Nodraw Texture

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
so I've got a sewers under my map, and to fill it with water, I've created a few boxes that encompass the tunnels composing the sewer. However, to eliminated planes of water that are just floating in strange places, i've textured those faces with Nodraw... Which causes some issues of its own, with the nodraw creating invisible textures and empty spaces.

What I'd really like to know is how to fix this, so i have still got a filled box of water to make the sewers, but not have either a face of water, or nodraw that opens into empty space...

thanks
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
aa
May 19, 2008
1,767
2,820
What are you trying to do exactly?

You should have your tunnels, textured as tunnels, and then a water brush, where all the sides are nodraw except the top face, which is given the water texture.
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
Ok, that's what i have for the most part, but as the water is divided into sections as well (because my sewers extend down, and have some air pockets added, I've had to separate the water into multiple brushes. all the water brushes extend beyond the tunnel brushes, but the faces that cross down into the tunnels appear to be causing this invisible render problem. its only viable from one view when running the map itself.
 

Apom

L6: Sharp Member
Sep 14, 2008
366
65
I don't know if this will help you, but you can't properly render expensive water if there are different water levels visible from the same leaf. It could be the problem.
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
so you're suggesting making the water no longer overlap? i can try that for sure... I've only been thinking its the nodraw that causes the problem, but i don't know for sure...
 

Apom

L6: Sharp Member
Sep 14, 2008
366
65
Overlapping should not be a problem (well, overlapping is always bad practice, but that's besides the point). The problem I'm talking about is, to use an example, having water in a sink and water on the ground - one water level is one meter above the other, and the Source engine can not display that properly if you are using an expensive water texture.
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
ahh, no, I'm not using expensive water textures. I only need it to look like, say, the water in CP_well, and act like it
 

Apom

L6: Sharp Member
Sep 14, 2008
366
65
I'm pretty sure that Well's water is expensive. Cheap textures have "cheap" in their name (if you haven't already, you should read the valve developer's community page on water).
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
the water texture is not the problem, nor is overlap... theres still areas where the tunnel texture just disapears, no matter what i do
 

Altaco

L420: High Member
Jul 3, 2008
484
120
the water texture is not the problem, nor is overlap... theres still areas where the tunnel texture just disapears, no matter what i do

You mentioned air pockets... Remember, source can't render the sides or bottom of water brushes. Is that the problem?
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
no, it shouldn't be, the air pockets are empty spaces in the top of a tunnel, and thats not where the problem is. the problem appears to be when swimming between the water brushes, and it shows the floor/walls as invisible till you swim through to the next brush
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
console is spitting this back at me:

No such variable "$bottommaterial" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogcolor" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogenable" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogstart" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogend" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$bottommaterial" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogcolor" for material "___error"
No such variable "$fogenable" for material "___error"
No such variable "$fogstart" for material "___error"
No such variable "$fogend" for material "___error"
No such variable "$bottommaterial" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogcolor" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogenable" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogstart" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogend" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$bottommaterial" for material "tools/toolsnodraw"
No such variable "$fogcolor" for material "___error"
No such variable "$fogenable" for material "___error"
No such variable "$fogstart" for material "___error"
No such variable "$fogend" for material "___error"
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
aa
May 19, 2008
1,767
2,820
no, it shouldn't be, the air pockets are empty spaces in the top of a tunnel, and thats not where the problem is. the problem appears to be when swimming between the water brushes, and it shows the floor/walls as invisible till you swim through to the next brush

From what I understand you can't have multiple water brushes in the same view (next to eachother), make all your water one brush.
 

Apom

L6: Sharp Member
Sep 14, 2008
366
65
From what I understand you can't have multiple water brushes in the same view (next to eachother), make all your water one brush.
Yes, you can, as long as they have the same level (and then, if they are cheap, you can even have different levels). There will likely be visible transitions between the water surfaces because of how cubemaps work (possibly not applicable to DX10), but there should not be the kind of issue described here.

Do you have lighting in your map Muiramme, or did you jsut do a BSP compile?
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
One of my friends has found a solution, turn the walls of the sewers into a func_wall, which i will do, but i'm still curious as to why this happened, so if anyone has any ideas, please keep posting :)
 

Uriak

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Apr 27, 2008
543
70
I remember something of the same kind some time ago. It may be caused by water not effectively "touching" the wall of your sewer. Source can't handle seeing through sides of normal water brushes. You can of course make your water brushes bigger than the zone they are supposed to "fill"
 

Muiramme

L1: Registered
Oct 17, 2008
15
0
unfortunately, that was what i had in original form. all the water brushes were bigger than the tunnels itself