Tyler_Durden Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 I am almost done with my map however when i play it, the npc's as well as kyle start flickering like a light. Is there a fix to this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
War Master Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 I've seen this before with some guy's map. The cause was poor performance, he didn't build his map properly. What kind of performance are you getting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler_Durden Posted October 22, 2002 Author Share Posted October 22, 2002 well my pc is pretty old: pentium 3 450 256 MB RAM NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 but my map runs fine until i get to a certain point then the flickering occurs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kengo Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 I had that on a level I did, it coincided with terrible fps, it seems to happen when the system can't cope with keeping the animation going for NPC's so it just animates them some of the time and they flicker. It got so bad for me they almost dissapeared. You need to improve FPS to get rid of the problem, but you are playing on a very slow system so maybe if you get some beta testers with better systems you can find out if they have the same problems, if they don't maybe it's just down to your slow PC. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takeoffyouhoser Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 was your map the one that you started off in a crate??? if so, or if not, hehe, I found that the problem was only right in the front of the hangar. I also played around with it and found that the only flickering came directly across from the open wall panel and the sparking effect. i just assumed you, Kengo, or whoever made it, jsut messed up the spark effect. the map ran well for me... no other glitches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kengo Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 Originally posted by Takeoffyouhoser was your map the one that you started off in a crate??? Nope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takeoffyouhoser Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 thats the only map i have ever played where anything flickered at all... hmmm... oh well, carry on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kengo Posted October 22, 2002 Share Posted October 22, 2002 Originally posted by Takeoffyouhoser thats the only map i have ever played where anything flickered at all... hmmm... oh well, carry on! Sorry, I was a bit unclear, I actually managed to get rid of the flickering before the final release by basically improving FPS (caulking, are_portals etc) I seem to remember the problem appeared to be worse when I did a half vis compile instead of a fullvis compile, but no idea why this would be . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler_Durden Posted October 23, 2002 Author Share Posted October 23, 2002 here;s a theory i have, when i added sounds to my map i connected the target_speaker to a wall which i turned into a func_static. When i enter the area, the wall flickers as well. Could this possibly be associated with the problem? I'm gonna try deleting the func_statics and turning them into func_wall. I say this because this problem started after i applied the sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
War Master Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 Are you talking about Z-fighting? Another thing is don't spawn all your NPCs from the start because that's a lot of AI to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler_Durden Posted October 23, 2002 Author Share Posted October 23, 2002 no i have triggers to spawn npc's throughout the level. The thing is i have some really big environments in places where they don't necessarily have to be big but i wanted to build a level with a large scale so that i have room to flesh out all my ideas. It is a mine type level that is an homage to my favorite dark forces level, gromas mines. What i had in mind was to make the basic structure and then put rocky formations and stuff around the basic path so it would seem as if everything in the mine was rocky. And then i wanted to incorporate some prefabs such as an at-at and the raven's claw which i successfully did, and some open outside areas to combat imp troops. but the hardest part was incorporating a main reactor with a force field around it when destroyed would open up the reactor for destruction. This area is also a big room (3 rooms) with the g_glow texture for floor and ceiling.(thanks for pointing it out to me kengo). All this on my crappy system. Another thing i did was to add a ton of enemies to a given area which would slow down my system considerably. But only recently has the characters started to do their strobe light impressions. I've painstakingly caulked all the details that needed doing so and turned all the brushes which are environmental into details. All this and i still have to do scripting and waypoints and objectives as well. Would a GForce 4 ti 4200 solve these problems with the flickering? I am getting one tomorrow!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
War Master Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 I think your bottleneck is your processor. If you're going to have rocky terrain that's gonna cost ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leslie Judge Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 One thing that cought my attention. You wrote that you made a wall into func_static and you plan to make it func_wall instead. You know that entites are not seen by the VIS process? Is it necessary to not leave the wall as simple structural brush? That wall might be in a place where two big areas connect... you are the only one who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jalisko Posted October 24, 2002 Share Posted October 24, 2002 I also played Kengo's map (witch was a pretty nice work, btw) and sufered the flicking thingie, but I didn't have the impression of it being caused by low fps. I had the feeling it was caused for some problems with entities. Maybe something was linked wrong, or some entities had the same targetnames and they were at very different parts of the map, or any othe thing... but around entities. I can't be sure about all this, of course, but If I was Kengo i'd make the experiment of removing all the entities and compile the map without them, just to see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takeoffyouhoser Posted October 24, 2002 Share Posted October 24, 2002 i'm going to agree with the last poster, framerates weren't an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler_Durden Posted October 25, 2002 Author Share Posted October 25, 2002 well check it out, i got a gforce 4 ti 4200 yesterday and i tried playing my map again, although i had more power with the card i still encountered the same problems as before. I had played maps with a low fps before but never had i experienced the flickering aspect, so it has to be linked with entities and the environment. I have a question, when linking sounds to the environment, since you can't link a target_speaker to worldspawn, what would you make the environment, such as a wall? (ie. target_speaker linked to a func_static or a func_wall) Or is it not a func at all and something totally different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jalisko Posted October 25, 2002 Share Posted October 25, 2002 Oh, It wasn't Kengo's map, I was talking about that map you start inside a crate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kengo Posted October 25, 2002 Share Posted October 25, 2002 I'm very sorry, seem to have got everyone a bit confused on this . I was just saying I had the same problem with a map I did before I fixed it, I felt it was down to FPS in my case (as FPS improved, it went away) however sounds like it can also occur for other reasons. As has already been said here, entites don't block vis so huge areas may be being drawn behind them (depending on the context), or it could be some entity connection thing maybe. Can't believe I'm getting compliments for a map I didn't do, keep em coming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takeoffyouhoser Posted October 26, 2002 Share Posted October 26, 2002 I do belive that the problem with the crate map that Kengo didn't make ( but did a great job with it anyhow! ) is because of, IMO, the open panel that sparks across the crates. If you run all the way down to the other end of the hangar, this flickering effect goes away. I am figuring that it is the Sparking effect that has caused the flickering with this map... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leslie Judge Posted October 26, 2002 Share Posted October 26, 2002 Once I downloaded the Imperial Station 2.1 or what the name is. In nearly the entire map there was flickering. I turned on r_showtris and guess what: that whole map was drawn. And I couldn't find why. There was no leaks or anything I could discover but there was something... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
War Master Posted October 26, 2002 Share Posted October 26, 2002 I was talking to the guy who made imperial station 2.1 and I asked him if he went overboard with the detail brushes. He said he didn't but now that you've seen proof I'm sure that's what the problem is. You have to be careful with detail brushes but you can always undo them with make structural in the selection menu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.