Call of Duty 5: Portals Tips

Advanced Portalling tips, some from BlackJack Jonny and some from Paulo88, level designer @Treyarch

Advanced portalling Video

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Link to the prefab map used in this video HERE

Tips regarding the prefab

• You will notice that we no longer use the 8 unit portal brush walls, its much easer to simply use 1 single brush then portal the required face.
• At one point the portal brush goes into a brush (the small side building), this is fine so long as the brush is solid. The portal will seal as soon as it hits the structural brush. Great for when buildings are at an angle.
• T-junction is visible at the back of the house to show how much easier it is to deal with when only using 1 brush per portal is used as apose to the 8 unit thick brushes.

Alternate method

The prefab HERE is using the alternate method described above. Better and faster!

More portal optimization

We could improve performance even further by having the portals at an angles away from the players path (as in attached demo) This way the player doesnt see into the next portal until he's practically around the corner.

Example 1:

When leaving the house you will notice that the player can see directly into the next cell. Even when still in the house.

Example 2:

You will then see that when the player leaves the house and turns right he can see into the next cell.

THE SOLUTION:

The solution is to cut or create your portal faces so that they face away from the most frequently used paths.

The Result

Notice that because the portal face is now angled away from the door the cell is not draw is quickly.

and notice that when leaving the house and turning right... that cell isnt draw either.

Of course this is only an example and is truelly effective when exiting the house. If the player was entering in the reverse direction the portals may not be as effective. This is the hard part of portalling, to work out which cell is going to reduce the most verts.

Attached is the updated .map for you to use >> HERE

Thanks to Paulo88 & BlackJack Jonny!

--Zeroy 12:06, 18 January 2011 (UTC)