Read that tutorial...nice!! The $25,000 dollar question is...why not make everything but the sky box and wall and roofs detail? I have mostly open fields with scattered buildings...really don't see the delineation of where exactly the structural is beneficial.
Thanks for the guidance.
Now about the DMprecache....What is it, and what exactly goes into it? Do I just list the textures and models I've used in my map? Is there a way to list these for easy addition? Every map I decompile and look at is different...no visible consistency among them.
Asking all these questions is very tiresome....mostly for the guys providing the responses....but I'm learning and I really want to produce a nice map.
Murphy's Law:
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
i did just what you said in one of my maps(all things being detail) it compile. it took a ridiculous amount of time! and when i got into the map it looked like a huge labyrinth of walls, doors and models. my best guess if you make a house and you label all of the brushes detail, the compiler doesn't have anything to base what is part of a solid object to build a proper vis for the engine. i guess it just ignores the details.
i have gotten away with making a couple of walls and stairs detail in my last map. my compiles takes about 8-12 minutes long and i think it runs about 25 to 75 frames per second. i could send you this map if you would like to look at it and see how i did some of this. as long as you promise to be nice with it! lol
as for the DMprecache. i just copied one of the original dmprecaches for my map and renamed it. to be perfectly honest, a lot of resources are already on your computer for learning how to script and map. all the scripts are in your Pak files in your main or mainta folder. if you learn a base of what this stuff means you can recreate almost anything you have seen in the game. and then when you get more comfortable with that, then you can come up with your own awesome ideas.
My sky box (including the ground), building exterior walls and roofs are all structural.
Items like interior walls, crates, fences, light poles, sign posts, etc. are all detail.
It compiles now in about 45 min to 1 hour. I can send a PK3 file to you. It looks great (my opinion), some noobie mistakes I am ironing out (being able to walk through models, ladders that need adjusting, etc.)
My concern is that my terrain is just a little shy of filling up the whole Radiant grid. I wonder now if I should scale back...but it looks so cool big!! I may be causing myself extra heartache...but it is worth it in the end.
Murphy's Law:
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
