Lowering Wpolys?
DarkSeraph
Join Date: 2004-06-07 Member: 29174Members
Join Date: 2004-06-07 Member: 29174Members
I have a larger outdoor area to my map (which i know is a large mistake, but w/o it the map wouldn't be anything) and my w-polys are HIGH. the problem is if i use vis it will lower marines visibility, and gives aliens a severe advantage.
I've spent a lot of time trying to balance this outdoor area using lighting and other things, and i would hate for it to be unbalanced because i ran over the w-poly limit and had to limit visibility. here's pics:
2500 w-polys:
<img src='http://www.seraphsoftware.com/DarkSeraph/SS1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
1380 w-polys:
<img src='http://www.seraphsoftware.com/DarkSeraph/SS3.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
so what can i do to lower my w-poly w/o ruining my map?
I've spent a lot of time trying to balance this outdoor area using lighting and other things, and i would hate for it to be unbalanced because i ran over the w-poly limit and had to limit visibility. here's pics:
2500 w-polys:
<img src='http://www.seraphsoftware.com/DarkSeraph/SS1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
1380 w-polys:
<img src='http://www.seraphsoftware.com/DarkSeraph/SS3.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
so what can i do to lower my w-poly w/o ruining my map?
Comments
umm, the best a can help is something along the lines of:
+dont use 5 brushes when 2 will do just fine
+noone will notice if your pillar has 24 sides, until their framerate hits the same number
+HL hates big open areas
if those help, good
if not, i just BSed that anyway, ive never had to deal with big open areas yet in my mapping experience
srry i couldnt be more helpful
:edit:
you didnt use VIS??
or am i reading your post wrong?
how can i not use vis to compile? that's the vis you're talking about right? or am i just confusing myself?
clarify: in vis i didn't want to lower the max VIS distance. that should clear things up.
if just looking at your pyramid gives you THAT many w_polys, then you need to simplify that thing alot
(note, to actually "see" the w_polys, open console and type "gl_wireframe 2")
One way you might be able to get r_speeds back to semi reasonable counts is by putting a visblocker between the pyramid and the outdoor area. This would probably ruin the effect you're after, but some sort of facade with a nice donut shaped hallway should keep the pyramid and the outdoor area from seeing each-other.
Some wpoly scraping advice:
Use stairs sparingly. I know that in this case they're important for the effect, but I wouldn't be surprised if just turning those stairs into a ramp would cut wpolies by 250 or more.
Increase texture scale on large outdoor areas.
Make sure that if you do build a complex area, there are effective visibility blocking constructions to other complex areas.
Try to build the same with fewer polies. The torches for example, remove the holding thingy and just keep the torch itself. Multiply these few polies by a lot of torches and you get a lot of polies.
Use gl_wireframe 1 to see how faces are cut up and try to prevent serious cut-ups, either with 1-unit gaps, func_walls or rebuilding.
Also use gl_wireframe 2 (and a compile with full vis) to check the quality of your visblockers.
I have an idea! it isn't really what i created that has a massive poly count, but the shadows that the torches are creating that create a massive poly count a torch bouncing it's shadow around those pillars would easily quadruple it's w-poly.
i'll double check this theory when i get home from work and create a day light level and remove the torches.
( i know i'm responding to myself)
edit: any chance there is a way to create 1 brush stairs? <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
try turning your torches into func_walls to reduce r_speeds (if they arent already)
the func_wall trick should also work on your stairs (though how much it would reduce is hard to tell without trying)
yeah, func_illusionary works
yeah, func_illusionary works <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
actually, all brush based entities unless they never render or are textured with null, always count to your w_polys (if you can see them). However they don't split the worldbrushes they're touching.