func_detail whole Buildings?

[Fyfey]

If you have a large battle area with a few small buildings, is it OK to func_detail the whole thing?

It's really annoying when buildings have sloped roofs or other small parts... I think "do I func_detail the sloped roof, leaving a hole in the top of it in VVIS's point of view?". So I would then think "Maybe I can counter this with a hint brush across the top of it"... by this point I'm completely out of my depth and am wondering if this is anywhere near how it's "properly" done.

Another thing, not related, but I don't want to start a new topic... If I have 5 square brushes in a cross formation making a floor... with a triange piece in each corner (to round off the edges), is there a way to get a displacement to line up with each square it touches and be legal? Or can this just not be done?

Sorry for the small rant!

Fyfey

 

[Paria]

best thing i can recommend from my trial and error experience is before you func_detail things run your map in dev mode so you can set

mat_leafvis 1

and have a run through your map and see how the game is trying to do things, if you have areas which naturally block visibility, think about how placing hints will restrict them even more, generally speaking anything odd shaped like arches and cylinders will make a mess of visleafs so are prime candidates, but basically have this guide

http://www.student.ru.nl/rvanhoorn/optimization.php?chapter=notices

to hand and read it, try and apply it, read it again and you will start to get the hang on how the game is trying to render things,

1 thing i found very useful when setting up areaportals was the perfui command,

with cheats set to (sv_cheats 1) you can access the performance ui (perfui) and testing how well your areaportals are working, combining mat_leafvis 1 and perfui - areaportal tool, is a very helpful way to check your level.

 

[Earl]

Another thing, not related, but I don't want to start a new topic... If I have 5 square brushes in a cross formation making a floor... with a triange piece in each corner (to round off the edges), is there a way to get a displacement to line up with each square it touches and be legal? Or can this just not be done?

You have 2 options (red is the displacements, white are your walls):

 

[Scotland Tom]

Fyfey, if your small buildings are truly small (like the shacks out front of the first CP in the first round of Dustbowl) then you could potentially func_detail them entirely without any problems. The real question is: do they block visibility substantially? If they're easy to move around, and basically only serve as a somewhat large obstacle, then save vvis the effort and func_detail them.

 

[Fyfey]

Cheers for the replies.

Paria, I've read the optimization guide... didn't make much sense when I first read it. Just re-read it and it makes a bit more sense now.
I might make some testing maps to see if I can manipulate some visleaves a bit. And have a play with hints.

Earl, cheers for the reply on that. I figured it would be something like that. Bloody displacements, getting there with them slowly.

Scotland Tom, I think I'll try and stick to world brushes for any reasonable size building from now on. I was experiencing a bit of light-bleeding with one of the buildings I had made.

I'll have to go and have a play and see what I can do. This optimisation stuff is harder than it looks!

Cheers,

Fyfey

 

[Scotland Tom]

Yeah, that is one problem you'll run into with func_details. Depending on how they're placed you can wind up with light leaks. There are a few brushes in my current map I've decided to keep as world brushes simply because as func_details they allow some unacceptable light leaks to occur.