What are you working on RIGHT NOW? - Community WIP thread

Hogwash on 27/2/2005 at 21:34

Quote Posted by jolynsbass

I don't understand why someone said it would be better to use more static meshes... What exactly is a static mesh and how is it superior to using brushes? And can you see the exact shape of it in the editor(unlike in Dromed, where you could place an object, and only see a big square- NOT helpful) ? I guess I just need to get the game... and a new vid card... :nono:

A static mesh is a type of mesh which is cached into video memory, and so can be displayed many times with little extra overhead. "Static" in "static mesh" doesn't mean "doesn't move" – it can be moved, rotated, retextured and scaled (even disproportionally) in realtime. The "static" only refers to the fact that it can't be animated, that is, the relative positions of the vertices are fixed. Hence, static meshes are useful for displaying pieces of architecture that don't move at all or might move as a whole, but they're no good for displaying players, whose bodies need to bend and change shape.

(http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Static_Mesh) Source

Yes, static meshes are displayed in polygonal detail in the editor, in a lovely sky blue colour. Because of the efficiency of static meshes, especially when repeated, they make up a great amount of the final level geometry.

Karkianman on 27/2/2005 at 21:34

when i get back home i'll jump into making a water-looking walk through volume, and adding a script so that when an object hits it it creates an invisible elevator with different sounds that is solid only for that object and goes down slowly depending on weight and rises if jump is pressed or something. I wonder what that might become :D

darkcosmos on 27/2/2005 at 22:54

Making Garrett climb a rope because he thinks it's a ladder... oh, how he misses those rope arrows!

Inline Image:

http://mysite.verizon.net/rocketpack/garretclimb.jpg

furunculus on 27/2/2005 at 23:19

Quote Posted by jolynsbass

I'm not so sure, but I wouldn't call 6600GT mainstream... at least not yet. But I'm sure it will be all too soon. By the way, that castle looks great!

thanks. i too am stuck with an aged video card.

BSP is very computationally intensive, unlike statics, but it is very easy to optimise them via the use of zone portals, anti-portals, fog, and draw distance so the impact isn't so great.

the biggest limitation of BSP culling is the Unreal engine limitation of 63 zones, before i knew of this my UWA map had reached about 160, which actually reduces performance! lol.

but with more horsepower in todays computers, and good use of culling techniques BSP is still a wonderful medium to create architechture with. in my UWA map all i used statics for was furnishings and such like. it can still be seen today being played online in the RvS master server list. :D

Korrow on 28/2/2005 at 01:35

Quote Posted by Korrow

Yes, I have. I can open the editor but I can't Run anything that I make.

Ah nevermind, I got it working now.

Gestalt on 28/2/2005 at 03:38

My howls of frustration are coming along smoothly, and I'm making quite a lot of progress in the cursing department. I expect to be swearing like a sailor before the month is out.

Why do you hate me so, T3ed?

Renzatic on 28/2/2005 at 03:44

Did you kill a chicken as payment before you fired it up for the first time, Gestalt?

I did. :D

Gestalt on 28/2/2005 at 04:11

I was hoping a pigeon would do, but maybe not. Maybe my pigeon just wasn't configured correctly? I'll try reading the entrails to see if I can figure out what went wrong.

Gestalt on 28/2/2005 at 07:58

The second pigeon worked:

<a href="http://img215.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img215&image=gestaltt314hm.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img215.exs.cx/img215/6913/gestaltt314hm.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>

Hogwash on 28/2/2005 at 14:54

Heh, for a minute there I thought you had posted a screenshot from a Harry Potter game. :p