Odd skybox problem

Resistance

L2: Junior Member
Mar 24, 2009
55
1
Alright after spending a full 24 hours trying to figure out why I was getting a certain compile error, I nailed it down to the skybox, heres the compile error I get.


"FindPortalSide: Couldn't find a good match for which brush to assign to a portal near (2336.0 1024.0 -40.0)
Leaf 0 contents: CONTENTS_SOLID
Leaf 1 contents:
viscontents (node 0 contents ^ node 1 contents): CONTENTS_SOLID
This means that none of the brushes in leaf 0 or 1 that touches the portal has CONTENTS_SOLID
Check for a huge brush enclosing the coordinates above that has contents CONTENTS_SOLID
Candidate brush IDs: "


I found out that If I create any map and put a simple skybox in, this error appears no matter what! If I just create a simple map, like the 3dskybox tutorial on this site and compile it, this error comes up. Any help is appreciated. (note it USED to work as well.....)
 

Resistance

L2: Junior Member
Mar 24, 2009
55
1
Update: After some extensive testing I found that I can duplicate the compile log by having no sky_camera or having more than one..... Unfortunately, I only have 1 sky_camera in my map.


So I decided to take ONLY the entities of my map (minus brush entities) and compile my map. I got the exact same error. So I scoured my map to make sure I didn't have a 2nd sky_camera... I didn't. So I then systematically started grouping entities in certain areas and removed them with a Visgroup so that I could reduce the amount of entities systematically and try compiling again to see if the error comes up again. The error ONLY seems to stop when I get down to a certain # of entities. (and not very many at that).
 

Boylee

pew pew pew
aa
Apr 29, 2008
1,068
709
Could also be a big brush that's meant to be an entity but isn't bound to one.

Shameless copy pasta from interlopers.net:

Usually, this error is caused by a leak, so fix it if it is.
If it isn't, there is a (group of) brush(es) that is/are giving vbsp.exe a hard time to figure out your level.
Apparently it cannot determine the boundaries of a certain portal. Maybe there is a large brush covering the area, maybe the area is just to complicated for poor vbsp to figure out.

Also this:
If you have coordinates
In Hammer, go to "view->go to coordinates" and enter your coordinates, and the views in Hammer will center around your problem.

Although that will only help if it's a brush causing the problem. Otherwise, what TPG said.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056

Map > load pointfile

Guys, if someone knows what a leak is (so has the capacity to fatony's your post helpful) or knows what to do with a pointfile (so has the capacity to find TPG's post helpful) then the chances are they already know what that error means.

The opposite is also true, if they don't know that error, they're unlikely to know what your one word answers mean. At very least take the time to find a link explaining leaks, even better, explain it yourself, as well as why they're bad and how to fix one.

I point both of you towards the posting guidelines on helpfulness and not assuming everyone else knows as much as you do.

Thanks to boylee for actually being helpful.

RE OP:
As stated by the above the error either means you've a leak or VBSP is struggling, most likely the former. Leaks are exactly what they say on the tin, a hole in your map to the void, this is bad since VBSP doesn't know what is the inside or outside of your map. To find them you can open the pointfile with the above method, this will give you a red line somewhere in your map, find it and it should lead from an entity and through a hole towards the outside of your map, plug the hole and compile again. VBSP only finds one leak at a time so you may have to repeat this process a few times to get all the leaks.
 

Resistance

L2: Junior Member
Mar 24, 2009
55
1
Alright, I was apparently getting "leaks" from some props that were slightly poking out into the void, which seems to cause a leak as well. However, I am still getting a few of the error messages, but not actual "leak" message now.
 

Boylee

pew pew pew
aa
Apr 29, 2008
1,068
709
A very useful site for error diagnosis is this one: http://www.interlopers.net/errors

I use it all the time, and suggest you bookmark it. If you go there, paste your compile log into the box in the 'Search errors' section then hit the 'Check log' button. It will create a list of errors found with a brief explanation of each. It's not perfect by any means but I find it invaluable in decrypting the weird code-like errors hammer spits out.

If that doesn't help you then posting a compile log here is always an option.