Stress testing a map

C00Kies

L3: Member
Sep 20, 2009
132
58
Hay everyone, I was just curious what you all do to stresstest you maps frame-rate wise. I have been working on my map, Koth Breach, and the last few gamedays of this map, the frame-rates were absolutely intolerable for everyone. I have been working really hard on optimizing it but I don't know of any good ways of testing how the frame-rates will be on a server and I don't want to kill another gameday due to lag.

So my question is, are there any good ways to find out how well it will play on a server, frame-rate wise?

Thanks in advance
 

Dr. Spud

Grossly Incandescent
aa
Mar 23, 2009
880
854
-Run around it on your own with cl_showfps 1 or +showbudget and compare the fps you get on your map with official maps. If your fps are lower than usual, you've got a problem. Go to all the areas of the map and look in all directions, take note of what areas have the lowest fps.

-Use mat_wireframe 1 to see how much of the map is drawn from a given area. Generally, drawing too much of the map that you can't see is the main source of your fps issues (and it will make it even worse on a full server, because it will draw more players you can't see as well). Figure out what spots and what viewing angles cause too much to be drawn, and use area portals/hints/occluders/new geometry to fix it.

-Take a look at some of the official maps provided with the SDK and see how tightly sealed the map is with skybox brushes, where they use area portals, etc.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Optimising starts with the layout, but requires you to seperate areas more than just with solid geometry. See my roof tutorial for a discussion on the skybox brush and how it's utilised to control/improve performance.

http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=13717

Also see the provided TF2 pre-compile maps in the SDK for real world examples of this in action.