots, shadows are just uncalculated), but there was no difference.
Also i can't tell any difference between being inside the tunnelblocks or not :/
So i guess it's just how the game works and there is nothing to be done about?

[TMarc]

Of course it is not about shadow (lightmap) calculation, it is about how the game engine and the GPU calculates the 3D environment that will be displayed.
But exactly for that reason I tried you to explain you that if you use regular objects to build a "tunnel" that it won't bring much improvement.
That the original tunnels show the same effect (no change in fps) is strange. I had expected some impact.

Nadeo team members working on the 3D engine can certainly give some more details here.