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Level Design The map optimization thread

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#22
Okay here is a question for you guys. If I am putting Zone portals in windows of a building to zone off the inside where do I want the portal to be at. If I have a window with breakable glass and a frame Do I want the portal on the inside or on the outside. Correct me if I am wrong but if I have the portal on the outside and you look up and can see the window frame then doesnt everthing inside of that building get rendered because I can see into that zone basically. Thanks.
 
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#28
Okay so I know how to do zone portals pretty well. But here are some questions I have
1. I have entered zone portals they show up in the editor and in the game with the ZP texture so there is this mask over my windows how doI get the ZP texture to show only in the editor?
2. I have one building That I know that I have covered but it will not convert to a zone. How do I go about trouble shooting this? Is it because I have a Smesh half in and half out of the zone? Do I have a leak in my BSP somewhere?

Thanks for any help.
 
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#29
This is what I heard from programmers that worked with the Unreal engine. They said that the 2 occlusion techniques that really work are fog and cull distance. In most cases the other techniques (portals, anti-portals) give the cpu more to do. It has to calculate what you can and cant see, after that it know what to render or not.

Also culling and fog are the easiest/fastest to set up :)
 
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#31
Greenhell said:
This is what I heard from programmers that worked with the Unreal engine. They said that the 2 occlusion techniques that really work are fog and cull distance. In most cases the other techniques (portals, anti-portals) give the cpu more to do. It has to calculate what you can and cant see, after that it know what to render or not.

Also culling and fog are the easiest/fastest to set up :)
Click to expand...

Zones and APs do work, the problem is the way they are placed.
rmode 1 is your friend for both in practice.
 
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#33
Rmode1, displays all the map in wireframe view while testing in the editor.
This is a good way to check your AP's and that, as when you are directly infront of one in this mode. All stuff behind it should dissapear, If it does not you have not set it up correctly.

you can also ge tthe same thing by hitting the wireframe view in the perspective Viewport. making sure you have realtime preview switched on, this gives you the same thing from inside the editor.
 
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#34
Another trick you can do with the wireframe mode in the editor and AntiPortals is to hit O, which is the toggle for volumes. If you're on one side of the AP you can hit O on and off to see exactly how much is being culled. Just remember that you must have realtime preview on for APs to work and also to have volumes shown. If you hide the volumes with the O key toggle their effects won't be shown in the editor.
 
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#39
Can someone tell me if it is better to place a Wall Static or to build a similar one from BSP with damage to it. Which is a better resource cost? Also can anyone explain what settings I should have for Static meshes that are outside of the playable area so that it can improve performance. This would be for like trees shurbs grass , tree facades. Thanks
 
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#40
Divinehammer said:
Can someone tell me if it is better to place a Wall Static or to build a similar one from BSP with damage to it. Which is a better resource cost? Also can anyone explain what settings I should have for Static meshes that are outside of the playable area so that it can improve performance. This would be for like trees shurbs grass , tree facades. Thanks
Click to expand...

It depends on what kind of damage you're trying to do, where the wall is, how big, etc. For destroyed walls I would generally lean towards staticmesh if they are complicated/high poly.

One thing to remember is that BSP is rendered by the CPU and staticmeshes are rendered by the GPU so be sure to use both in your map. For example if your scene has 100 000 polys of all staticmeshes it might be fairly low on FPS because the GPU is doing all of the work. By splitting up some of the workload onto the CPU with BSP by say, 30 000 polys, while still keeping 70 000 polys worth of staticmeshes the FPS will increase even though the overall number is still 100 000.

As for staticmeshes outside the playable area you should turn all of the collision properties to false and bShadowCast to false we well.
 
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