I've been messing around with area portals/detail brushes/ and hint brushes on my recent map to try to get the frame rate up. I've done little to improve my current fps, even after reading a few tutorials. I was wondering if anyone could give me a plan of attack given this screen shot of the worst area of the map.

http://www.dazfish.co.uk/b3ta/uploads/map.jpg

The map is fairly large but reasonable. The biggest hit as you can see is when your looking at the cave and castle at the same time. Everywhere else averages 50ish fps where this drops to the low 20's. I've tried area portals around the cave entrance and castle entrance as well as making all the ridging on the top walls func_details, but so far have been left wanting.

One other thing is I've only done fast compile. Could this be the source of my problem?

Any help would be great. Thanks. Also if u need any more screens for a better look just let me know.

Alright after the normal VIS compile the framerate increased in other sections of the map but not this paticular one. Ideas?

You'll be able to block bits and bobs with some cube maps methinks but pretty much, its as Doc said. To much visible info to draw from that perspective.

Its also best to post an in game compiled screen. It shows people that they are not wasting their time on an unconfirmed map. This map might never compile properly for all they know.

Lastly there are 2 remaining things you might do:

1) reduce the distance the perspective is from that spot you took the screen from. Distances, as small as a few meters can amount to lots of frame increases.

2) get a bigger PC. For all its worth, HL2 is not HL1 so a bigger PC can help sometimes. Although its a myth for HL1, its not so mythical for HL2.

If you cannot acquire a bigger machine, ask someone with one to run the map and point out its issues.

In the end though, its best to increase the frames without resorting to a bigger machine. Thats your call.

Good luck

Alright I've had a little luck and increased the framerate to 30ish around that point.

I've taken a few more screens for better perspectives and also some problems I may have found.

First off is the cuts in the geometry. I turned everything that is not a wall, floor or cieling into func_detail. Is this correct? The only problem is it seems like a lot of uneeded cuts in some places.

Examples:

http://Imagedeposit.com/ad_images/ImageDeposit_dot_com_FREE_Hosting_BIG_UserID_62052_Image_number_03990BF603.jpg

http://Imagedeposit.com/ad_images/ImageDeposit_dot_com_FREE_Hosting_BIG_UserID_62052_Image_number_0399B92E03.jpg

Also here are two more shots. One of the compiled perspective from the first shot in my first post. And then another perspective.

http://Imagedeposit.com/ad_images/ImageDeposit_dot_com_FREE_Hosting_BIG_UserID_62052_Image_number_039A3B2F03.jpg

http://Imagedeposit.com/ad_images/ImageDeposit_dot_com_FREE_Hosting_BIG_UserID_62052_Image_number_039A923903.jpg

Would it be possible to maybe raise the rock formations up, for instance the one I'm standing on in the picture, and make it so eveything beyond it is not rendered, essentialy blocking the castle from being rendered in that area? I was thinking my best bet is to use rock formations as vis blockers but can you do this with displacements?

And as far as my rig I'm running a AMD 64 3200 venice 1 gb or memory and an x1800XL. Which concerns me even more because If I bog down lord knows what it would do to lesser machines.

Sorry about that. To get them to work copy the url haha cheap is as cheap does

As far as

"question....is this castle going into the "gameplay areas", or is it ultimately ending up in a skybox?"

If I understand this correctly, which I think I do not haha.

You can go into the castel up in the towers etc. There are rooms and what not as well. There is also a dungeon that goes beneath it. So I guess it's going into the "Gameplay area"

what if I created some kind of solid object inside the displacements. Give them a back bone so they will block the visibility?