Hey guys, me and Skals decided to do a little test. Some of you may remember i said in one topic that SKY is as good as / better than BEVEL/NULL.
I heard that from some Russian mappers that are quite good. I also head it fixes some light bugs i have no idea about. Many of those mappers told me i should use it and that it is better than the textures designed to reduce poly and increase performance.
So, we decided to test this mith.
We took Skalses newest map he is making for the newest Compo, the map is quite complex and large, very well made also if i may add , and replaced all BEVEL with SKY and all BEVEL with NULL. We compiled to check the resources ussage and performance.
I determined 4 points where i would measure wpoly count, crutial points to say so, and each time on the same spot in 3 maps.
The results were pretty interesting, some numbers were expected, some not.
These are the measurements from 4 different spots:
Bevel / Null / Sky
1336 / 1281 / 1342
896 / 876 / 896
780 / 850 / 800
1160 / 1200 / 1200
We can notice that the numbers are pretty similar, where on the most "laggy" spot in the map, null had a better performance by 55 wpoly.
In other regions null had much more wpoly, but sky and bevel were similar, where bevel was better than all three.
Now you may wonder, Stojke, Y U crazy? Sky is for sky, nothing else, you cant even use it with an entity!
But yes, you are right, but, take a look at these compile results, ive marked some interesting numbers:
First up is BEVEL, texture that removes the face completely, giving us much more performance when it comes to FPS (wpoly) and with Clipnode limit as well, but it can leave nasty bugs where you would fall trough the floor or enter a wall, which can be pretty annoying. Produces a Hall Of Mirrors effect. As we see, the clipnodes are reduced by a large number, as well as Light data and Text data.
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Next is NULL, a texture that removes the face from rendering to give more performance, but eats up Clip Node limit. It doesnt produce any bugs, and its usefull as a blocking texture. Produces a Hall Of Mirrors effect as well. As we can see here, the clip node number is HUGE! Very bad for a big map, also we can see an increasment in Leaf Data and Text Data. Not a good choice for max performance.
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And finally, the mysterious sky. Sky, emits light. It also blocks the player/bullets, does not create teh HOM effect, is not visible. You will find the results very interesting. Clip node reduction is even better than with BEVEL! It even reduces Text Data and Light Data! Some numbers are a bit higher, but thats tolerable.
Conclusion?
Sky is equaly good as Bevel and Null when it comes to reducing Wpoly, but it is also better with reducing Clip Nodes. It does not generate HOM effect, it does not generate the BEVEL bug and it also blocks the player and bullets.
Bevel is a bit better when it comes to performance, FPS, and its very good for perserving Clip nodes.
Null is as good as both when it comes to wpoly, but it is very bad when it comes to clip nodes.
This has confirmed that sky acts similar as both textures, even better in some things, a bit worse in other.
All in all, i tihnk this should be tested a bit more, perfected. Combination of both SKY and BEVEL can result in a highly optimised map.
Share your thoughts.