I think actual VIS tools where really 'simple' apps. Not easy to understand, how work or what generate (but not imposible, you can read good papers aboud vising somewhere in the net)... but small apps.
I think can be posible to enhance vising tools in more complex ways that actually.
A good direction can be to add some "ai", and let the app know about r_speed limits. If the tool found that the result of a operation can be a vis data that will generate a huge r_speed that will slowndown rendering can activate auxiliar algorithm to cut down the size. The simplest algoritm I can think is distance, cut areas beyond a distante. This is posible and actually exist a tool named xhvis that do that exactly. But that can be enhanced to infinitum by good coders with some spare time and fun new ideas.
Other idea to enhance vising is to write a vising calc network. A resident tool interconected to other similar tools at internet or lan to generate a virtual "render" farm. Can be the work cut down as pieces to distribute calculations? Maybe users can help is favorite mappers sharing some CPU cycles. Anyway actual computers, and much important, actual memory size, able mappers to work much faster nowdays than before. So.. maybe this not needed nowdays.
Other fun/cracy Idea I have is to write a wireframe render, and let a virtual agent (bot code?) to navigate the map, and use that real data to cut down areas. Not all areas that the actual vis tools calculate, are use by renders, has some areas where forbiden for players because players size and weight (can't fly!). So... *maybe* its posible for a extremly hardcore-good coders to write a insane optimizer this way.
Negative-Conclusion.
My idea about games/optimization, is that beyond a optimization level, optimization not have sense. The time waste optimizing code, algorythm or data structure can be to more usefull areas. What can be better to save wpolys? ....the solution is easy, to use epolys!... epolys can be somewhat faster, and dont cripple bsp, so for high details or very high details can be better to use entitys and not world polys. This how most actual and future fps engines will work, and have sense, has If you want to have a big rock gargoyle in a wall, Its posible that you will like exactly the same in other location, reusing a lot of resources this way, much better than modelling a lowpoly version of the gargoyle in both locations (with redundancy penalty!).
Anyway I am not a lawy..^H^Hmapper.
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