[MAP] Caverna

[nexbender]

Played through this map on Galt's last night with Vlad and a few others. I think the general consensus is it is really neat-looking but needs some serious optimization. On an NVidia 7900 GTO (256MB, firmware modded near GTX and quite stable) my framerate dropped to the floor (slideshow) every time a projectile came on screen.

[Clueless Newbie]

Played through this map on Galt's last night with Vlad and a few others. I think the general consensus is it is really neat-looking but needs some serious optimization. On an NVidia 7900 GTO (256MB, firmware modded near GTX and quite stable) my framerate dropped to the floor (slideshow) every time a projectile came on screen.

I was afraid of that..

[nexbender]

Played through this map on Galt's last night with Vlad and a few others. I think the general consensus is it is really neat-looking but needs some serious optimization. On an NVidia 7900 GTO (256MB, firmware modded near GTX and quite stable) my framerate dropped to the floor (slideshow) every time a projectile came on screen.

I was afraid of that..

On the bright side, those rock textures are sweeeeeeeeeet.

[Clueless Newbie]

On the bright side, those rock textures are sweeeeeeeeeet.

Glad to hear you like them, but.. that isn't enough to make the map fun...

[nexbender]

On the bright side, those rock textures are sweeeeeeeeeet.

Glad to hear you like them, but.. that isn't enough to make the map fun...

The map layout is better than "fun," it has got a lot of elements that would make it good for competitive play. Wide open spaces, tight spaces, lot of vertical, lots of blind corners, crevices, ledges, catwalks, jumppads, and because the layout is so wonky (seems downright disorienting in places), it actually merits all the usual weapons. I'm sure Shaggy or one of these mappers could help optimize it.

[Clueless Newbie]

The map layout is better than "fun," it has got a lot of elements that would make it good for competitive play. Wide open spaces, tight spaces, lot of vertical, lots of blind corners, crevices, ledges, catwalks, jumppads, and because the layout is so wonky (seems downright disorienting in places), it actually merits all the usual weapons. I'm sure Shaggy or one of these mappers could help optimize it.

I don't currently intend to do any more work on Caverna, but anybody who is willing to try making it run better is welcome to do so. I'm pretty sure the .map file included in the .pk3 is the final one. However, I suspect the optimization would remove a great many of the things you like about the map.

OTOH... maybe I should try compiling the map with an even smaller _blocksize... even though the VIS stage would probably take days to compile.

[Clueless Newbie]

phong shader?

Yep. B)

Maybe I spoke too soon here... phong was enabled in the compiler, but I didn't have any special shaders for the rock textures. Are they needed?

[ihsan]

I have no problem running this map with only 512MB ram, 800MHz Duron, ATI all-in-wonder 9600.
Let me again say that the darkplaces renderer is very powerful and very underused. We have a lot of "fun" maps already but none which showcases the true graphic potential of darkplaces. I appreciate the attention placed in the LOOK and, particularly, textures in this map. It is a step in the right direction.

[nexbender]

I have no problem running this map with only 512MB ram, 800MHz Duron, ATI all-in-wonder 9600.
Let me again say that the darkplaces renderer is very powerful and very underused. We have a lot of "fun" maps already but none which showcases the true graphic potential of darkplaces. I appreciate the attention placed in the LOOK and, particularly, textures in this map. It is a step in the right direction.

Have you played this map with other players? Try doing so and fire some rockets at each other - you'll see what we mean.

[shaggy]

I think the map is good other than the bases. I think they are too crowded. I also think the slant down to the floor should be trashed. It makes it too hard to laser jump. Maybe you could shorten the slant and add a fan, that will kill you if you fall.

I think the base is the main problem, too crowded.