[Radiant Editor]r_speeds

Anyone do Quake 3 mapping? What's a good number for r_speeds (and how do I view them), or what's the equivalent tech for Q3? I want to get started on a map but don't have any idea how much to limit it.

I think I remember the number 3000-5000 somewhere, but I could be wrong. I also can't recall the Q3 command for viewing polys, and the one I -do- know is completely useless to you. :wink:

Keep in mind, however, where Half-Life can display quads and other convex polygons (and the r_speeds command counts them as such), all polys in Quake III are drawn in triangles. Thus, a 400 poly scene in HL may be 800 polys or more in Q3. Also, patch meshes (bevels and other curves, or even just simple patch meshes) actually render faster than standard polygons. So 2500 polys of just world geometry and 2500 polys of a mixture of world geometry and patch meshes may behave differently (just make sure to always caulk behind your patch meshes, as they don't block VIS. :smile: ).

Hopefully this at least partially helps. :smile:

Edit: Actually, it is r_speeds 1 in Quake. At least, that gives a somewhat usable count of some things, but I'm not sure if it's the correct polycount. And please, call it polycount, not r_speeds - that's pretty much a HL term, even though the same command exists in other Quake engines. :smile:

You should try and keep r_speeds to a maximum of 8,000-10,000, that being said, sometimes you can manage up to 12,000 if your FPS (frames per second) allows it. To check your FPS type /cg_drawfps 1. To check r_speeds (yes, they are called r_speeds) type /r_speeds 1 to enable and /r_speeds 0 to disable. There are several numbers that are displayed when you enable the r_speeds command, so make sure you are looking at the LEAFS column.

Please note that you must be in developer mode to view r_speeds. In order to do this, first type /sv_pure 0 (unless your map is already packed into a PK3) and then load your map with /devmap <mapname> rather than just /map <mapname>.

Thanks a lot, this really helps. Also it's good to know my limits are five or ten times higher (well, sort of) to work with. Not that I'll make good use of it.

I guess I need to read up on tutorials to find out what patch meshes are. Do they act like a func_wall?

Google 'Quake 3 Patch Mesh' and you can find more than enough information.

In answer to your question though, no, a patch mesh does not act like a func_wall. The closest thing would probably be a 'detail brush' in that they do not block vis or 'break up' adjacent geometry (as this is the most typical use of a func_wall in HL).