Can one of you help me plz?

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

Sparax-C1-

New Member
Jan 13, 2001
40
0
0
Visit site
Hey there, I am just about finished with a new ctf map I have been working on for the last few weeks. I wanted to do some last minute tweaking to improve performance.

My question is how can I reduce my poly count in the highest congested area? This is at the peak of the mountain where you can look down mountain and see front of base. At this point I am getting 230 polys. I have seen bits and pieces about ways to reduce node and poly counts by such things as "merging polys" (i have no idea what that is although I do know how to do it).

Is there a quick explanation on how to reduce my poly count near this point or maybe someone could link me to a tutorial explaining "merging polys" and other fps increasing techniques?

Thx a bunch!!

PS: the detail and distance of my bases from mtn top is very similiar to CTF-Face (which gets 40 polys at the hill peak). The only thing I can think of is that my mtn is more complex, with more rises and falls, than the simple hill of CTF-Face.
 

Cursed_Soul

Now known as Luos_83
Jan 13, 2001
4,206
4
38
40
dordrecht
www.vladderbeest.com
ill try

on the top view select all the brushes with the ctrl+ alt and left mousebutton and go over all the brushes now if u do it correct all the brushes are bright, rightmouse click on one of the brushes en select merge polys, then do a total rebuild and its done, hope i helped u out with this :S
 

ChrisToth.hu

Level Designer
Oct 2, 2000
2,740
0
0
Atlantis
Merge polys can be applied to surfaces where the textures are the same and they have the same alignment (Wall, Floor...visual alignment isn't necessary). A poly can exist in a single plane so all the surfaces which you want to merge need to be coplanar. (They don't need to be continuous tho) The command will be applied to surfaces inside individual brushes so merging polys between different brushes isn't possible.

Give it a try...don't worry, if the surfaces don't meet these criteria nothing will happen.

Try to Intersect(Additive)/Deintersect(Subtractive) brushes into one brush...and then do a Merge Polys. Try to unify the texturing/alignment where you don't necessarily need different textures and alignment. (Then Merge polys)

Use Semi-Solids. They won't lower the polycount but they'll simplify the level BSP and will create lower nodecounts. (The risk of BSP holes will be lower aswell.)

230 Polys isn't a big deal anyways. But I hope it helped you.
 

Techno JF

He Who Has Powerful Words
That's interesting. I read this on UnrealEd's forums in a thread about complex brushes:

"There really is no point in merging polygons on brushes, except to make it easier to edit. This is because any polygon with more than three sides gets split into triangles in the game anyway, so it doesn't actually cut down on the polygon count when all's said and done."

This seemed like the time and place to inquire about it. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me?
 

Drakken_Mordith

New Member
Jun 12, 2001
13
1
1
Toronto
www.virtualascension.com
This is because any polygon with more than three sides gets split into triangles in the game anyway, so it doesn't actually cut down on the polygon count when all's said and done

That's half right. Unreal supports polygons with greater than 3 sides as far as bsp is concerned. In rendering it also does break those polys down to triangles. However merging does provide a benefit. I believe quake does this merging seamlessly in the background where as it is more of a manual thing for Unreal now... anyhow to the point:

Consider 2 cubes that are side by side but with each having a face touching the other, similar to below in a top down view (x = cube #1, y = cube #2) :

xxxyyy
xxxyyy
xxxyyy

At this point there is 10 faces 'visible' all around. When rendered it equals 20 triangles.

Now if you took those 2 cubes and intesected them creating one brush. Then added it into the world, aligned the textures and merged the faces it would now be considered to the engine to look something like (z = cube #3):

zzzzzz
zzzzzz
zzzzzz

Here there is a 6 faces for a total of 12 polygons. You've axed 8 triangles here.

This of course is a best case scenario, but should give you an idea.

Drak