Light Data

Olmy

<div class="IPBDescription">and huge bsp sizes</div> This is really getting to me now. I've been struggling to reduce the light data used by co_resurrection and at the moment it has reached 4 mb in size, creating a bsp nearly reaching 6 mb in size, which i think is unnacceptable. I tried using -chop 512 with -texchop 256 just to see the effect it had on the light data, only to find it was extremely negligable (see the log files attached). What also puzzles me is how b3's log shows a huge data amount before gather light and final light face is done, wheras b4's data prior to these stages in comparably tiny, yet, the final result is almost exactly the same. Keep in mind b3 and b4 used -extra and no -extra respectively. Any ideas how i can reduce the data size so the bsp is a relatively non-abnormal size .<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<a href='http://olmy.thezazi.net/crap/co_resurrection_b3.txt' target='_blank'>b3's log</a>
<a href='http://olmy.thezazi.net/crap/co_resurrection_b4.txt' target='_blank'>b4's log</a>

Wolv

First of all, adding -noinfo to each compile tool will make the log a lot easier to read without omitting information (it's all in the compile parameters anyway). And -chart at hlrad only will suffice.

Can't see any specific problem (other then the obvious large size of your lightdata) so I'll give some general advise on how to keep it low:

Scaling up textures on large sections can help a lot (assuming you leave texscale to 1).
Also, extensive use of lighting with special styles (flicker, strobe etc) can massively increase your lightdata. If you've got a lot of these, try cutting down on them (also helping your fps a lot) and decrease -coring as well (as long as it doesn't make the transitions too obvious).
Should be obvious but just in-case: Don't use a big hollow box around your level to seal leaks.
Not using -extra can also be a big help. I don't remember what it does exactly, but I believe it sets a few values at a fixed low value, which could explain why increasing -chop and -texchop did so little.

And just a general lighting note: -dscale 1 with -bounce 1 looks a lot better IMHO. Does require retweaking all lightingvalues and you may not agree, but can still help crossing the line from dull to interesting lighting.

brute_force

<!--QuoteBegin-Wolv+May 23 2004, 05:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Wolv @ May 23 2004, 05:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Should be obvious but just in-case: Don't use a big hollow box around your level to seal leaks. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah Olmy, get rid of that box <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Olmy

Actually it was a big hollowed cylinder around my level.

On a serious note, i do actually have quite a few light styles, especially in the big expanse that is the hive. I'll get rid of those styles and see if that helps. Thanks alot wolv that's something that would never have crossed my mind.

prsearle

<!--QuoteBegin-Wolv+May 23 2004, 04:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Wolv @ May 23 2004, 04:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Not using -extra can also be a big help. I don't remember what it does exactly, but I believe it sets a few values at a fixed low value, which could explain why increasing -chop and -texchop did so little. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm pretty sure -extra has no effect on the size of the lightdata. It just enables 4x oversampling for the patches - the actual lightmaps are still the same size.