23 Oct 11, 12:09PM
Uhm, Frogulis - that's not quite right. For starters MykeGregory: Of course the rendering of unseen bits is dropped, this speeds up the process. That bit is purely mathematical - imagine standing in the center of the skybox, depending on which way you're pointing you'll not be able to see certain sides of this box .. this can be calculated and thus the drawing of (at least) one quad can be dropped for this 6-quad object.
What Frogulis probably meant are called "visual occluders", they work hand-in-hand with the knowledge of the maths mentioned above. Mappers - of indoor engines - have always had to think about how their map might be less of a strain on the engine. Hourences has written something about occluders in UE1, it's the best (and with most pictures) I could find ATM - there should be more on this topic "out there". So, a single solid cube doesn't help, but if you have the old-school S-curve (where one end can't see the other) or other combos of geometry placed with some plan - that'll help bring down the mapstats for each area.
What Frogulis probably meant are called "visual occluders", they work hand-in-hand with the knowledge of the maths mentioned above. Mappers - of indoor engines - have always had to think about how their map might be less of a strain on the engine. Hourences has written something about occluders in UE1, it's the best (and with most pictures) I could find ATM - there should be more on this topic "out there". So, a single solid cube doesn't help, but if you have the old-school S-curve (where one end can't see the other) or other combos of geometry placed with some plan - that'll help bring down the mapstats for each area.