Overview

The Super Static Tool is a way of creating baked static meshes on your level. This allows for better performance but it has its limitations.

For the Super Static Tool to work, it requires Sectors, Lightmaps, Portals, and Baking to work.

It's best used for linear scenarios (indoors, houses, rooms, sewers, etc.) but can also be used on open-world maps. 

The Super Static Tool can be accessed by an S located in the Library, don't mistake the S for the Sound Editor!

How It Works

The Super Static tool bakes your meshes into the scene, making them "Super Static" which means they are fixed in place, immovable and unchangeable. They also have information baked into them such as AO, shadows, etc.

Usually, you should only make baked meshes when they don't require any more modifications, since you'll waste time baking and arranging them afterwards.

When inside a Sector, you should be able to see all meshes that were baked in that Sector. Everything inside that Sector (even non-super static meshes such as lights, prefabs, etc.) follows this rule.

But whenever you are outside a sector, the only way to "load it" is via Portals. Portals are planes that are added between two sectors (e.g. doors, windows).

If you look at a portal, you should be able to see the next sector. If the portal is outside the camera view range, that sector is unloaded/hidden.

You can think of the Super Static Tool as an "Automatic Level Streaming" method where Levels are the sectors where you load/unload them by looking/looking away from portals' connections.

Rules

General:

• • • Each Sector needs to be connected in some way (e.g. door frames cut in the middle, half is Sector #1, the other is Sector #2).
    • You can have an "outdoor" Sector, normally used with open worlds.

Sector:

• • • Needs to have at least one lightmap assigned to it.
    • Needs to have at least one mesh inside of it.

Lightmap:

• • • Needs to be assigned to a sector. If this cannot be done, delete it.

Portal:

• • • Needs to be in the intersection between sectors! E.g. doors, windows.
    • Can't be bigger than the camera view.
    • Don't use more than six vertices when creating it.

How To

You can create baked meshes in two ways:

• From 3D software (Maya/Max/Blender...) (old).
• Directly within the editor (new pipeline).

From the 3D Software:

1. Create your sectors but remember that they must be connected in some way (e.g. Room #1 and Room #2).
2. Create a portal mesh: a single-sided plane. It must be in the intersection of both sectors.
3. Export each one individually with a proper name. The format must be .DAE.
4. In your map folder, create a folder called "source" and add the files there (e.g. .../content/maps/m3/01_dead_moscow/source).
   

Within the Editor:

1. Place static meshes into the scene. Remember they must be connected in some way!
2. Select all the meshes from one sector and then RMB → Utils → Change Type... → Baked.

After this, the steps differ very little between the old and the new pipelines:

1. Open the Super Static Tool.
2. Look for "Add Sector" in the toolbar and create the sectors needed (e.g. Room #1 and Room #2, etc.).
3. Look for "Add Lightmap" and create the lightmaps needed (e.g. Room #1_Lightmap, etc.).
4. If created with 3D software:
   1. Click on Add Files and select them.
   2. Select your sector and assign a lightmap to it.
   3. Click on Add Portals and select the portal file.
5. If created within the editor:
   1. Click objects from the sector and, on the properties tab, choose a sector for them.
   2. Select the lightmap for them in the same tab.
   3. Look for "Portal" in the Entity List and create a portal. Draw it between sectors. Remember to snap vertices!
6. If everything is OK, select the lightmaps you want to bake and click "Build X Checked maps" or Build Map ("Build Map" will build everything, whereas the first option will only bake the selected lightmaps).
7. THIS MAY TAKE SOME TIME, SO BE CAREFUL (for small scenes, less than a minute, but for large ones (e.g. Bridge), it can take many, many hours).
8. After the bake, click on "Compile Portals" – and you're done!

Note: calculate Terrain AO works only for terrain and only when clicked (it does not calculate with the "Build Map" button). It does take a long time to bake all, so be careful.

Cool Tips

General

Always create a floor for your sector.

• This is because raytracing is cast from a camera to the ground (ignoring camera rotation) and the first object it contacts will dictate which sector you are in.
• If no specific sector is found, it will show that you are in sector #0.
• To open these statistics, go to the Debug Tab → Stats → St_Common.

Why is my sector not showing/always showing?

• Look for "Ignore Portals" in the Render Toolbar.
• Usually, the button is deactivated which simulates how the portals work in-game.
• If you are still working in sectors, toggle the button to show all sectors, independent of portals.

Portal Info and Display

• In the Debug tab, look for Portals and Portals Info.

• Portals (left) will toggle, if a portal is drawn into the editor.
• Portals Info (right) will toggle info about the portal: the number of the portal, which sectors it's connecting (Sector 4 and 5, for example) and it's name.

My Bake Crashes

One of the main causes of a crash is when the Super Static Tool is using your CPU instead of the GPU.

To fix that, click anywhere in the Super Static Tool and, in the properties tab, select your graphics cards in the Device tab.