Calico

Calico; anti-lag improvements & client optimizations for WEBFISHING.

About

Calico aims to improve the performance of WEBFISHING in multiplayer scenarios. This is achieved by introducing threading to networking code, as well as numerous other optimizations.

Improvements & optimizations

• Dedicated thread for compression and sending packets
• Dedicated thread for receiving and decompressing packets
• GPU instancing of common meshes (all trees, logs, bushes, mushrooms, etc.)
• Smoothing camera panning/motion by decoupling it from physics updates
• Reducing physics update rate
• Skipping cosmetics loading for players that have not changed
• Optimize player animation updates
• Other player processing optimizations (caught item, held item, guitar)

Install

1. Download the release zip
2. Unzip into your WEBFISHING directory such that the Teemaw.Calico folder ends up in WEBFISHING\GDWeave\mods\
3. Optionally edit the configuration file in WEBFISHING\GDWeave\configs\Teemaw.Calico.json
4. You're done!

Configuration

The Teemaw.Calico.json configuration file has the following schema and default values:

{
  "DynamicZonesEnabled": false,
  "MeshGpuInstancingEnabled": true,
  "MultiThreadNetworkingEnabled": true,
  "PlayerOptimizationsEnabled": true,
  "ReducePhysicsUpdatesEnabled": true,
  "SmoothCameraEnabled": true
}

DynamicZonesEnabled (Experimental)

Normally, the game will load and hold all zones (shop, aquarium, islands, etc.) in the scene tree regardless of where your character currently is. This will dynamically attach and detach zones from the scene tree as you move between them.

Files modified:

• res://Scenes/Map/main_map.gdc
• res://Scenes/Map/Tools/transition_zone.gdc

MeshGpuInstancingEnabled

This reduces the number of GPU draw calls by combining draw calls from multiple copies of the same mesh into the same call. Game objects which currently benefit from this include trees, bushes, mushrooms, water, etc.

File modified:

• res://Scenes/Map/main_map.gdc

MultiThreadNetworkingEnabled

This enables dedicated send and receive threads for sending and reading network packets. Packet compression and decompression are also offloaded from the main thread to these threads.

File modified:

• res://Scenes/Singletons/SteamNetwork.gdc

PlayerOptimizationsEnabled

This enables patching of player scripts to optimize cosmetic loading, animation updates, guitar processing, etc.

Files modified:

• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/guitar_string_sound.gdc
• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/held_item.gdc
• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/player.gdc

ReducePhysicsUpdatesEnabled

[!IMPORTANT]
It's highly recommended to set SmoothCameraEnabled to true if this option is enabled. The game camera's movement is normally tied to the physics update rate. If you enable reduced physics updates without smooth camera, it may feel like the game is running slower during camera panning or player movement. SmoothCameraEnabled will decouple camera updates from physics updates.

This reduces the physics update rate to free up CPU cycles for other tasks. This will patch a few processes that are tied to the normal physics update rate such that they feel the same with a reduced update rate.

There are many game processes which are tied to the physics update rate. If you see animations being slow or weird, this is probably why. Like any issue you may have with the mod, please feel free to create an issue or PR.

Files modified:

• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/Face/player_face.gdc
• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/player.gdc
• res://Scenes/HUD/playerhud.gdc
• res://Scenes/Minigames/Fishing3/fishing3.gdc
• res://Scenes/Singletons/globals.gdc

SmoothCameraEnabled

This option decouples camera position updates from the physics cycle. This will help make the game feel more responsive if your framerate is faster than the physics update rate. Normally, the game runs physics at 60fps. Without this option enabled, it may feel like your game is locked to 60fps during camera panning or player movement. This is much more noticeable with the reduced physics update rate of ReducePhysicsUpdatesEnabled, so is highly recommended to be enabled along with ReducePhysicsUpdatesEnabled.

Files modified:

• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/player.gdc
• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/player_headhud.gdc
• res://Scenes/Entities/Player/tail_root.gdc