Castle

Here is a screeny of the map I just started, it's suppost to look like a castle. After making the main hall thingy, I was getting r_speeds up to 500. So what I am asking, do you think it's worth continuing the map? Or is there a good chance it will end up unplayable. This will be the biggest room in the map. I'm still n00b when it comes to managing r_speeds so some guidelines would be helpful. I am hoping to release this map for the comp. OH and, (I know this question belongs in the editing section) how do I get rid of that blob of light on the left to the stairs? Or is that just cause I used a quick compile?
I had to increase the brightness of the screeny, they always turn out too dark.

The high-ish r_speeds can be attributed to your stairs, thats an awful
lot of them. I'd also be willing to be that the upper sets are face
splitting the back wall they touch - if you make some sort of
buffer/trim brush between the stairs and the wall, and make it a
func_wall, then that should stop the face splitting and lower w_poly
considerably.

That said, 500 is fine for a room (though I think this one needs more
detail to justify them), but you should ensure other rooms don't have
clear lines of sight to this one. Use winding corridors like U-shaped
or significantly kinked (like an S-shape) corridors to stop the engine
overdrawing.

EDIT: The light artifact might go away with a full RAD compile, but
without knowing what is causing it (do you have a rogue light entity
you forgot to delete? Is there a light environment that could somehow
be causing it?) I can't say for sure.

Still far too dark for me, had to adjust it myself to even see what it is a screenshot of!

Anyway, I think you have highish r_speeds for the detail of the room because your stairs are probably cutting the wall into tons of faces. Add a func_Wall trim between the stairsthemselves and the wall.

Try sticking in a bunch of interesting wall supports and things to hold the walkway up. Perhaps you could put a couple of windows in as well to give a bit more light. I can't see the ceiling in the screenshot, but this is another area where you could fairly easily add some nice details. There are definately a lot of things you could do with an indoors castle map, I wouldn't give up on it after only one room!

ReNo said:
The high-ish r_speeds can be attributed to your stairs, thats an awful lot of them. I'd also be willing to be that the upper sets are face splitting the back wall they touch - if you make some sort of buffer/trim brush between the stairs and the wall, and make it a func_wall, then that should stop the face splitting and lower w_poly considerably.

That said, 500 is fine for a room (though I think this one needs more detail to justify them), but you should ensure other rooms don't have clear lines of sight to this one. Use winding corridors like U-shaped or significantly kinked (like an S-shape) corridors to stop the engine overdrawing.

EDIT: The light artifact might go away with a full RAD compile, but without knowing what is causing it (do you have a rogue light entity you forgot to delete? Is there a light environment that could somehow be causing it?) I can't say for sure.

Ok, thanks reno. :biggrin: I am planning on putting some more detail into the room, thats why I need to lower the r's a bit more before I do so.

Edit: Scary, you need a brighter monitor! :razz:

ReNo said:
EDIT: The light artifact might go away with a full RAD compile, but without knowing what is causing it (do you have a rogue light entity you forgot to delete? Is there a light environment that could somehow be causing it?) I can't say for sure.

I only have 3 lights, the env light, fire 1 and 1 behind where the screeny was taken. I moved the env light around a bit and the same thing happened, so I'm assuming it should be fixed with a full RAD.

Managed to cut my wpoly by about 50 thanks reno, allowed me to add a couple extra things, still needs work though.

scary_jeff said:
Still far too dark for me, had to adjust it myself to even see what it is a screenshot of!

Anyway, I think you have highish r_speeds for the detail of the room because your stairs are probably cutting the wall into tons of faces. Add a func_Wall trim between the stairsthemselves and the wall.

Try sticking in a bunch of interesting wall supports and things to hold the walkway up. Perhaps you could put a couple of windows in as well to give a bit more light. I can't see the ceiling in the screenshot, but this is another area where you could fairly easily add some nice details. There are definately a lot of things you could do with an indoors castle map, I wouldn't give up on it after only one room!

If 475 is high r speeds, then I dont even wanna know what 700 is....

Hang on, your W_Poly didn't go down, it went up...

Yippiy Ki Yay!

I meant high as in high for a box with some stairs in it.

Looking a fair bit better in that new screenshot, how about some columns against the walls to break them up a bit?

is it just me or is thier little dark squares above the seccond steps in corners of the room?

I think those are "ducts" so to speak.

Death To lag? said:
is it just me or is thier little dark squares above the seccond steps in corners of the room?

Fixed those. :biggrin:

I think those are "ducts" so to speak.

ducts as in air ducts in a castle...? heh

you'll be glad they're there when someone farts.

Couple more screenshots. :smile:

too..much...brick...choke...

windows, please. Those walls are too plain and...bricky...

Kage_Prototype said:
too..much...brick...choke...

windows, please. Those walls are too plain and...bricky...

I'll get around to it :razz:

i was looking at the stairs that run up the side of the wall, and i thought of a way that should help lower the r's, and add some detail at the same time.

i made some screenshots in hammer to help me explain. the first one shows how the stairs look to be made at the moment.



my idea involves turning the stairs around a bit, until they sit like this



now make a cylinder under the stairs



dont worry about the points on the cylinder being line up on the grid. the cylinder is only for reference.

the next part is where the r's should get lowered. streach the steps down , and using the vertex tool, line up the bottom face of each step along the guideline of the arch. make sure that each block lines up smoothly with it's neighbour, as that's where the r's will get lowered.



delete the cylinder.

now you should have less faces showing, and a nice (?) arch to boot.

Kage_Prototype said:
too..much...brick...choke...

So what you're saying is you choked on brick? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Nice map Diablo, but if you're going to use stone get a better texture than that. Also, I think you'd have to weigh about three tons to require a chair with that thick a back.

If r's get too out of hand, use a model for the steps, or a texture that looks like them.