Quake3World

Posted: **Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:21 pm**

yo. props to my peeps. hate for the haters!

ok, now that that is take care of, I have a question about patches and stuff.

I reinstalled q4 today after I found the file for a Q4 map I had been working on - a conversion to Q4 of a D3 map which was a conversion of a Q3A map I had started a long time ago and had worked on now and then before eventually losing the map files. I thought I had lost the D3/Q4 version as well, but I found it today!

In the meantime, I have heard on the street that its a bad idea to use an assload of patches in a Q4 map, which is pretty much what I 'm doing. Am I already doomed to failure? Will it run like crap no matter what I do, once it's all detailed out and pretty? I'm redesigning it a little as I go, so I can isolate the different spaces a little if I need to, but I'd rather not.

Posted: **Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:29 pm**

I think you should convert the port back to the original conversion of the converted map.

....or something...

Posted: **Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:36 pm**

Generally yes it's a bad idea but then that's usually becasue mappers of lesser skillzorz don't properly optimise their mesh correctly (reduce sub-d etc). Just make sure you're portal blocking map sections properly.

The engine doesn't have any problems with a shitload of *polygons* generally speaking, just when you do things to them via material and lighting effects; if you do have a high polycount keep the light and FX count down.

Posted: **Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:58 pm**

I'll have to ask RJ about it, but if I remember correctly every patch mesh counts as a non-world entity (i.e. it counts toward the entity limit, but that's not the issue here), and non-world entities require some kind of per-entity, per-light expense. Like, the cost to render a frame gets more expensive geometrically, as it increases ((number of entities in PVS) * (number of lights in PVS)) - (scissor calculations) or something like that.

As I recall, it's not a huge issue, but it is the kind of thing where you don't want to have tons and tons of patch meshes on screen just for the sake of being patch meshes. As long as you keep the patch meshes batching well you should be ok, honestly.

Posted: **Sun Sep 10, 2006 11:39 pm**

I guess I'd better look into this batching thing. Thanks for the info.

Posted: **Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:16 pm**

ok after talking to RJ it turns out that the entities*lights things only applies to dynamic entities--static patches should be fine, and shouldn't really have any extra cost other than the cost of drawing triangles and batching and whatnot

Quake3World

Is it ok to use an assload of patches in a Q4 map?

Is it ok to use an assload of patches in a Q4 map?