/vr/ - Retro Games

>>5059662
yes
what r_novis does is tell the game to ignore vis calculation, i.e. the bits of the .bsp that tell the game what the player can see when they're standing where and what parts of the map can see each other, and instead render the whole shebang at once at all times. this can be seen in action by using the
>r_drawtris
cvar, which when set to 1 will outline every polygon currently drawn by the engine, and
>r_speeds
which will tell you how many polys exactly are being drawn. in pic related (start of e1m1), note that enabling novis means drawing almost twelve times more and it's constant instead of varying.

in older-styled and older compiled maps including id's own, the surface of water volumes is treated as solid by vis and so what's outside the water can't see in and vice versa. modern compiling tools including ericw's include vis info for transparent water by default so players can enable it without bugs, but older maps may not have that functionality and if you intend to actually play the 20 years of maps on quaddicted instead of making clickbait videos about them to chase the 'so you want to agigating skellington :DDDD' audience, you'll run into bugs like that often.