Extreme lag in map. Created 20 years ago2004-11-01 22:16:10 UTC by Tetsu0

Yes. Like many other new mappers, i probably have bitten off more than i can chew, and i think it has shown. I made a decent map of my high school (very original i know) but i seem to lag when i play it. A lot. My eyes actually started to hurt while i was playing it...

On another note, i would be happy to submit my .bsp if i knew where to put it, my vis takes roughly.... 5-6 minutes.. roughly.. and im using zoners compile tools. Only because i have been looking at the tutorials and forums for quite some time now. I cant find the solution anywhere.. so Please give me a hand.

Post the .RMF in the Problems Vault. We will see if the problem is within the design, or for some other reason.

Post a link to the problem map in here, to get your map some attention.

heh. :-p.. dont yell.. wheres the problem vault.. would that be the map vault?

Kindly disregard that last post.

http://cariad.co.za/twhl/mapvault_map.php?id=2280

thats the link to the .rmf file. Have fun.
I wish it worked out better.. i have been working on this for like 5 months now.

There we go. Skyboxes are evil. Do not use them. The massive crete textured skybox is your problem. It is causing massive area to be drawn which doesn't need to be, causing horrible lag. Only enclose areas where they need to be enclosed to avoid leaks, that way the only things being drawn are what is really there.

Your map has misaligned textures. You should fix them.
Very boxy architecture. Fix it if you plan to release it.

Hope this helps.

Yes, thanks. Um i have heard from many that skyboxes are infact, evil. yet i dont know how to get around not uding them. as for the mis-aligned textures(does that create any problems?), i kinda have bigger problems..

Misaligned textures don't create any problems apart from uglyness.

Quick lesson for you: The engine draws everything it can see, and with a skybox, it's drawing loads of stuff that shouldn't be drawn, and is causing extreme lag.

To get around the skybox method, simply delete you skybox. Outdoor areas are just like indoor, except the cieling must have the sky texture.

It's kind of hard to explain. If you need any more clarifying ask me.

I'll explain the Visibility process of HL since I've nothing else to do except organize music, and that sucks.

Let's take a simple box room. We'll assume it's sealed from the black void. Now, since you can't see outside this box, our player will only see the four walls of his room and the ceiling and floor faces, thus rendering 6 faces. The other faces, exposed to the void, are discarded during the compile process since hey, they're never going to be seen. We'll mess with VIS's thinking shortly ;).

Let's add a nasty skybox, and remove a wall section for a lovely window.
Thus, the skybox is the box enclosing our 'box' from the void and thus IT'S outside faces won't be rendered, but the faces of our box-room will be rendered since they're within the skybox area, and presumably, will be seen by the player. Therefore, we'll see 4 extra wall faces, plus the side faces of the walls, ceiling, and floor. And that's if you've laid it out correctly.

Might not seem like much now, but once your map gets very complex, this will be a nightmare for VIS and the player too, since it'll make your compile times unnecessarily long and give the player unnecessary lag.

Think of your map as rooms... not as an outside and an inside. Some rooms have fences and skys. They are a small room in the Hammer environment. Think... habi-trail.

In your map, where the "roof" with the skylight is, place skybrushes around the three sides that don't have the ladder and cap it off with another sky brush. I'm sure you've played a map where you were at the edge of something and you couldn't jump off of it? That's the skybrush holding you back.

Where the "street" is, put brushes along the street and texture them with storefronts. You can't go in the stores, but it stops vis... cap it with a skybrush.

I was a bit bored, so I worked on your map a bit to give you a fair idea of what everyone is talking about. Check your map in the vault... my post has a download for you there.

sigh guys im sorry.. really and truley, i gave you the horrible map. the one that never worked out anyway... er.. yea the REALLY laggy one is in the vault now.. im sory for the mess up i forgot that the one on my desktop was outdated... and rad, your fixes look pretty good.. but if u really want to see how i messed up,.. look at the REAL file.. once again, sorry for the mix up. :

http://cariad.co.za/twhl/mapvault_map.php?id=2280

Thats the map.(new) i'll shutup now

-tetsu0

Can you not apply the techniques used by Brad to fix up the other map, and fix the map yourself? It would be much betetr practice tbh m8

I could.. And im gonna.. so. ok im going to make some fake stores where the driveway is.. but i dont know how to make the vis better on the long stretch..like. when i come out of the doorway, it takes me at least 3 seconds before i see the trucks (they explode, btw..) so storefronts and only sky teh cieling, correct? and what about those blue parts on ladders, when i test the map, they are still blue, but when i move the map to my steam folders, (i test on 1.5) the blue areas turn black, not transparent.

http://cariad.co.za/twhl/mapvault_map.php?id=2280

New update.
Lag's down
Rating ^^

I will look at it later tonight, hopefully. Making a map is like learning to paint pictures... it has taken me two years to get to a point that I'm comfortable answering SOME questions on this forum. Usually I post more questions than I answer...

cool thanks a bunch

I posted to your map in the vault.

Zip file was corrupted when i downloaded the map. Could you try again?