Area Portals?

Agentkid

L1: Registered
Feb 27, 2009
45
15
I am working on my 3rd map and have a few questions about area portals
This is what i think is correct
The area portal, when it makes a room it has to be free of leaks
You cant have two brushs tied to one func_areaportal
The texture of the block has to be All areaportal

My questions
Can you have two seprate area portals put right next to each other (touching) and it work?
Can area portals touch displacements and the skybox to seal an cp area (like one area of granary) off or do i need a normal block in the ground and sky to seal it off?
Can area portals go throught walls and displacements without problems?
 

strangemodule

L5: Dapper Member
Sep 10, 2009
223
59
Areaportals are meant to seperate areas that are rendered, if I recall correctly. It hides what you can't/shouldn't be able to see anyway in order to optimize your map.

As for how to do them:

-I don't believe you can have two separate areaportals touch each other.
-Displacements apparently don't count as brushes that an areaportal has to touch (learned this the hard way...).
-Yes, areaportals can go through walls and stuff, as long as only 2 sides (and 2 sides only) are actually not touching anything.
 

WastedMeerkat

L3: Member
Aug 15, 2009
144
142
Your questions:
1. No.

2. They can touch skyboxes, but displacements function like func_details, so you need to make a nodraw textured block under or around the placement and touch the areaportal to that to seal it off.

3. They can go through displacements, but any walls they go through would have to still expose the front/back or top/bottom sides.
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
You can have more then 1 brush tied to an areaportal. Also if you have two areaportals close to each other they merge together.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Note that they can't cross the water surface. You need to slice it down the middle and have one above, one below.

Also this odd note from the VDC.
For optimization reasons, areaportals that share the same plane (are aligned) are automatically merged by the engine. If this behavior is unwanted, simply ensure the areaportal brushes are not along the same plane. This is usually as simple as shrinking or moving one of the areaportals slightly in the editor so they are no longer aligned. Even grid one unit is sufficient to avoid an automatic merge.
 
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