bsp compiling

(flashkillaman) #1

whats the best type of compile for just testing my map?

(redfella) #2

-bsp -meta works fine for testing brushwork

-bsp -meta -vis -fast -light -fast -filter -super2 works fine for testing lighting

(fidel castro) #3

jop.

nothing more to say.

take the shortest optin (BSP-meta) for brushwork…

greez
fidel

(MadMaximus) #4

if you want to check for vis blocking you need to do a full vis without the -fast option.

(Ifurita) #5

so what advantage does -vis -fast give over a simple -meta?

(MadMaximus) #6

here’s a snippet from the radiant manual,

fastvis - Performs a bsp and a quick version of the vis process. The entire world is made into a single bsp partition. It’s fast, but when you look in a particular direction, you see every single detail in that direction. Nothing is blocked. A light map is created. This mode was used for space maps.

(SCDS_reyalP) #7

FWIW.

A full compile of a q3 engine map has three distinct phases.

  1. bsp. Turns the .map into a .bsp, generates a .prt file
    This is the only one you absolutely need to load the map in the engine. However if you only do this, it will have horrible FPS, and be fullbright. With recent q3maps, you probably want to use -meta, and possibly -patchmeta.
    bsp compile time is rarely significant. It depends on the complexity of your map.

  2. vis. This uses the .prt file and the .bsp to figure out what parts of the map can be seen from where. If the -saveprt option is not used, it will delete the .prt file. The -fast option trades less complete vis calculation for faster compile time. All final compiles should be done without -fast. A map compiled only to this point will be fullbright.
    vis compile time depends on the complexity of the structure in your map.

  3. light. Does the lighting. Has lots and lots of options. -fast improves compiletime without a significant cost in quality, and with no cost in runtime performance. Therefore, you should always use -fast in your light compiles. For increased quality, you can use -bounce n -patchshadows and many other things.
    light compile time depends on the number of lights (including light emmiting surfaces and shaders) and the complexity of your map, as well as the options used.

If you use the menu in gtkradiant to compile, you will find that some entries do all three of these steps toghether, while others just do one. You can also add your own entries to the menu, either through the project settings dialog, or by directly editing the project file. You can also use a batch file or some other front end to invoke q3map.

(redfella) #8

Use q3map2toolz:

http://www.planetquake.com/hro/

:chef:

(Machine for to kill) #9

they should put some of the info here in the stickies (basic rules all mappers should follow maybe)

(SCDS_reyalP) #10

There is actually a pretty good summary in the ET LDR