I'm getting a bit worried about my current project. Its coming along okay, but I'm anticipating very low FPS. This map is a duel map, and the walls are pretty simple: 4 very tall (and not so wide) bevels that loom high above the players head, to end in a taper. Something like a large cone in which the map is enclosed. Not only that, I'm also having some large models in it. I'm REALLY worried that computers might have some problem drawing all these, not counting the effects I will put in. What should I do? (and don't tell me to caulk, I'm already doing all that)
You do know about using DETAIL brushes right? Using these will save your framerate quite a bit. But I'll assume you don't have many brushes inside your map considering it's just a simple duel map. Now unless you are using a TON of glass or patches then you should be fine.
Hey thanks for the reminder on detail brushes; I didn't think of using them. And errr, does 4 huge bevels equal "a TON of patches"?
Do you use any high resolution textures like 512x..., 1024x...?
Originally posted by mslaf
Do you use any high resolution textures like 512x..., 1024x...?
Not really, but if you want specifics, in this duel map, only 1. Oh and, if I put a lot of rock md3s to err.. put over the bevels to make it look natural, would it have a huge hit on FPS?
To be honest, I think it would be okay. I have a ton of bevels and endcaps in the level i'm messing about with and it runs along nicely.
4 bevels and some md3's aren't going to effect it that badly. Just use the cg_drawfps 1 command (may be cl_drawfps or r_drawfps - can't remember off the top of my head), look up into the ceiling and see if the fps drops at all.
What graphic card do you have and what the are the r_speed values?
Originally posted by Codja X
To be honest, I think it would be okay. I have a ton of bevels and endcaps in the level i'm messing about with and it runs along nicely.
4 bevels and some md3's aren't going to effect it that badly. Just use the cg_drawfps 1 command (may be cl_drawfps or r_drawfps - can't remember off the top of my head), look up into the ceiling and see if the fps drops at all.
Hey err, well, its not just 4 bevels; its 4 HUGE bevels. And its not some md3's, its a LARGE number of them, all packed into 1 "room". Well, nevermind, I'll try a test compile and see what happens.
And mslaf, my video card is NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X.
I don't know how to find my r_speeds though; could you tell me how? :o
EDIT: I just compiled the map, without the models but with the 4 bevels. It was strangely good, the FPS. The whole time I got at least 71 FPS. It IS heartening but I do not know if it will run as well on a server, and with the models. I'll get back to you as soon as possible. :D
On the console type:
toggle r_speeds
or
seta r_speeds 1
to turn it on
or
seta r_speeds 0
to turn it off.
These counters are not the oracle but they can tell you if the slowdown is because of geometry of because of other things.
It doesn't really matter how big the bevels - the Q3 engine will draw them at a lower detail the further away you are. This can be set in the game options under "geometric detail".
If you're concerned that these bevels are going to kill a lower spec pc, just put a note in the readme file stating what players can do to improve performance.
Nowadays, pc's are quite easily able to handle a lot of geometric detail - it's mainly large or lots of shaders with many layers and effects like dynamic glow or anti-aliasing that cause the to fps drop.
Other than that, don't worry. Just tell players to upgrade their crappy pc's if it doesn't run properly:)
Hehe thanks a lot. But I won't tell them to upgrade their PC's. ;)
You're too nice to people:)
No, I'll just tell them to throw away their copy of JA and buy a Monopoly game, or any game that takes up 1 percent of their crappy memory and only requires a video card twice as ancient as the one they have now to play perfectly.
YES! Embrace the power of the dark side!
Do not compromise on quality just because these poor fools do not have the power to run your creations!
Bwa hah hah!
the power of the darkside thus removed 50% of those normally able to play the game and the Galaxy imploded