Is there a way to line displacements up?

ExtraCheesyPie

L420: High Member
Jan 29, 2015
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I'm working on my first map, but I can't seem to get the displacements right. Theres always a visible vertical drop where the two brushes connect, which I have no idea how to fix. Using a 1size 1 radius displacement brush doesnt help too much, and Sew seems to align some of them, but I just can't get it to connect gracefully. Any pointers?
 

killohurtz

Distinction in Applied Carving
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Feb 22, 2014
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Displacements can only be sewn if 1) the two original brush faces share a common edge and 2) the lengths of these edges are 1:1 or 1:2. So, if any of your displacements have vertices that don't line up along the shared edge, you'll have to move/resize them to fit those conditions before you can sew them.
 

Snowbat

L4: Comfortable Member
Apr 23, 2013
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I usually follow the rule of thumb that the edges I want to sew together are both the same size.
 

Seba

DR. BIG FUCKER, PHD
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Jun 9, 2009
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UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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Make sure the brushes are of the same depth, as well...
Personaly i dont even know why they have added depth in displacements to begin with since to me it never seemed to have any use. If you needed to put some displacements higher or lower you just move the brush itself.
 

Tumby

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May 12, 2013
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Personaly i dont even know why they have added depth in displacements to begin with since to me it never seemed to have any use. If you needed to put some displacements higher or lower you just move the brush itself.

Because that might lead to overhangs and stuff connecting together in very strange ways.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
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Nov 2, 2007
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In general, think of displacements as a "pretty layer" that you put on top of your brushwork. All the brush faces that will be displaced should be connecting/touching edge-to-edge and vertex-to-vertex. Then when you displace them they will connect and sew properly. Obviously this doesn't apply to corners or seams you wouldn't want sewing.
 

tehOMGfather

L1: Registered
Nov 15, 2009
27
3
Personaly i dont even know why they have added depth in displacements to begin with since to me it never seemed to have any use. If you needed to put some displacements higher or lower you just move the brush itself.

You mean being able to push the displacement vertices on each axis? This is actually more useful than moving the entire brush because you get a bit more fidelity and aren't confined to grid units. Plus you don't want to align two displacement edges by moving brushes, otherwise you're going to make things more difficult for yourself if you're dealing with many displacements.

The best example map I can think of off the top of my head for examining displacements is badwater near blu start. Loading that one up and hiding everything including nodraw faces then toggling the Displacement Draw 3D shows breaks down how that section was shaped together. Using that as a template, I developed my own approach to creating terrain from displacements.

The displacement tool can be a fickle beast, but can also be one of the most powerful tools for giving your scene great detail.
 

Vel0city

func_fish
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Dec 6, 2014
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I'm still amazed by the fact that the wall on the top left near BLU's first spawn (the path to the highground) isn't a displaced wall. It's as flat as it can be.
 

tehOMGfather

L1: Registered
Nov 15, 2009
27
3
Actually, it is a displaced wall but they didn't touch the displacements for whatever reason. At least within the example.