Skybox Problems

[CaffeinePowered]

I've been having some issues with being able to see bits and pieces of far off level geometry despite it being occluded by a 2-D skybox.

This may be because I have i have some areas that are closed off on 3 sides by the skybox, but I'm not totally sure.

Ive attached some screenshots of a sectioned off area in hammer as well as in-game screenshots.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[bob+M|M+]

Ahh yes I've had this problem before too. Make sure you have no leaks and no area portal leaks. There is a leak in the bottom left window of the first screen shot. Did you fix that?

For the double X windows, are you using multiple areaportals? The optimal approach would be to func_detail all of the cross hatches and make 1 big square areaportal.

Make sure every major outdoor area is separately enclosed by skybox walls, and if you are still getting problems, then try slicing the far off geometry into sections so that the area portal will not render the entirety of the pieces.

 

[MangyCarface]

Your current PVIS, or potentially visible set, is drawn no matter what. Skybox does not take precedence over the real world PVIS. As a result your PVIS is drawn on top of it and looks like that. In short, skybox cannot be reliably used to block the rendering of objects behind it, except in certain cases.

 

[CaffeinePowered]

Ahh yes I've had this problem before too. Make sure you have no leaks and no area portal leaks. There is a leak in the bottom left window of the first screen shot. Did you fix that?

For the double X windows, are you using multiple areaportals? The optimal approach would be to func_detail all of the cross hatches and make 1 big square areaportal.

Make sure every major outdoor area is separately enclosed by skybox walls, and if you are still getting problems, then try slicing the far off geometry into sections so that the area portal will not render the entirety of the pieces.

Yea I had fixed the leak a while ago, I'm going to try some hint brushes and a few more area portals.

The problem is some of the that geometry is far off, like through 2 area portals and its still being rendered

Edit: Messing with some hint brushes and area portals seems to work, guess its going to be trial and error to see what can completely eliminate the geometry without causing performance hits