How to increase FPS?

(cicero) #1

Hello!

I’ve now almost retextured my whole map… As a first time mapper I manage to make 138.000 brushes with textures on all sides… it’s easy to learn the hard way… :slight_smile: Anyhow, as I said I’ve now more or less managed to retexture all brushes MANUALLY(!) :eek: , that’s adding caulk on every side that’s not seen. Some times when moving around the map in GtkRadiant the map flows good (not perfect) in the 3D window but sometimes the FPS really drop way low…

How can I get around this?

Is there some other things I can do to improve my FPS?
Will the FPS improve after compiling or will it be just the same?
Can changing map from day to night improve FPS as you realisticly not would see as far at night, but then you might add a lot of lights to make it look more realistic…

So any help would be most kind of u all… :lookaround:

So far I’ve not added any Lights or objectives. Read something about turning the whole terrain into one brush, is that possible?

(damocles) #2

Ignore the FPS in Radiant. Compile it and test the FPS in the game (use /cg_showfps I think, or it might be /cg_drawfps). If you get good framerates in the game then it’s a good start. Next thing to consider is the amount being drawn. Use /r_speeds 1 in the console to display a list of information about how much is being drawn. I believe the number you are looking for is labelled verts and consists of ###/### where the first number is the amount of vertices being used for drawing and the second number is the amount being considered for possible drawing. Use the second number - and although this will probably start a flame war and a million and one people will post saying you can’t rely just on the r_speeds, I’d suggest trying to keep this number under 30,000. Under 25,000 or less if you have a lot of fancy effects in the level.

Now run around the level and make sur the number stays low enough in all places, especially places where you expect a lot of action and airstrikes.

(DeAtHmAsTeR) #3

WHAT!!! R_SPEEDS i think should never exceed 30, or even 25, keep 25 the max…

to drop fps, use large structural brushes which block vis, make sure all your walls are structural

(damocles) #4

As with every iteration of the Q3 engine, the limits go up. Look at fuel dump, some areas on there the r_speeds are almost 40,000. I think that’s way to high, but I guess that’s up to the mapper to decide. If you have access to a crap machine (eg minimum specs) to test on, then great, otherwise we have to try and guess the limitations via r_speeds, shader counts and experience.

As time marches on, hardware improves and r_speeds slowly creep up.

(cicero) #5

Well thanks!

Big structural objects… hmm… It’s an island with a little mountain on it. On top of the mountain is a bunker overlooking a snall fishing village below… Guess there’s gonna be a few airstrikes from there down in teh village. But, the one house blocks most of the visual range from the once behind so I hope that won’t be a problem, but what about the fact that all buildings are accessible? There are 4 floors as most in the houses complete with stairs and rooms…won’t that drop FPS? There are also some windows that you can see into the next house and so on…?

Just wondering…

(damocles) #6

Oooooh, island maps are a bastard to do. My first RTCW map was an island one and I fought with the r_speeds for ages.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you don’t really understand the whole VIS process and vis blocking. It’s a lot more complex than what you can’t see doesn’t get drawn. A lot of the time, what you can’t see does get drawn because the engine thinks that you might be able to see it.

I would recommend finding a good tutorial on VIS and hint brushes and reading it thoroughly. Then once you’ve read it once, read it again. It’s not an easy thing to understand, it took me ages to get the hang of it. If you get stuck, we’re always here to help you out.

If you search this forum for “hint brush” you will probably find a few links to good tutorials.

(cicero) #7

Okej… I don’t really get it… why would island maps be harder to do than other maps? This hint brush thing I’ve heard about it, but easily put, what are they exactly and what are they good for? Don’t houses, terrain and trees block the visability? Or do the computer always calculate the vis on a certain distance?
My map is an island with a small fishing village (with 14 houses) one one side and a forrest on the other side of a little mountain with a bunker on top of it… So shall I and if so how use hint brushes between houses? As there are 14 houses it sounds to me that there might/will be A LOT of hint brushes…am I right? or should I use it on bigger areas like one for the whole village?

THX!

(damocles) #8

If the houses are on roughly the same level, a good tactic is to add a hint brush across the whole map that goes form the floor to just below the tops of the house walls. (if the roofs are slanted, they should be detail - slanted structural brushes can cause a lot of problems)

Trees are not very likely to block VIS. It doesn’t matter what the brushwork is, it will only block VIS if it is made from structural brushes. However, this does not mean you should make everyhting out of structural brushes because this can result in a mess of visibility portals that can also slow down the game just as lots of polys do.

Hints, VIS and vis portals are probably the saingle hardest part of Quake engine mapping, but once you learn them you can make much more detailed maps.

Island maps are only hard to do if it is a omcplete island. It sounds like yours is a bay or sea inlet which isn’t so bad.

Like I said, find some tutorials and study VIS and hint brushes. It’s worth it in the long run.

(cicero) #9

oki…but why would I place a hintbrush over the whole map? will that not be the same as not to have a hint brush?

Slanted? Detail? didn’t quite get that… I’ve made my houses the following way:

First I made a big “cubeic” like brush, then if viewed from the side (easier explained this way), I cut of 2 pieces (triangles), one at each top corner, this way creating a typical house volym and then hollowed it out. Finaly I rasied lifted the 2 newly created brushes forming the roof away from the free of the walls and subtracted the walls out of the floor so the walls and floor dont share the same space along their edge. Then I did the same with the roof and put it back in place… Hope you got it…

This way my roof is made up of brushes original from the same brush as the other sides of the house, though with another texture to them. Still they are not flat which is what I belive you mean by slanted…correct? Do slanted brushes cause more problems than flat ones? What’s this about detail?

hmm… seems we’re getting to it… I’ve got approx 25-35 trees and brushes all made from the add tree buttom below the Archive meny…

And I also have approx. 138.000 brushes…
well my whole map is acctually an island…so it’s not a bay or sea inlet…
I’ve also made my terrain with EasyGen and have 100 x 100 squares, heard it might be possible to make one piece ot of them, is this true?
If it helps you, I can send you my file.

THX A LOT!

(damocles) #10

Compile your map and do the r_speeds thing I mentioned above and get an idea just how high your r_speeds are. Then you can start thinking about areas that can be improved.

As for the houses - yes slanted roofs does mean not flat, and slanted structural brushes (all brushes are structural unless you tell them to be detail) are not really a good thing. People have used them in the past, but they cause the VIS process to be come messy which in turn can lead to slow down.

The giant hint brush I mentioned…It won’t cover the whole map because there will be space above and below it. This is the trick you see. It’s all to do with the VIS process. If the player is standing within the brush, it will stop him from seeing behind other houses. But this only woks if the houses are on the same general level 0 if all the houses are at different heights all over the map, you’ll need to find another method for VIS blocking.

a 100x100 terrain brush might be a bit excessive. IT all depends how it’s shaped and what caulk brushes you use to block off visibility. If you need to, you can reduce the number of peices used in easygen quite easily - use the grid tools and set the number of divisions then click apply. My terrain is currently at 64x64 and it is still quite a large terrain because a lot of it is visible at once :confused:

(cicero) #11

Oki. Then I guess I have to select a slanted brush and press make detail… so that will go for ALL houses as ALL houses have slanted roofs…well well… Have I retextured 110.000 brushes by hand that won’t be a problem… :bump:

Well the houses are at different height but not more than that the highest point of the lowest house is about the same level as the lowest point of the highest house. Only the bunker on the hill is really a little higher than the other buildings… so I guess a large brush will do…?

If a make a hintbrush that covers the houses but stops by the waterlevel then players won’t see each other if one is under water and one is above? If this is so, then I might get it. This way players in teh bunker on the hill will still be able to see players around the houses but the computer won’t calculate on every wall and roof inside the houses as the hint brush will tell it so…? Only exception from this will then be walls seen throu windows?

Well I selected 100 x 100 terrain cause it by that looks much more like the real terrain were I live…