Optimizing open maps

biskuu

L2: Junior Member
Oct 25, 2014
97
22
Hey, I'm developing a custom gamemode and the maps tend to be really really open and wide.
For that reason I can barely use any areaportals to gain FPS.
I am currently using fog and nodraw as my main optimization methods.
Are there any other methods of optimizing a very open map?
 

seth

aa
May 31, 2013
1,019
851
You're on the right track with the fog and nodraw. I assume you've seen this website already?

As Egan mentioned, aggressive prop fades will help, but areaportalwindows on every eligible opening in your buildings will probably be a better bet. They will stop rendering more stuff than single prop fades and the effect will generally be less noticeable and more natural looking to the player than props popping in and out.

I don't know what kind of atmosphere your map has, but if you have some thick fog, z-clipping will help immensely.

Good hinting can always help. But at the end of the day, open areas are going to be the worst for FPS because of the way visibility works in the Source engine. Open areas can see more stuff than tight spaces, hence more stuff must be rendered. Trim down your open space as much as possible.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
You might just have to do what Valve did for the first three MVM maps and keep your detailing kind of sparse. It really does depend on the map, though, and specifically what you mean by "open". Maybe if you showed us some screenshots or something?
 

LadyRaee

CHEERFULLY SUICIDAL
Sep 1, 2012
197
216
viscluster brush entity can help if you have really big open areas, so giant open spaces are calculated as one vis
 

Requiesta

L1: Registered
Feb 23, 2016
26
12
You can use an occludder if there are some walls in your open map. Just make sure to not use too many and to position them in such a way to cover as much rendering as possible.
 

seth

aa
May 31, 2013
1,019
851
viscluster brush entity can help if you have really big open areas, so giant open spaces are calculated as one vis

That doesn't help FPS.

It will probably hurt it, in fact. Since visclusters skip visibility calculations within their volumes, the entire volume is treated as one visleaf. So no matter how you look at the viscluster in-game, the entire thing will be rendered. This could actually hurt your FPS depending on how big, where, and what is inside it. It's really just a tool to help make compiles faster.