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Newbie DarkRadiant Questions


demagogue

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Visportals do not need to fit exactly. It is far easier if you make them overlap into the surrounding worldspawn brushwork then you know there are no gaps. Just make sure it does not overlap beyond a wall into space. If in doubt, use the filters to turn off patches and entities. What is left is world spawn brushwork. That is the gap you must seal.

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"Microscopic gaps"? Are you using a very small grid size (2 or smaller?)

 

The basic layout of your map (Your worldspawn "rooms" and "tunnels") should generally be made with a grid size of 8 or more.

 

Using a larger grid size ensures that everything is perfectly precise: no human errors or tiny gaps to worry about.

 

This also makes everything else (especially visportalling and monsterclipping) much easier in the end.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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Selecting the brushes you have and snapping them to an appropriate grid size could help there.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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"Microscopic gaps"? Are you using a very small grid size (2 or smaller?)

 

The basic layout of your map (Your worldspawn "rooms" and "tunnels") should generally be made with a grid size of 8 or more.

 

Using a larger grid size ensures that everything is perfectly precise: no human errors or tiny gaps to worry about.

 

This also makes everything else (especially visportalling and monsterclipping) much easier in the end.

I am working with grid 8 usually but when it comes to details it must be lower.

 

I was using rotated brushes that cannot snap to any grid since they're angled and from here the imperfect alignment of the bush edges.

 

Is it possible that I can seal the holes with nodraw textured brushes and maybe Z-fighting with other solid brushes (to make things easier)?

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the nodraw texture is seen as a hole. same with some of the window textures, they're also treated by the engine as a hole or gap in the world.

 

caulk is not seen as a hole and is usually used to plug areas not visited by the player.

Edited by stumpy
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I am working with grid 8 usually but when it comes to details it must be lower.

 

I was using rotated brushes that cannot snap to any grid since they're angled and from here the imperfect alignment of the bush edges.

 

Is it possible that I can seal the holes with nodraw textured brushes and maybe Z-fighting with other solid brushes (to make things easier)?

 

Small rotated brushes like banisters and chair legs, and anything small like that should be grouped together and made into a func_static, these should not remain as brushes. Too small, and cause endless headaches for the compiler. Just keep in mind that if you make a group of brushes into a func_static then they are treated as a single entity, so a visportal should not intersect it, or the portal won't close properly, or the entity will not be removed during the render phase in game.

 

For me, anything that I can't snap to grid becomes a func_static entity, decreases dmap times a lot. My Cathedral map went from 8 minutes down to 59 seconds after converting most things to func_statics.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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About Z fighting - I experimented around with some brushes fighting and it doesn't seem to have a bad effect in-game except visual when they wear different textures. Are there any BAD things that can happen or something I should know first when I use on purpose 2 Z fighting brushes?

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Any hints in sealing an area?(I guess this is my problem) There is no way I can find and fill all the microscopic gaps between brushes that make visportals useless.

 

Did you follow the link I posted previously? It explains a method for tracking those gaps down.

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Did you follow the link I posted previously? It explains a method for tracking those gaps down.

 

I already read that text. I knew where it was not sealed. The problem was repairing the gaps. I am working on a rebuild of the area so it is done as it should be.

 

I have a question about glass texture. Applied on a window (openable - else I would have used a caulk surface), so you can see through, makes the building not sealed?

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Any transparent materials on a brush will mean that the brush can not be used to seal.

 

That said, you can use a distance closing portal to avoid performance issues there.

 

Very helpful; and quick. Thank you.

 

That takes me back to the original problem which will remain like this. I have a building with a double door which initially I wanted to open simultaneous. Since I have many transparent surfaces throughout the building that lead outside, I guess the doors will open separately.

 

That applies for 'caulk' too? Can I seal unopenable transparent windows with caulk?

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The problem was repairing the gaps

 

Well, you did say, "There is no way I can find and fill". :P

 

Once you know where the gap is, it is usually just a matter of expanding one of the brushes so that it meets (or even overlaps) the other. Transparent textures or models will not work.

 

Since I have many transparent surfaces throughout the building that lead outside, I guess the doors will open separately.

 

They will if the area is not sealed. You can still put visportals across the transparent surface to seal the area--vps don't have to actually close to work properly.

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Edit: Oops, Spring answered before I posted, and better than I could. Yeah, put visPortals over the windows and you seal it even when they don't close.

 

That might work. But caulk displays as skyportal (in fact you may as well use skyportal brush), so it's not transparent anymore. That might be a good idea if it's a small, high window you can't reach, so it gives the illusion of looking outside, but not if you really want to see the outside through it.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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That takes me back to the original problem which will remain like this. I have a building with a double door which initially I wanted to open simultaneous. Since I have many transparent surfaces throughout the building that lead outside, I guess the doors will open separately.

I'm not 100% sure I follow the logic in that, it should be possible to open the double doors together. I haven't ever worked out double door stuff, but I'm sure there's some info on the wiki about it :)

 

That applies for 'caulk' too? Can I seal unopenable transparent windows with caulk?

Sure, caulk seals like any solid brush. In the same way, you have to make sure you don't have any cracks/leaks past it - you might also want to rather look at using skyportal or a brush with shutter textures if you're just trying to seal but make it a bit more interesting/life-like.

 

And remember, failing all this upload a copy of the map somewhere and I'd be happy to have a look at problems or ideas.

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Thanks for the support. I really need it.

 

I get a leaked error but no pointfile is generated. What now? The map seems perfectly sealed and I cannot find any useful information on the wiki.

 

Here's the map file if anyone needs it http://fbx.ro/nxc61fi6p1o7t3gn

 

And one more thing - the textures in camera view become blurry if I move around. I need to restart DR to show them properly again

Edited by Snakebite
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I get a leaked error but no pointfile is generated. What now? The map seems perfectly sealed and I cannot find any useful information on the wiki.

 

If you have a mission installed in TDM, and dmap, the pointfile is generated in the mission's subfolder instead of the folder where you store your map files. Look for it there. Hope this is helpful.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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A few misconceptions here; I'll touch on a few....

 

Double doors are set up by giving them each open_peer and lock_peer and frob_peer naming the other door. But if the two doors are in the same visportal this is done automatically. A door with holes such as a barred gate should NOT have a visportal touching it because when closed the doorway will go black. So in that situation you have to set up the double door thing manually.

 

When you have rotated brushes that do not align you should drag out one to overlap the other and then select both together and use clipper to cut through them both at once. They are then perfectly aligned. Use that method in the first place rather than rotating.

 

If caulk is used to seal an open gap leading into an otherwise sealed portalled area then it will seal the area but it will look black in game - whether there is also a door to that area open or not. So it's not suitable as invisible 'glass' though can be used to seal tiny cracks in dark corners for a quick bodge.

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Small rotated brushes like banisters and chair legs, and anything small like that should be grouped together and made into a func_static, these should not remain as brushes. Too small, and cause endless headaches for the compiler. Just keep in mind that if you make a group of brushes into a func_static then they are treated as a single entity, so a visportal should not intersect it, or the portal won't close properly, or the entity will not be removed during the render phase in game.

 

For me, anything that I can't snap to grid becomes a func_static entity, decreases dmap times a lot. My Cathedral map went from 8 minutes down to 59 seconds after converting most things to func_statics.

 

 

Is the effect only noticable when DMAP-ing, or is it beneficial for gaming also? Is the only drawback with func_statics that they chew up entity slots?

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Is the effect only noticable when DMAP-ing, or is it beneficial for gaming also? Is the only drawback with func_statics that they chew up entity slots?

 

There can be increased performance as a result of moving things to func_static, however there is no hard and fast "it will be faster"

as for entity slots, while they do take them up you can combine a large number of brushes/patches into a single static, so its best to do it like that.

 

Things to bare in mind :

When converting brushes to func_static you do need to caulk surfaces which will never be seen, for example if you have a small box sitting on-top of a larger bottom caulking the bottom of the smaller box is advised, the performance difference is immeasurable small for most situations, but if an area is being lit from multiple sources etc it becomes quite noticeable.

If you are detailing anything with brushes, chances are they should be statics, keeping logical groups does help and from experience actually makes changing things later much easier because you're thinking in groups, learn to use that right click menu! :)

And remember, if you're making railings etc, it's highly advisable to go over it all afterwards and throw around the ol monster clip!

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And one more thing - the textures in camera view become blurry if I move around. I need to restart DR to show them properly again

 

What graphics card do you have? I've noticed it on some older ATI cards, 1xxx series. I have an idea of what is causing it and will try fixing it in DR when I build up the courage to battle that source ;)

The problem is that surfaces (only brushes) dont seem to be forced to use perspective-correct texture mapping(affine or whatever), patches seem to be. I just need to figure out where the two differ in the code and have a look at what's there... tho I'm sure greebo has far more of an idea of everything DR related than I do!

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What graphics card do you have? I've noticed it on some older ATI cards, 1xxx series. I have an idea of what is causing it and will try fixing it in DR when I build up the courage to battle that source ;)

The problem is that surfaces (only brushes) dont seem to be forced to use perspective-correct texture mapping(affine or whatever), patches seem to be. I just need to figure out where the two differ in the code and have a look at what's there... tho I'm sure greebo has far more of an idea of everything DR related than I do!

 

I have ATI RADEON X1600. Is not a big deal. I've noticed it happens often when I pass through brushes (especially horizontal ones) at an angle from the grid. If I really need the camera view I just restart DR. Anyway this belongs to another thread so I leave it.

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Quick question here since i'm completely new to DR (about 2 hours in so far).

 

I'm attempting to make this door off the A-Z guide, but this seems like an overly complex procedure, and its not really the actual door making I'm having a problem with.

 

Its the actual cutting of the brush when I want the door to go to a corridor. D

 

Do I really have to separate my already created brush into 3 new brushes for every single door i'm trying to make?

 

Ie. something like this

 

--------------------------------

|...........Brush 1.......|

|.............................|

|-------------------------------

|Bru | Door.| Brush 3..|

|sh 2.|........|..............|

|____|_____|________|

 

Feedback and help appreciated, thx =D (ascii art ftw)

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