Comment on Reworking Singleplayer Level

[Pengy]

Hello,
I am working on a level designed eventually to be integrated into Svencoop. I am no newcomer to mapping, but HL2 is still new to me. Let me give you an idea of what i've made.

Anyways, i marked on the screenie below 3 points where considerable video lag occurs. I think this is partly because I am using multiple combine soldiers and metrocops (Up to 5 per area). The number of static models is kept to a minimum, and physics models are also very very low.

The player(s) start on the left, and work their way to the intersection on the right, and then go north to battle for the warehouse. There they do a bunch of things including going through the smokestack to enter the inside and find a way to open a barrier near the intersection they passed before.

Visibility is controlled with a fog entity, and right now most of the major static props (rocks that happen to be bump mapped) have very small viewable distances...usually start to fade at 1024 units and end around 1400-1500ish. All models are like this, because those hills surrounding the main path do not block vis, as they are displacements.

Alright now for my questions:

1. Do soldiers produce a crazy amound of dynamic lighting? My readings usually go off the scale when using +showbudget. Might this be because of manhacks?

2. There is a flag within every soldier's properties that has "Fade Corpse". Does anyone know if this means fade out when dead, like in HL1...or does it mean fade when a certain distance away? Anyone know where this can be altered?

3. In an effort, does anyone think that the smokestack section should be reworked so that the player cannot see so far away? This would allow me to chop off the backsides of a lot of cliff areas and water. (water is also cheap textured).

Finally, does anyone think that I should rework the beginning area in an effort to cut down on engine load and control what is seen at once? Does anyone have any ideas on how this might be feasble?



Imageshack Hosted:



Thanks for your replies, I would like this to turn into a big discussion. I feel that at this point it may be worth it to decide on a total rework of this section. If you have any questions, feel free to reply with them.


[/img]

[Emoo]

have you read zombie optimissing tut http://www.student.kun.nl/rvanhoorn/Optimization.htm

[Dead-Inside]

Btw, your displacementmaps are streched to hell. You should look in to that

[YokaI]

Kinda looks like you copied the same displacement and just resized it not a good idea

[Pengy]

Thanks, i decided any critisizism is good SO:

I'll redo my displacements (and make it more like how Valve handled theirs...which is a lot neater.)

Some of the first displacements might have been copies

Should speed things up a bit if i removed the backsides of some displacements.

Also, yes, i have read the optimization guide and understand how it all works...for the most part.


I'll update things. Thanks

[slayera]

Your best bet would be to make smaller rooms with hint brushes on a larger outdoor map like this. Your worst area should be 3 since that will see the most vis. Hint brushes can stick through other hint and still seal, but you will need to make sure that the hint room is sealed, side to side, top to bottom. Displacement map don't seal. You have to think of the hint brush as being an invisable room. As it is your basically looking over your whole map. If you make a hint room then that area is not in view of the area the player is standing in won't be drawn. The more curves and bends you can't see over will help. As for the textures on your d-maps just use your texture tool to resize the texture, you don't have to do you whole d-map over again.

[Pengy]

reworked it all, everything looks a bit better and runs a billion times faster.

no need for hint-rooms or anything. Displacements are all fixed and retextured. Thanks guys

[slayera]

Hint brush anyways, anything to make the map run faster is a plus. When you add more players to the map things will still slower. Do what you can now so you do regret it later.

[Serever]

could we possibly download and test this map? havent played any custom sp ones yet ^_^