Well I just wanted to share this with the newer mappers like me :D
when I first started running a full compile on my map Aachen the compile time was 48+ hours to complete .
After rebuilding most of the map "fixing my screwups " I got the compile times down to 37 hours . but still laggy as hell fps were 20-40

After following other mappers advice and Installing area_portals throughout the whole map all the pathways and all the open buildings I am very suprised in my compile times and the great Increse in FPS .
I ran a expert compile last night on Aachen in a total of 2 hours and 22 minutes WOOHOO ! and now the FPS are running from 80-100 on create server which is about 50 higher than before . just wanted to share this info with the noob mappers . beta release coming soon :cool:

The biggest cause of slow compile times in my experience is always bad brushwork, be it overlapping brushes or brushes skewing off at all sorts of angles resulting in messy visleafs. Func_detail is the cure which, used correctly, can cut hours off a compile.

Also tight fitting skyboxes. Ie if you've got a row of houses and you can get through the houses to the other side of them, put a sky brush right down to the top of the roof, that way the engine can tell it shouldn't be rendering the other side of the house etc when you're in front of it.
Areaportals and Hint brushs combined with a tight skybox is also a must of any halfway decent map :)

My Lord B@D here I though my 3 hours compile was way too long hehe.
I was thinking the same thing about snowpine that even though I may have only 6 to 7 buildings in my whole huge map I am getting a considerate amount of lag when running and my map really isn't that high up. So area_portals would fix that then?

NODRAW is your friend. Use it on ALL faces that can't be seen.

Dash will nodraw cut down on compile times as well as area_portal?
Thanks.

fill any unneeded volume in the sky with skybox brush. just consider nade throwing.

make sure you have everything that isnt vis blocking turned to a detail brush.

My Lord B@D here I though my 3 hours compile was way too long hehe.
I was thinking the same thing about snowpine that even though I may have only 6 to 7 buildings in my whole huge map I am getting a considerate amount of lag when running and my map really isn't that high up. So area_portals would fix that then?

Punish
Like others have said the skybox you need to make it as small as possible and get rid of any space around your map or under it make the skybox tight that helps alot ! but yes the area portals will increase the fps but you have to divide the map into sealed up sections and then the area_ portals separate them so your game dont have to render all the sections at once . area_portals = higher fps :D

Wow thank you so much B@D, every little help is much appreciated. I will definitely start doing that. :D

A map that doesn't compile in under 2 hours is technically poorly executed. Or extremely advanced. The first category is unfortunately the most common appearance.

I can't emphasize enough the need for all mappers to be experts in optimization.

- Func_detail everything that should be
- Reduce the leafs count as much as possible (tight skybox, hints, areaportals)
- Use nodraw on all needless faces (less vrad time)
- Don't change lightmap scale value unless you know what you're doing, on specific faces.

There are many tricks to optimizing a map, most of which you'll develop on your own based on your own mapping style. The tuts can't cover everything, and your own architecture will often dictate how optimization should be done

Dash will nodraw cut down on compile times as well as area_portal?
Thanks.

Yes. It will also make your map less laggy.

And a little tip, if you need to use excessive hint brushes or areaportals, it may mean that you have a bad level design. Use of hint bruches and areaportals is almost strictly meant for optimisation, so if you overuse them, there's something else you should consider (rework brushes, change your technique, etc.)

Thanks again Dash and Furyo for your input, wow I feel like I just graduated to the next level of mapping, it's rather kewl and quite fun. :)

- Func_detail everything that should be


Fran; all this time I thought that I had to make sure that all my walls & buildings were to be func_wall? I thought the map would not compile fast enough with the portal flow just poking along and taking forever sometimes. Then is when I feel I've done something wrong yet; when I check for map errors most of the time it says no errors?

- - Use nodraw on all needless faces (less vrad time)




When you say nodraw on all needless faces does this mean all buildings? (Sorry for the questions but even though I've read through tutorials sometimes the way they explain it isn't always sinking in.) (old age I suppose.) ;)

Thanks.

I thought that I had to make sure that all my walls & buildings were to be func_wall?

Ouch, don't do that. Brushes take less 'budget' in rendering the map. func_walls should only be used to avoid leafing, ie: a circular pillar in the middle of a room. There should definetly be more brushes than func_walls, as making all your brushes func_walls will just make vvis useless.

[QUOTE=Punish;1071192]When you say nodraw on all needless faces does this mean all buildings?[QUOTE]


Yes it does it means everything that has textures that cant be seen on your map should have a nodraw texture .
For instance build your house out of nodraw and then only face texture the areas you can see inside and out . it will improve gameplay also if you have alot of hidden textures .
Remember two things if it has nodraw on it your game does not have to render it if it has a texture no matter where its at even under a house the game has to render it .
Second thing dont use nodraw on displacments .

hope this helps .:D

Finally I found the thread I was looking for. Thank s a lot, still working on it please !

Now I feel like I have to delete all my maps and start again.
Until now I have reading a lot of this but i never has found people talking properly about that.


How can I use Areaportal? lol
Is it just using the Areaportal texture and then converting it to an entity ?
Which kind of entity must be?
Only for windows and doors or I can use it for a narrow street?
What happen with open maps?
How to use a func_detail?
How to create a "good" skybox for better compiling times?
Nodraw it s really my friend or only looks like?
How many times a day must my dog eat? ( sry this question was for my pet salesman)

You don t need to answer this questions. But I think they are in the head of a lot of noob mappers as me.

I am using already some of the mentioned things on my maps.
and agree with Furyo as he said:
"There are many tricks to optimizing a map, most of which you'll develop on your own based on your own mapping style. The tuts can't cover everything, and your own architecture will often dictate how optimization should be done"

But at last I am using some of these things without knowing them at all an the experience of doing maps has gived to me some especific ways to work. In the other hand there are some that I never have discovered how to use them.

I only can add that maps I was compiling in 72 hours get compiled in 15 minutes after I change the skybox. And the map wasn t good.

And the biggest question to close my post:
There are a lot of tutorial about everything in hammer but can anyone attach good links for FPS optimization easygoing and fast tutorials ?

At last I have learned nearly all here:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Main_Page

But I found quite difficult and not enough explained this mentioned points on this forums. Is like for advanced mappers.

I just write this post because I want to do it from a long time.
Now I can still mapping on peace.

BE WATER MY FRIEND BE HIGH FPS

FPS Optimization is nowhere near "fast" to do or "easygoing". Usually, FPS Optimization isn't needed if you know what you're doing and you plan/draw your map before actually creating it. FPS Optimization is seriously a *****, and personally, whenever I see areas in my map with low FPS, I tend to just trash them and remake them from the ground up.

FPS Optimization is nowhere near "fast" to do or "easygoing". Usually, FPS Optimization isn't needed if you know what you're doing and you plan/draw your map before actually creating it. FPS Optimization is seriously a *****, and personally, whenever I see areas in my map with low FPS, I tend to just trash them and remake them from the ground up.


Not necessarily. While I agree that a well thought out plan will need less optimization, some very basic principles will always work very well and are quite easy to put in place.

1) tight skybox
2) func_detail
3) Areaportal in every window/door to every leaf cutting building
4) following ingame's budgets.

And as far as solely compile times are concerned:

5) nodraw

Fran I have been doing what you said now with my newest creation, I am redoing the old 1.3 dod_isernia for source and I even started observing the example sdk_flash.vmf map and noticed that they added the Hint box across the whole map and many skip and area_portals everywhere, it's almost a nightmare at first when you look at it then it gives ample lessons where to add your skips, portals, etc.

So now what I did was create my map and made all buildings nodraw (man is it yellow in the map hehe) and have done what you said to do as for every window and door I have added the area_portal inside as well as an env_cubemap inside the windows, doors and room area.
My skybox is as tight as I can get it with a 32 size hollowed cube. So far it's going great and I have been adding textures only to the face side of the walls and making the buildings and walls func_detail.

Thanks again for all your help.

Oh and Fran one more thing, how hard is it to make your map look foggy? I know how to get my fog to work with my outside skybox just fine but inside the map, like your rive map when you walk you get that morning fog look to it? The fog really gives your map that awesome English countryside fog look. :)

Thanks.

Anyone else know how to make your map look foggy? I'd appreciate it much.
Thanks.

Sorry I never even saw the last replies...

Fog is as easy on Rive as on any other map, you just need to play with the settings until you get it right

Place an env_fog_controller in your map, apply some basic settings. Go in game, type sv_cheats 1, then fog_override 1

That'll cancel all your settings

Once you have this, you can set all your settings right and see what they'll be like in game at the same time. Lots of time saved. Note your ideal settings down and report them in Hammer.

Thank you so much Fran, I do add the fog controller to my map and know how to get the outside skybox with the sky_camera working, just needed help with my main map sir, when I went through your map I felt as though I was really there with the way the fog made it look like a mist through your town. Thanks again very much Fran. :)

Also I have went through my Isernia map and I mean I worked a lot of hours on it and added my clip textures to my walls on the outskirts of my map to keep anyone from jumping to the walls from the roofs thus my nodraw was added to all textures at first then used my toggle texture tool adding where needed.

But where I am having problems now is my area portal in my compile report says many area portals are not touching 2 sides, and I went through to all my windows and doors like you said and added the area_portals, then I saw that the area portal needed to be inside the textures and not show the yellow outlines where the area portal was supposed to fit. But then I wondered am I supposed to have nodraw on the area portal first then the area portal texture or is that just a solid texture?

Thanks.

Watch it, you're leaking all over my shoes.