just cuz you caulked the outside of the map, does not mean that everything that SHOULD be caulked, IS caulked.
lets say for example, a room, with a big wall in the middle of it. The part of the wall that touches the floor should be caulked. i.e. the FACE of the wall brush, that touches the floor can't be seen by the player. But if it has a texture on it, guess what.....the game draws that face of the brush the player can't even see.
Lame eh?
Now imaging EVERY brush in your map, having faces that are hidden by other brushes, or can't be seen because it's physically impossible for the player to get behind it, ALL being drawn cuz it had a texture on it, instead of caulk.
A stair case is a perfect example. How many faces of each brush can be seen by the player? If done right, only 2. The top of the stair, and the front face of the stair. The other 4 sides can't be seen, and therefor shoule not have a texture on it.
I think it's 2 triangles per face, so if we have 50 stairs with 6 sides per stair that's 50x6=300 triangles being drawn..
NOW...
If we put caulk, on 4 of the 6 sides (cuz the player can't see them anyway)thats 50x2=100 triangels being drawn..
So caulk is very important.
Vis is also a HUGE concern. This deals with what the game is drawing from any given point. Just cuz you can't see beyond a wall, the game may be able to. Ever notice that most maps have sharp 90 degree turns or donut like hallways, so when your on one side of the donut, you can't see what is on the other...cuz there is that vis blocker smack dab in the middle of your view.
[FnL]Raven0us
