Noob Question on Optimization, Objects and Textures

as far as I know there is no special costs associated overlaping brushes. you only need to watch out for z-fighting really. in some cases, overlapping brushes will result in additionnal polygons and/or additionnal lightmap data but most the of the time, it won't even make a difference. the compiler can handle a lot of crap.

unfortunately there's nothing that will align everything to the grid. Just make sure that you always use an appropriate grid size at all times and you will be fine (use the [ and ] key to set the grid size)

Avoiding overlapping brushes comes down to being careful while you're building. Always keep snap-to-grid on, use [ and ] to adjust your grid size to reasonable levels (I tend to leave it on size 8 and only go lower for fine details). When you use vertex edit or clipping tool check to make sure your vertices are still on the grid and are aligned.

Overlapping brushes, by and large, will not cause optimization issues. But they're sloppy and make editing your map harder.

A helpful technique I picked up:

1) In Automated Visgroups, turn everything but world brushes (and perhaps func_details) off
2) Select Map Properties (which will select the entire map)
3) Scan each area for brushes that are a darker red than normal. When selected brushes overlap, the red tint selection doubles up. If you want to make sure it's a double, click on the surface (deselecting everything else), press H (hide) and see if there is still a brush there.

If there is, delete it!

You don't have to delete overlapping geometry, but it's good to if you want to be clean and organized. Of course, the best way to avoid overlapping brushes is to avoid them in the first place.

Well technically it is a bad thing.

If you see z-fighting in game, it means that there are two brushes being drawn in the same location. While this has no noticeable effect when kept to mainly the odd mistakes, it does draw more computer power thus de-optimising the map.

It is, however, very usual to have player clips, triggers and the like z-fighting in the editor on official maps, and a large amount of custom maps too. Because they aren't being drawn in the game, they don't exactly count as using more power because they are simply a kind of 'area information' and not physically being drawn as 2 triangles per side.

Like the others said, having triggers and clips etc z-fighting makes selecting them a bitch, so knowing your way around visgroups helps too.

Dr. Spud said:

Always keep snap-to-grid on, use [ and ] to adjust your grid size to reasonable levels.

Click to expand...

PRO TIP: Alt + A and Alt + S can be used to adjust grid size.

But that's even more buttons.

Crash said:

But that's even more buttons.

Click to expand...

It can be done faster than the blink of an eye tho, since you'd usually already rest your hand by the A and S buttons