I've noticed that a lot of the maps that are being made look extreemly open and I'm curious about the performance on source. are you guys attempting vis blocking like in dod 1.3, or are you betting on getting away with more open space? maybe they just look open because of a well designed 3d skybox.

I'm working on routing for my map right now, so please enlighten me. thanks.

well just take a look at HL2, large open spaces, yet runs great..

Originally posted by Stuka
well just take a look at HL2, large open spaces, yet runs great..

yer but hl2 is single player remember, so wide open spaces doesn't matter as much compared to MP. They still used Hint brushs, area portals and occluders etc to make the wide open spaces less of a drain on your system.

@ josh, I use fog alot in my maps to cut down on vis, you can use the clip plane or what ever its called to stop the engine drawing things just beyond the end of your fog and the player won't notice a thing. Also hint brushes are still being used alot as they're one of the best things to use to cut down vis, if done right of course.

You always want to be as optimized as possible but you can get away with ALOT more with source then you could with the hl1 engine

Source offers many new optimization tools such as LOD and dynamic occluders

The main thing to watch out for when mapping with source is over use of special effects such as shaders and cubemaps which cause the most strain in newer engines