FPS OF 5-10 in my map, need help using portal shaders

(Storm) #1

how do you use shaders to block off sections of the map from being rendered in-game? I have a fps of 5 to 10 im most of my map how can i learn to use portal brushes? Or whatever i need to do to increase fps without giving up geometry. i am willing to give my map file to some one who can re-evaluate it and make the portal brushes and such.

(bsimser) #2

What makes you immediately jump to shaders as the solution? I would look at a few other things to improve performance like hint brushes, caulking, structural vs detail, etc. as things that help increase FPS. There are other techniques others will post here I’m sure but don’t just focus on one cause to your problem.

(Storm) #3

how do you use hint brushes? or anything to increase fps!!!

(SCDS_reyalP) #4

First you need to find out WHY your FPS are so bad.

Did you do a full vis compile ? If not (especially if you didn’t do a vis compile at all) do that first.

Use the r_speeds and r_showtris commands in game to help you find the problem areas. The radiant manual tells you a little bit about these. In ET, you need to use /r_showtris 2 to see triangles though opaque surfaces.

Use the portal viewer plugin (after doing a full vis) to see how your map is split up.

There are a number of tutorials in the sticky link about hints and structure/detail.

(Storm) #5

i can’t compile vis because my map exeeds max visiblity,
how do i get around that! my map pretty much needs to stay intact, i can’t go chopping off sections or anything so… should i lower the celling of my skybox to avoid exeeding max visiblity?

anyway thanks for the EXTREAMLY HELPFUL TIP!

i’ll try compiling in vis…

(SCDS_reyalP) #6

That’s your problem right there. This is almost certainly because you have not used detail correctly.
Here’s some reading:

http://www.nibsworld.com/rtcw/tutorial_detail_and_hint_brushes_part1.shtml
http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/tramdesign/tutorials/tut_hint.html
http://fps.brainerd.net/hintbrushes.htm
http://www.csis.gvsu.edu/~bickelj/quakin/Welcome.html

All of the above talk a lot about hints, but that is not the part you have to worry about right now. Structure and detail are what you have to learn.

(system) #7

hmm… iv got :
2,4 ghz
512 ram
80 gb hdd
radeon9700pro gigabyte :eek:
wolf et :cool: :bump:

send to me this map (4 testing)

(Flash95) #8

try setting a global distance fog on you map

(SCDS_reyalP) #9

Gah. :banghead: His problem is that he hasn’t done a vis compile, because he hasn’t used any detail. Until he has fixed that, there is no point in doing anything else.

(Flash95) #10

duh …
True I did not catch that at first.

(Storm) #11

Ok, I’v done my vis compile I took close to 30 hours.
on a 1.6 ghz machine with 384 ram, gives you some idead how big this map is. anyway I don’t see msh change in fps but some. Now in SDradiant
i load portal view and see that my map is full of splits. what do i do now?
(thanks fro speedy response to earler question)

(SoulRebel) #12

u only use structural brushes… make them detail… (Selection menue) — or select some brushes and hit strg+m

(Storm) #13

Befor the vis compile I turn all my ground into detail and thats 90% of the map. so how mush more should I turn into detail? all buildings?
My fps is roughtly the same as battery map in et so… should worry to much more about fps?

(SCDS_reyalP) #14

If your vis compile took ~30 hours, your structure is most likely still too complex. Your structure should be simple. Small, complex shapes should be detail.

Examples of things that should usually be detail are: stairs, railings, trim, crates

You can also use the ‘caulk hull’ technique (demonstrated in one of the links I posted earlier) if you want complex shapes on your buildings.

To find out why your FPS are so low, you need to use r_showtris 2 and/or r_speeds to see what is getting drawn. If things are getting drawn which shouldn’t be, adjust your strucure and (if required) hints to ensure that it it doesn’t get drawn.

(Storm) #15

thanks for th response, I’m still slowly grasping the concept.
i’m gona try putting some hint brushes after turning more stuff into detail,
but you know my map all outdoors so I should turn up blocksize hun?
:disgust: but still happy mapper :beer:

(Loffy) #16

Storm, I once made an outdoor map. (The ground/terrain was made with EasyGen.) It took hours to compile. Then I selected ALL of the map (but not the skybox - the six sides that were the boundaries of my map world) and turned everything into detailed brushed. This included the ground (the terrain). The compile time when down to 4 minutes. (Later, I turned some brushes into structured brushes. But compile time was still below 5-6 minutes.)
// Loffy

(ziege) #17

I use Easygen, it makes the terrain detail by default.