Brodieman on 1/3/2005 at 12:04
A portal isn't a load zone or anything so don't worry it's just a designation where the engine knows to only render areas within the portal barriers - ie a large room draws only what's in that room when you're in it rather than draw that room, the other rooms, the grass outside and anything you couldn't theoretically "see" from a given postion. Portals are very easy to use so don't get frightened of them you'll find they are extremely useful.
furunculus on 2/3/2005 at 15:45
Quote Posted by null
Hey --
1) Keep your spaces tight and twisty, lots of narrow apertures for double-portals.
Two portals snapped to the geometry fairly close to each other (like on either side of a thick door frame) really help force the renderer to *only* render what you can actually physically see.
- Ø
are you talking about Zone Portals? if so, then is not the limit 63 in total, which would make putting one both sides of a doorway a little wasteful? :)
null on 2/3/2005 at 17:10
I'm pretty sure we had that limit bumped way up.
64 was a limit intended for a former age...
- Ø
rujuro on 2/3/2005 at 17:18
Do portals only work with the BSP geometry? What happens if a static mesh crosses a zone border, is that even possible? Or will they be treated as a single zone.
d'Spair on 2/3/2005 at 19:15
Quote Posted by null
I'm pretty sure we had that limit bumped way up.
64 was a limit intended for a former age...
- Ø
Wow, now THAT is great! By adding tons of zones, one may really increase the perfomance!
furunculus on 2/3/2005 at 21:41
cheers, i hope they have upped the limits.
darkcosmos on 3/3/2005 at 02:56
Well based on some quick testing, I would say it definitely looks like they've upped the limits for zones:
Inline Image:
http://mysite.verizon.net/rocketpack/zonesgalore.jpg This is a map I threw together of mostly identical rooms 256x1024x1024, each with a light, and each with a few zone portals blocking the hallways. (the Zone/Portal view is on, making all the colors) Altogether it's over 140 seperate zones, and who knows how many zone portals. It takes a few minutes to Build All, but loads and plays fine as far as I can tell! Sweet.
Brodieman on 3/3/2005 at 07:09
Quote Posted by darkcosmos
Well based on some quick testing, I would say it definitely looks like they've upped the limits for zones:
This is a map I threw together of mostly identical rooms 256x1024x1024, each with a light, and each with a few zone portals blocking the hallways. (the Zone/Portal view is on, making all the colors) Altogether it's over 140 seperate zones, and who knows how many zone portals. It takes a few minutes to Build All, but loads and plays fine as far as I can tell! Sweet.
Nicely done, great demonstration of portals. :thumb:
furunculus on 3/3/2005 at 12:21
good news. :)
mol on 3/3/2005 at 13:31
Can we verify that those zones are taken into account by the engine, and some of them are not merged by the engine to keep the total at 64, as the case seems to have been at some point in time?
Here's a quote from (
http://unreal.epicgames.com/zones.htm). The document is old, so the limit may have been extended, but can we be sure?
Quote:
A level can only have 64 zones. If you create more than 64 zones, the engine will merge some zones together, causing a loss of performance. This limit might be extended in the future.
The merging is also mentioned in the UnrealWiki, and it talks about UT 2003 having this limit: (
http://www.unrealwiki.com/wiki/Zone)
Are we out of luck? :(
