Im making an outdoor farmland map, not overly large, but the grass is allready giving me model load problems.

I thought that I might be-able to overcome this, by building my map in "prefab" sections. It also means I can easily re use parts of the map in other maps or repeat them in this map. As an example all my "crop" fields are single prefabs.
hehehe ,didnt work. So much for being tricky.

So, now, I have to lean to add portals, Ive read the cod2 ? tutorial,
and cant quite grasp what its saying, so Im about to replicate the building and follow it in the editor.
Is there anything other than whats in that tut I need to know, because Im portaling "outdoors" ??



edited on May. 4, 2008 05:50 am by kroag

edited on May. 4, 2008 05:51 am by kroag

Outdoor portalling is quite tricky. The tutorial explains quite well however how portalling works, so recreating it yourself is a very good idea to get to grasp with it.

Basically... portalling works all due to not being able to see into other cells because of structural brushes.

So make sure you use your cover (walls, hills etc) as part of the portal, blocking view into other cells.

I myself am also working on a large outdoor map, due to the layout portals can be useless depending on what you can see..

The ways to help performance are to:
Remove any unnecessary models
Make any non structual brushes ''detail''
Add a cull distance to your .gsc ''setculldist( 5000 );''
Caulk any non visible brush sides.

Try theem to start.

I ran into the model count problem with grass models at one point. Having a small, open map with good sight lines can compound the problem, even if you portal it well. As much as you'd like to have a carpet of grass (it does look nice in-game), it might be better just to get rid of about half of the models and see what happens.

after trying last night, I think my lay-out, like "Rasta's" is no good for portaling :( , Ive adjusted some buildings and now am only getting the problem in 2 areas at least.
I found this IW forum link, which because I have used stonewalls around my fields may work for me.
I will also add the culldistance to gsc,
Thanks for the tips guys, much appreciated.