Displacements won't sew

Mould

L2: Junior Member
Apr 9, 2010
52
3
I'm attempting to create a map, and I though and Egypt theme would be easy for beginners, because it's kind of less detailed.

So I thought everything was fine and dandy, and I created some cliffs, with a a T-Tunnel going through it.

Then, I selected every single face that was required, and made the displacement with power of 4 on every single one.

I noticed the grid looked smaller on some than it did then other faces, btu I thought maybe this was normal (this being my first map) so I turned on autosex and followed the sandwich rule. But then suddenly everything took a shocking turn for the worse. There were leetle tiny cracks all over the seems of some of my walls. I frantically clicked the sew button, hoping that it would miraculously sew itself and be happy.

But it didn't.

I began attempting to use the smooth tool to close the cracks, but all that achieved was to bundle up the displacement triangly thingies. The cracks remained, laughing at my puny attempts to smite them off the face of the displacement.

The first question is; Why will the cracks not sew? They are so close together and yet no?

The second question is; How can I avoid this for next time? I spent a lot on this map but now I don't really feel motivated to fix it or make progress because the cracks will always be there taunting me. When I make another map I want to be sure the cracks do not attack when I least suspect, once again.

Thanks, Mould
 
Feb 18, 2009
640
629
1) 4 is probably too larger scale. 3 is sufficient for most tasks (I've never seriously used 2 or 4, and 1 is pointless)

2) the "grid" is smaller on some faces than on others because Hammer generates displacements with a set number of vertices on each side, regardless of size. this leads to 3)

3) displacements of different sizes cannot sew. this is because the vertices can't line up, so Hammer doesn't even try it. (also, edges must line up exactly, or faces must "share a common edge")

the fix: chop up the larger faces into smaller ones that all line up with each other. It's hard to explain in words, and I can't get an example now, but hopefully someone else here can show you if you don't understand.

For more on displacements, read this.

EDIT: TPG is ninja
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Rule #1 for trying to sew: Turn off the :dispmask: and similar settings so that it looks like you are working with non-displacement brushes. That's the mode to use to make sure all the edges line up in a sewable manner.

3) displacements of different sizes cannot sew. this is because the vertices can't line up, so Hammer doesn't even try it. (also, edges must line up exactly, or faces must "share a common edge")
Not entirely true. You can make a "T-junction" join, and it may be possible to sew a power-2 and a power-4 because every other point lines up.
 
Feb 18, 2009
640
629
Not entirely true. You can make a "T-junction" join, and it may be possible to sew a power-2 and a power-4 because every other point lines up.

True, I was just trying to give a basic description of what is needed. That is also mentioned in the link I added I think.