Sorry your browser is not supported!

I need your opinions please...

I am making an outdoor level. Which is better to use, Segment Walls or Wall Entities (made to be static with IsImmoble=No), so there is less lag in the level. Or does it matter on Segment Walls or Wall Entities (if Wall Entities are static and IsImmobile is set to No)?

I would like to know which one would create less drag and/or reduce FPS?

Also another question (just so I don't start a separate thread)..If I have a Tree entity and it does nothing but sit there, do I need physics on for it? If it is off, will that help reduce lag?

I suggest segments. Much better ligh mapping.

That's not true (atleast in my case)
Besides,you'll save half of the polys by using entity walls!

Well, if you use dynamic entitys then there is better ligh mapping. But if you are using static entities that could work.

no.

Dynamic Lights=No shadows on nothing
Static Shadows=Shadows on Static Models

Generally speaking you can use either a wall segment or a static entity wall it make no difference.Polygon count will still be the same regardless of what method you use.

Entity collision would generally be more or less the same for both unless you change the collision for the entity wall to some thing not suited.

Light mapping an dynamic entity wall and a segment wall is slightly different as with a segment a shadow is added by default if you choose to use it.Change the wall to static it will be treated as a segment minus settings.

A room segment uses over direct shadows and each mesh shadow gets calculated according to that, you can always choose two other options overfull and over direct where over full simply means no shadows are cast on the mesh and over direct which means a shadow being cast from as if a light was directly above it.

This is the default shadows being cast if no light effects the mesh which is visible when you load a level without lights.Shadow ambiance is quite light so it is not as pronounced as it would be with light mapped shadow.

Dynamic lights means no static shadows it doesn't however mean the default shadows aren't there that has been calculated before hand via a segment editor like FPSC segment editor.

Light mapping a static entity wall and a segment wall will still be the same as I presume the entity wall will use over direct.

I have not played around with the setup file but you should be able to change some settings that is if it works. But then again it could be hard coded

but looking at the FPS files each segment file has lighting information perhaps changing this will allow better default shadows not effected by lights from the engine.

also quite nice a static entity mesh without a light source and with or without a shader will be rendered dark pending level ambiance where a segment wall with a shader will be render full bright wihtout a light source with no effect from ambiance....

please explain how the same wall would have less polys...unless you alter the model beforehand...the engine does not do any thing different to the same mesh....even culling works more less the same for both...pending it works as intended.

unless of course you are referring to a room segment wall...but you could use a wall as a single straight mesh

A normal side of a segment is made out of 2 walls,meaning twice the polygons needed.

there is always a good reason to use entity walls in outdoor maps and non-entity walls in indoor maps

in an indoor map, there are closed off rooms, allowign FPSC's engine to render only what the player sees. if there's no roof, FPSC doesn't do that, and the polycount in one part of the level is the same as it is in every other part. using an entity wall will drastically reduce polygons as it's one object, usually with only 12 polygons, whereas every segment wall is already 12 polys. so it's basically one entity wall everytime you click to make a segment.

But what if you use an Invisible floor SEGMENT (not entity) as a roof for Wall Segments (not entities), so that way you are making a room (it's just outdoors), won't that help increase frame rate?

indeed it will, but if you have large outdoor areas, you're doing more harm than good with the amount of segments you use.

Ok, but what if the outdoor areas are like hallways? Here is what I mean, the Walls are made from Segment Walls (using an image of trees), the ceiling segments are made from invisible floor segments, the hallway goes 4 or 5 squares one way, then 4 or 5 squares another way, and so on, until you come up to an area that has maybe 15 to 20 squares in it, around that area is the tree Wall segments and over it the invisible floor segments for the ceiling, inside that area is buildings and other entities, wouldn't this help keep the framerate up, if not please explain why?

@Zay

That is why I said.




No, I stand corrected, entity walls have more polygons when rendered.

As per screenshot, however if you make a single wall entity to span the area say (15 * 100) it may be 12 polygons but how do you effectively uvmap that and still keep it to 12 polygons using a 512 x 512 texture map or larger even a 2048 x 2048 map will not be enough and cause lag.