Is my map going to die doctor?

[DrHaphazard]

So uh yeah, a few saves ago i started to notice this happening. I'll post a picture of it...



Essentially it looks like there's nodraw brushes at crazy angles all over the place. It mainly happens when i am flying around, but they arent there normally. Its actually somewhat hard to take a picture of because i have to be at just the right position/angle to see them. They flash in and out.

It hasnt really affected anything, and doesnt get in the way of me working at all, its mainly a visual annoyance when im zooming around the map. Should i be worried about a pending apocalypse, or is this just a random bug thats fairly common?

 

[Scotland Tom]

I've personally never seen this before. Though I have had weird problems with brushes appearing/disappearing. I don't think your map is dying, but there's probably something that's causing Hammer to display things improperly or a brush or two that are acting strangely. I honestly don't know. It's a pretty bizarre looking problem.

 

[YM]

now thats wierd. never seen this, although from the other day (update methinks) the textures on some of my tool textured brushes spwaps between how it should look and slightly squished and diagonal. but that seems to just be texturing and hasnt caused any problems

 

[shpladoink]

What's your video card setup? I've seen this happening in-game with outdated drivers, but not in Hammer before. Does this happen in other maps loaded in Hammer, or just this one?

Also, save backup versions in case your map implodes.

 

[Snipergen]

can't you delete the blocks and rebuild them to see if it happens again? Man this is weird never seen this before too.

 

[drp]

this seems like its just a graphics driver problem. have you tried updating?

 

[DrHaphazard]

Well yeah like i said I have never seen this in any other maps, just one. Also the map layout is pretty much done and the things uh large, so deleting things at this point would be a real pain.

It could well be a graphics card thing, but my computer is very new, only 2 months old so I dont think its a lack of power or anything. I think i am just gonna ignore this until it forces me not too, its not impeding anything as is.

 

[Scotland Tom]

Well, even a new graphics card can have problems. Make sure your drivers are updated. You can also probably check the manufacturer's website to see if there are any known issues.

 

[Diddly]

1. In hammer -> map -> check for problems. see if that reports anything unusual.
2. Check your autosave folder perhaps older versions don't have this problem, you might be able to copy&paste the fixed stuff back in.
3. What gfx card have you got and what version of the drivers are you using.

 

[Hawk]

I had something like this happen to me once, only it wasn't Nodraw brushes. What happend is that I tried to build a battleship out of brushes and I made some really crazy stuff. There were hollowed-out cylinders, brushes with weird divisions in them, and abominations no man should ever use in his map. The very next time I loaded the map, any illegitimate brushes I had looked like they exploded. Thankfully, I was able to just delete the bad brushes and invest the time to figure out how to import custom models.

Did you create any odd or overly complex brushwork in your map?

 

[DrHaphazard]

Yeah I may be guilty of using the arch tool. I mean its there right? Shouldn't we be able to use it? I just wanted to create some curved roofs for 2 of my buildings. I guess theres a reason that theres no such thing in any official valve map. I'll post screens of it later, even though its way not done.

The roofs in question are somewhat large, would be a huge model, and in any case I have no modeling experience.

When Hammer is working again I'll go check out my versions before i put the roof on, but that was at least a week ago if not two now, and to go back to that save would basically squander a whole lot of work.

I'd love to see a tutorial on creating curved surfaces, I tried doing so without the arch tool but the complexity of the task daunted me. The easy way out strikes again.

Edit: Here's the offending edificies:

Exterior Point 5:


Interior Point 5:


Exterior Point 4:


Interior Point 4:


No theres no lighting yet in the map, and you can see in the first screenshot the black overlay problem i was talkin about.

 

[DrHaphazard]

I have been thinking about this one. If those roofs are really the problem, could i turn them into func_details and then use hint brushes to "close" the roof from a vis perspective?

 

[Hawk]

The nice thing about those roofs is that you could get the same thing using regular brushes and the vertex tool. I'm often skeptical of some of the geometry-making tools they give you in Hammer. They've got a cylinder tool, for instance, but it's often better just to build your own cylinder since you can do it in a more efficient manner.

Making the roof a func_detail is a good idea.

 

[bazola]

The vertex tool is alright but I have found it guilty at times of creating lots of points that are off the grid. For me the surefire way of creating complex brushwork is the clip tool. If you visualize the curve of your roof as a bunch of cubes it might make it easier. Place the cubes along the shape you want to create, and then use the clip tool to slice the shape of the top of your roof. I find it easiest to start on one corner of an 8x8 section of the grid. Cut your slope lower as you go and you will have the general shape you want. Then make the same cuts 8 or 16 units lower in the cubes along the same angles. You can save whats left over from the bottom cuts to use as the top of your wall; the bonus will be that it will line up perfectly. Now you can stretch the roof shape to the size you need.

I don't know if that makes sense, I could post screenshots of the process I am describing, but in the end only practice with the clip tool will give you the shapes that you want. I should also note that you would want the crazy shaped brushes to be func_details. Really anything that is not square will result in a ton of visleafs in vvis. Also I think it has trouble with sizes that are not a power of two, and sizes above 1024.

 

[DrHaphazard]

Heh I am afraid your explanation went right over my head bazola, I'll have to try rereading it later. Mainly I am just here to note that my map sure does look ugly in those screenshots. Hopefully lighting will help but some textures have got to go.