Hide textures really worth it?

[Armitage]

I was thinking because of the scale down on the models ,maps dont have to be nearly as big as they were before in esf. Are hide textures really needed for a decent size map then?
The one flaw to hide textures is that they can screw up lighting slightly because of the breaking down the vis blocks.
Personally Im not using them on my current map for esf. What would all of you reccomend to do though? Sacrifice lighting perfection for a decrease in r_speeds? Or not? ;/

 

[Kamikaze Wufei]

hide textures?

well to tell you the truth i have no idea what a hide texture is and i've been mapping for 2 years...

but basically if you have a large area to cover, make it a big texture like 256x256 and scale it up to like 2. then go into your compiler and tell it NOT to scale lighting based on texture size. if your compiler cant do this i suggest tbcc. i would also suggest visiting www.valve-erc.com for their polygon reduction methods.

 

[Armitage]

........................ That post is irrevelant to the topic of hide textures. And Im guessing your not using zoners?

 

[Mr. Satans]

I don’t use hide (not yet ne ways) but i use NULL to reduce R_SPEEDS. I believe in doing everything I can to make maps have the lowest R_SPEEDS possible

 

[MrMasj]

well i just leved null again for sky I´m not sure witch of them who is the best !!!

 

[DJ-Ready]

umm .. i hope i understood what u mean ... if not, forget my post ^^
ok .. i always use hint (u mean HINT not hind, right .. zoners special textures, etc...) brushes, but it doesnt depends on the size of a map to "make" lower r_speeds with them ... it depends on the way u build the map. its kinda hard to explain how to use them right ... but if u know how, u can reduce the r_speeds alot...

 

[Armitage]

Ah bah you right, I meant hint, but I call them hide since thats what they sorta do.
Your kinda wrong though. They can lower r_speeds on a big map. What they do is break up vis blocks................ which screws the lighting slightly. This gives the engine less solids to render on the screen at one time which not only applies to large maps ,but small maps as well. ;D

 

[DJ-Ready]

yeah, but if u got some vertexmanipulatet objects and cylinders and such stuff... u can reduce the r_speeds by putting a hint brush around them ^^
and yes .. they are just vis blocker

EDIT .. here are 2 pics to show u what i mean .. i got them from a tutorial at www.thewall.de
www.s2k-clan.de.vu/sigsnpics/with.gif (a cylinder with a hint brush around it)
www.s2k-clan.de.vu/sigsnpics/without.gif (the same one without a hint brush)

 

[Armitage]

ehh

True, but you dont want to put them around a cylinder shape to save r_speeds. Thats not what there for. If you wanted to remove the cylinder from vis you just have to make it a func_wall You dont cover things up with hint textures ,you put them between different area's of the map. The way you said would not break up vis blocks effectively for the entire map ,and may even add to compile time.


"Note, I'm just asking would you use them or not, not what there purpose is"

 

[DJ-Ready]

yeah, but if you have some more cylinders in one room/area and the would be vis blockers, you can reduce the r_speeds with putting a HINT brush around it ^^ so u couldn´t make a func_wall of it ...
or you dont want to make a func_wall of a brush for some other reasons ...