PVS: Difference between revisions

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This acronym is somewhat disputed. It may stand for "Potential Visibility Set", or "Potentially Visible Set", "Potentially Viewable Set" or something similar.
This acronym is somewhat disputed. It may stand for '''Potential Visibility Set''', '''Potentially Visible Set''', '''Potentially Viewable Set''' or something similar.


The PVS controls what geometry the game engine should render at any given point, based on what geometry is potentially visible to the player at that point. Instead of having the game engine always render the geometry of the entire map, it will only render geometry according to the PVS, greatly contributing to performance.
The PVS is the first line of defence over what geometry, entities and effects the game engine should render at any given point. Only objects within the current PVS - i.e. which are "potentially visible" - are considered for rendering, and it is [[cheap]] for the processor to decide whether or not this condition is being met.
 
The visibility set is created when a map is compiled with [[Vvis|vvis.exe]].


The PVS consists of a [[visleaf]] or (more commonly) a collection of visleaves, which are created during a map's compile by [[Vvis|VVIS]].


== See Also ==
== See Also ==

Revision as of 03:10, 23 February 2008

This acronym is somewhat disputed. It may stand for Potential Visibility Set, Potentially Visible Set, Potentially Viewable Set or something similar.

The PVS is the first line of defence over what geometry, entities and effects the game engine should render at any given point. Only objects within the current PVS - i.e. which are "potentially visible" - are considered for rendering, and it is cheap for the processor to decide whether or not this condition is being met.

The PVS consists of a visleaf or (more commonly) a collection of visleaves, which are created during a map's compile by VVIS.

See Also