Vis, Verts, Tris & Blocksize

(MrLego) #1

I am working on a outdoor portion of a map that is 8192 x 8192 units.

When the blocksize is set to 1024 (default) there is one small place where I can almost see to the opposite corner of the map. The tris count in that case was over 43,000.

There is a fair amount of trees (density about the same as fueldump) and that’s why the high tris exisits.

Because the way the terrain is layed out I am unable to completely block visibility with a few well placed structural & hint brushes.

If I decrease the blocksize to 768 x 768 the tris count drops to 39,000.

If I decrease the blocksize to 512 x 512 the tris count drops to 27,000.

When the blocksize is 512 x 512 the verts count is up near 27,000 as well.

Looking around the outdoor portions on Fueldump, I find that the verts/tris numbers are in the low to mid 30,000’s - slightly higher than mine.

Is this considered reasonable for an ET map?

Any disadvantage to the smaller blocksize other than the increased vis time?

With the FPS capped at 75 we were able to maintain that framerate with three flamethrowers all firing in that viewpoint. I was running a screen resolution of 1024 x 768.

(SCDS_reyalP) #2

Are you using distance fog / distance culling ? If you aren’t, you should be able to get the same effect and more efficient vis with hinting, instead of reducing your block size. I suggest using r_showtris 2 and the portal viewer to get an idea of what is going on. Having overlycomplex vis can have a negative impact on runtime peformance.

Another thing you might try is changing your blocksize in only Z or XY. By default, if you set your blocksize with only one number, you get blocks of that size in all three axis. You can use 3 numbers instead, although in general you would keep the x and y sizes equal.

Franerate isn’t a good indicator of map performance, as different systems have different bottlenecks. In particular, if you have a good CPU/memory subsystem, things that seem fine to you can be unplayable for lower spec system.

(MrLego) #3

No fog.

For all intents and purposes the outdoor areas look like fueldump, same sky, snow terrain.

I am adjusting the blocksize on all three axis (_blocksize 512 512 512), I will play those sizes some…

It ran fairly well with the blocksize at 1024 - the portal count was around 1550.

If it wasn’t for the 43000 tris I would have left it alone.

I also tried to use antiportals in places but could not see any difference in the tris count. I may not be applying or compiling with them properly.

Thanks.

(SCDS_reyalP) #4

antiportal most likelyisn’t what you want. If you can figure out where the reduced blocksize is giving you the reduction in tris (which you should be able to tell with r_showtris) then you can use hints in those areas instead.

(carnage) #5

r_lockpvs 1 then you can see if some area of your map are being draw even if they should be blocked

(]UBC[ McNite) #6

Can you plz post a rough sketch of the maplayout? If you are theoretically able to use antiportals there might also be another way, but i m not sure yet.