Questions on creation of maps and their further compilation

(Eugeny) #1

Leave please the questions, answers on creation of maps in the Radiant.

(ronboy) #2

I will say this: don’t go overboard with your map. For example, making 600 or so func_explosive windows. I read about this on surface mapping. This guy made 600 breakable windows in his rtcw map. :eek:

(Eugeny) #3

I think anything bad will not be if it makes them a detail.

(ronboy) #4

Well, there is a limit to the number of brush entities you have in a map. I think the limit is in the 200’s.

(Eugeny) #5

And you try to make more and look, whether there will be an error or not.

(nukits) #6

Hello, just had idea to make a simple RTCW SP map, so i got a few questions.

1: How can i put enemy soldiers in my map? And add weapons MP40, sten…
2: How can i make them move?

(ronboy) #7

[QUOTE=nukits;233606]Hello, just had idea to make a simple RTCW SP map, so i got a few questions.

1: How can i put enemy soldiers in my map? And add weapons MP40, sten…
2: How can i make them move?[/QUOTE]

Hi Nukits. Glad you’re interested in mapping for rtcw sp. Well, here’s a webite that I have used before. It’s for wolfenstein mapping. Just click “tutorials”, and look under rtcw.
http://www.surfacegroup.org/

(nukits) #8

Okay thanks, I will try it.

(ronboy) #9

No problem. :stroggtapir:

(ronboy) #10

I have another tip for new mappers. There is a limit of 64 AI in a single map.

(-SSF-Sage) #11

Who should want to or need to have more than that. Dead soldier models are drawn everywhere, so having a lot more than 30-35 AIs can easily kill your FPS. If you remove the dead models then this problem doesn’t obviously exist, but that feels a bit unreal.

(Eugeny) #12

At you they not in one frame?

If were able, would make more

(ronboy) #13

@ Sage: I don’t know who would put more than 64 ai in a single map, or even get close to the limit. I was just letting new mappers know that.
@ Eugeny: I can see you have tried to extend the limit. Even if you did, as Sage mentioned, the fps would be dangerously low. :o

(-SSF-Sage) #14

[QUOTE=Eugeny;234712]At you they not in one frame?

If were able, would make more[/QUOTE]

No matter how well you can plan your map, you will probably see most of them from some locations, it’s different if it matters, because it’s unlikely gonna make any difference to shooting, but it can leave unfinished feeling. That’s if you plan your map nicely. The FPS drops towards the end. Still I do think 64 AIs is plenty.

Of course you can stage your map so you’ll divide it into two parts and once you enter the second part, you can’t go back to part one. Then you can at that moment remove all the dead bodies from part one.

It might be possible to awake a dead soldier and then teleport it to another location. Like reuse the AIs. But I’m just speculating I’m not sure about this one. I would think Raven would had left a way to do that. (((eg. Sethealth x ->Clearanim->statetype alert ???))) I’m too tired to really search, think or test this tho.

(Eugeny) #15

It is impossible to revive the dead soldier.
Certainly it is possible to make check at the soldier on a quantity of the remained health and to transfer it to other place and to establish new quantity of health. But it will look as as if it has simply evaporated.

(Eugeny) #16

[QUOTE=ronboy;234727]
@ Eugeny: I can see you have tried to extend the limit. Even if you did, as Sage mentioned, the fps would be dangerously low. :o[/QUOTE]
Yes I tried to raise this limit.

Well, fps will depend on quantity of soldiers. But fps depends not only on quantity of soldiers, but also from literacy of creation of a map. Here you Ronboy, use on the maps of a brush with textures common/clusterportal and common/hint? If them not to use, all that you do not see, the engine all the same draws.

(-SSF-Sage) #17

[QUOTE=Eugeny;234730]Yes I tried to raise this limit.

Well, fps will depend on quantity of soldiers. But fps depends not only on quantity of soldiers, but also from literacy of creation of a map. Here you Ronboy, use on the maps of a brush with textures common/clusterportal and common/hint? If them not to use, all that you do not see, the engine all the same draws.[/QUOTE]

The bug is in the engine. Even if you see 10 brushes from your location. You still see all the dead models in front of you, no matter what. And you still lag with older pc, because about 30 dead player models creates like 40k tris, which is like absolutely max imho.

(ronboy) #18

@ Sage: I use a windows xp comp for mapping, and a vista laptop for rtcw maps. It seems to run my maps fine, not much lag from low fps.
@ Eugeny: I haven’t used those brushes before, they seem too complicated to use. I am aware of the difference between structural and detail brushes. I try to use as many detail brushes as I can. I also use quite a lot of caulk. With those two combined, I don’t think my maps suffer from low fps. Remember, the amount of lag also depends on how slow or fast your computer is.

(-SSF-Sage) #19

Yeah but do you want to make your maps only playable on good computers? There’s not so many players left anyway, and quite a lot still has old computers because they can play ET or RTCW with it. Me included. In other words then not as many can play your map.

But this topic always existed and will exist, it’s the mapper’s choice. My choice is to let as many play my maps as possible. With as good FPS as possible. I probably spend 30% or more of the time of creation to improve the FPS. As one wise man once said: “FPS is the king”. In my opinion too, FPS is the most important thing for what comes to RTCW or ET maps.

(ronboy) #20

I do agree with you. One of the reasons I decided to start mapping is to keep what is left of the sp community around.
I don’t think the fps is too bad in my maps. Then again, I play my maps on a vista laptop. It all depends on your computer…