rujuro on 4/3/2005 at 17:16
Is there a downside to buiding the majority of your level out of static meshes, with BSP surfaces behind them existing almost purely for setting up zoning? Aside from memory and data, does it negatively impact performance? Thanks
Krypt on 4/3/2005 at 17:27
What you described is essentially exactly the way you should be building maps, and is how all of the original maps are built. Most of your complex details should be static mesh. If you make your BSP too complex it will usually cut itself up really crazily, make it hard to zone, and probably create a bunch of BSP holes. It's ok to build some stuff out of BSP occasionally, just don't go too hog wild with it :p Static meshes are the way to go in this engine. Just make sure you have enough BSP to portal effectively.
toolman on 4/3/2005 at 17:48
how do you go about scaling static meshes down?
Haven't messed with unreal ed for a while, but I seem to remember some sort of drawScale property being able to do this?
rujuro on 4/3/2005 at 17:55
Thanks, Krypt, That's how I was handling it, but didn't know how far it should be taken, if it would slow down physics with characters traversing static mesh as opposed to BSP, etc.
As I'm doing it now, ALL visible geometry is currently a static mesh of some sort. Related to that, is there a way to generate simpler collision geometry for a static mesh that ISN'T a convex hull? For example if I'm making a tunnel? Or do I just rely on exact collision with geometry in those cases (as I'm currently doing)?
Regarding scale, as I understand it you can use that property, but the collision hulls won't update their size, which could lead to wackiness.
toolman on 4/3/2005 at 18:14
Ok cheers,
but for a rooftop untouchable by the player, would this matter?
darkcosmos on 4/3/2005 at 18:19
Quote Posted by toolman
but for a rooftop untouchable by the player, would this matter?
Nope. It shouldn't.
And for simplified collisions, I believe you can create brushes that are invisible blocking volumes around objects. Or at least you could in UnrealEd. You could do a search at the Unreal Wiki on that topic...
Krypt on 4/3/2005 at 18:34
Quote Posted by rujuro
Related to that, is there a way to generate simpler collision geometry for a static mesh that ISN'T a convex hull? For example if I'm making a tunnel? Or do I just rely on exact collision with geometry in those cases (as I'm currently doing)?
There aren't any really good ways to do this, unfortunately. There are ways to hack it though. First of all you have to turn off collision on your meshes by setting Movement>Physics to PHYS_None in their properties. Then after that you can build a fake collision hull for it with invisible BSP or static meshes. In the mesh browser, look in DOOR_WINDOW_LOCKS>Doors_Doorframes and find the meshes named GENinvisiwall***. These are thin, flat meshes of varying sizes with an invisible texture on them which you could use as blockers. You can apply the same texture to BSP as well if you want to do it that way.
Quote Posted by toolman
but for a rooftop untouchable by the player, would this matter?
Nope. If nothing is going to be touching the mesh, or you build a fake collision hull for it, you can drawscale all you want.
rujuro on 4/3/2005 at 23:03
Awesome, that solution should work fine. I'll go with exact collision unless it starts to hit performance.
Karkianman on 5/3/2005 at 01:49
so does that basically mean you have to have like 3DMax 5.1 and know how to model to effectively be a t3ed mapper? cause if so, that really sucks.
Komag on 5/3/2005 at 05:28
Only if you want to make all new meshes. But there are A LOT that come with the game and you can use them in different ways as well, and you can retexture them or mix-match/swap textures, so you can come with a very large variety without having to make new stuff on your own.
