Sewege Pipes

Grand Tickler

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2014
22
2
Sewage Pipes

Hello! Please bear with me for I am quite new to this. I am in the process of creating my first map, and would like to put underground pipelines that you can travel through like in 2fort. I was wondering, Are the 2fort pipes models, or brushes? I assume that they are brushes with a prop on the end for the detail. So how would I go about this? The really only thing I can think of is making a cylinder hollow, but I don't know how I would make the corners of the tunnels. Is there a way I could make the angles curved slightly? Like with a displacement or something? Or should I just clip them to form a right angle (does not matter either way, for there is going to be two small bends in the pipe, the main turn is going to be a small room)

Advice would be greatly appreciated :)
 
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wareya

L420: High Member
Jun 17, 2012
493
191
They're brushes.
You can do corners with the clip tool.

Unfortunately, there's nearly no good way to do this in hammer alone. A model would be ideal. You could take a lot of experience and waste time doing all this crazy on-grid geometry, but I don't recommend it, unless your map is actually going to be played for more than a month after its release.
 

Grand Tickler

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2014
22
2
Bear with me, I said I was still very new at this and I dont know the file navigation very well. Just saying "put it in the hammer folder"....lost on me. I have no idea where that folder is or where to put it in that folder. I can find the source SDK folders, but not hammer specific ones.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
...SteamApps/common/Team Fortress 2/sdk_content/tf/mapsrc, just like your maps.

But I looked at that file, and there aren't any "gentle" bends in it, which is what it sounds like you're after. It's certainly possible to make them, but it takes forever and you'll wind up with visible warping on the textures. For now, just making two hollow cylinders with the "arch" brush type and slicing off their ends at a 45 degree angle is probably your best bet, and probably more realistic than a rounded-off corner anyway.
 

Grand Tickler

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2014
22
2
Would It make a difference in performance if I used the cylinder tool and hollowed it out instead? (I already made some pipes this way! D:)
they aren't complete cylinders though-the bottom is clipped off and the bottom is a block brush (so where you walk will be flat...more room to walk and able to place down buildings)

In my map there is going to be four sewer pipes (2 for each team) And only two of them are going to have that right angle bend. The main bend in both are like this
Iq3KpGR.png
 
Last edited:
Sep 19, 2010
475
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Instead of hollowing out a cylinder, you can use the arch tool. Just make it 360 degrees and you'll end up with a pipe. Takes some experimenting to figure out how to get it just the right size, but it shouldn't take too long.
 

Grand Tickler

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2014
22
2
Well then I really don't get what you want, make some drawing plz...

What do you mean? I already settled on just clipping the pipes at a 45 degree angle. Right now I am asking SINCE I already made the pipes out of cylinders hollowed out, will that affect framerate/preformance? Do I NEED to make them out of arches? (I really hope not...lol)
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
2,075
515
Just remember to mark the entire thing as detail geometry* and you will be fine. Use a rectangular tube for visibility computations, those are much cheaper.

*Do not mark displacements as detail geometry.
 

Grand Tickler

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2014
22
2
Just remember to mark the entire thing as detail geometry* and you will be fine. Use a rectangular tube for visibility computations, those are much cheaper.

*Do not mark displacements as detail geometry.

Thank you! I was wondering about that, and considering it, but not sure if it would affect anything or make it worse. Going to add that right now. Does it matter what the material is for the rectangular tube?
 

RaVaGe

aa
Jun 23, 2010
733
1,210
What do you mean? I already settled on just clipping the pipes at a 45 degree angle. Right now I am asking SINCE I already made the pipes out of cylinders hollowed out, will that affect framerate/preformance? Do I NEED to make them out of arches? (I really hope not...lol)

Ok nevermind then :) , and yeah use the displacement technique or the arch tool, I presonnaly prefer the displacement technique, but if you want to use the arch tool, don't forget to make them as func_detail.
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
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You should generally use nodraw for faces that are only for visibility management. Just remember to never let player see the nodraw faces, always either angle them away from the player or have something in the way.
 

Grand Tickler

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2014
22
2
You should generally use nodraw for faces that are only for visibility management. Just remember to never let player see the nodraw faces, always either angle them away from the player or have something in the way.

If they happen to see it does it cause issues or is it just ugly to see?
And I thought nodraw renders invisible?
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
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Nodraw seals the map without drawing. It literally doesn't render. This leads to the infamous hall of mirrors effect if there is nothing behind the face drawing into the screen area. Most of the time there is usually something, like other level geometry or the skybox. But for an area where the skybox isn't in PVS and there is nothing behind it? Hall of mirrors.

So it technically doesn't cause any errors, just bad output due to old rendering results remaining due to nothing overwriting it. Of course, if people can use it to see thru walls, that's very bad.
 
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Grand Tickler

L1: Registered
Aug 8, 2014
22
2
No draw seals the map without drawing. This leads to the infamous hall of mirrors effect if there is nothing behind the face drawing into the screen area. Most of the time there is usually something, like other level geometry or the skybox. But for an area where the skybox isn't in PVS and there is nothing behind it? Hall of mirrors.

So it technically doesn't cause any errors, just bad output due to old rendering results remaining due to nothing overwriting it. Of course, if people can use it to see thru walls, that's very bad.

Okay that makes sense. So it wouldn't matter if, let's say, the detail brush isn't COMPLETELY sealed (like my pipe) and if let's say there is a tiny crack not big enoug/in a spot for the player to not see but big enough for the computer can see it, it won't mess anything up?