I'm nearly done with main level construction and I'm freaking out -- I don't want to hit any BSP memory limits. This is the first time I've had to deal with BSP limits when working with Half-Life 2, and it's a testament to how big and bloated "Much Madness" has become. In terms of level construction complexity, this is nearing Adam Foster-like levels of what the engine can handle.
... and now I've hit a memory limit already and it's destroying me.
At this stage in development, there are three memory limits I'm worried about:
- Waterindices @ (101%) I've tripped this one already. This is misleadingly named -- maybe before, it was actually used for water-related engine stuff, but now it's used to smooth out lighting errors (I think?) that occur when detail brushes touch world brushes to form T-junctions. I'm moving a lot of detail brushes 1-unit away to compensate, and that's resulted in some very marginal memory gains, but I'm still at a loss as to what exactly to do. I think converting func_details into func_brush might help too? Still at a loss for a quick and easy solution that won't require me to go through the entire map construction.
- Entity count @ (???)I'm not sure what the current entity count is, because the in-editor entity count is wildly inaccurate (a lot of entities get stripped away after level compile). I've only scripted the intro and part of the first half of the game so far, so I'm going to need a lot of entities for that. The in-game limit is 4096 edicts, though the compile tools let you have 8192 because, as I said, it strips away a lot of the entities.
- Entdata @ (120%) Adam Foster insists that entdata doesn't matter -- most of the Minerva maps are at ~180% entdata usage -- but it's still freaking me out. When a level compiler says "VERY FULL" in all caps, I tend to be wary.
The one above happens when I tried to do a screen-blur effect with a reflection shader in the same camera view. I think they use the same screen buffer doodad graphics-jargony thing. Solution: Don't use the screen-blur effect since it's expensive and it looks bad anyway.
This one here is because I got rid of the screen blur effect, but then tried to pair a refraction shader with a reflection shader to make my own weird kind of dynamic water shader. (The built-in water shader does not work if you want the water to move.) Solution: Don't use the reflection shader since it's expensive and it looks bad anyway.
And for your enjoyment, I'll leave you with this, the last time I saw a compile log before all this T-junction nonsense...
Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 219/1024 10512/49152 (21.4%)
brushes 7208/8192 86496/98304 (88.0%) VERY FULL!
brushsides 53538/65536 428304/524288 (81.7%) VERY FULL!
planes 16224/65536 324480/1310720 (24.8%)
vertexes 53531/65536 642372/786432 (81.7%) VERY FULL!
nodes 6080/65536 194560/2097152 ( 9.3%)
texinfos 8760/12288 630720/884736 (71.3%)
texdata 298/2048 9536/65536 (14.6%)
dispinfos 5/0 880/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_verts 1029/0 20580/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_tris 1792/0 3584/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_lmsamples 154408/0 154408/0 ( 0.0%)
faces 33064/65536 1851584/3670016 (50.5%)
hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%)
origfaces 24853/65536 1391768/3670016 (37.9%)
leaves 6300/65536 201600/2097152 ( 9.6%)
leaffaces 40935/65536 81870/131072 (62.5%)
leafbrushes 11801/65536 23602/131072 (18.0%)
areas 25/256 200/2048 ( 9.8%)
surfedges 262679/512000 1050716/2048000 (51.3%)
edges 164795/256000 659180/1024000 (64.4%)
LDR worldlights 389/8192 34232/720896 ( 4.7%)
HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%)
leafwaterdata 2/32768 24/393216 ( 0.0%)
waterstrips 2976/32768 29760/327680 ( 9.1%)
waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%)
waterindices 64038/65536 128076/131072 (97.7%) VERY FULL!
cubemapsamples 50/1024 800/16384 ( 4.9%)
overlays 9/512 3168/180224 ( 1.8%)
LDR lightdata [variable] 11869988/0 ( 0.0%)
HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 166530/16777216 ( 1.0%)
entdata [variable] 492298/393216 (125.2%) VERY FULL!
LDR ambient table 6300/65536 25200/262144 ( 9.6%)
HDR ambient table 6300/65536 25200/262144 ( 9.6%)
LDR leaf ambient 14503/65536 406084/1835008 (22.1%)
HDR leaf ambient 6300/65536 176400/1835008 ( 9.6%)
occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
detail props [variable] 1/231024 ( 0.0%)
dtl prp lght [variable] 1/4 (25.0%)
HDR dtl prp lght [variable] 1/4 (25.0%)
static props [variable] 1/44646 ( 0.0%)
pakfile [variable] 4515928/0 ( 0.0%)
physics [variable] 2278055/4194304 (54.3%)
physics terrain [variable] 1990/1048576 ( 0.2%)
