【高级教程】How to use the HINT brush

Simen.sllove

Introduction
     Counter-Strike creates boxes with precalculated information abouteverything which is visible from somewhere in those boxes. Thisinformation determines along with your viewing direction what is to berendered, and thereby affects the r_speeds.
     3d graffics consist ofpolygons. Polygons can be triangles, squares and so on. A crate has 6faces and therefore will add 6 to wpoly. I do sugest you read the r_speeds - bsp tutorial if you would like to know more about what causes wpoly.

     To see the r_speeds of your levels start Counter-Strike with the "-dev-console" parameter, run your map and write "r_speeds 1" in console.Something looking a litle like the image beneath would now apear.

     100fps is how many Frames you have PrSecond. 2 ms is the delay your game is behind your moves, due tocalculations and stuff. 218 wpoly is the count of non-entity polygonsrendered. 988 epoly is the amount of entity polygons rendered: players,weapons and hostages.
     What a mapper normaly wories about is the wpoly, and the Counter-Strike team sugests to keep those beneath 600 at all time.
The setup in my map example
     This is a situation in an early state of my cs_airport. The map layout at this point looks like the image below.

     The problem is that the canteen to the lower right is rendered when standing in the big hall in the center of the map.
Before HINT
     Before I added HINT, I took ascreenshot from the spot in the big room with the highest r_speed. Thescreenshot is shown below. Click to enlarge in a new window.

     The r_speeds are at this point at 274 wpoly, its not heigh, but if it could be reduced...
Adding the HINT brush
     You need a .wadcontaining the HINT texture. One is located in zhlt.wad. Zhlt.wad comeswith Zoners Compiler tools which I recomment you use. Goto "Tools","Options" and then "Textures". Click "Add WAD" and browse to zhlt.wad,clik "Open" and "Ok". zhlt.wad is located where you installed ZonersCompiler Tools.
     To make shure that thecanteen has its own "Rendering Box" that is not breaking into anvisible area from the main Hal I choose to create my HINT brush in thelong room, as shown below.

     I make the HINT brush fitting the room exactly to avoid VIS carving the walls any more than necessary.

     This is how the HINT brush is looking from Valve Hammer Editor, seen from the big main Hall.
After HINT
     When recompiled I went to exactly the same spot as before, and took a screenshot, which is shown below.

     The r_speeds wpoly now says 218. That is a reduction of 56 world polygons, nice!
Different methods
     At the pressentation ofthis tutorial in the forums at countermap iggy made me realise that Iforgot to mention the normal method to use the clip brush. So here I'lljust scetch them both so you wont be limited by my guide. And a specialthanks to iggy, for the feedback.
The normal method
     The Part of the room around the corner will not be rendered before you enter the hint area, marked with blue.

     The drawback is that where the hint brush meets the wall, the wall will be clipped, making more polygons.
The filling the room method
     Thisis the method that I used. Unless you can actually see the room, behindthe clipped room, the room will not be rendered.

     The real good thing about this is that no faces will be clipped and thereby no additional wpolys will be made.
Related Links
Hint Brush Tutorial by David 'TitaNiuM' Nixon
Zoners Compiler Tools at VERC COLLECTIVE

[ 本帖最后由 Simen.sllove 于 2007-11-20 09:26 编辑 ]

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