Help with faster compiling times.

[Quall]

When I compile my map, it took about 9 hours and was still in the middle of the vis process. What can I do to make this go faster? I read somewhere that I should make the brushes that aren't "touching the void" Detailed brushes (ctrl+m right?). So does this mean that if I put a big box around my level, and made everything inside it a detailed brish, compiling would go faster? What should and shouldn't I make a Detailed brush?

[fourwood]

The main walls of each room should be structural brushes. Detail brushes don't block -vis. Thus, the more detail you have, the faster the -vis process is. The problem is, if everything is detail, then the game doesnt know that any brush his hidden by another, and the entire level would be rendered all the time, which would be awful for framerate. What I usually do is try to have the basic shape of my room be structural, then any stairs/beams/trims/platforms/ledges/etc. can be detail, since they won't touch the void. In-game there really isn't too much of a difference between using lots of detail and no detail at all, as long as you have the basic room structure be structural, so that rooms outside of the one you're in don't get drawn.

[Hubris]

Look at it this way:

 

If you have a square room, there are very small numbers of views in it. If you add in a pillar, that then changes the view possibilities, another pillar, a box, a stairway... The list goes on, the more you add without detailing, the longer your vis compiles will take. Unless you specifically place a brush with the intention of making it block vis and helping framerates, then make it detail.

 

You should contain each room in structural brushes, not the whole level and make everything detail, this would make the whole level visible to the engine, and would be rough on fps. In multiplayer it would be even more pronounced because you would be rendering every player in the game and all their action.

[Quall]

i think i understand now. But how much times does making the brushes in room detailed take off of compiling time, for say an indoor level that takes 4 hours to compile without detailed brushes?

[Emon]

Remove ALL overlapping brushes, that should help.

[sheaday6]

put the caulk texture everything you won't see in the game

[idontlikegeorge]

man hehe im throwing together a old TFC map and i wish there were detail brushes in half-life! caulk for that matter to!

[Emon]

Originally posted by sheaday6

put the caulk texture everything you won't see in the game

 

That's a waste of your time, sof2map automatically culls all unseen surfaces in the BSP process.

[Grets Sirob]

No it doesn't.

I've tested it, it doesn't do that.

You have to caulk yourself, it doesn't automatically do it for you.

 

 

 

 

I shall rule the galaxy.

[Quall]

I do caulk everything, eccept some small 1 by 64 unit stuff. Which I have maybe 1 or 2 of in my bar's.

[Emon]

Originally posted by Grets Sirob

No it doesn't.

I've tested it, it doesn't do that.

You have to caulk yourself, it doesn't automatically do it for you.

 

 

 

 

I shall rule the galaxy.

 

Yes, it DOES. Make a box, just a square box without overlapping brushes, and don't caulk. Add a light, player etc, and startup the game. Put r_showtris 1 in the console, you'll see that there are a total of 12 triangles drawn in the room, instead of 72 if it didn't cull.

 

If you don't believe me, e-mail someone at Raven about it. Hell, even open Raven's maps, most of the unseen surfaces aren't caulked. There are some exceptions where SOF2MAP messes up, which is why you should use r_showtris to find those spots and fix them yourself before releasing the level.

[Drakewl]

emon is right with auto-caulking

 

only if you create canyons like in the yavin_swamp-map you should manually caulk the canyonfaces that cant be seen and dont touch the void

 

 

but nevertheless i for mine will caulk all objects manually

 

this has a major reason: you have more control

 

at least gtk gives you the option to filter caulked faces and this is a big plus (performance and view wise) in huge maps that eat many resources

[Wes Marrakesh]

r_showtris 1 doesn't work! i enter it and nothing!

[Emon]

Originally posted by Wes Marrakesh

r_showtris 1 doesn't work! i enter it and nothing!

 

I think it only works in SP, not in MP. Dunno why.

 

It won't HURT to caulk your maps, but it's a waste of your time (usually). I would suggest not caulking (except behind patches and on detail brushes) until you are finished with each section of the map, then use r_showtris 1 to find this stuff.

 

Hopefully that ydnar dude will get q3map2 or whatever working for JO, so we have a much more reliable auto-cull, better lighting and immensly faster compile times.

[Xcom]

Originally posted by Emon

 

I think it only works in SP, not in MP.

 

Try typing /developer 1

and then r_showtris 1

[Quall]

i have another question. Does JK2Radient accually have to be running when I click to create the bsp? Since some people say you can do it manually and use the tools outside of jk2radient