New tutorial on using areaportals

[General_DisArray]

so you are telling me that r_showtris 1 or 2 doesn't work in MP?

that doesn't make sense.

[Alcoholic]

r_showtris 2 lets you see drawn polygons on the other sides of walls. if it wasnt cheat protected, people could just turn it on and wallhack.

[Bjarne BZR]

this is what i have in my shortcut, verbatim:

Code: Select all

 +set cl_playintro 0 +set ui_skip_eamovie 1 +set ui_skip_titlescreen 1 +set ui_skip_legalscreen 1 +set developer 1 +set thereisnomonkey 1 +set cheats 1 +set ui_console 1

what do i need to take out or add?

Here is a small dev parameter tutorial: http://www.planetmedalofhonor.com/rjuka ... eters.html

But basically, your path is correct. But you need to start the map from the console whith 'devmap' instead of just 'map'.

[Jack Ruby]

Loved the area portal tute, again you made my life much nicer

Cheers

[General_DisArray]

like i said before, good job on your tutorial! makes sense now.

but, if "area" does that for sealing off rooms, and raises your fps. what can you use to get the same effect for other rooms that have windows or open areas to the outer area?

i was always under the assumption that walls and other obstructions blocked your view of all tris that are not seen. i did not know that all were drawn at all times unless blocked by something like an "area" texture.

i tried the r_showtris 2 command in a map i just finished. i was amazed at how many triangles were being drawn in the map. it was almost completely white of all the lines on the screen. but the map still runs fine on my machine(24 to 85 fps depending if you are in the trees or not).

how can you do this to boost fps?

[Bjarne BZR]

You have 2 main options for blocking vis:
- Structural brushes
- Manual VIS brushes
- vis_leafgroup's

Basically, you need to read up on VIS in general to know what to use where
( Here are some good VIS links: http://www.modtheater.com/forum/showthr ... hreadid=22 )

[Alcoholic]

I haven't read much about manvis, but I believe that some fairly primitive manvis can really improve the fps on a large, outdoor, hilly map.

[Jack Ruby]

I had no problems inserting areaportals into the new map I am making, however, I just opened up my old Peenemunde map because I know the FPS can be improved.

I am now getting a message " areaportal brush 1 doesnt touch 2 areas "

I have tried expanding the brushes further into the walls, still the same error, I will try one more thing, expand them further into the floor, I doubt that it will work though.

Anyone know about this error and how to fix it ?

edit : I have been hunting for more info, I found this...

As with Q2, the Q3 Areaportal has some caveats. Areaportals cannot touch more than one area once, just like in Q2, though the errors/warnings
"Areaportal touches >2 areas" or "Areaportal touches < 2 areas" don't get printed out. All that happens is the Areaportal doesn't work.

A simple way to check for the validity of Areaportals:

1. Pretend your map is a real place.

2. Imagine filling the room on one side of the AP with water or a vaporous gas.

If your map can fill up ALL THE WAY, and the water/vapor can touch the OTHER side of the Areaportal, then it won't work. Only solid brushes and Areaportals will block this imaginary water/gas--Detail brushes, models, curves, and other entities won't.

If you have other doors, you'll probably need to make them Areaportal doors also.

[rOger]

Most likely you have a "leek" (like another door or window or crack in the wall) between the areas that you are trying to separate. Making these areas the same area. hence the error message.

[Jack Ruby]

I had a mesh inside my building, an arched roof, it was sealed from the void but not a sealed structure, the portals are now working ok

I have another question, about vis leafgroups, I have them working, I was wondering if they work in both directions ?

I will try to explain what I mean, I select my first vis then select the other, hit ctrl k, they are now joined by a blue line, the line has direction arrows, so if I go into the targeted leafgroup will it draw the original leaf ? You see what I mean ? Do the leafgroups work in both directions ?

[rOger]

No!

Can't get clearer than that.

[Jack Ruby]

I like that answer.

Yeah I worked that out, you have to connect them in both directions, cool.

Ya know I think there should be more emphasis on manvis and areaportals when we tell someone how to build something, should be up there with making a door in importance

[rOger]

Well, you have to reel them in slowly, don't scare them away with thing that is not really necessary until you have a more or less finished map.

But it is of great value once you know that it is there to use. And if you are aware of all of this you might plan you map differently.

[Jack Ruby]

Wow, you could just spend days making leafgroups and new area portals.

I have been modifying my old map, damn, so much that could and will be improved, not structurally, fps wise, though I have added a couple of doors to seal stuff off.

Outdoors maps are F$*^ed up. I never really had a grip on all this stuff before, I made my maps, they played fine on my machine, I thought that was good enough. Keep the outdoors stuff to a minimum I would say

I can make stuff look beautiful I have mastered that, tonight I think I mastered vis

I think I am gonna become a FPS freak !

[General_DisArray]

i tried to do a very simple manvis on a small map i recently finished. originally, the fps was decent on a decent machine. around 21 to 35 in most areas.

after i did a simple manvis(8 visleafgroups-4 for the top or above ground and 4 for the lower or below ground) my main objective was to hide the above ground from the underground portions of the map, and to hide the below ground form everything except the adjacent areas.

this raised compile time but about 10 or 15 minutes almost doubling my compile time. and it had almost no effect on my map. when i ran the r_showtris 2 command in the console. i could still see almost every brush in the map. only in a few areas did this help out.

i must have done something terribly wrong. but i double checked to see that every leafgroup was connected to the correct unseen leafgroup. not sure if this is even worth trying. or at least need to design your map originally with this in mind to get desired results.