Hey man, that's an enormous help for me. Thank you. It looks like func_lod is worth trying out.
Question about "waterindices": Does it say anything about there being a limit or breaking point for them? I'm only halfway to the brush limit but the "waterindices" is up to 85%, do you think the engine will break if I ended up going much higher? The map itself has great frame rates. The other wierd thing is that I normally get those "glimmering edges and cracks" in my brushes no matter what I do. They usually appear in dark areas and at distances greater than 500 units. I have learned to deal with it and map in such a way that gives very few long-distance views in darkness - ei dark tunnels. Thanks again ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kenneth B. Swisher" <capt...@qis.net> Date: Thursday, June 17, 2010 10:44 am Subject: Re: [hlmappers] Optimization Questions To: Discussion of Half-Life Mapping <hlmappers@list.valvesoftware.com> > Hey Ben, > > Here's what VDC has (seein' as how you can't access it). > > > func_lod > > > From Valve Developer Community > > Jump to: navigation > <http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Func_lod#column- > one>, search > <http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Func_lod#searchInput> > > This is a brush entity > <http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Brush_entity> > available in all > Source games. > > > Entity Description > > Brush-built > <http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Entity#Brush_entities> model > that fades out over a specified distance. Useful for creating > world > detail that doesn't need to be drawn far away, for performance > reasons. > * Note:*The fading is not always consistent; brushes may > suddenly "pop" > into view depending on where the player is looking. This happens > because > of a hardware issues with rendering translucent materials. Low- > end cards > will fade nearer than the distance specified, and smaller > objects fade > nearer than a larger object with the same fade distance. > * Note:*The overhead required by this entity is substantial. Use > it only > for special effects or when fading very dense geometry, and one > could > then argue, shouldn't that better be a model > <http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Model>? > > As for waterindices, here's as much as I could gather: > "t-junctions are edges with more than two collinear verts. This > happens > when dissimilar geometry meets sharing an edge, vbsp > automatically adds > all verts along the edge to each polygon sharing the edge to > avoid > cracks. vbsp has a -notjunc option that will skip this process, > but that > will leave you with cracks in your level. You probably want the > t-junctions fixed. Cracks usually look like sparkling edges > (bright > pixels in the skybox showing through). > > There are several references on t-junctions online as it's a > general > problem when processing geometry for any rendering engine. It's > not > unique to anything specifically in Source." > > Basically, it looks like it has to do with when you have two > brush edges > with vertices along them that don't line up, so vbsp does some > work to > prevent unsightly cracks from showing along the edges. > I'unno, that's > my best guess. > > And, thanks for your service (Army). > > > > Benjamin J Dunbar wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I am asking my questions here on the mailing list because I do > not have access to the VDC at this time...it's considered by the > US Army to be a "gaming" site, so they have blocked it on our > machines.> > > What exactly is func_lod, and do you think I should use it > instead of func_detail? I have a high amount of > func_detail in my map and after looking at Valve's maps I > noticed some func_lod where I would have assumed to use > func_detail. Can someone clear up it's purpose and usage > for me? > > > > Also...same map as above...when I compile, I get 85% > "waterindices", which the compiler calls "VERY FULL". But > I have no water in my map at all. Can someone tell me > what's up with that? What are "waterindices"? > > > > Thanks very much guys. > > _______________________________________________ > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > archives, please visit: > > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlmappers > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > archives, please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlmappers > > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlmappers
