CP Heart of the Oak b13

- tweaked cap times
- changed door width from 128 to 192 units or wider
- updated narrow corridors to 256 units or wider
- minor optimization mid
- clipping improvements
- updated skybox

thanks to everyone thats been giving feedback, including the good folks at teamfortress.tv!

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Hello!
During the playtest of the beta 7-version a few people expressed their issues with the framerate, so I decided to look into it and make a little post about it,
As always its impossible to know all the factors leading to performance issues on other peoples computers unless you can fully monitor what processes they are running, example: I usually have Maya, Photoshop, various firefox tabs, Hammer, Discord, Skype and Steam running while playing TF2 (my desktop is pretty decent, in contrast to my i3 laptop where I cant run anything except the game I want to play or I will see a severe performance loss), which means that the only safe way of comparing the success of optimization is to run it side by side to a older version (and other maps for reference) - which I did,

Note: I'm running the map with sv_cheats1, mat_wireframe 1 (will impact performance), +showbudget, +showbudget_textures, net_graph 2, also important to check the fillrate

Cyan is statics, pink for brushes, white for displace, red for particles

Here is a few screens of the beta 7 version:


These screenshots were taken in areas where people where reporting fps issues, and rightfully so, because these were also some of the hotspots I found around the map where the fps was at its lowest,
Low: 133
High: 219
Average: 168,8
(Note that average is only based of the screenshots)

These numbers does not really say anything, more than that there is room for improvement, after running the same setup on almost every other TF2 map I decided to compare it with the awesome Sunshine



Low: 114
High: 145
Average: 130,5
(Note that low, high and average numbers are only based of the screenshots, this map is well optimized and many other areas have significantly higher fps than in these screenshots, I was just picking the hotspots)

I also compared it with Process, but didnt take any screens because the overall fps was always around 200, which also became my goal for hoto, to overall increase the fps with ~50,

First thing that I did was to rebuild the hints (been using the same hints since a3, and the layout has changed) - this was probably 90% of the performance increase, I also removed ~10k brush faces with unnecessary dev textures, reduced some alpha textures and particles to ease the fillrate...also removed 2-10k mesh polys in each room (this did not increase performance)

This is the result:



Low: 178 (was 133)
High: 275 (was 219)
Average: 221 (was 168,8)
(Note that average is only based of the screenshots)

Thanks for everyone that reported these issues, hopefully you will have a smoother time in the next playtest!

Hope you find this post informative,

- updated captimes to 3, 8 and 10 seconds
- removed spawtime penalty/boost for capping
- some general optimization
- added some details
- improved movement with clips
- added some decals for pickups

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- fixed crash in noclip
- adjusted cap times
- removed spawn time pentalty/boost on cap
- tweaked lighting, more even colors, wee more contrast
- some optimization
- a few texture tweaks
- fixed a few clipping issues
- fixed a few zfight bugs

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some hoto b11 preview screens, added a few new props, added lods to some models, trimmed away some leafs on ivys, updated some materials, tweaked light

-fixed a few clipping issues
-added some new props
-fixed some displace issues
-added lods to some models
-updated lighting

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hoto b12 is here, it includes a lot of changes to areas included in previous feedback, some of these changes will change the way the map is played, I'm especially interested to hear from anyone that has previously played the map if the changes have improved the quality of the map or reversed...also what class got hit, overall I'm hoping to humbly nerf sniper and buff medic, spy, heavy and engineer

major changes:

at last...
- a new ramp has been added to the defending sides high ground, the size of the platform has also increased including a big window looking down the short stair https://imgur.com/PNxtNaY (this should enable a few more engineer spots and improve flow for less mobile classes, in addition add flank for defending/attacking team)
- the flags at last has been raised to lesser any intrusion on gameplay
- improved clipping

at second...
- a new drop, jump-entrance to highground at B-capture point from the cellar https://imgur.com/EqZa1IA
seen from bellow https://imgur.com/g44lols (good for a spy, or defending capturepoint from attackers in cellar, also shortens the path for attackers at last when spawning at the most forward spawn, i.e. soldiers and demoman)
- improved clipping

at mid...
- sight lines has been heavily reduced at middle, a new wooden-excavation-styled room has been added at the middle exit to mid https://imgur.com/d9o1vyb seen from inside https://imgur.com/tW0rP83 (nerf snipers overlooking the capturepoint, provide a safe space before attacking mid)
- the ammo/med pickup has been removed from the platform
- a medium medpack has been placed ontop of the middle capturepoint
- new wooden doors block the sight lines from the balcony https://imgur.com/yFHWvK8
- the balcony room has been increased - both in size and height https://imgur.com/eZgDJ97 (hopefully improve flank plays)
- improved clipping

also opened up a few walls with windows or fallen bricks https://imgur.com/P4vUD8s allowing further view of the skybox,

thanks to everyone at tftv that has been posting feedback! http://www.teamfortress.tv/42231/heart-of-the-oak-5cp

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- updated layout near initial spawn and A capture point
- updated layout approaching B capture point
- changed cellar door to open/close once B is captured
- added a few ammo packs
- fixed a few clipping issues
- updated skybox

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