How powerfull is the source engine?

[Snipergen]

I am just wondering, Im gonna have a graphical heavy map with lots of effects, reflections and bump maps.

How much can I normalmap and can I make a dustbowl sized map if I did this?
Like, can I normalmap every tileable custom texture, model etc...

Any examples of crazy looking maps that are eye candy?

[YM]

As long as you are rendering only mart of the world at any point you should be fine with an insane amount of prop/effects/cubemaps.
The best way to divide up maps is to make large builings you can't see around/over/through or have different sectons of the map hidden behind large cliffs.
this way the engine is only rendering about a quarter of the map at anyone point. Indoor maps are better for lots of detail than outdoor maps, because its easier to make the engine render less

[alehm]

You will also find optimizing your map is a key to success as well.

If you take a map that is close to what your are envisioning then look at it in the editor you will see tricks used to make the map look impressive and lots of parts of the map you can see from one side but not the other have nodraw textures so the engine isn't rendering things the player would never see unless in noclip.

[Snipergen]

Indeed. Gonna be hard though, lots of glass etc... It is indoor, small areas linked to eachother... maybe I could work with doors etc... we'll see what works and what doesnt work.

[YM]

Windows eh? Areaportals will be key

[Logo]

if you're trying to push the engine I think +showbudget is going to be your key to success. Keep an eye on the usage of different things (and know what they all mean) so you can optimize and tweak the proper things.

[Snipergen]

what does showbudget do? show how much resources i can use before it affects framerate drastically?

[Voztron]

In steam goto Tools --> Source SDK Base its a nice benchmark that runs through the lost coast (?) shows how good source can render. I get 68fps average and I have a reasonably old PC running DX9 @ 1280 X 1024

[Snipergen]

I had 100 fps.

Didn't see much things more advanced than HL2. :/ I aim higher than this.

[PandaN]

You're going to have to design the whole thing with HINT brushes and AREAPORTAL and of course the window ports.

I hope we won't need an Intel Octo-Core 8.6GHZ processor just to run it :P

[Snipergen]

Would be cool tbh, playing @ 1 fps, i pwnd the source engine :p

[Haas]

As long as you are rendering only mart of the world at any point you should be fine with an insane amount of prop/effects/cubemaps.
The best way to divide up maps is to make large builings you can't see around/over/through or have different sectons of the map hidden behind large cliffs.
this way the engine is only rendering about a quarter of the map at anyone point. Indoor maps are better for lots of detail than outdoor maps, because its easier to make the engine render less
This is why rats maps are a pain in the #ss.