Just a small caveat. You can still get away with using them to block off non-gameplay areas. For instance the inaccessible area in the blu spawn made up to look like a cart loading area in Goldrush seems to do this. I did this on a map with a similar setup. So never say never.
Area Portal vs func_areaportalwindow ???
- Thread starter Open Blade
- Start date
So when the players leave spawn it is not rendered, but adds alot to spawn room.
But in most likeliness once the player leaves spawn that side room isn't rendered anyway.
But in most likeliness once the player leaves spawn that side room isn't rendered anyway.
I should take that back about goldrush actually. Upon review I noticed there is no entity associated with that area and I'm only assuming it is an areaportal_window because of the surrounding geometry. It was from poking around in that map in the first place that I got the idea to even bother with an area portal in my own situation, and I guess I subsequently decided on areaportal_window specifically after reading up on area portals in general. I had no previous experience with them, or for that matter this late stage of map development, seeing as this is the longest I've ever stuck to one map (going all the way back to the days of quake 1 
).
Anyway for my map the window that leads into the inaccessible "detail" room is actually visible just barely from outside of blu spawn, yet there is nothing of interest to be seen so naturally I'd just assume not draw it. Instead of a hard switch I'm using the areaportal_window for a nice fade and also to avoid turning the areaportal on unnecessarily as the prime candidate for control is a door which itself gets frequent use. Distance just seems the better choice for visibility control in this case. With an areaportal_window, red outsiders never even draw that room no matter what the state of the spawn doors.
).Anyway for my map the window that leads into the inaccessible "detail" room is actually visible just barely from outside of blu spawn, yet there is nothing of interest to be seen so naturally I'd just assume not draw it. Instead of a hard switch I'm using the areaportal_window for a nice fade and also to avoid turning the areaportal on unnecessarily as the prime candidate for control is a door which itself gets frequent use. Distance just seems the better choice for visibility control in this case. With an areaportal_window, red outsiders never even draw that room no matter what the state of the spawn doors.
I do believe area_portal windows oare expensive to use. So if there is very little being blocked in that room by using it you are probably better off not even having one at all.