i need help on leaf count wireframe and budget.

Hi, my prolem(s) are on how to optimize my level, because it seems that nothing is like it was in the old engine. On my map, when it starts, the engine draws the entire map, and im assuming that it draws all the shadows and textures and whatever it needs to draw. I can see that using the mat_wireframe command but in some places the fps are decent like 40 per second. what i don't understand is what efect will the hint brushes will have if the engine draws the entire level from the start? How will i know on how to optimize my level because putting hint brushes as guess, because no matter what i do the engine drwas whatever it wants they seem to have no effect. And if im in an area far away from another area of the map, the engine still draws that and they have no connection one with the other and still they get drawn. When im using the +budget pannel i can see on what is the engine spending all the power but i don't see how can i separete the rooms in such ways with hint brushes to lrize the fps. because the engine is drawing models and other stuff that arent going to be seen by the player entity.

weird i dont know how it works either , im used to the old hl1 system :wink: when nothing fell unless you made it

I am pretty sure that you're not using hint brushes correctly.
Have you loaded up the example map that came with SDK? Compile
the one for hint brushes and run through the demo. I found it
very helpful in understanding the proper method to apply hint brushes.

Contrary to a lot of new mappers, it should not be used to just seal
off an area. It's more complex than that. You need to
consider the connectivity and relationship between the brushes.
If any large brush connects two very distant parts of the map, then
virtually everything would be rendered.

Well i agree with you about that sdk_hint.map but u see that is the lamest example of using a hint brush. the thing that i'm trying is wireder than that and if the engine does not calculate that, the area of the map is not visible i have no clue or imagination where to put a hint brush to specify to the engine something like this : here u moron im puting a hint brush in china and u should not draw the empire state building in manhattan" now where in between those two reference points manhattan and china should i put the brush?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting alingrecea</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>im puting a hint brush in china and u should not draw the empire state building in manhattan</DIV></DIV>

I know that in HL2 you can make the maps a lot bigger... but that is just going over the top.

Know i'm not sure here but if you use the command something like mat_visleaf 1 or something like that, have a scroll through the commands it should draw the square that you are in. And how it works is if you can see any part of the leaf then it draws everything in the leaf... that includes thru windows but not through brushes.
Hint brushes then divide the leafs. May I also suggest to put areaportalwindows infront of all windows you have if you are looking at a building from far away. That usually helps.

Uhm, just checking, but you have compiled with VIS..?

i will try the areaportals thing because i have not tryied that, but anyway the map is not that big it is in a smaller stage than de_dust 2 it won't be bigger than that, i think i need to ask something about an elevator that i have in there. ok the doors to that elevator are made from glass and also the elevator is made from glass so basicaly i can see lots of parts of the map when i go in that elevator could that be the problem? should i put the elevator in cube of hint brushes and should i make the area portals linked to every door? and Yes i'm compiling with VIS on Fast. and Rad on fast. And another thing the elevator is like an external elevator is ouside of the structure.

VIS on fast while it takes almost no time, does an apalling job of
doing actual vis calculations. It may take 2-3 walls between you
and an area to actually get the culling of that area. Try running
vis on full and see if it works for you.

This is actually another problem with the old style bsp/vis
system. Since there is no way to group visible sectors you have
to make the bsp clusters large so that there aren't many of them to
sort out the vis calculations on. However, that means that not
only are you getting very inaccurate visibility calculations at any
general point in the level, but also you have to make detail out of
brushes tahts aren't part of the bsp. Unfortunately the triangles
dont line up right when these brushes hit walls so lighting
calculations aren't as good. </rant> :razz:

Glass doors cannot be blocked with areaportals as they are meant to be looked through.

Also remember that vis works on line of sight. If you can see all
of your level from one point in space no amount of hint brushes will
change the fact that you will see all of your level.