Large map structures

[Sph!nx]

Let's say you are building a large city map (with limited view distance by clipping- and fog effects) and quite a lot of buildings are going to be accessible. How would approach the the structure architecture? Would you make them from world brushes or models?

Also, I think it would improve r_speeds if the insides of the building are on a different location that the actual building itself. The insides and outsides are then connected by a teleporter with some sort of suitable graphical effect or something. Just a theory, am I right?

[Zidane]

Yes, it's correct.

I am building a city-based brushes and act. For buildings accessible I use brushes, and I use buildings decorative models

[bernie]

Yes Sph!nx, I've been thinking along those lines myself recently. Personally I prefer actors (SEP no collision) to bsp geometry and using clip brushes for collision. You can get much better texturing on models. I also think that it would be better to keep the insides totally seperate from the models and use teleporters to get in and out (should make for better fps). I think that is what Jay is doing in his TOT demo.

[vrageprogrammer]

I'm using world brushes.

[Destron]

I would suggest forming the basic structure and some of the details from world brushes, and then going in and adding smaller and finer details with models.
Using world brushes is really fun for me - even with complex objects, the results can be surprisingly good-looking.

[Sph!nx]

Yeah, but the more complex the brushworks get the more strain it will give on the engine. At least that's the case for the (gold) source engine and I assume that also goes for Genesis.

My idea is that it would be best to make a structure from a model mesh. Either build in the model editor or converted brushes. Then the collision is done by somekind of invisible brushes. Also, some solid brushes can be placed inside the buildings for visability blocking.

[bernie]

The whole of the first level in my demo Talisman is done using actors with collision done by clip brushes. There is no visible BSP at all. The second level was built using entirely BSP. I did this as an experiment. The result: my personal preference is to use actors for the level maps.