Questions about optimization

[Another Bad Pun]

I don't think you understand how Source's optimization works as well as you think you do. I don't say that to be mean, I'm just being completely honest with you. You're making a lot of basic mistakes and seem to believe some incorrect things about how Source itself works and how you should optimize your levels to fit the .bsp format as a result.

If you've never read this guide on Source optimization before, I highly recommend it.

I'm also not sure why you seem to think that Valve doesn't know how to use their own engine properly? They made the engine, and they designed how everything in it functions. I would follow their example. I've been doing this for nearly a decade, and many of the people who have responded to your posts have official maps in the game. I promise we know what we're talking about, and deserve to be taken seriously.

 

[Mouse]

I agree with the above post. I want to take this opportunity to again thank everyone who posted in this thread.
Working through all of these aspects with the community here, all of you that did offer pertinent information,
has not only lead to me finding the best understanding of what is actually important and necessary in my own
mapping style, but it has also centered my mind on what must be done now to finalize the design of my
current project in the one aspect which it would have failed had I not done so. I hope that I didn't come across
as being an asshole either, because I'm fairly happy with how all of this has come together.
Things seemed a little shaky for me before, but now it all makes perfect sense again.
Seeing as I had never actually completed a map, I have been paying close attention to what
all of you have been trying to say to me, and now as I said, it has been fully incorporated into
my own style which honestly is a topic for a whole 'nother possible future post.