Mapping errors

[Lonevillager]

i start my map up and i start walking around but it shudders more when i jump... any help would be greatly liked

[Thor the Bassis]

Some questions:

1. How big is your map?

2. How many models/brushes are in view of the player (is it a wide open map with lots of trees for instance)?

3. Have u added area portals to doors and done the vis part of the compile?

4. Do you know the frames per second on the map?

[Lonevillager]

1. How big is your map? Yaxis 8960 to -5168

Xaxis -2040 to 10400

Zaxis 0 to 4224

 

2. How many models/brushes are in view of the player (is it a wide open map with lots of trees for instance)?

 

It's a starter map, with 410 brushes and 25 entities, right now its a wide open map, but it will start to get closed in when it moves along.

 

3. Have u added area portals to doors and done the vis part of the compile?

 

There are no area portals, and i use the Q3map2: (final) BSP -meta, -vis -fast, -light -fast -super 2-filter.

 

4. Do you know the frames per second on the map?

 

FPS ranges from 350 - 400+

[Thor the Bassis]

I think this is just something the game does when you jump coz I think it does this when I jump on my maps. Not something to worry about I think.

 

So long as fps isn't dropping there's also proberably nothing you can do anyway.

 

Incidently how have you got such fps on a map that size and with trees in? Are you using misc_models or misc_model_statics? Coz mine runs really low on forest maps?

[Lonevillager]

well actually there is no trees...iam running P4 3.0ghz 512 ram 512 video card

[Thor the Bassis]

ah the old i need an upgrade lol.

 

I think the jumping is just something the game does.

 

Be careful with open maps with trees coz the trees dont tend to draw at all distances if they're misc_model_statics but if u have misc_models they draw at all distances but lag something cronic as the engine draws billions of tris. As soon as you add npcs the world will slow.

 

If I was you i'd add to your worldspawn key: distancecull value: x (4000?) This means that the game engine will stop drawing anything further away from you than 4000 units.

 

Also add a fog that culls your visibility just before the engine stops drawing things as this will mean the map tends to disappear into the fog.

 

Also I'd put as much of the map as jungle/forest paths which you can't get off as this means you haven't got masses of tris anymore .

Also try skyboxes and skyportals as these give the effect of more room outside of your map.

 

Dont forget some people are still playing the game on 0.5 to 2GHz machines *raises hands*.

[Lonevillager]

interesting...might add fog...don't need trees on this map...making the Roman colessum.

[Thor the Bassis]

It all depends on how complex you make the colesseum. If theres lots of tris for the engine to draw you might want to consider it although its hard to get good daylight fog and have the lighting right.

 

I dont know what you're using for your lighting but if you're using entity suns, which are best for outside maps, you cant block the whole map edges in with normal textures - some of it needs to be skybox. If you do this i would proberably make the map bounded by a floor, the colesseum on the sides and a skybox texture on the top.

 

You will, I'm afraid, have to compile, check, change, compile, check, change etc. Until you get the right results but try to change as many problems as possible and only do it with a small part of your map as this will cut down on compile time. So you make a small part and then do a short light compile then change things until the map feels right. Then you finish the map and you do the long final compile rather than finishing the map and having to do lots of long compiles to check the lighting.

[Lonevillager]

well iam not to worried about lighting...its the shuddering i worry about. i created a blank map 4 sides a floor and a ceiling, still when i jump the person kind like shakes and the screen shudders... iam first complied maps using "Q3Map2: (test) BSP -meta, -vis -fast, -light -fast -super 2 -filter" i try a couple of the other ones, and it doesn't shudder when i start jumping but it slowly starts... is there one good complie that works right?

[Thor the Bassis]

I usually use the Q3Map2: (test) BSP -meta, -vis -fast, -light -fast -filter as i think it gives the same result as many of the more taxing compiles. By placing clever lights and such around you can get the light phase to work good without any radiosity bounces. Also you can try doing your bsp, vis and light phases separately by doing a bsp -meta, then a vis (without fast is better) and then a light -fast -filter. This will give the effect of bsp -meta, vis, light -fast -filter.

 

Unfortunately vis -fast can lag the game as the vis data isn't written as economically.

 

Dont know if this helps but could work.

[acdcfanbill]

The fact that -vis -fast is 'lagging' the game has nothing to do with light. A fast -vis compile means it's not as accurate at calculating which other portals can be seen from each portal on the map. This means more triangles are drawn on average, than need to be, which contributes to the lower frames a second a map compile with -vis -fast will give.

[Thor the Bassis]

ooops i meant vis

[Lonevillager]

well it works now...turned my com_maxfps down to 90....to high and it lagged...