How to increase the performance of the mod?

[Starblade]

Is there any tutorial or document about improving the mods?

I mean, ideas about what to do to increase the performance, like is it better to have all textures in few categories, or to spread them in a lot of categories with few texture in each?

My interest is to tweak the mod that it can run smoother with more framerates.

Thanks

[Maddieman]

Exits - just use lots of exits.

I've seen some really good levels that were totally ruined by slow-down because they only made one exit (just to get the objects to group and the level to export).

Mixuk (a Remedy mapper) mentioned this in a recent post (commenting on the winning level of a mapping contest):

There was also some unclever optimization in the level (long hallways = bad). Actually, I'm not sure everyone even understand how exits work. You have to know how they work so that you can optimize them as efficiently as possible.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Textures wise, I don't think having them spread around lots of materials (or vice versa) would make any difference (except perhaps in inital loading time) but I couldn't say for sure. While you should try to vary your textures, don't go overboard. Sticking to a texture theme might help also.

images/icons/smile.gif

[william ford]

Using catagory's that don't put out a lot of debris etc would probably speed it up, but probably not a noticble diference images/icons/grin.gif . But like maddieman said,exit optimization.

[Kev_Hectic]

Yup, using exits in the right spots is the best way to optimize a level. I recently made a large out door level and it ran like crap (Although my PC is old... but still) because it was just one large cube-ish area that didn't use exits properly. Now i'm going back and trying to rebuild the whole level with smaller rooms connecting to each other and properly placed exits just so it can run much more at a decent speed.

I noticed, that over populating the level with too many enemies can take a large bite out of system performance too, so sometimes you have to place enemies cleverly to keep things running smooth.

[Maddieman]

Yup...silly of me to forget that.

Lots of enemies and large-ish open out areas are bad.

My (unreleased for the obvious reason that it's shit) Matrix lobby level runs like a pig, because there are about 20+ enemies on-screen at the same time, and it's a huge hallway.

Although only to be used in extreme curcumstances; another performance enhancing option is to go Turok on your map, and overdose on the fogging. Most of the Remedy maps use fogging for atmosphere; but a lot of fog can improve things quite significantly, at the expense of the visuals.

Yup, using exits in the right spots is the best way to optimize a level. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">So...placing a single 0.2m by 0.2m exit in the very corner of a room (just to get it to export), is a bad thing? images/icons/confused.gif

....opps. graemlins/hhg.gif

[Kev_Hectic]

graemlins/doh.gif That didn't come out the way I wanted too. You could've also posted a Captain Obvious picture with that Maddieman images/icons/tongue.gif

But I meant it's always good to stay consistent when you're adding exits, instead of just adding exits to a couple tiny rooms that are scattered through out a large level.

You know what I mean...

[Maddieman]

That didn't come out the way I wanted too. You could've also posted a Captain Obvious picture with that Maddieman images/icons/tongue.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">There's nothing wrong with your post; I was just pointing out one of the main reasons I spend most my time animating/coding rather than mapping. images/icons/grin.gif

[Kev_Hectic]

Oh, never mind then...

[Co&Co]

Also...try to use the "dummy" texture. When you have a lot of objects in your level (like crates, lights, boxes, etc.) dummy-texture the sides of the object the player won't be able to see.

good luck

[Starblade]

Thanks for the tips guys, and for the info about dummy texture. I was with that impression after analysing the subway_a level.

As for the enemies... the bonus level drags on my pc after the "let's go" message until I kill them all, so i guessed it was from them. Nice ppl on this board.

[zephyrin_xirdal]

Another word on exit-optimization. All of you probably know that, but it wasn't mentioned. I found it to be a powerful tool to switch off exits when a door or something closes over them (as described in the Remedy-tutorial). When exits get switched off properly the actual scenery the engine has to render gets very small and good to handle for the engine ... unless the rooms themselves are very big though.
But I'm still wondering how the optimization of the level where you are at the top of the Aesir-building works. In dev-mode I jumped from the ledge where you encounter the helicopter and dived down to the street. Then I ran around in the city. Well, all the buildings you can see from the top of the Aesir building of course only consist of one or two faces and the rest is done by the skybox, but the area still is very huge. And it runs without lag -- even on my notebook (which has an ATI Rage with poor 8MB).

[tommulder]

um starblade... about your little comment about lag on the secret level on MP, it lags between the LETS GO sign and when u kill them all???

now i no this might seem obvious but the game is meant to slow down there... remedy coded that into the level, u can kill them allin slow mo cos its kool!!!

just incase u dnt know...

graemlins/ted.jpg