3 specific editing Errors

[pataran]

Hey Dark mod team, I'm still working on my map; progress is great right now. However since I've been editing I've run into a few problems that somewhat confuse me. The first being random pieces or chunks of my brushes disappearing when I actually play the map. It's strange because in the editor the brush is fine, I even tried replacing the brush with a new one but that only works 1/4 of the time. It's really strange seeing your brushes riddled with square segments missing. The same thing with certain patches; I've had a whole vault segment that looks fine in radiant pretty much disappear. A weird side effect is that if I walk into the area where the vaults were the sound completely cuts off.

 

The second error has to do with texturing patches. I've made ceilings using bevels which look fine in radiant, however once started it looks completly corrupt. Not the warped appearance that bent patches get but like a scrambed screwy look, messed up lighting, white static holes in the mesh etc.

 

The third error thats bugging me has to do with projected lights. I wanted to place them around the map but stuck with torches and ambients because for some reason the projected lights hardly cast any light. The center light radius is but a spec in game unless I stretch the light radius for a HUGE range. The tuts make it look nice and big and square; mine are completly tiny and ineffective.

 

Also a fourth problem(yes the title said three, sorry) that isn't as serious has to do with putting AI on the map. I always get an AAS out of date error when started which isn't too bad but every now and then when I place AI's for no reason at all I get a error that kicks me to the main screen saying some kind of distance limit was met, thus the map is unable to load.

 

Do you guys have any solutions for these problems? I can't seem to find the answers in the dark wiki so help me out if I'm blind.

 

I hope I was specific enough.

[Flanders]

Are you sure you dmap every time before testing?

About the corrupt textures, can you show us a pic?

As for the distance limit, what exactly is the error?

 

Or maybe you can upload your map somewhere so any of us can take a look at it?

I know you was trying to be specific but you'll have to be more .

[New Horizon]

I don't have any answers sadly, but I would suggest changing the title of your post as these aren't exactly Dark Radiant errors, they're more map building errors.

[Theothesnopp]

Hey Dark mod team, I'm still working on my map; progress is great right now. However since I've been editing I've run into a few problems that somewhat confuse me. The first being random pieces or chunks of my brushes dissappearing when I actually play the map. It's strange because in the editor the brush is fine, I even tried replacing the brush with a new one but that only works 1/4 of the time. It's really strange seeing your brushes riddled with square segments missing. The same thing with certain patches; I've had a whole vault segment that looks fine in radiant pretty much disappear. A weird side effect is that if I walk into the area where the vaults were the sound completey cuts off.

 

The second error has to do with texturing patches. I've made ceilings using bevels which look fine in radiant, however once started it looks completly corrupt. Not the warped appearance that bent patches get but like a scrambed screwy look, messed up lighting, white static holes in the mesh etc.

 

The third error thats bugging me has to do with projected lights. I wanted to place them around the map but stuck with torches and ambients because for some reason the projected lights hardly cast any light. The center light radius is but a spec in game unless I stretch the light radius for a HUGE range. The tuts make it look nice and big and square; mine are completly tiny and ineffective.

 

Also a fourth problem(yes the title said three, sorry) that isn't as serious has to do with putting AI on the map. I always get an AAS out of date error when started which isn't too bad but every now and then when I place AI's for no reason at all I get a error that kicks me to the main screen saying some kind of distance limit was met, thus the map is unable to load.

 

Do you guys have any solutions for these problems? I can't seem to find the answers in the dark wiki so help me out if I'm blind.

 

I hope I was specific enough.

 

 

 

parts of brushes dissapering ive had b4,

this can happen if the brush is to thin so if its to thin try making it a bit thicker. sorry if you knew already :]

[HappyCheeze]

Also a fourth problem(yes the title said three, sorry) that isn't as serious has to do with putting AI on the map. I always get an AAS out of date error when started which isn't too bad but every now and then when I place AI's for no reason at all I get a error that kicks me to the main screen saying some kind of distance limit was met, thus the map is unable to load.

 

This happened to me before, I believe it has something to do with the map not being visportaled and so the AI is getting messed up on how far it should go. I think.

[pataran]

Here are some before and after pics of the patch texture and disappearing brush problem. Also a shot in editor of the point light not showing any light in the editor regardless of texture or method used(I ran it in game to make sure). I think previous poster was right about the visportal AI problem though. I have no visportal atm, so maybe the game is auto visportaling and messing up the patches?

[Mortem Desino]

Concerning disappearing geometry: I agree with Theothesnopp. Check for "microbrushes", especially func_statics and worldspawns. Sometimes dmap gets confused, and the brushes are stretched an extra thousand units or ignored and deleted completely.

 

I build maps in sections, dmap, test, repeat. That way It's easy to narrow down what the problem could be, and you're not overwhelmed by errors that'll fry your brain. Yeah, it's slower, but so far I've saved myself a lot of grief.

[Flanders]

Concerning disappearing geometry: I agree with Theothesnopp. Check for "microbrushes", especially func_statics and worldspawns. Sometimes dmap gets confused, and the brushes are stretched an extra thousand units or ignored and deleted completely.

Selecting the disappearing brushes and snap them to a grid size will probably help.

[Springheel]

I just had the disappearing brushes problem too on my last dmap (don't know if it's related, but I got about a dozen "node without volume" errors this time). One brush is entirely see-through, and another has a gaping hole in the center. I doubt the problem is that they are too thin. I'll try grid snapping.

 

Pataran, did you ever solve your problem?

[pataran]

I just had the disappearing brushes problem too on my last dmap (don't know if it's related, but I got about a dozen "node without volume" errors this time). One brush is entirely see-through, and another has a gaping hole in the center. I doubt the problem is that they are too thin. I'll try grid snapping.

 

Pataran, did you ever solve your problem?

 

No man I didn't =(, sometimes totally replacing the brush works but sometimes not. I have no clue what causes it but I do get chunks dissappearing as well. I noticed sometimes you can walk in it if its big enough and all sound cuts off. Could this have to do with the editor trying to automake visportals or something? Anyone have a clue how to fix this?

[Tels]

No man I didn't =(, sometimes totally replacing the brush works but sometimes not. I have no clue what causes it but I do get chunks dissappearing as well. I noticed sometimes you can walk in it if its big enough and all sound cuts off. Could this have to do with the editor trying to automake visportals or something? Anyone have a clue how to fix this?

 

You definitely need:

 

* snap worldspan brushes to the grid

* add visportals (the is esp. important if you have AI placed - esp. rats. Too large floor areas make the AAS compile go wonky and create all sorts of "interesting" things like the player falling through the floor

* dmap your map very often, possible before each test. Technically, placing only entities doesn't need it, but better be safe than sorry

[Springheel]

I haven't tried gridsnapping yet (though I don't understand why that would matter in the two cases I've experienced). Visportals have nothing to do with disappearing brushes in any way I can fathom.

 

edit: Well, I don't really understand why, but grid-snapping did fix both problems for me. Any theories about why this might happen in the first place? I rarely gridsnap any of my brushes and haven't had this problem until now.

[greebo]

The D3 map compiler is optimising the brush planes during the process. Sometimes non-grid-aligned pieces get missing in action, there is probably some transformation taking place which is yielding weird results for non-grid-snapped planes.

 

One last resort is also to convert the offending brushes to func_static, which leaves them unoptimised, but this is only applicable to non-sealing brushes.

[BEAR]

Thats great, I had those problems myself when I was visportaling and it drove me mad. I ended up finding that if I jutted interior walls through the exterior walls of my church it would keep them from going away. I never tried the grid-snapping part.

 

I also found it happened sometimes when I chopped up a worldspawn too many times in odd ways, so deleting the offender and remaking it in a bigger section sometimes helped.

 

I'm going to have to go back and try that now