Flare Usage

Post by **Techx** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:58 pm

Anyone know a reasonable number of flares that can be used in different room sizes without negatively effecting performance? For instance I have a ctf map, in one rahter long hallway several small flares, each covering a repeating strip of light texture. If there are say, 16 flares, in a hallway thats properly vis'd is that ok or will it start dropping frames for people? The same goes for the mid area where I might have even more than that covering the various light textures. Just want to know how to gauge what's acceptable in regard to performance. I could always run a gamut of tests with increasing amounts of flares but I figured I'd ask if someone already knew.

Thanks

Post by **Hipshot** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 11:41 pm

Screenshot?

Post by **obsidian** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 1:09 am

Depends on the situation. Generally speaking, it's not so much a matter of the number of flares as opposed to number of overlapping flares, each requiring an additional rendering pass.

Post by **Techx** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:41 am

Hipshot wrote:Screenshot?

Wish I could, but I can't post ss's, the map is for an upcoming mod.

obsidian wrote:Depends on the situation. Generally speaking, it's not so much a matter of the number of flares as opposed to number of overlapping flares, each requiring an additional rendering pass.

Ahh, good info., helpful... I didn't think of that. I doubht many would overlap much.

Thanks!

Post by **CheapAlert** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:52 pm

you'll only have to render about overlapping flares if you have a voodoo2 or some other card with a poor fillrate like an fx5200.

What engine are you referring to, if q3a, then you'll notice the flares have been long disabled because someone broke them by q3test 1.06.

Post by **Techx** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:53 pm

sorry its q4