Short Surfaces??!???? Created 20 years ago2004-06-14 23:00:31 UTC by Caleb Henning

Aagggghhhhh this is really starting to tick me of... what the heck does "Short Surfaces" mean?


-caleb

It means "turn on 3D acceleration or make simpler maps".

Do you not posess a graphics card? If you do, put HL into OpenGL instead of Software mode. If you don't, buy one

I'm going to hide from Andy now.

^ "Do you not posess a graphics card?"

Obviously, he posseses a graphix card, otherwise he could not run HL, never mind teh computer itself. Don't you mean a "decent" graphics card?

And software mode stinks. OpenGL rocks.

Caleb, nice avatar! Short surfaces means there are too many surfaces for the engine to draw in software mode. Another symptom of this is black patches that show up in your map, usually in the distance. You can fix it many ways....by taking some detail out of your map, stretching your textures, and vis-blocking. Read the R_speeds tutorial by Andy on this site. That will help.

Andy is obsessed with Software mode, probably cos he has a Pentium II (according to his moddb profile)

It's funny because it's true.

Software mode must die, isn't that what Autolycus said a while ago? Anyway, I agree to that statement. To run software mode one only limits himself IMO.

I mean, we have graphics accelerator cards nowadays, and they aren't made to be left unused...

RabidMonkey777: I apologise, I meant a 3D accelerator, since the terms are now practically synonymous.

I might attempt to create a new 3D engine and make a Half-Life mode for it. (I said attempt, it will never work! :D)

I already made a very basic OpenGL driven application. Not what you would call a real engine but at least it displays some 3-dimensional shapes... with simulated physics...
A very amateuric program though, since it's my first program actually...

OpenGL code is easy accessable, there's a load of tutorials on it. I've also heard that DirectX is open-source, so that might also be interesting to you too...

thanks slayer A i'll try strecting the textures and as the rest of you ... i sadly don't have a 3d accelerator... my computer is pretty crappy. half -life still runs.
-caleb

You shud buy one. You could pick up a new 'card for less than a tenner, and I should hope your motherboard has PCI slots at least.