hey guys, i've got a question and a frustration i'd like to share/get solved.

#1
i've made a nice hangar for an airport map, BUT..
when I compile and play it, some of the textures on the outside+inside walls are smudged, if you don't know what i mean its like you take 1 row of pixels and stretch it all the way to the other side so it looks kinda striped.

I've got a skybox + worldspawn + lighting.

#2
I'm new to portalling but I was really motivated to get portals in this map because its terribly big, so I watched a few tutorials and i tried some stuff and it worked, but when I got to the hangar (the roof is kinda round and twisted so it cant perfectly shut 2 brushes together with the clipper tool [even with grid on 1]); the compiler said it skipped the portals because it had the same cell on both ends, I looked up the error just like Mr. Earp tought me 2 do and somewhere on the forum, some guy said I had a leak in the cell, and i could fix it by looking @ the File/pointfile. It wasn't possible to fill up the holes between the brushes, so i made a 100% closed portal-box inside the hanger-walls, but outside all of the boxes and barrels. (its suppose to be an ammunition hangar). I compiled it, waited on the edge of my seat, and what the hell, it was still leaked.. I loaded the pointfile and the red stripe went THROUGH THE MIDDLE of the portal-boxed wall, it was not colliding and didnt have a hole in it, it was going straight through the middle of a brush.. @ that point i decided i was never going to use portals again, or @ least untill you kind folks tell me what the problem was :P

thnx in advance

#1. This happens sometimes. The only solutions I found are: Use another texture or cut the brush into smaller bits. Both work sometimes.. sometimes they don't. NO idea why

#2. Portals are tricky. For the sealed box, make sure no brushes are sticking through the portal and that the ground is actually solid (as in, a brush. not a terrain or patch mesh). Those are the two biggest reasons why portalling fails usually.

Also make sure the brushes you used to make the hanger are not detail, they must be structural for the cell to be closed by a portal.

If they are then take a very close look at the seams b/c you have a gap somewhere.

thanks for the reply's, i've solved the smudges textures, thnx 4 that one! The portals however is abit harder, i've made the walls/floor/roof of the hangar structural, and the rest detail, only my hangar has a skeleton which 'supports' everything, therefor I cannot make a sealed box on the inside of the hangar, at least not one which isn't colliding..

Here's what I do to check out why a portal fails. I select all the portal brushes and make them structural. Next I go to my filter, "f' key, and uncheck detail. Then you can go around and check if there are any small gaps, or something like that where your portal would leak. Also remember that even if a brush is structural, if it's texture is transparent, like a window, it won't seal a portal cell.

Just a thought you could have an infinite brush going throgh it too.

-M. PS I got into the habit of building my portals after each building was finished...this way all that will be left is the outside...youll need portals tho for sure to take your fps down.

goodluck

If you can post a screen shot or two of your hangar, we may see the problem better.

Although it mat be a little tricky virtually any building should be able to be portalled. One exception is sometimes it isn't really worth trying to portal an almost completely ruined building because there just isn't alot of strutural brushes to block off POV. And in these cases I usually try and design the map so these and be portalled around.

you can download the .map file of the clean hangar http://notelvis.mindless999.net/stuff/hangar.map there

edited on Aug. 18, 2005 10:16 am by notelvis

edited on Aug. 18, 2005 10:17 am by notelvis

Took a look at the map file.

Your problem is that when you did your clipping to shape the hangar you didn't clip adjacent brushes so that they were cliped at the same angle. This results in brushes not touching each other and sealing the cell, thus your portals will not work.

I fixed one of the corners of the hangar as an example (i'll email it to you), you'll know it by the caulk texture I used on the brushes. Compare this new corner to the ones you had before. In the future try to clip brushes that will be touching using the exact same clipping points, that way they will not have gaps between them.
Edit: email me at allcityadam@hotmail.com and I'll attach the new map file in my reply.
Also, use the caulk texture for any brush face that the player will never see, ie the bottom of the hangar floor brush, etc... This will also help to keep the fps high b/c it decreases the number of tris the game has to render.

Happy portalling!


edited on Aug. 18, 2005 08:10 pm by sear

Ok i think I fixed the hangar walls, but the compiler keeps saying there's the same cell on both sides on the brushes specified there. however the pointfile doesnt go through it at all!

at another building the pointfile go's through the middle of a brush.. no leak there i've checked..

I think im just gonna make square buildings in the future..