Visportals in Doors

[Springheel]

Is there any trick to putting visportals inside a door? Mine don't appear to be working, and they're not showing up when showportals is on. I've made sure that the active side is inside the door model when closed, which is all that I thought you had to do to make it work.

[Serpentine]

That should be all that's needed.

 

Do they show up at all with r_showportals 1 ? if not :

 

Are you sure the VP brush is sealing the doorway?(if you're using a doorframe model, remember to extend into it)

Is the door itself sealing?

[Springheel]

Do they show up at all with r_showportals 1

 

No, they're not showing up at all.

 

Are you sure the VP brush is sealing the doorway?(if you're using a doorframe model, remember to extend into it)

Is the door itself sealing?

 

I've definitely done the first. I'll check the second, but I didn't think that actually mattered.

 

Btw, what's the command for forcing a visportal to close at a certain distance, for transparent windows?

[Springheel]

Ok, I checked both things and there were no problems. Yet almost every visportal I've put in a door is not working (or at least not showing up with showportals on). What the heck could I be missing?

[Serpentine]

I'd be happy to look if you can chop one of the doors out of your map and upload it somewhere and pm me a link (or the map if you don't mind prying eyes )

 

I should prefab a portal that closes with distance, however if you look at the tower in the archery in the training mission map there are some examples in the windows iirc... cant remember the names/numbers off hand else I'd explain how to make one (laptops in bed, nothing good comes of them)

[demagogue]

If it's not showing up with "r_showportals 1" then it's not even getting made, so it's not that it's "not working" with doors per se. Are the "nodraw" sides of the visPortal brush fully flush with brushwork over their entire surface? I.e., it's not just the portal surface that has to touch brushwork but the sides of the whole brush. Also like someone else said internal leaks will kill a VP, but they don't necessarily have to be near the visportal itself; so maybe there could be a crack somewhere else in the frame, or even with the ceiling and outside. I recall having trouble with VPs on doors before too, and now I don't even remember how they eventually got fixed, but they did somehow.

[grayman]

Btw, what's the command for forcing a visportal to close at a certain distance, for transparent windows?

 

Place a func_portal so it's touching the visportal. Set the key "portal_dist" to some number, say "500". Then, when you're farther than 500 away, the visportal will be closed. If you're less than that distance the visportal will be open.

 

The docs say the func_portal has to touch the visportal. I've found that a func_portal that isn't touching a visportal, but is near it, will also open and close the visportal. So be careful with func_portals near visportals you don't want opened/closed in this manner.

 

 

 

[grayman]

Are the "nodraw" sides of the visPortal brush fully flush with brushwork over their entire surface? I.e., it's not just the portal surface that has to touch brushwork but the sides of the whole brush.

 

Are you sure about this? I have visportals whose visportal face is completely bounded by worldspawn brushes (or other visportal faces), but whose sides are not, and they work fine. I thought the only piece of a visportal that was paid attention to was the face textured with the visportal texture.

 

 

 

[ungoliant]

I had this trouble too on my very first visportal until someone was kind enough to teach me how to check for leaks with entity #1.

 

I guess if you put a visportal inside of a single visleaf (like if the 2 areas you are trying to separate are joined together by another spot other than your visportal), and that visportal doesn't actually divide the visleaf in 2, it gets... optimized out..? or something?

 

i dunno, when my area leaked, my visportal would not show up with r_showportals 1 either, until i fixed the leak, and finally had 2 distinct areas that the visportal would separate, and then suddenly the visportal showed up and worked.

[Fidcal]

Filter out all entities and patches. Seal the windows with stone temporarily. Check for gaps. Test again. Try the leak test described on the wiki. Is this a house standing free within another 'leaf' - a portal area?

[Springheel]

So if there's a gap anywhere in the area, the visportal won't show up at all? Maybe that's the problem then. I thought it would still show up but would just show as open.

[demagogue]

The problem I had with this, no VP showing up at all, the gap was out to the leaf on the other side ("surrounding" the VP, like a leaf (attic) jutting into another leaf (street) like the other guys mentioned, come to think of it), and when I patched it suddenly the VP appeared and worked. So the hypothesis seems to be that it's a gap specifically in the wall separating leafs, not necessarily any gap anywhere if it's not out to a separate leaf, but I guess that's implicit in the term "gap".

 

Edit: But I'm not sure if it matters if the gap is out to the the specific leaf the VP is separating, or just any other leaf, e.g., if a gap to a 3rd leaf behind the house, not touching this VP at all, would also kill the VP. I don't think so because IIRC the other (non-touching) VP in that attic example still worked, even with the gap. But the touching-VP definitely didn't work.

 

Are you sure about this? I have visportals whose visportal face is completely bounded by worldspawn brushes (or other visportal faces), but whose sides are not, and they work fine.

 

No I wasn't sure about it, so I stand corrected. Good to know, thanks.

[Fidcal]

I wasn't specifically thinking about gaps causing the visportal not to show at all but when I get a situation where something is not working and it doesn't make sense then I reduce everything to its simplest until it does work and then gradually work forward again until it breaks at which point I know better what the problem is. Sometimes when I work forward I get right back to where I was in the first place but now it works!

[ungoliant]

I wasn't specifically thinking about gaps causing the visportal not to show at all but when I get a situation where something is not working and it doesn't make sense then I reduce everything to its simplest until it does work and then gradually work forward again until it breaks at which point I know better what the problem is. Sometimes when I work forward I get right back to where I was in the first place but now it works!

 

i definately prefer the leaktest method. extreme simpleness once you get the technique down. put entity #1 on one side of the visportal in question, and put a leak to the void on the other side, and let the pointfile do the work for you.

 

edit: actually thinking about it, you probably need a door or window touching that visportal so that it is closed by default, otherwise the leak will go straight through. can someone confirm that?

Edited June 7, 2010 by ungoliant

[Fidcal]

When you do the leak test you turn the visportal(s) to stone temporarily then change them back after. The leak test ignores the door but heads for the first entity inside if it can find a gap.

[grayman]

So if there's a gap anywhere in the area, the visportal won't show up at all? Maybe that's the problem then. I thought it would still show up but would just show as open.

 

If there's a gap in the visportal, you'll probably see a black face that shows the gap. This face flickers in and out depending on your viewing angle.

[Mr Mike]

When you do the leak test you turn the visportal(s) to stone temporarily then change them back after. The leak test ignores the door but heads for the first entity inside if it can find a gap.

 

I've never performed a leak test but I'm wondering if this process of converting the VP to a solid texture, and then back again after, is something that could be incorporated into a button in DR?

 

Possibly useful?

[Fidcal]

There's already a button to convert a solid to a visportal on the brush menu. As for converting a visportal to a solid it is much less common so not worth a button imo - you don't even need to search for a specific texture like you would for a visportal - any solid to hand will do.

[Mr Mike]

There's already a button to convert a solid to a visportal on the brush menu. As for converting a visportal to a solid it is much less common so not worth a button imo - you don't even need to search for a specific texture like you would for a visportal - any solid to hand will do.

 

Well, I specifically meant turning all VP's in a map into a solid texture, that you would never use as a mapper, and back again. Admittedly I've never used this technique so I might be way off base here.

[demagogue]

Is it possible to search for texture (or I guess filter brushes by texture name), then maybe batch-alter all of them? Then again, you could always do it in the actual .map file in notepad with find->replace (the visPortal texture name for a solid texture name)->"change all", and it'll do it in a second. That's how I tend to do things like that... Just open the .map file and do it myself if I can't find a faster obvious way in DR after a minute of looking.

[aidakeeley]

Hoedown, say showdown

Everywhere you look

they're fighting...Hear the call...

 

And you know its getting stronger,

It can't last very much longer

Turn to stone