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I think the answer to this comes from answering these questions: 1) Is there more work to make shadow rendering efficient that can benefit from BFG code migration? 2) If so, will retaining the BFG matrix make porting BFG code easier? 3) Likewise, will the BFG matrix design make it easier to port GPU skinning code? 4) Likewise, is any portal \ light culling done in BFG more efficient and would it be easier to port? If the BFG matrix does not assist with any code porting efforts, does not assist with any rendering efficiency designs, and causes problems with Dark Radiant compatibility then it should be reverted.

In the recent TDM, any dropped portal should result in some kind of warning during dmap. Find this warning, and if a .lin file is generated, inspect it in DarkRadiant. Most likely it will solve your problem.

Take a look at your lin file in DarkRadiant and follow the red zigzagging line. Basically, if it's possible to go through your visportal, loop back around, and pass through it again without ever having to go through another visportal, it will drop. In this schematic, black is worldspawn brushes, green is a visportal, and red is the .lin file. To avoid looping back through the visportal, I needed to put an additional portal in one, or both, of the other entranceways. Another very common cause of visportal drops is if there is a gap between your worldspawn and portal. In that case the lin file will look like a tiny red loop or splotch at the portal.

The entryways need visportals too, else it's still just one area.

I spent the evening wrestling with two different problems. First, I made a hideous oversight when I was planning the layout of my level. There's an area in the skyline that really needs a visportal and I'd planned it with a visp in the arch beneath it, while forgetting the area above needs sealing too to avoid frame rates plummeting and sound propagating all over the damn place. So now I have an enormously gigantic visportal, ugly, twisted, and slanted in all three dimenions but razor thin cutting through a bunch of worldspawn roofs that are now also slightly taller than I'd envisioned. And for the longest time it would seal when I was looking directly at it but finally I got it to function right. Oh well. At least I got away with it. Second, there's a little detail I'd like to draw the player's eye to, but I don't want to make it too obvious. I tried subtle little light entity highlights, slight rearrangement of the surrounding torches, but nothing really worked. The little detail was either still too unnoticeable or it stuck out like a very obvious sore thumb. So sleep-deprived me finally hit on the idea of giving the guard patrolling there a purse to steal. The longer the player spends studying his patrol route for an opportunity to rob him, the better chance they have of spotting this little feature.