A bunch of newbie questions

edward0810

L1: Registered
Jul 26, 2010
22
2
Hi all I'm new to mapping so I have many questions to ask so i opened this thread.
Please explain as much as you can. Thanks in advance.
Problems not solved are underlined.

1. How does occluder work? I know what visleaf,hint, areaportal and func_detail well so feel free to explain.
2. I know that we can make a sphere by either displacement or normal brush. Which is more costly?
3. Is decompiling models the only way to flip or resize models?
4. I want to make a payload map in which players are trying to push the cart as much as possible. The track is an endless loop so that laps pushed by players determines which team wins. My question is how to set up the team_train_watcher entity, as it doesn't have the ending node?
5. I find that player models created by prop_dynamic are so costly. How can we reduce the cost of them?
6. How can the map determine whether a player is killed by sawblade, train or any other objects?
7. What is the maximum number of control points and flags I can create in a single stage in a single map?
8. What is the largest brush I can create in game without errors?
9. When 2 different brushes are on the same plane, The VVIS still split the visleaf in that area. Is it a glitch or what?
10. After I placed clip on metal stairs, walking on it won't produced the sound when you walk on a metal surface. Can it be fixed?
11. After I enlarge a decal, It becomes weird in hammer and also in game. Why does this happened?
12. At most how many switchable lights can shine on a surface simultaneously?
13. How can I indicate an area by placing a glowing brush which isn't a solid?

Thanks!!
 
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StickZer0

💙💙💃💙💙
aa
Nov 25, 2008
664
647
1. An occluder is a free standing brush covered with nodraw and the occluder texture on certain sides tied to a func_occluder brush entity. Any models "behind" the occluder from the player's view will not be drawn.
2. A normal brush will probably be cheaper if you just want a standard sphere that is low quality, but a displacement sphere will look much better. If you make a brush sphere, make sure you make it a func_detail.
3. In TF2, yes.
4. Not sure about that.
5. Make sure they're only being drawn when they have to be (ie put areaportals around the doors to the rooms they're in, use clever occluders etc). Generally it's better to just not have player model props in the map, they break immersion and are very expensive.
6. Using a trigger_hurt, depending on the type of damage you have it set to, different kill notifications will come up.
7. 8 control points, not sure about flags but i'm guessing much higher.
8. The size of the entire grid in hammer. Never go outside the boundaries of the grid.
9. Not a glitch, it's just how VVIS works.
10. Make a func_brush with a metal texture with cast shadows set to off, and render mode set to Don't Render.
11. Don't use decals unless they're already perfectly sized, use Overlays instead.
12. Read this. If this is a serious TF2 map, i wouldn't suggest toggleable lights, and you must also remember toggleable lights don't perform radiosity bounces.
13. I don't think this is possible in TF2.
 

Nimelrian

L2: Junior Member
Jun 13, 2010
64
6
I try to answer most of your questions.

1. The Occluder is basicly an areaportal, but there are 3 differences:

- It hides only props, nothing else

- It does not split visleaves

- It does not have to seal an area, it can be free standing

more info: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Occluder

2. In case you want a good looking spehere, the brush, because it is not ignored by vvis, unless you tie it to a func_detail.

3. You can rotate and move them in hammer, for anything else, decompiling is the only solution.

6. trigger_hurt has the so called "damagetype" value, look at it.

8. There is only one limit. A brush can have up to 128 faces, otherwise vbsp will get angry.

11. Decals can not be scaled, try overlays.

EDIT: Ignore me, StickZer0 is much more experienced in mapping than me^^
 
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Huckle

L3: Member
May 31, 2010
149
101
13. How can I indicate an area by placing a glowing brush which isn't a solid?

Thanks!!

You could probably make a func_brush with solidity set to 1 (never solid) and then apply a glowing material to it (create one like the opaque glass material used on pipeline). Add lighting as you see fit. It's still probably going to create all kinds of problems if you want players to move around inside of it though.

The only other solution I can come up with is to create some sort of particle system with glowing particles and lighting. In general, if you can't fix it with a coloured light setup, I don't think it's going to fit very well with the TF2 theme.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I'm not sure what you mean by "glowing brush." If you mean glowing like the RED and BLU holograms above the control points, though, you can achieve that effect by setting the func_brush's Render Mode to "World Space Glow", I believe. Just like with glowing lightbulb sprites.
 
Jan 20, 2010
1,317
902
Just a thing with the func_occluder. It has to be inside a single visleaf as well. It can't be split in half by one. You'll get errors otherwise.
 

edward0810

L1: Registered
Jul 26, 2010
22
2
Anything that isn't in tools/ ?
Edit:
I mean seriously, what did you think a texture called "invisible" would do?
if i use texture other than tools texture then the glowing brush will appear with its original pattern. Therefore I think i should put a flat texture instead.