Optimizing vis is a real nightmare
I have fixed all my blody leaks, and by puting hint brushes in the rigth place i was getting a good FPS rate all over my map. Then, i opened Radiant to check out the last details and the like... Well, when i launched the final full vis, i found with a bit of horrour that HINT BRUSHES dont longer works: the engine was drawing all the map and FPS was shuting down again.
So, i begun again to hunting leaks, but junk file says "NO leaks", and single (BSP) -meta says "No leaks" too... Fine, My map is leaks free, but hints dont work.
Maybe some degenerated plane cause the problem. Then i check BSP file and by counting one by one all my brushes (free brushes and brushes involved in entities) i realize that all is right, but hint brushes dont work at all.
Then i check portal viewer: portals are in the right place, but ... humm there is some intersecting squares out the worldspan... can that be the cause?
I think maybe there are still some "INTERNAL" LEAK (between clusters)... but how can i see this millimetrical connections w/out rebuildind the entire map?
Any suggestion 'll be appreciated. But dont tell me: "make a box arround ur map". I 'm trying to optimize performances by blocking vis. With a box surrounding the map all seems easy, but the map 'll became not longer playable.
Thx
there is nothing wrong with having a box around your map, it's an easy way to make sure there are no leaks, you could try it out to see the effect.
about your hints, you say final full vis, does this mean you used fast vis before? also, there is nothing wrong with using fast vis, in one of the maps i'm working on now, i have really good vis blocking on fast vis...
finally, how do you know the whole map is drawn? did you check it out with the sof2mpdev.exe and r_showtris? with that you can check where vis needs a bit of help. also, try to compile the map under a new name, cuz you could by accident have taken the prt file of the last compile, because if vis fails, no prt file is made.
Oh no. Evil polys and degenerated planes are already purged. Thx any way.
I says "the engine draws the full map" because iI SEE all the the geometry from any point of the map. Yes, exactly Lethal, by using 'r_showtris 1' and together 'showFPS 1'.
The only problem about having a box arround the map is the following: when i 'm searching leaks i run fast vis enabling BSP monitoring (i was learned this from u. ), so i 'm able to follow the red line and finally find and fix the leak. This is a good way also to find that i called (maybe improprerly) "internal leaks", i.e. holes connecting portals and/or clusters (i need make clear about terminology): with this method i check one by one any areas of the map before connecting each other. Now, If i put a box arround the map this work became imposible because leaks 'll be dissimulated but not fixed.
Any way i 'll keep the BOX SOLLUTION as extreme resourse.
Last thing: i realize today, simply by using 'portal viewer plug in' and 'show blocks' from menu, that i need to line up portals and blocks in order to minimize the number of portals. How can i modify the blocks dimensions ? I thik its easiest than selecting all the map structure and move it in the right position.
Thank u very much. I really appreciate ur suggestions.
hmmmmmm, can you post the junk.txt anyways? and yes, you are right, if you use a box, you will get lower fps than when you fix all the leaks, because the leaks are in fact still there and might cause some portals to be seen when they are not supposed to be seen at all...
and to minimize portals, make sure you make as much small brushes detail, and you can change the blocksize by entering the key//value 'blocksize' '1024' (default) in the worldspawn (not too sure about that tho)
ahhhhh u agre. Nice. I 'm very happy today, coz i solved the problem!!! :roll:
i rebuilded and semplify some geometrically complex paths, and checked out all the external structure (by visualizing only structural brushes > ctrl+d). Then i compiled again "under a new name" (as sugegsted) and now all woks fine! I gained about 25-30 fps in the more critical regions of the map
[I suspect there was a leak dont recognized during the last vis: that could be happen].
Next step: i 'll try to line up portals by changing block size. Junk is not needed by the moment. I 'll post the map soon. Thank u again
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FPS nightmare 
Maybe some degenerated plane cause the problem. Then i check BSP file and by counting one by one all my brushes (free brushes and brushes involved in entities) i realize that all is right, but hint brushes dont work at all. 
Re: FPS nightmare 
), so i 'm able to follow the red line and finally find and fix the leak. This is a good way also to find that i called (maybe improprerly) "internal leaks", i.e. holes connecting portals and/or clusters (i need make clear about terminology): with this method i check one by one any areas of the map before connecting each other. Now, If i put a box arround the map this work became imposible because leaks 'll be dissimulated but not fixed.
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