Posts by will2k

  • What music have you listened to recently?

    Classic 70s rock...this one is among the finest music of that era/genre

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  • De_forlorn WIP

    Quote from jackophant

    3 hours ago, jackophant said: I like! However may I suggest the above screenshot would look better with cooler lighting? Especially to compliment the blue paint detail and contrast with the warm outside light.

    Hey Jack :) long time no see; hope all is good on your side

    The whole map (indoor sections) has alternating cold blueish color with warm orangeish one...except for this tunnel :P. I guess this will change now.

    And btw, the headcrab Easter egg (both visual and sound) is now implemented ;)

    Thanks again buddy

  • Source Engine Optimization roadmap

    Quote from JSadones

    21 hours ago, JSadones said: Just an FYI : The mediafire link doesn't work anymore and the Bananalink is 404 (for Man vs engine).

    Thanks for the heads up.

    I checked it out and it seems that Gamebanana has recently drastically changed/messed up the markup language used as well as the layout and general formatting of the site. This has royally screwed up my articles and tutorials formatting as well as changed the hyperlinks in them.

    Instead of nicely formatted articles, they are now one giant unbroken wall of text, and useless new tags have been automatically added to the links (files and some images) altering them and leading to the 404 page you experienced.

    I'll get to correcting these issues as soon as possible (bear in mind there are roughly 20 articles and 6 tutorials to go through)

    In the meantime, you can access Man vs Engine through this direct link to mediafire

    http://www.mediafire.com/download/u5go4…+vs.+Engine.pdf

    Thanks again for notifying me.

  • de_nuke - A revised optimization system

    It seems someone at Valve has been carefully reading this thread/article and going through the figures and analysis I presented. CSGO received an update today and in the changelog, I noticed this in the Nuke section:

    ⦁ Performance optimizations

    Naturally, I loaded up the game and started wandering in de_nuke. Apparently, they implemented what I mentioned and recommended in this study. I quote myself from the thread:

    Quote

    Quote I deleted all the hint brushes placed by Valve and rebuilt my own hint system from scratch consisting of vertical, horizontal, and corner hints (Valve did not include corner hints).

    They now added some corner hints

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/lfHpmPT.jpg]

    Quote

    Quote Valve did not add any outdoor areaportal and their system consisted mostly of indoor ones that separated the inside of the plant from the outside.

    They added an outdoor areaportal system near CT spawn

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/7nvVmlR.jpg]

    Quote

    Quote Finally, I added occluders in several places in the outside yard (Valve did not include any occluder)

    They added several occluders in mid/outside yard

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/J7nsbLP.jpg]

    They did a nice job with occluders and they can still do more with corner hints and outdoor areaportals (they did not add as much as I did but it is a start).

    The fps increase in this update was in line with what I previously did in my optimization system except for both bomb sites and some areas of T spawn were the increase was lower and less than my system. Here are the screenshots of the updated map from the same locations of my study:

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/NqE7RsF.jpg]

    CT spawn 1

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/7r5VL34.jpg]

    CT spawn 2

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/ClTgf8y.jpg]

    CT mid

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/2M6rcPU.jpg]

    Bombsite A

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/66YrMGP.jpg]

    Bombsite B

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/XKOqU9n.jpg]

    T mid

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/AstPjfh.jpg]

    T spawn 1

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/xaIJFPD.jpg]

    T spawn 2

    Here’s a table comparing the new fps with the old ones from original nuke on release day (you can also compare to the fps of my basic optimization system in the main study above)

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/DxewuyL.jpg]

    Here are the initial figures along with my study (taken from the original thread above in February)

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/fa05/svzol2u7emz3dclzg.jpg]

    In the next update, Valve should keep pushing and improving with hints and outdoor areaportals, as well as reducing some trivial details in strategic places, and switching some expensive assets into their cheap counterparts where players will hardly notice. I believe Valve is on the right track with Nuke if they continue in the same spirit of this update with regard to optimization.

  • Chernobyl was 30 years ago today

    Quote from Izuno

    1 hour ago, Izuno said: 4/26/1986 (or if you prefer 26/4/1986)

    I know many people here were not even born yet, but this event had a profound future effect on the video game industry, and I don't mean just S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The idea of post-apocalypse in art/cinema/gaming wasn't new when Chernobyl happened but when it did, suddenly there was a place on Earth that was an actual real slice of what a post-apocalypse might be like.

    This event had a profound future effect on humanity and the whole world; fixed it for you :)

    But seriously, a nuclear disaster was then a reality instead of just a possibility and people had to deal with actual heavy consequences. The world started panicking and the fact that East Europe had similar poorly-maintained nuclear plants only made things even worse.

    I was in elementary school at the time and I still remember my parents and adults in the neighborhood clearly worried whether the nuclear fallout will reach us (roughly 1200 miles/1930 km from Chernobyl), especially after news started pouring down that the radioactive particles reached Sweden located at 680 miles/1100 km from the ground zero.

    And it was the 80s, so communication and news were slow compared to today, which made uncertainty even scarier.

    STALKER is awesome btw :D

  • Valley [CSGO]

    The walls in the first screenshot definitely need a floor level and ceiling level trim to break the blank wall up (like in nuke or office for example)

    I like the outside shot's color and architecture; it screams hi-tech quirky start-up :D. Maybe another lighter brick texture could suit better (from train)?

    Readability should be very nice in this one, keep it up :)

  • Source Engine Optimization roadmap

    What is this?

    This is a simple roadmap of my optimization papers/articles for any newcomers to Source optimization or for folks who would like to further strengthen their knowledge about the subject. The goal eventually is to produce solid, well optimized maps.

    I keep seeing some simple questions being asked such as “what’s a hint brush and what does it do? Where do I place an areaportal? I also see many confusion and misconceptions about Source optimization on topics such as visleaves and PVS. Many folks contact me saying “hey, I read your paper/article X but I missed/wasn’t aware of your paper Y, Z, U, V…which is an additional reason of having this roadmap in one place for people to use for navigation through the different hoops of Source optimization.

    The roadmap

    Think of this roadmap as a course syllabus depicting the various topics and logical progression of the course, in this case, Source optimization.

    1- Man vs Engine

    This is a comprehensive paper covering the process of optimization in the Source engine and providing a systematic approach to be used for winning your optimization battles.

    This paper should be the first step in your optimization course and it shouldn’t take you more than an hour on a slow evening to finish the read. It is a good idea to keep the Valve developer community wiki open if you need to look up the definitions of any terms that you come across in the paper (to be on the safe side, read the entry related to visibility optimization which contains all the keywords definition like hints, areaportals, etc…).

    2- Optimization Testing in Source Engine

    It’s a technical paper tackling the issue of methodically testing the frame rate and optimization system in the Source engine.

    This should be the second read after Man Vs Engine to get a solid grasp of map performance testing.

    • Practical work: test the average fps using the timedemo technique on a map of yours (or a stock map if you do not have a finished map yet). Practice all the testing console commands that I gave in the paper to become familiar with them.

    3- Demystifying Source Engine Visleaves

    This is an article in which I explain Source visleaves in layman's terms to allow beginners and veterans alike to understand the cornerstone of source optimization.

    After the first 2 papers being more hands-on and practical, this 3rd read in the roadmap is more on the theoretical side to allow one to fully understand the inner workings on Source’s BSP and visleaves systems.

    4- Source Engine PVS - A Closer Look

    This is an in-depth technical article where I delve into more details about the PVS creation and visibility calculation and their implication on optimization in the Source engine.

    This 4th read is a natural follow up to the previous article and will cement your intimate knowledge of Source engine.

    5- Common Misconceptions in Source Engine Optimization

    It’s an article in which I identify common misconceptions in Source engine optimization process to help demystify some optimization “myths” and bust them once and for all, thus allowing designers to avoid the costly pitfalls that could hinder their maps’ optimization setup.

    This 5th step in the roadmap should come as an easy read once you understood the previous 2 steps (visleaves and PVS)

    6- Hints about Hints - Practical guide on hint brushes placement

    This is a technical article in which I showcase how I think about and approach hints placement in Source engine and how I systematically proceed with hint brushes with practical examples.

    With the theoretical side taken care of in the 3 previous steps, it’s now time to dive into the technicalities of using hint brushes properly and efficiently, and this article will amply show that.

    • Practical work: make a small test map where you can test the different hinting techniques that I showcased in the article. Make a version with hints and one without and test in-game using mat_leafvis and mat_wireframe console commands to see hints live in action.

    7- Practical guide on areaportals placement

    It’s a technical article that deals with the systematic placement of areaportals in the Source optimization process. This is the 2nd article in the "practical placement guide" series.

    As with the previous step, this one dives deeply into proper areaportal placement with solid examples.

    • Practical work: make a small test map where you can test the different areaportals techniques/locations that I showcased in the article. Make a version with areaportals and one without and test in-game using r_drawportals, mat_leafvis, and mat_wireframe console commands to see areaportals live in action.

    8- Practical guide on occluders placement

    It’s a technical article that tackles the systematic placement of occluders in the Source optimization process. This is the 3rd and final article in the "practical placement guide" series.

    Occluders have always been a grey area and a big question mark for a lot of designers, and this article will clearly showcase how to practically proceed with them in your map, if needed.

    • Practical work: make a small test map where you can test the different occluders techniques/locations that I showcased in the article. Make a version with occluders and one without and test in-game using r_visocclusion, r_occlusion, and mat_wireframe console commands to see occluders live in action.

    9- Comparative fps study in Source Engine Optimization System

    This is an in-depth article where I showcase the clear difference between having a solid optimization system and not having one in a Source engine map. The article will have plenty of numbers, for a complete comparative study that shows the frame rate variation with and without the optimization system in place.

    If you have read and followed this roadmap closely, then you are now ready to witness and understand the importance of a good optimization system and the consequences of not having an effective one on the overall frame rate.

    • Practical work: In one of your maps, uncheck the visgroups of hints/areaportals/occluders in Hammer and save it under a different name. Compile it on final settings then compare the fps with the original version that had all the visgroups enabled to see the difference.

    10- Source FPS Cost of Cheap and Expensive Assets

    It’s a short technical article that compares the frame rate cost of cheap vs. expensive assets in Source engine optimization.

    In the same spirit of the previous step, this one shines the spotlight on the cost of expensive assets so one doesn’t go wild while using them in their map, at the risk of considerably affecting frame rate.

    11- Displacement Vs. Func_detail - A comparative fps study

    It’s a short technical article that aims at comparing the frame rate of func_detail vs. displacement in the context of the Source engine and the repercussion on their usage in maps.

    12- Optimizing An Open Map in Source Engine

    This is a technical article that showcases how to tackle optimizing open maps in Source engine.


    Conclusion

    The roadmap presented above should cover “optimization 101” through “501” courses and cater for a broad range of Source engine users. There are no more reasons for one to feel confused and “not sure where to start/look” when it comes to Source optimization.

    If after reading and experimenting with all the above you still have some questions about optimization, then feel free to post here and I’ll try my best to help.

    Once you finish all the reading with all practical work, please pass by my office so I can schedule your final exams.

    Happy reading :)

  • What music have you listened to recently?

    Simon And Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson

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