ok, so i've tried a few things, one of them was using mainly sky brushes to block the vis all the way across the map, the other i didnt think would work at first, but tried anyway, and that was make the entire map into rectangles and use hint brushes, it didnt affect conpile time that much and did improve FPS a little. nor\t much, but a little.

anyway, ive screwed around with it for days and cant do <3<3<3<3 all with it. i need help.

not sure how much of a good idea it is, but im attaching the .VMF for others to try to help me out with it in any way possible.

thanks.

right click - save as
http://panfrie.zergs.com/dod_hectic_b3.vmf

Ok, this is a 1.3 map so i see the issues. The walls are wayyy too thick, you're creating useless polys when creating huge brushes like this...

no its a source map, hence the .vmf... 1.3 maps are .rmf files

Well first of all, you haven't used func_detail yet. Then when it comes to your brushwork, nothing's standard when it really should be (multiples of 2, 16 units wide for walls, 128 units high for storeys)

After that, use displacements for your ground, the crater for example is made of world brushes, that's horrendous.

Finally use nodraw textures for any face you can't see in game.

in that case... i put the wrong file on... gg me... wait... yea... thats the one that i tried to convert and it didnt work... hooray for me being nub.

ok, all better, i put the right link in now, sorry about that guys.

Ok I dled the new one, and I'll just reiterate what I said in the first plus some new things:

- nodraw texture all faces players can't see

- Useless brushes = too many faces displayed at once. For example your grey building in the allies spawn. It's made of too many brushes (though it looks like a 1.3 map) when just one (per floor, or in other words per 128 units high) is enough. Plus it doesn't help Vis at all.

- Skybox. It's way too high, and on top of that the roofs are all func_detail, meaning they don't block VIS and therefore let the engine render what's behind/beyond them (and within the buildings). I can understand how you'd want these brushes to be made func_detail seen as their structure is one of the most Vis unfriendly possible, but that's not gonna help.

- Areaportals/hints/occluders....the whole panel of optimization tools which you haven't used so far (from what I saw).

Bottom line, right now the whole map is being rendered at once, and although it looks like a 1.3 map at best, it's already way too much.

Rethink your brushwork, simplify it, then apply nodraw texture to every face in your map and redo the texturing from that. Set draw distances to your props, and read a lot on optimization here or on the Wiki.

Keep it up, but I'm not gonna kid you, it'll require a lot of your time

Optimizers bible (http://www.student.kun.nl/rvanhoorn/Optimization.htm)

Here's a tip for good optimization:

ALWAYS CREATE ALL BRUSHES WITH THE NODRAW TEXTURE! ;)

Then, add texture to the faces that will be visible. Trust me, this is much more time-saving than going back at every brush and verifying each side.

Yes what dash said is true, but I'm sure most mappers do that.

As far as I'm concerned the biggest FPS killer is models. None of your models have min/max fade distance set. This really does make a huge difference.

I noticed this. Im not sure if it makes a difference but here it is anyway. A brush intersecting with your bottom nodraw brush. As I say not sure if it makes a difference but will possibly add to VIS compile time? (perhaps? I'm not sure).

http://yetihw.dod-federation.com/images/hectic/hectic_screen1.jpg

Anyway I'm sure that sorting out your model fade out distances will give you a huge boost to performance.

world geometry is a much worse performance hit than models. do the test yourself, have a big map with all models behind an occluder. You'll notice that you don't gain many FPS at all if the geometry is still rendered. But blocking one more house from being rendered will get you 10-15 FPS in no time.

When I compiled my map without any models it ran at about 120 fps the whole way through ... (opposed to about 40)

how do i know what to set the fade distance to?

travel to a location in the camera mode, or with the arrows that you want to be the farthest away to see the object, alt enter on it and in the fade min distance/max distance there will be a little camera button if you're about 1500 units away from the entity if you press it, it will change from 0 to 1500.

so what one is the one i should be changing? the start or end fade dist?

Both. Set the start about 100 less than the end, so for instance 1400 start and 1500 end. At 1400 it will begin to fade out and at 1500 will dissapear completely.

Originally posted by otF yetihw
Both. Set the start about 100 less than the end, so for instance 1400 start and 1500 end. At 1400 it will begin to fade out and at 1500 will dissapear completely.

100 is, in my opinion, not enough. It will look very odd in some situations, especially for trees and big models since they'll just disappear in a flash in your maps.

thanks, il work on the start fade tomorow then, i just finished most of the end fades.

I say/use 100 because this is the value used in decompiled officials ive looked at.

I use a more aggressive fading. 25 units separate in and out. That's obviously for the very sudden things (just right around the corner props). If a prop is set so I can see it from 3000 units away, I either leave it unfaded, or use a very slow fading, from say 300 to 3200, so that it always kinda renders, even if blended with the fog.