My map had 3.8 milion VIS i have reduced it to 3.4.
I know if i delete some buildings i can reduce it but i was looking for any tricks and tips someone might have.
ie how did EA use the VIS trick in the sample map??
And can i use fog in a clever way to reduse it????
Thats bigger than mine but i have more VIS i think.
I have done the detail brushes and looked for errors where i could.
Anyone any ideas plz
Which detail did you use as the MOHRadiant has 2
one on the toolbar Selection / Make Detail ( dont help with VIS)
and one under right click / detail ( reduces VIS )
you can only have a little over 2 million VIS so you have a long ways to go
if I read right VIS is the number of tringles the compiler has to make
to make the map
Steps and small stuff can be detail
if you make curves then they will boost VIS, detail if you can
but at 1.4mil over max sounds like you might have to delete a lot of stuff or detail a lot of stuff
and remember if you detail it the compiler dont do anything to it
it will look as good or bad as you have made it
thx getting it down slowly but i did use the drop down detail rather than the right click one.
Im having a bad mapping day got a Leak now and cant find it.
I reduced the visdatasize by 75% making things detail brushes!!! The compile time for The Last Castle map takes right at 5 hours. Its great because I let it compile overnight.
Now another trick to use especially when you have big wide open spaces with big buildings in the distance is to create manual vis blockers. What it does is stops the things being drawn past the vis blocker point unless you specify that you want it drawn by adding targets the things that you want drawn. Its a great tool to increase FPS in outside areas. I need to do this with "The Last Castle" map because if you're outside in the courtyard the FPS is terrible because the game is drawing everything in my field of view (buildings, trees, tank entities, etc.). Everyone is complaining about it. I am an FPS killer!!! LOL
Check out the m4l0 map and you'll see the manual vis blockers. The texture in it looks kind of like the trigger texture but it says "vis" on it. Pull up the entity window and checkout some of its properties.
Oops, I threw the pin instead of the grenade!
Author of "The Last Castle" map
Ah yes i remember you asking in TMT forum how to fix the VIS you had with the large castle.(damn wish i could go there and see the replies you got)
How exactly does that VIS thing work .
My map is a beach and a cliff area and a largish town it has mostly flat layout cept the cliff , if i place VIS blockers and divided the map into 4 sections with the VIS (i coud do that cos of its shape) would that help.
also how do you find a leak with the PRT file???
Thx
kdja
From my understanding, vis blocking brushes will keep the inside of rooms from being drawn, until the player is in the area. If you lift the giant vis brushes in m4l0, you'll see that they are connected to smaller vis blocks that fill the inside of rooms. I think the room has to be windowless for it to work.
For your leaking door, make sure the origin brush only touches the door and one other brush (door trim or one wall). Also recheck your skybox for cracks. You do know about checking with "pointfile" right? If not, it's under "File".
You can check where the leak is from within Radiant with the BSP menu too, select BSP_BSP I think it is and it will try to compile the map. Mine goes all wrong and says it can't find the shaders (probably something to do with the setup but I use a .BAT file for compiling anyway) when it gets part way through the word leak (or leaked) appears. Close the window and Radiant shows the leak as a red line with one end at the entity thats been 'seen' from the outside, just follow it to find where the problem is.
It does exactly the same as compiling it and then choosing File -> Pointfile I think
To find a leak.. after bsping the map, open your .map file that was compiling in radiant, then go to file>pointfile
that will show you where your leak is.
I had a BIG problem with leaks, god damn this engine is 10x worse on sealing off points than the quake 2 engine - so it's likely you have multiple leaks...
There are many ways to 'plug' and 'hunt' for leaks, however, if you only have 1 or 2, it helps to open the pointfile, seal off the leak via whatever means, re-bsp and see if it leaks, if it does, load THAT pointfile, and so on.
What I always did is create a massive block(s) and move it around the map - seeing where the leak area was generated. Sometimes leaks can come from all over the map, sometimes in small focused areas... Sometimes it's something small.
I think that someone mentioned a leak thru a door... Entities cannot be on the outside wall of a map - you cannot stop a leak with an entity, basically (only solid brushes), unless something was changed in this engine that i'm not aware of.
had 11 leaks in total ,no clue what half of them were.
back to the original post ,i cleaned up my leaks and added *somfin*
And the VIS went down to 4048 I DID NOT DELETE ANYTHING.
from 4.1 million to 4048 okish FPS and this is a large wide open map.
The reason i wont post what that *somfin* was is im not sure its real.
Im mean come on 4.1 million to 4048 by adding *somfin*
I have tested this like 20 times, recompiling and checking and checking.
Without the *somfin* its 4.1 million and wont compile.
When i add the *somfin* its 4048 and it compiles and plays a bit slow.
There is a pic of the map in here somewere Surgeon hosted it for me.
When i figure out how the hell this thing works i will post.
In addition, you can realy make any brush detail (Roofs, joists, floors, walls, crates....... etc). A good way of showing what you have created as DETAIL is to use CTRL + D this will show/hide detail brushes. This will help you to see what brushes have been turned into DETAIL brushes.
The only type of brush, I wouldn't recommend turning into DETAIL are things like Exploders/Windows/Doors or basically anything that has a Function attached to it.......
under the common texture set use caulk on any surface the player cannot see. (on brushes only, not patches). This will keep the game engine from drfawing both surfaces. I'm not sure if it will keep your compile time down, but your FPS will definitely be better
