I need a Documentation / Tutorial on using BSP and PVS. can someone help me?
BSPs (based on nodes or on leaves), Portals and so on, are preprocessed space partitioning algorithm.
“BSP” aims at building a binary tree by subdivising the space by planes liying on polygons. So, you can easily get polygons sorted (thus, no problem of transparent polygon) with specific graph traversal. But the performance strictly depends on the database complexity.
“Portal” divides the space in rooms and portals (used for indoor databases like duke…), so there will have no overdraw (only visible rooms will be rendered) .
Here you can found some links: http://reality.sgi.com/bspfaq/index.shtml http://www.exaflop.org/site/frames.cgi?HREF=http://www.exaflop.org/docs/naifgfx/naifbsp.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~luebke/publications/portals.html http://www.rz.tu-ilmenau.de/~juhu/Papers/IWK/node26.html http://www.flipcode.com/harmless/issue02.htm http://crystal.linuxgames.com/docs/portal.html http://graphics.lcs.mit.edu/~seth/ http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~areddish/cap6836/ http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/9784/tut.html#culling http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/6588/BSPpaper.html http://www.netmagic.net/~achalfin/Graphics/portal.htm http://members.home.com/droyer/tutorials/Engine05.html
If you want more links, write to me 
Check out http://www.mr-gamemaker.com
The tutorials are incredibly long but great. I went there recently and the download links were broken but e-mail the guy and I’m sure it’ll be sorted. If you can’t get them then drop me a mail and I’ll send you the files.
Just to emphasize; these are the best BSP/PVS tutorials on the web.
Stephen
However, they’re not on the web anymore!! I jsut checked and I’m afraid they’re gone!!
Don’t despair though! When you want them, just drop me an e-mail and I’ll send you copies…
Stephen
hello! I know this topic is pretty old at this point (older than me) but I was wondering if you were still active and if you could possibly send me a copy of those BSP articles you were talking about. Thanks in advance
Lemme look around and see if I can find anything. Blast from the past!
I just looked around a bunch for them and don’t have copies - also, it would appear the person who wrote them had quite strong opinions on the copyright associated with them too. Seems he made a course but that’s doesn’t seem to be up anymore either. Info came from here:
https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/94225-compiling-bsps-pt-2/
https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/38648-mr-gamemaker-bsp-tuts/
Some good info here though: https://web.archive.org/web/20011030025330/http://www.3dtechdev.com/tutorials/leafbsp/3dbsptrees.html