Level Design Precomputed Visibility + Build Time?

[mikkou]

First of all, are people using precomputed visibility?

I didnt use it on my first map which is working fine without it (though its smallish anyway) but I thought Id use it on Subterrane for performance reasons and building the map (lights) takes me about an hour and half. Is this normal?

Without it it takes from few seconds to 30 seconds depending how big the map is.

 

[-=}WoLvErInE{=-]

Yes it's normal, I used it in Zed Island.

 

[Mean_Machin3]

First of all, are people using precomputed visibility?

I didnt use it on my first map which is working fine without it (though its smallish anyway) but I thought Id use it on Subterrane for performance reasons and building the map (lights) takes me about an hour and half. Is this normal?

Without it it takes from few seconds to 30 seconds depending how big the map is.

An hour and a half??? That is an insane render time for optimizing. What are your PC specs? Isn't there some kind of zone info like in KF1 SDK?

 

[poosh]

I used it on The Dark Zone, but I'm not sure if there is a need of it. To lower build time you need to cover playable area with PrecomputedVisibilityVolumes.

And the next one is important: you need to cover only places where player (or spectator camera) can be, not the entire map. For example, on Burning Paris you can see the bridge and Eiffel Tower, but can't get there, so that area shouldn't be inside PrecomputedVisibilityVolume.

You can put as many PrecomputedVisibilityVolumes on the map as you want. So consider putting smaller volumes to cover playable areas instead of putting one big around the entire map.

After doing such optimizations, my Dark Zone's building time lowered down to ~20 minutes (i5-4690 / 16GB DDR3 / GTX660Ti).

 

[mikkou]

And the next one is important: you need to cover only places where player (or spectator camera) can be, not the entire map.

Im aware of this, Ive only covered the areas where players can access and its still taking this long to build.

There is no point covering the entire map, that wouldnt do anything at all. Plus it would be faster build time...

 

[Mundgodt]

What :O I've NEVER had a build take more than 2-3 minutes :S and i havent been using precomputed visibility at all

 

[mikkou]

What :O I've NEVER had a build take more than 2-3 minutes :S and i havent been using precomputed visibility at all

Thats the point. If you dont use it, the build time is from few seconds to couple of minutes. But if you do, it increases ridiculously.

 

[-MGS- Sniper]

Depends, if you use a very detailed map its better to use precomp my London map takes around 25 mins to compile and I get a boost of around 10 -15fps using it than if I do not use it.


Although most maps I think would be ok without it and unless you have fps issues that cannot be sorted another way it worth adding it to see if it helps

 

[-=}WoLvErInE{=-]

For those that don't know what this is and what it does.

https://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PrecomputedVisibility.html

 

[mikkou]

Theres also this video that explains it pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--kqrM-vuDM