Limits And Guidelines

Comments

• BlackSeer Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2204Members

  May 2003

  Some articles that can help out, you can find more on the same site
  
  <a href='http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=polygon_reduction_1' target='_blank'>http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?...gon_reduction_1</a>
  
  <a href='http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=polygon_reduction_2' target='_blank'>http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?...gon_reduction_2</a>
  
  <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

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• gaggle Join Date: 2002-12-11 Member: 10568Members

  May 2003

  You can get away with more w_poly's in the ready room, yes, simply put because there's no fighting going on there so lower FPS won't be noticed as much.
  
  Don't go much over 1000 of 'em though, at some point the software-render starts dropping faces like mad. Make sure you do tests with it.
  
  It sounds like you need to dwelve deeper yet into the matters of w_polys before really grasping what's going on. It's a tricky buisness for sure, seemingly simple rooms can end up taking up loads of w_'s, and vice versa. One thing to remember with the Half-Life engine is that we get static lighting more or less for free. You should always remember to use lighting to your advantage, to hide areas without much detail, and to draw attention to the areas that does have sufficient detail. Certainly more of an art than science once you move into that area though.
  
  The best way to avoid running into w_ poly overkill is to test, test, and test everything you build. Make it simple at first, and build it up from there. Don't build entire rooms between each compile only to find out you're going to have to delete a lot of stuff to make it playable. Since you've editied before you'll likely already be aware of those things though, so I'm really just mentioning it for the sake of having it mentioned <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->.

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• amckern Join Date: 2003-03-03 Member: 14249Members, Constellation

  May 2003

  lern how to use hint brushes, these can save upto 80 pollys if used right
  
  learn the gl_wireframe 2 tricks - these will show you the curant vis porthole your in, and also how many brushes are drawn - moving walls can make the vis porthole smaller, or bigger, and also change the size of the brushes that are drawn - the smaller the drawn brush the larger the r_speeds
  
  check out the mapping for ns guide found in my sig
  
  amckern
  
  PS do a search for this at the counter map forums - <a href='http://countermap.counter-strike.net' target='_blank'>http://countermap.counter-strike.net</a> as tommy14 knows alot about this, and has made a valube contabution vioa the counter map forums with it

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• Ollj our themepark-stalking nightmare Fade Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10696Members

  May 2003

  Solid walls and all brushes cause w_poly.
  Converting random pipes into brushes will get you more w_poly most times because you see All sides of a visible brush (even backsides) and brushes do not affect VIS, and full VIS makes w_poly small.
  
  e_poly are just all visible MODELS (point entities) in your map.

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• Solaris Join Date: 2003-05-11 Member: 16213Members

  May 2003

  Thanx for the help so far.
  
  After some testing and experimenting i pushed tho w_poly count in the current "problem area" from over 1000 down to 823 max (but still not below the official limit <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->).
  
  The "trick" to convert brushes into func_walls to avoid sliting up surfaces has turned out not to be much of a help... I saved 5 polys of the wall, but now have 7 additional polys from the pipe in converted to func_wall.
  Are there any "standard situations" where converting to func_wall is a good idea in general and where it should be avoided?
  
  About the texture scaling... first I used most textures on a 0.5 or even 0.25 scale, because they fit much better into the design that way..
  When you say using a texture scaled to 2.0 it will save polys... does this work in both ways?
  So will scaling a texture from 1.0 to 0.5 ADD some polys, too?
  Does this only work with "full" integer values like 1.0 or 2.0 or will there be lower polys, too, if I scal a texture from 1.0 to 1.5?
  
  Thanks for the tutorial links, but out of the two one was aimed at singleplayer poly-reduction only... the technique described there, however reminds me of what the hint-brush should do.
  Bad thing i still haven't found a good tutorial how hint-brushed actually work and how they are used right.
  
  Thx 4 your help
  
  Solaris / Sonja

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• Frogg2 Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4867Members, Constellation

  May 2003 edited May 2003

  <!--QuoteBegin--Solaris+May 13 2003, 12:12 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Solaris @ May 13 2003, 12:12 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> About the texture scaling... first I used most textures on a 0.5 or even 0.25 scale, because they fit much better into the design that way..
  When you say using a texture scaled to 2.0 it will save polys... does this work in both ways?
  So will scaling a texture from 1.0 to 0.5 ADD some polys, too?
  Does this only work with "full" integer values like 1.0 or 2.0 or will there be lower polys, too, if I scal a texture from 1.0 to 1.5?
  <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
  No, it will increase your w_poly.
  
  Do a test map, make a room do 1 wall with texs scaled to 2x
  Make another with .5scale texs
  
  compile load the map and turn on gl_wireframe notice how the texture scale affects how the wall is broken up.

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• amckern Join Date: 2003-03-03 Member: 14249Members, Constellation

  May 2003

  <!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->About the texture scaling... first I used most textures on a 0.5 or even 0.25 scale, because they fit much better into the design that way..
  When you say using a texture scaled to 2.0 it will save polys... does this work in both ways?
  So will scaling a texture from 1.0 to 0.5 ADD some polys, too?
  Does this only work with "full" integer values like 1.0 or 2.0 or will there be lower polys, too, if I scal a texture from 1.0 to 1.5?
  <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
  
  csg cuts the walls on the texture sizes
  
  if the wad says the texture is a 64 x 64 (most normal csg cuts are done with this 64x64) - then scaling the texture down to 1/2 its size will make csg cut the brush more then at its normal size - making the texture larger also increases the csg cut size, meaning less vis leafs, and reduced pollys

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• tommy14 Join Date: 2002-11-15 Member: 8839Members

  May 2003

  see my tutorial about <a href='http://www.slackiller.com/tommy14/tex-dimensions.htm' target='_blank'>Texture dimensions vs. appearance, memory, and r_speeds </a>, i think it covers most of this.

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