Skybox help?

[evanonline]

I've been having problems with the 3D skybox on my map. When I seal the 3D skybox area with a skybox floor, toolsblack or nodraw, it comes out looking like this:



The map projects out into the distance, or in certain areas, acts as if there is no skybox in the map at all whatsoever.

When I seal the map with a skip:



The skybox shows up, but the map still projects in the distance, and in another area you can actually see the 3D skybox materials out in the distance (out where they are located in the stage). Having no floor whatsoever for the 3D skybox simply does the same as if there was a Hint sealing the box, with the exception of the fact that models over displacements obviously won't show up.

I've redone the skybox countless times trying to find out what the problem is, and I am positive that there isn't some leftover second sky_camera sitting around somewhere. Looked at the entity report to confirm. What could be causing this? I've never had this problem before. I bet it's going to be very stupid when I do find the cause of the problem, but...!

 

[Loc_n_lol]

Err... aren't skip and hint NOT counting as sealing anything, thereby causing a leak, no VIS, and a visible 3D skybox in the distance ?

 

[evanonline]

I know that. But my problem is, sealing it with something proper is working WORSE than sealing it with Skip, or not even sealing it at all! The skybox at least shows up when I seal it with Skip, even thought it still draws the map out in the distance like that.

When I have it sealed with completely by a Skybox, or use Nodraw to seal the floor of the 3D Skybox, it doesn't draw the 3D Skybox at all and the map shows up in the background, as pictured. Among other problems.

 

[evanonline]

Let me elaborate on my problem a bit here.

Pictured in the original post is how it looks when the 3D skybox is not PROPERLY sealed. However, the skybox actually shows up properly, for the most part, with the exception of the map drawing out in the distance and the skybox itself being visible out in the distance.

When it IS properly sealed, be it by a Skybox texture or by Nodraw:



When looking at some angles, this crazy echo effect happens. This is what maps look like when there is not a skybox at all of any kind--it just displays the previous frames out in the sky.



But then, I look a little bit to the left and the skybox returns...



Albeit the fact that the map is still drawing out in the distance like that, and my skybox is not properly appearing.

I am wondering if this is some sort of long-standing issue with the map itself. I originally had this problem with the map and between this and disliking the layout of the stage altogether, I decided to just scrap it. I recently returned to this map and redid everything but the first and last points and completely forgot I had this problem until now. Whatever I did wrong, I did wrong very early.



This is what it looks like when I throw Jarate upwards, btw. Oh god.

If anyone has ANY idea what the problem could be, I would really appreciate it. I really want to test this map out and this is the only thing obstructing me from doing so. And oddly enough, I tried copypasting this map into a new file and it just kills the compiler and won't run. It compiles fine in the original file, but...

 

[An Icy Mouse]

And you're absolutely sure everything is sealed and you're looking at skybox brush not nodraw anywhere? The small world being rendered in the skybox is being caused by VVIS not doing proper calculations, which arises from leaks

 

[DJive]

those screenshots are kinda small to see. Being imageshack it takes a long time to load them up and see after clicking them.

imageshack= suck.

BUt to try to be helpful from the small images you have..

• a leak
• skybox isn't a solid brush

however depending on your map size, feel free to send it my way and ill see what i can find.

 

[evanonline]

...huh, you know. There's a trigger_multiple mentioned leaking in the error log. I followed the coordinates it listed and it just took me out into the middle of nowhere, and there wasn't a thing out there.

I looked in the Entity Report and the only trigger_multiples it showed were the ones that should be there, nothing out of place. I didn't make much of it. Not quite sure why I didn't think of messing with that!

 

[evanonline]

Well, I guess this would the problem.

I can't select it at all, whatever it is, but I would assume this "leak" out here is definitely the issue. Is there anything I can do about this?

EDIT: Tried deleting all the trigger multiples in the map. Oddly, whatever it is that was leaking, it just...changed into a func_door when I deleted them. Restoring all of them made this mysterious leaking oddity back into a trigger_multiple. I am perplexed to say the least!!

 

[lustygoat]

The leak finder line leads you from an entity out into the void... there's nothing at the far end of it, just empty space. You need to follow the line out from the entity and seal up the hole in your map that the line leads through.

on your edit: deleting entities won't help you, you can delete all your entities one by one and all of them will still leak. The entities aren't the issue, the hole in your map geometry is.

 

[evanonline]

Alright, then. In my previous experience with leaks the holes just so happened to be right where the line was, so I figured it was the case here. I know less about Hammer than I would like to admit!!

Thanks for the help.

 

[An Icy Mouse]

Ah I know what that is, turn on helpers (the wireframe sphere on the top toolbar) and select all of your brush based entities (triggers, func_doors etc) Some of them have a blue sphere marking thier 'origin' if that origin is outside of the map, the brush leaks.
you can use tools>centre origins to snap them back to the middle of their brush to fix it.

 

[evanonline]

That's definitely it. There's a door where the trigger_multiple, func_door and the door itself all had origins centered out where the line was. That door was one of the only things I didn't change from my old version of this map, so it adds up.

Now to make sure it's the ONLY problem! Thanks a lot.