Hi there.

I got all of my buildings portalled, and it works fine. Doing r_showtris 1 I can see tris disappear/appear as needed.

Now I am starting outdoor portals, actually got more then half the map done, around 10 cells so far, no leaks, compile goes fine with no error. But my problem is that when ever I try r_showtris I still see evrything in the map when I walk down the streets. Now could this be because my portal brushes go up to my skybox top, meaning where ever I stand in the map the cell I`m in "sees" all the other cells and therefor draws everything? Hum I think I just answered my own question ! lol

Anyways I`d like some hints on that issue. Meanwhile I`m gonna work on it...

Cheers,

T.E.C.-Leader

Your portals should touch the skybox (flush up against it). You should not actually crash into the sky box and intersect it, but there should be no gap between the two.

Same deal with the bottom of the map - make it rub against the bottom face of your sky box as well - that should solve your problem.

-Jdawgg

Yup exactly, it`s flush with top and bottom of skybox. I studied the mp_foy map exemple carefully and for a long time. Now I`m done with outdoor portals. My map is divided into 16 cells total. Compile went fine, no portal error, so I got no leaks.

As I said, the problem is that when I stand in one street, an outdoor cell, all other cell`s content gets drawn (r_showtris 1 shows me). I figure that it`s because, from any outdoor cell, I can still see all the other cells (maybe `cause my skybox is quite high).

That`s wy I was asking...

thanks anyway for your reply m8

T.E.C.-Leader

I built a mini-layout of my map to understand outdoor portalling. My map had exactly the same problem that yours did. Wherever I stood, I could 'see' tris across the map.

Here's what I did to solve it.

RULE#1 Portals create Cells...dont forget this.

Make sure your ground surface or streets, etc. is ultimately a brush. You can place caulk below ground if you want to. Then make sure every structural brush meets this flat brush. This is important to have a cell 'bottom'. Your houses are walls and this brush is a bottom. Be sure each house wall touches this bottom brush.

Now you need to create a 'roof' and 'invisible' walls out of portal texture. I broke my map into grids on paper. Every street intersection I drew a portal from corner-to-corner, so there was a cell in the middle. I then capped it with a portal brush so if you were in the center of the intersection, you would be inside a cell.

The invisible walls of portal are just like a portalled doorway. But the doorway leads into the next 'street'. The roofs of portal texture are critical to seal each cell off. I never needed to go to the skybox.

Every main street also got cordoned off with a portal and capped again with the portal brush. If you have a simple map that has 2 main streets that cross, and youre at the end of 1 of these streets, you wont see any tris at the ends of the cross street. You may see tris near the intersection though.

But be careful, also stock maps have them:

Wrong placed portals!!

When you look on several places in the map to one special way you see things in de distance disappear. In mp_italy for example. Walk from the side with a lower field with the bunker to the place with green tanks and some jeeps. You will see that the background sometimes disappears.
Mp_Carentan is very good. If you go as a spectator and make a circle around the map you’ll see almost whole the map :p (you watch through all the walls and houses) but in the map there’s nothing wrong (only one small place on the open field)
And a piece of the wall is not textured ;)

Off course is this extreme difficult to get perfectly. It's not a big problem, but I like details

So good luck and remember only the best maps will survive!

Hum well actually my map is quite large and complicated, a large city, with some streets drawn in a "U" shape, leading to a big square.

I did not use house walls as portals, like in th mp_foy map. So my protal brushes they are quite parallel to streets, in the middle of them actually...

Lemme see, I might be able to upload an image of my portal layout...

Thanks,

T.E.C.-Leader

Ok here is the image. Portal brushes are in red, and go from bottom to top skybox, all flush. 16 cells total. As I said, no errors when compiling, so I guess my cells are all "enclosed", sealed...


Comments, suggestions are welcome

Cheers,

T.E.C.-Leader

Argh will upload somewhere else...

Ugly yes....

The portal side is LightBlue and Portal NoDraw Green. You need to make sure the Portal Textures are back-to-back on a cell just like a front and backdoor in a house. Where this can cause a problem is when your portal cell count is Even. Odd counts should allow you to make Portal cells around your map in a clockwise method until you get back to the first cell. That way you dont get the Portal Is On the Same Side Err

I show how to do this with the cell on the upper right. I just divided a space and made it 2 portals. You will need to make a T-Junction properly for this Portal. I show it as 1 Roof but its really 2.

Portalling like this obviously becomes more difficult when you have a complex map. Doorways and windows in houses make it difficult to do also. I suggest a Pen and Paper then use a red felt pen to draw where you think portals can go.

BTW, The portal info with the SDK about Portalling Diagonally for Corners? You know the one where they are trying to explain how Not to split a Portal Face? Well It didnt work at all for me on a VERY simple example. Only Right Angle Portals with a 3rd Portal Capped at the intersection worked.

Ok let`s see if I understand your ugly ( lol ) drawing...

Red patches are buildings. No portal brushes on sides of the roads since u use these building walls as sides of the cells, right?

That would mean that your portal brushes go as high as your buildings, not higher, and there is a cap on them, right again?

Thanks

T.E.C.-Leader