Manually Tweaking My Map
Fortuna_Wolf
Join Date: 2003-02-02 Member: 13033Members
Join Date: 2003-02-02 Member: 13033Members
<div class="IPBDescription">polycounts and collision hulls</div> A few probably n00bish questions here...
1) what's the best numerical measure of the graphical load for a view on the map (would this be like w_polys?) and how do I measure it realtime ingame.
2) I've heard that the way that HL will do brushes is that if you have a flat wall, its 2 polys, and if you stick say a pipe into it, it fractures the wall into numerous polys. To stop this one would leave a 1 unit or more gap between the pipe and wall. Is this true, and if it is, what are the best ways to optimize it (like leaving a gap), and is there a way to get HL to render the map ingame without textures and each poly a different colour ingame so that I can run around and look for these fracture spots myself and optimize the map that way?
3) clipping hulls. I have this pretty place on my map which doesn't work because each edge catches you on it. Why? How do I stop this? I heard there was a particular compiler out there that would fix this in most cases, should I use this and does anyone know where to find it? Any good articles to read up on this effect?
Thanks forum-goers, you've been helping me out alot
1) what's the best numerical measure of the graphical load for a view on the map (would this be like w_polys?) and how do I measure it realtime ingame.
2) I've heard that the way that HL will do brushes is that if you have a flat wall, its 2 polys, and if you stick say a pipe into it, it fractures the wall into numerous polys. To stop this one would leave a 1 unit or more gap between the pipe and wall. Is this true, and if it is, what are the best ways to optimize it (like leaving a gap), and is there a way to get HL to render the map ingame without textures and each poly a different colour ingame so that I can run around and look for these fracture spots myself and optimize the map that way?
3) clipping hulls. I have this pretty place on my map which doesn't work because each edge catches you on it. Why? How do I stop this? I heard there was a particular compiler out there that would fix this in most cases, should I use this and does anyone know where to find it? Any good articles to read up on this effect?
Thanks forum-goers, you've been helping me out alot
Comments
w_polys should be under 800 and you should also look at the fps. because sometimes you create areas with many e_polys, sprites and models. you can't see them as w_poly, you should look if you have a high decrease of fps in this areas.
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Make the pipe to a func_wall, entitys are ignored during this compile process. If you want a shadow comming from the pipe, use ZHLT to compile and add ([Smart Edit]-Button): zhlt_lightflags value: 3 to the pipe. now you have shadow <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
The 'zhlt_lightflags' for making an entity opaque to light is "2" - though 3, 6 and 7 will also have that effect.
What problem exactly are you having with clipping? How the the edges arranged that causes them to catch on you. Maybe you could give a screenshot.
To see w_polys and e_polys on the screen real-time, you have to put "r_speeds 1" in the console that way it will show it in the console, and the get it on the screen you have to put "developer 1" in the console.
You know this double-res spot with the holo-globe? My framerate dropped about 60% because the marines built a base there. So w_polys are only informative out of spawns and areas that are likely to be infested.
w_polys = what you 'build' in the map-editor
e_polys = the rest (sprites [incl. HUD, GUI & the cocon], models)
most of the time i look at the ms it takes to render a picture. ?_poly are good for comparison, because they are independant of computer speeds, but as soon as you know how many ms an area with 700 w_polys and some buildings takes to render you can refer to this value in other areas. I think there is nothing wrong with high w_polys in 'empty' areas. (mostly the edges of your level)
Both wpolys and epoly effect the load on your computer - and alot of either will slow you down - but it's more important to have low wploys then low eploys. 1000 wpolys will slow fps down alot more then 1000 epolys.
The ms it takes to render the frame is more dependant on how much ram you have and the speed than anything to do with what you are looking at.
If I have a fixture in my map that's like a hanging picture and I make it out of brushes it affects w_poly, right?
If I then turn this into say, a func_wall entity, does it then become e or w polys?
If I run over to the modeling forum and order up a bunch of these pictures with different skins (for different paintings in the same frame) and use them, that's e_polys? So I could get a huge speed boost by doing this?
Also, does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about by getting HL to render the map in flat colour shades so I can see each poly the way that the engine sees it?
Yes, It's Wpolys.
I've heard people say that func_walls are eploys, but they're still wploys.
I'm not sure.
I get what you mean, but I'm not sure about a command to show that in-game.
Out of a func_wall it was in the 60-80 range
And a func_wall with a gap was 60
And no pipe was 50 w_poly
Also, func_walls are counted as w_polys, not e_polys
You have to remember that everytime ALL sides of a brush based entity are drawn, not just the ones you can actually see.
For example If you have a wall and some stairs running along it.
If the stairs are brushes they will cut the wall into polys and you will the 2 of the 6 sides of every stair.
If you make the stairs func_walls it won't cut the wall into multiple polys, but you will see all 6 sides of every stair... wich may result in worse w_polys.
When adding "stuff" to rooms I often use the "1 unit from the floor/wall"-trick and it works really good.
Maybe 1 out of 100000 will notice this.. and most of the time only if they are really looking for it.
Solaris / Sonja
I'd like to see the 1 unit trick more often, when I see that I think, good, the mapper knows what they're doing.
u can also load up the hazzard course in hl, where the suit is, jump over the rail on the right - and look at the small gap betwen then pipe that the bridge its over, and the wall - thats a 2 unit gap
e_polly can make more lag then bad w_pollys
i was playing eclypes, and the commander filled the spawn zone with lots of seagie, and senterys, he then droped **** loads of guns for us - the e_polly was up at about 500,000 - 1,000,000 by then, and i was on cable with a 36 ping, but the render lag for the models, caused my fps to drop to about 1 from the 78 i had
amckern
I tried running in software mode but it looks like its corrupt (small size, drawing only CMYK or EGA, etc).
Danke
oh. WOW. It seems that the game'll chop even a flat square wall up into smaller squares. Chops also seem to propagate along walls, and through rooms, so I've got a few bands of utter chaos that have propagated through some rooms which I'll have to track down and kill, probably by completely redoing all of the brushes. Its really amazing man, thanks (oh yeah, if you use gl_wireframe, use gamma 0 too).