RF1 Engine and Level Editor Limits

From Red Faction Wiki

    • This page lists all known limitations of the GeoMod engine and maps built using RED level editor.

    Map Limits

    • This table lists all known limits that you need to keep in mind when making any type of level.
    • There's no guarantee that your map won't perform poorly or crash for other reasons, even if these limits have not been explicitly exceeded.
    • Please note that only a few of these limits were officially documented by Volition, the rest were discovered through experimentation. It's possible additional limits exist that should be added to this list, we just haven't found them yet.
    • The de facto standard RF server and client version Dash Faction removes or increases a number of these limits.
      • In cases where Dash Faction has removed or increased a limit, the default limit is indicated with (RF), and the Dash Faction limit is indicated with (DF).
    Element Limit Notes
    Objects 1024 (RF), 65536 (DF) General limit on total objects - note though that not all object types count toward this limit. Entities, corpses, clutter, items, triggers, events, keyframes, targets, and possibly more, all do.
    Corpses 30 (RF), Unlimited (DF) Dead entities in corpse pose. Counts both pre-placed corpses and corpses created by entities dying during gameplay.
    Ambient sounds 25 Maximum number of ambient sounds that can play simultaneously. Includes both Ambient Sound objects and entity fly sounds as specified by "$FlySnd" in entity.tbl. When limit is reached, newly created ambient sounds will not play.
    Faces/Polygons 10500 Counts all polygons on geometry (brushes) in a level. Note that this is a "soft limit", and nothing bad will necessarily happen simply as a result of exceeding this limit. (the RED console will turn red in color, though)
    Face Vertices 50400 Note that this is a "soft limit", and nothing bad will necessarily happen simply as a result of exceeding this limit. (the RED console will turn red in color, though)
    Vertices 13650 Counts all vertices on geometry (brushes) in a level. Note that this is a "soft limit", and nothing bad will necessarily happen simply as a result of exceeding this limit. (the RED console will turn red in color, though)
    Lights 1100 RED will crash if this limit is exceeded.
    Lights on a surface 64 If more than 64 lights are attempting to illuminate a single surface, that surface will turn pink. You can fix this by reducing the number of lights affecting the surface, or breaking up the surface so it's more than a single lightmap. Note that coplanar faces are merged together at build time to form a single surface, so if you're attempting to break it up for this reason, you must either use portals, or create a minor change in elevation. Also note that the true area of effect for a spotlight is based up on the range being used to determine the diameter (diameter = range X 2).
    Items 200 Includes pickups, CTF flags/bases, CTF banners, etc. If you exceed 200 items, the game will stop creating them after the 200th. Dropped items by killed players/AI also count as objects, but don't count toward the 200 item limit.
    Multiplayer Respawn Points 32 If you exceed 32 multiplayer respawn points, the game will ignore any beyond the 32nd.
    Particle Emitters 128 If you exceed 128 particle emitters, your level file will become corrupt.
    Green/red boxes around switches 32 If you have more than 32 switches in your map that should have green/red boxes, the box will only appear for 32 of them (the others will continue to function properly, just without the visible box).
    Total Decals in a level 96/128 (RF), 384/512 (DF) *Hard limit is absolute maximum number of decals. Soft limit is the limit after which decals begin to fade away. For decal objects placed in the editor, decals will stop being created after soft limit, and you risk level file corruption if you exceed hard limit.
    *For total number of decals, stock game has 96 soft limit, 128 hard limit. Dash Faction has 384 soft limit, 512 hard limit.
    *Additional limits:
    **Total decals in a single room: 40/48 (RF), 96/127 (DF)
    **Total weapon impact decals: 14/16 (RF), 48/64 (DF)
    **Total GeoMod decals: 30/32 (RF), 96/127 (DF)
    **Total decals on solids: 40/48 (RF), 96/127 (DF)
    *In the default RED editor (non-Dash), you'll get a pop-up warning when saving your level if it contains >64 decal objects. This was a hard limit for PS2 maps.

    Savegame Format Limits

    • This table lists all limits specific to the savegame file format.
    • If you exceed these limits, your map may still initially load correctly, but players will experience issues when using the savegame system (including quicksaves and autosaves). For this reason, you should ensure any single player maps you create do not exceed these limits.
    • For multiplayer maps, you can effectively ignore this table.
    Element Limit Notes
    Goal_Create events 8
    Alarm_Siren events 8
    When_Dead events 20
    Cyclic_Timer events 12
    Make_Invulnerable events 8
    "Other" events 32
    Bolt Emitters 16
    Decals 64
    Entities 64
    Items 64
    Clutter 512
    Triggers 96
    Movers 128
    Push regions 32
    Persistent goals 10
    Weapons 8
    Blood pools 16
    Corpses 32
    Geomod craters 128
    Killed rooms 128
    Deleted events 32

    General Engine Limits

    • This table lists game and engine limits that aren't specific to any of the other limit categories above.
    Element Limit Notes
    Bullets/Projectiles Unknown (RF), Unlimited (DF) Produced by weapon fire (players and AI). Exists until the $Lifetime value is exceeded, the bullet impacts something, or the projectile explodes.
    Loaded Packfiles 256 (RF), Unlimited (DF) Includes all .vpp packfiles loaded by the game. These are used to store custom maps, clientside mods, etc. Without Dash Faction, the game will ignore any .vpp packfiles after the 256th.
    Files within Packfiles 13500 (RF), Unlimited (DF) Includes all files within all .vpp packfiles loaded by the game. Without Dash Faction, the game will stop loading files in packfiles after the 13500th.
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