Sector splitting

[Kaiser]

why is it important? I see some tutorials but what is the main purpose of it?

[LSD]

Adding water, or transparent planes of any sort, and making levels run faster by providing more sectors to classify brushes into. Those are the main things.

[Iirion Claus]

To be a little more specific, the Serious engine renders everything in Sam's sector and in every sector he can see. With a large map, seeing one big sector can considerably slow the engine. By splitting it to multiple sectors the player can't see, you ease the work of the engine, thus allowing more frames per second and better gameplay.

[Kaiser]

whats a good example of sector splitting to make the map run faster?

I checked a tutorial at serious editing but it explains how to make a water floating sphere.

[LSD]

lets say you have a long room, with many brushes in it. you have two halls entering it, both on the same side, but on near one end of the room, and the other near the other end of the room. Now, if you are in one of the halls, and you can see into the room at all, it will draw EVERYTHING in the room. So, if you wanted to make it draw just the stuff near the entrance to the hall, until you actually got into the room, you could make a box that cordoned off the other half of the room, and then split the sector. now, from the hall you can only see into one of the two sectors, and the rest wont get drawn. Does this make sense?

[Major Disaster]

Thx for the explanation, I was just digging in the tutorials for this kind of info :)

Just two additional newbie questions...

1. when I build rooms, hall, etc, does any "box" I subtract gets its own sector by default, or are sectors merged as I go on, so that I end with only one big sector ?

2. is there any good reason to merge sectors ?

(Edited by Major Disaster at 3:03 pm on Oct. 9, 2001)

[pompey]

1. yes they get their own sectors
2. sometimes too many sectors can slow the game down, so some parts might be better of merged!

[Major Disaster]

Ok, thx :)

[Iirion Claus]

Additionally, special effects (like haze, fog and gravity) are defined are specific sectors. By merging sectors you can have those effects on larger areas.

[LSD]

yeah, but you can just apply the haze, fog, or gravity to multiple sectors, so they needn't be merged.

[Iirion Claus]

(edit) That reply was utter nonsense. I guess the late hour and lack of food has its effects :shocked: (/edit)

(Edited by Iirion Claus at 11:01 pm on Oct. 10, 2001)

[Jwh]

I have a related question. What's the BEST way to sectorize when you have an open outdoor area and one large tall building in the middle, which can be viewed into from the top? I've tried a few things and it seems to end in the engine over-rendering to inside the building every time, which I definitely won't want once I start adding details.

[LSD]

if you make your details separate objects, judicious use of the new classification and visibility tweaks will allow you to control what is and isnt drawn. this can be much preferable to manhandling sectors, trying to improve performance.

[TheAlbaniac]

How DO you split sectors? I tried, but I couldn't. I had the same problem with splitting polygons...

[pompey]

Make a primitive the size of the sector u want, position it in the right place, then click split sectors (middle row of toolbars, centre~ish)or press NUM/.

[SuperMang!]

remeber to select the main worldbase from the top-left pulldown menu. to split poygons, select a poly you want to split, then go to csg mode and type up a room. this will be your cookie-cutter. put the cutter right on the poly you want to split and crick on the 'split-poly' button at the top menu.