R_speeds
Reaver_Pryde
Join Date: 2002-05-11 Member: 599Members
Join Date: 2002-05-11 Member: 599Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Just as a means of comparison...</div>I hope this isn't too off topic, but here goes.
I remember Ken mentioning to me that r_speeds (the number of polygons in a player's field of vision I think?) for NS are at about 750. By comparison, the r_speeds for TFC on some maps run around 1000.
What I'm wondering is what the r_speeds on graphically high end games like, say, Max Payne or RTCW might be. Anyone know?
Reaver
I remember Ken mentioning to me that r_speeds (the number of polygons in a player's field of vision I think?) for NS are at about 750. By comparison, the r_speeds for TFC on some maps run around 1000.
What I'm wondering is what the r_speeds on graphically high end games like, say, Max Payne or RTCW might be. Anyone know?
Reaver
Comments
Anyways, <i>some</i> official TFC maps can get in excess of 1000 in a couple areas. They stay nice and low for the most part, but I was using that as an example of just how low-end-user friendly NS is. Not to mention it (in my opinion) comes out looking better than most anything else out there, despite the strict guidelines.
R_Speeds are really only a quake-engine-based games thing. Other games have their ways of measuring polys and such, but you'll only hear the term "r_speeds" from a quake engine game. Personally, I have no idea what kind of polys those other games get, but I'm sure someone does.
Quake 3 measures its polys in r_speeds, and while I can't remember the average number... I know I was shocked to hear how much higher it is than the average HL map. I mean... <b>really</b> high. Merkaba knows (I think), so hopefully he'll find this thread.
<!--EDIT|ken20banks|May 18 2002,13:55-->
Reaver
Bear in mind though that Q3 calculates its r_speeds VERY differently to Halflife. Halflife's r_speeds is measured in polygons, whereas Q3 measures in 'tris', ie, triangles. Each polygon is split up into triangles and so a simple square face in Halflife would result in 1 poly, but in Q3, would result in 2.
This does not mean that Q3s rendering isnt as effecient as Halflifes - quite the opposite. Although halflife only measures r_speeds by faces, the faces are STILL split up into polygons by the graphics card and so what the game is actually drawing is more than what it shown. As a result, Halflifes r_speed measurement is very vague, and explains why some areas run better than others when they both have the same r_speeds.
Q3's r_speeds also takes into account different texture passes on special effects textures. For example, a texture with 1 special effect on it would need to be drawn twice, and so would generate twice as many r_speeds. Looking through glass also means that all the faces seen through the glass have to be rendered twice.
It also takes into account all text on screen (each character is 2 polys), and the HUD items.
So when you think about it, although Q3 boasts r_speeds capable of over 10,000 and still running acceptably, it isn't as impressive as it seems when you take into account that the 10,000 figure includes many various screen artefacts which HL doesn't.
Reaver
The key to remember here: NS is meant to be easily accessed by existing HL players. This means that if you run HL acceptably, you will probably be able to run NS acceptably. The r_speeds in NS are sometimes a little higher then Counter-strike, but generally they are very comparable. If you can run CS, you should be able to run NS.
The r_speeds can be a bit higher in commander mode, but we decided that your frame rate can be a little slower there, because reflexes don't matter quite as much as they do when you're on the ground.
<!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->Sometimes it can even see around corners to an extent, so it can get kinda tricky.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
and no one mentioned or explained those vis triangle things (I'd like to see someone explain them without pictures anywho) I just thought that Reaver might like some bit of slightly obscure trivia to read about. Besides, it answers anyone who might have been wondering why/how the engine draws stuff that you can't -actually- see.
THE MOLECULAR MAN!!!
Ever see that SNL? Conan O'Brien... funny stuff...
Reaver
And no, never saw the skit.