What to do when your pointfile won't load but you have a leak?

JMRboosties

L2: Junior Member
Jun 3, 2009
98
2
So I went through my map and opted to actually create an optimized skybox rather than simply just a big box surrounding my entire map. Needless to say leaks were inevitable. I stripped down the visgroups to just draw world geometry so all I had to worry about was ensure the nodraw backing to my displacements met correctly. I got a leak reported, but when I load the pointfile it goes to my mapsrc folder and does not have a .lin for my map. Usually when loading a pointfile it doesn't even prompt this, instead automatically loading the .lin for your map. So what do I do to fix this?
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Can you post the dump from the VBSP compilation step?
 

JMRboosties

L2: Junior Member
Jun 3, 2009
98
2
Sure. This is just the VBSP running just the most basic world geometry


** Executing...
** Command: "f:\steam\steamapps\jmrboosties\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vbsp.exe"
** Parameters: -game "f:\steam\steamapps\jmrboosties\team fortress 2\tf" "F:\Steam\SteamApps\jmrboosties\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_arrowhead"

Valve Software - vbsp.exe (May 19 2009)
2 threads
materialPath: f:\steam\steamapps\jmrboosties\team fortress 2\tf\materials
Loading F:\Steam\SteamApps\jmrboosties\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_arrowhead.vmf
Patching WVT material: maps/cp_arrowhead/nature/blendrockgroundwallforest002_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/cp_arrowhead/nature/blendgroundtograss008_wvt_patch
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
**** leaked ****
Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (0)
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_alpinestorm_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_alpinestorm_01 to build the default cubemap!
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_alpinestorm_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_alpinestorm_01 to build the default cubemap!
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (0) (461339 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 935 texinfos to 606
Reduced 38 texdatas to 36 (881 bytes to 816)
Writing F:\Steam\SteamApps\jmrboosties\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_arrowhead.bsp
3 seconds elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "F:\Steam\SteamApps\jmrboosties\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_arrowhead.bsp" "f:\steam\steamapps\jmrboosties\team fortress 2\tf\maps\cp_arrowhead.bsp"
 

JMRboosties

L2: Junior Member
Jun 3, 2009
98
2
Do you have an entity fully outside of the sealed area?

No, I have some that are kind of outside which I know can cause leaks, but I turned off props, func_details, triggers, and everything that isnt simple world geometry for this compile. That shouldn't have an affect if I understand visgroups correctly.
 

Ida

deer
aa
Jan 6, 2008
2,289
1,372
Huh, it reports a leak but no the cause? I've never seen that before.

Err, all I can think of is that you might have an entity's origin outside the map. Not because the compile log tells me this, but it's usually a kind of "invisible" problem that you won't find without tearing out your hair first, but then again it tends to produce pointfiles. Sorry, that's all I've got. :/ But if you wanna try to fix that, there's an option to center origins...somewhere on the top toolbar. Might help.

EDIT: Also, try to run it through the error checker at interlopers.net if you haven't yet, maybe it knows something about unspecified leaks.
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
aa
Sep 8, 2008
1,264
816
Do you have a respawn entity? For some reason the compile wont work if you got displacements but you dont have a respawn entity.

I had that before and it took me 30 minutes to find that out. It might be wrong but at least thats what i had at that time
 

Nutomic

L11: Posh Member
Feb 7, 2009
888
177
If you disabled all Visgroups except of World brushes, load pointfile just cant work, because it tries to go from a point entity to the viod, so you will have to enable a visgroup that contains point entites, you should have one in each map area.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
It's deeper than that. Entities are how the compiler even determines what is inside and what is outside. You can have a perfectly sealed box and when you compile it will leak if there are no entities inside it. This is because if an entity isn't present within an area, the area is removed.
 

SiniStarR

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Mar 31, 2009
585
116
have you tried use cordon tool, and try narrowing it down? Id try that if nothing else here is working. If worse comes to worse try copy pasting your entire map to a new vmf, sometime hammer can be a little fucky.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
Cordon will not leak, ever. It's not something that will help you find a leak.
However, the opposite will work. Create one giant solid brush across half your map and see if the leak is there. Then try the other half. Keep narrowing it down with successively smaller brushes.
 

JMRboosties

L2: Junior Member
Jun 3, 2009
98
2
my map isnt really a standard cube, its similar to gravel pit in style and each point (A, B, C) is isolated within a unique skybox. So I think the solid brush thing would be pretty hard, but worth a try.

So I understand that if there are no entities a pointfile cannot be created because the pointfile relies on entities for the location of leaks. What if I was to create one prop post-visgroup deselection so it would be the only prop on the map when I compiled. I would get a pointfile then wouldn't I?

Another thing about entities... I thought it was that none of the entity's selection box (the yellow box that represents it if you turn models off in 2D mode) could be outside the skybox. But it is only the origin?
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
Yes, it is only the origin.

and for the solid brush method, it doesn't matter what shape your map is. The idea is what covering up a large section of map with a solid brush effectively seals any leaks within the bounds of the brush. That helps you narrow down the area it is in.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
What if I was to create one prop post-visgroup deselection so it would be the only prop on the map when I compiled. I would get a pointfile then wouldn't I?
I believe so. At any rate, it would remove one possible reason you wouldn't have a pointfile.

However, assuming you already have a few props scattered around, I'd just leave the entire "prop" visgroup checked. It's not like they affect sealing anyway.
 
Last edited:

Peterm

Banned
Jun 1, 2009
171
8
mine does this alot and i've found no solutions yet :( it says stuff like it has with yours when i can't see any problems soz