What do all of the tool textures do?

srs

L2: Junior Member
Apr 1, 2016
53
10
I heard some of those textures improve performances and crap like that. I understand player clip, nodraw, black tool texutre, and trigger. That's all. I really want know what all the others do.
 

Crowbar

Spiritual preprocessor
aa
Dec 19, 2015
1,455
1,297
In short:
:hint: - Gives vvis a hint on how to cut visleaves
:skip: - Completely skipped by compiler, used for measure and with hint;
:areaportal: - Areaportals aren't as easy to make and maintain, but they can cull view;
:occluder: - Disables ANY model rendering behind it;
:blockbullets: - Blocks bullets;
:blocklight: - Blocks light;
:skybox: - Renders sky and/or 3D skybox.
 

iiboharz

eternally tired
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Nov 5, 2014
857
1,291
:occluder: - Disables ANY model rendering behind it
Doesn't disable models behind it, culls them from rendering. Occluders are quite expensive so use them sparingly or in areas where the performance gain from using one cancels out the processing power used for the occluder.
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
2,075
515
Occluders are the hack to fix things where the PVS fails. You can use them when you've func_detailed an entire building, where you have no idea how to add skip brushes and when you need to hide stuff on the other side of a displacement.
 

iiboharz

eternally tired
aa
Nov 5, 2014
857
1,291
Occluders are the hack to fix things where the PVS fails. You can use them when you've func_detailed an entire building, where you have no idea how to add skip brushes and when you need to hide stuff on the other side of a displacement.
That's not necessarily true and is in-fact a really bad way to describe how occluders should be used. Occluders really should be used in instances where it's impossible to otherwise block vis and force the engine not to be rendering models.
In your example of displacements, if it's a large enough displacemnet to block someone's view it's large enough to fit a nodraw brush under and then use hint brushes and other methods to guide VVIS accordingly.
 

DrLambda

L69: Teeheehee, Member
aa
Feb 18, 2015
458
475
In short:
:blockbullets: - Blocks bullets;

That's a REALLY short way to describe it. It also is completely solid to players and, for a reason unknown to me, it cuts VIS and should always be func_detail'ed because of that. You use it in place of clips if:
A) You want consistent explosive jumping off a surface.
B) You want to fix the splash damage bug for stairs and similar surfaces.
 

Yrr

An Actual Deer
aa
Sep 20, 2015
1,308
2,743
That's a REALLY short way to describe it. It also is completely solid to players and, for a reason unknown to me, it cuts VIS and should always be func_detail'ed because of that. You use it in place of clips if:
A) You want consistent explosive jumping off a surface.
B) You want to fix the splash damage bug for stairs and similar surfaces.
Current ABS pack makes block bullets NOT cut vis

(if you want to update it yourself put %compiledetail in the vmt)
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Or just, you know, make all your blockbullets brushes func_detail.
 

Skullio

L1: Registered
Mar 29, 2016
48
54
That's not necessarily true and is in-fact a really bad way to describe how occluders should be used. Occluders really should be used in instances where it's impossible to otherwise block vis and force the engine not to be rendering models.
In your example of displacements, if it's a large enough displacemnet to block someone's view it's large enough to fit a nodraw brush under and then use hint brushes and other methods to guide VVIS accordingly.

I've never quite understood occluder use since people always say they can be expensive but useful it's a bit confusing. So Ive been looking in pl_upward decompile to see how they went about optimising for big open areas and they actually use quite a lot of occluders. Using the vis groups to mark them it says 43 objects selected which seems like a lot.

They use them in the obvious places, big func_details and big rock props etc. They use them in a few weird places I didnt expect as well though, inside solid brushes for example. I'm looking at the first point where blue comes out, looking towards the sniper/sentry nest building the top floor is func_details and props but the bottom floor is solid walls. Inside the solid wall there is an occluder. I assumed you could use hint brushes with solid brushes to block off visibility enough in a spot like that, I didnt realize putting occluders in solid brushes would help too but there they are. That is always a place with a lot of engy stuff and players hanging around so it makes sense I guess

Another confusing place is again at blue first spawn, when you come out the wall directly on your left has the final point on the other side of it because of the way the map spirals around. I assumed that whole area would be blocked off entirely as a seperate room so it wouldn't need extra optimisation, but the walls between the first spawn area and the final cap area are full of occluders/ I'm going to take a better look in game with the dev commands to see if it makes sense why they would do that, seems strange to me to put them there.
 

iiboharz

eternally tired
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Nov 5, 2014
857
1,291
Yeah well the thing there is that Upward is a very open map. Occluders work in that instance because of how much of its geometry is detail geometry.
 

Yrr

An Actual Deer
aa
Sep 20, 2015
1,308
2,743
Or just, you know, make all your blockbullets brushes func_detail.
Or just, you know, not have to do that.

I don't see how adding one line of text to make all future work less irritating is so bad.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
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Well, you have to manually extract the VMF before you can edit it, which requires installing GCFscape... if you're gonna do all that, you might as well just install Boojum's pack and save yourself the trouble.
 

Yrr

An Actual Deer
aa
Sep 20, 2015
1,308
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Well, you have to manually extract the VMF before you can edit it, which requires installing GCFscape... if you're gonna do all that, you might as well just install Boojum's pack and save yourself the trouble.
im saying install abs or just make a custom vmt its not hard :T
 

hutty

aa
Mar 30, 2014
538
444
Note that the source saying occluders were slow is using the context of 2003 PCs running halflife 2.
Computers are far more capable these days. (although hinting should still be prioritized above occluding.)
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Yeah, but since computers are more powerful, occluders are also less necessary. What's important is the added computing time of using the occluder vs. the added computing time of just rendering all the things. I would guess that since the game uses the CPU to calculate visibility and the GPU to render, it will ultimately depend on which is more powerful in any given user's system. If they have an i7 and onboard graphics, more occluders = better performance, whereas someone who jammed a modern card into an older system (like me) would actually see framerates slow down if you have more occluders.