Mapping guidelines updated

Flayra

<div class="IPBDescription">Performance</div>Here are the two new sentences, from the <b>Performance Considerations</b> section:

<i>r_speeds (w-polys) in Natural Selection maps should be below 700 at all times. In heavy traffic areas and areas where heavy combat is expected, the r_speeds should not stray above 600 at any point, and they should not average more than 500. Commander mode can have a bit lower performance than on the ground, and must never exceed r_speeds of 1000, with the average being closer to 700.</i>

There should never be a case where framerates dramatically drop during the course of normal play. This is especially hard to ensure around particle systems (which use lots of sprites), but since we are aiming to have NS run acceptably in software mode, it's a neccessary limitation.

You should run around your map in software mode and make sure there are no serious framerate drops anywhere. Large framerate drops as a result of looking closely at particle systems can be overlooked. Keep in mind that most maps should support up to 32 players (16 on each side), so add tons of bots (F3) when testing.

<i>Also, Natural Selection maps should not use more then about 4MB of textures. If a map uses slightly more then 4MB, it won't be excluded from "official" consideration, but it could lower it's chances. This limit will likely be increased in the future.</i>

Jedisar

you might want to sticky this before it sinks into the abyss of the forums.

ChromeAngel

F3 doesn't work for me, I get a message saying like the command 'addbot' is unknown.

doctopepa

yeah, me too! Why?

Relic25

In order to use F3 to add bots in-game you must have started a multiplayer game.  It will give you the unknown command error if you simply run the map from the console (single-player mode).

Cremator

thanks for raising the r_speeds!  this helps out.

btw, why are people going to run this in software?  every card made after 1800 should be able to run in d3d!

realityisdead

Software is being supported mainly because the dev team wants to attract a broad audience with this thing. Same reason they are keeping the gore levels down.

That way you get players that:

Like FPS's
Like RTS's
Like Squad based tactical games

As well as those of them who:

Have older systems
And/Or don't like skulls and intestines flying at the screen.

Moleculor

That, and Flayra's got an old pre-1800 computer or two that he wants to play it on occasionally. (Something about them being laptops.)

coil

You know, maybe it's me, but all of the "sticky" (or whatever ikonboard calls it) topics at the top of this forum are kind of annoying, because recent posts slide off the front page really fast.  I'm just whining, but perhaps you could consolidate them a bit?

realityisdead

I imagine "newsflash" sticky posts like this one will drift back down into the norm-set after a week or two.

I totally understand your point, but things like this are important to keep up for a while.



<!--EDIT|ken20banks|April 18 2002,02:18-->

RhoadsToNowhere

You could just use the "search for new posts" feature.  That's what I do.  <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Black_Dog

I agree with everything,except the texture limit...i don't understand well that limitation...texture are loaded at the beginning of the match,when the map loads,then...

about the software...nowdays noone play in software,i think. who plays online is a guy that,in the late days, owns an ADSL or ISDN connection...this guys are surely equipped with a 3D card. I agree just because i have a laptop and a desktop,and the desktop has just a 33.6 modem...with RTCW MP Demo i can play well (:o don't believe me? it's true&#33<!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> but i tried some days ago for the 1st time HL in mp(i bought HLGeneration finally)and i had ###### ping...so i will give a try on the laptop,that can't run in Direct3D mode <!--emo&:(--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('><!--endemo-->

BTW...i've just unistalled OP4 and BS from the laptop cos it's impossible to play in software...to ######!

I think this considerations must be revised,till the Beta1. I'm sure online players have good systems

Moleculor

Well the thing is... for example... DoD had something like an 8MB limit for their 2.0 maps. Some people playing those maps had VERY bad fps (4 fps all the time, sometimes less) and very bad crashing problems as well. They've been forced to scale it back to 5 or so for the 2.1 release.

Or at least that's what I heard.

Black_Dog

<!--QuoteBegin--Moleculor+April 19 2002,13:00--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Moleculor @ April 19 2002,13:00)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->Well the thing is... for example... DoD had something like an 8MB limit for their 2.0 maps. Some people playing those maps had VERY bad fps (4 fps all the time, sometimes less) and very bad crashing problems as well. They've been forced to scale it back to 5 or so for the 2.1 release.

Or at least that's what I heard.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Strange. I'm curious to know how many mb there are in maps like the wonderful CS maps like de_pasta, de_pandemonium de_predator and so on