Sides That Aren't Seen
Zoc
<?php echo "Hi there!"; ?> Join Date: 2003-01-20 Member: 12517Members, Retired Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester
<?php echo "Hi there!"; ?> Join Date: 2003-01-20 Member: 12517Members, Retired Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester
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tell the HL that don't expend memory to texture some things... ?
tell the HL that don't expend memory to texture some things... ? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you're using Merl's 1.7 build or later, NULL textured faces are removed from the map during compile and don't take any resources at runtime.
That doesn't seem to be the case.
Sides that are non visible under all circumstances are removed if it is just one big func_wall(made out of several brushes) and the sides are completely touching no matter what texture they are during compile(at least with cagey's tools that is the case.). If sides are only partly touching they are split up into several faces so that those faces which will under no circumstance be visible can be discarded and the rest can be kept.)
Here's a screenshot to prove it, this is a glass tube(64 sided <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->), it has all non-visible sides textured with an ugly green texture that would stand out like a sore thumb if it was drawn, as can be seen it isn't.
Well i dunno if Cagey made some cool updates to remove what i was talking about but ZHLT has this for sure.
With one interesting exception : func_ entities (_wall, _illusionary, ..) --> you will remove the hidden faces from the vis calculation.
edit : hump, sorry i didn't read correctly your post. You was talking about brush-based entities and so are func_xyz . <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> Anyway, you will remove the external hidden faces from the vis calculation because even inside a wall or in contact with another regular brush, they could be calculated. Ex: a bush onto the floor, nullify the bottom face will remove it from vis, won't it ?
With one interesting exception : func_ entities (_wall, _illusionary, ..) --> you will remove the hidden faces from the vis calculation.
edit : hump, sorry i didn't read correctly your post. You was talking about brush-based entities and so are func_xyz . <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> Anyway, you will remove the external hidden faces from the vis calculation because even inside a wall or in contact with another regular brush, they could be calculated. Ex: a bush onto the floor, nullify the bottom face will remove it from vis, won't it ?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It won't remove the face from vis (if by vis you mean HLVIS, the program that assigns the vismatrix) since HLVIS only calculates worldspawn visibility, but it will remove the face for the bottom of the door from the BSP, which can only help NS runtime performance.
For the record, the NULL texture was added by Merl before I took over the tools <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->.
Soylent green is absolutely correct about map exteriors and common faces between brushes in the same entity already being removed before the specialized NULL removal, but I don't see where NULLing the outside of a map came into the discussion -- I took unseen faces in the original post to mean items like the underside of a door that's never seen (oOTOo's example).
ZHLT never fills an entity other than the worldspawn, so setting NULL on the inside of a hollow brush entity is a good idea (it's also a good idea to CLIP the inside area if it's actually large enough for a player to fit -- otherwise you'll have clipnodes describing that hollow interior that won't ever be used in practice). Of course, it's an even better idea to never make a hollow brush entity in the first place -- you'll save some leaves.
I took it too mean all unseen faces, I would not have in the normal mapping forum, but this is the newbie mapping forum and too much information is better than less.