mirror of
https://github.com/UberGames/GtkRadiant.git
synced 2024-12-11 04:51:10 +00:00
102 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
102 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
|
<html>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<head>
|
|||
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
|
|||
|
|
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
|
|||
|
|
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
|
|||
|
|
<title>Blocking Vis</title>
|
|||
|
|
</head>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<body background="../pics/background.jpg" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFFFF" vlink="#FFFFFF" alink="#FFFFFF">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<b>
|
|||
|
|
<p align="center"><font size="5">Blocking Vis</font></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div align="right">
|
|||
|
|
<table border="1" cellspacing="1" width="100%" bordercolor="#808080" bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding="10">
|
|||
|
|
<tr>
|
|||
|
|
<td width="100%"><font FACE="Times New Roman">
|
|||
|
|
<p> Terrain maps still have to follow the rules that apply to all Q3A engine
|
|||
|
|
maps. There<72>s only so much that you can allow to be seen at one time, or the
|
|||
|
|
game starts slowing down. The good news is that the engine will only draw the
|
|||
|
|
terrain triangles that are in the player<65>s PVS (potential visible set). It
|
|||
|
|
doesn<EFBFBD>t have to draw all the triangles in the terrain entity just because part
|
|||
|
|
of the entity is in view.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> At first, most of the usual bag of tricks that mappers use to create vis
|
|||
|
|
blocking structures in architectural maps don<6F>t seem to apply to terrain. But
|
|||
|
|
that is not the case. If anything, you <font color="#FFFF00"> NEED</font> to think of terrain in much the same
|
|||
|
|
way as you think of buildings. You are still dealing with open spaces that could
|
|||
|
|
be considered corridors and large rooms <20> even though they look like large
|
|||
|
|
valleys.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> In fact, it would be best to plan out the layout of your terrain
|
|||
|
|
<font color="#FFFF00"> BEFORE</font>
|
|||
|
|
creating your height map. If you know you want to block vis, you can design your
|
|||
|
|
terrain to work with vis blocking techniques and avoid the agony of having to go
|
|||
|
|
all the way back to the start when you discover that your killer terrain map
|
|||
|
|
lets you see too much at once.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> If you want the player, even in spectator mode, to be able to fly everywhere
|
|||
|
|
and see the whole world laid out below him <20> an unrestricted vista, so to
|
|||
|
|
speak, you<6F>re going to be much more limited. Every single triangle in the map
|
|||
|
|
will essentially be viewable at any moment in time. However, if you<6F>re willing
|
|||
|
|
to place restrictions on your players - limit how high they can fly or climb,
|
|||
|
|
you suddenly have more options for blocking player visibility.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> First, the terrain entity is entirely detail content, so it doesn<73>t block
|
|||
|
|
vis. That<61>s a key part of how this whole process works. Otherwise, vis time
|
|||
|
|
would be measured in eras (not minutes or hours) and visdata size would be very,
|
|||
|
|
very large.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> To block vis in the terrain, start by creating simple
|
|||
|
|
vis-blocking structures
|
|||
|
|
out of caulk texture inside the forms of the terrain (they are not part of the
|
|||
|
|
terrain entity). You can try to match the silhouette of the terrain, but in the
|
|||
|
|
end, you may only end up complicating the visdata without gaining any real
|
|||
|
|
benefit.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> Next, and this is going to sound strange, build thin walls of caulk that
|
|||
|
|
follow the divide line (where the terrain falls away on both sides) of the
|
|||
|
|
highest mountains, buttes or hills. Only do this where you know that you will
|
|||
|
|
not allow the player to move over or see over </font><font FACE="Times New Roman" COLOR="#000000">that
|
|||
|
|
part of the terrain (we<77>ll talk about clipping real soon).</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|||
|
|
</font><b><font SIZE="4">
|
|||
|
|
<p>Other Tips:</p>
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
</font></b><font FACE="Symbol" SIZE="2">
|
|||
|
|
<p><EFBFBD> </font><b><font FACE="Times New Roman">Sky Texture in Place of Caulk:</font></b><font FACE="Times New Roman">
|
|||
|
|
You sometimes want to apply the sky texture to some of the surfaces of the thin
|
|||
|
|
walls used as vis blockers. This can remove some HOM effects. The caulk brushes
|
|||
|
|
that block the vis around the bases in mpterra2 have sky texture painted on the
|
|||
|
|
surfaces facing the base.</p>
|
|||
|
|
</font><font FACE="Symbol" SIZE="2">
|
|||
|
|
<p><EFBFBD> </font><b><font FACE="Times New Roman">Hint Brushes:</font></b><font FACE="Times New Roman">
|
|||
|
|
Use these extremely sparingly and only after trying to solve the problem in
|
|||
|
|
other ways. Hint brushes can add hours to vis compile times. Even so, they can
|
|||
|
|
make a difference. One trick you can try is to put a horizontal hint brush at a
|
|||
|
|
point about midway up the slopes of your terrain. It can add some additional vis
|
|||
|
|
break points.</p>
|
|||
|
|
</font><b><font FACE="Symbol" SIZE="2">
|
|||
|
|
<p><font color="#FFFFFF"><EFBFBD> </font> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman" color="#FFFFFF">Adjusting Terrain:</font></b><font FACE="Times New Roman" color="#FFFFFF">
|
|||
|
|
Vis times totally depend on the placement of your vis blockers. Vis times are
|
|||
|
|
not affected by modifying the terrain surfaces (terrain entities are detail
|
|||
|
|
content, remember?). With that being said, you may want to modify the terrain to
|
|||
|
|
allow you to more effectively position the vis-blockers.
|
|||
|
|
</font>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p align="center"><a href="terrain_texture.html">Back</a> - <a href="table_of_contents.html">Table
|
|||
|
|
of Contents</a> - <a href="clipping_the_terrain.html">Clipping the Terrain</a></p>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p> </td>
|
|||
|
|
</tr>
|
|||
|
|
</table>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</b>
|
|||
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|||
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|||
|
|
<p align="center">-18-</p>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</body>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</html>
|