Skyboxes, stages and large cliffs

[Pc_Madness]

Hey guys, for my 3 stage A&D, I've got it nestled outside and inside of a mountain. For the moment I'm using a Skybox brush to separate the stages, which works for the most part, but there a few spots in one stage where you can see through the brush into the second stage, and then if you move alittle, it'll disappear again.

Keeping in mind that my stage 1 is below and to the left of Stage 2...(U shaped)
- What should I use to hide one stage from the other? Looking at the SDK maps they just use a wall and a Skybox brush, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick for me
- I want a cliff to cover the side of stage 2 that can be seen from stage 1 (in hammer units its about 7000 long, and a height of 1600). Can I put a skybox displacement in between the stages? When I put a 3D rocket in a test skybox ages ago, it was semi transparent when it had level brushes behind it, which got me worried that something similar would happen to displacements.
- When should one begin building a 3D skybox?

Errm, I think thats all for now. Just want to make sure its not all going to end in tears when I get around to the skybox part

 

[grazr]

Areaportal's can manage this if you "close" them. Regular portal's that remain open work similarly but as you can see (if you've already included them) objects will render beyond the skybox brushes if the area is not completely "closed off".

Closing off an area entirely with a door and closed areaportal hidden behind it would work. Alternatively, change your local geometry to block sightlines to Stage 2.

 

[absurdistof]

Or, a nice lazy way out, if your stages are not connected, is to grab a whole stage with a selection box, and move it. Simply go to the cursor tool, drab a box that fully encompases the stage in all three dimensions, go to the top-down view (sometimes the others don't work for me) and hit enter to select everything inside, then drag it to somewhere where you couldn't see it from the other stages.

 

[Cynick]

1. The way Valve does this is simply to connect their stages to each other. If you look at dustbowl, all three stages are joined together normally and Valve enables/disables fence models to keep players where they should be. The spawn rooms simply switch teams during round changes. (e.g. Stage 1 Red spawn = Stage 2 Blu spawn)

2. regarding skybox displacements...no. Don't do it. Displacements don't technically block visibility, so they WILL NOT seal the map from leaks.

3. I can't say when the best time to build a 3d skybox is, I'm definitely not an expert. But personally, I build one in the later stages of a map (beta at least). For the best answer, I would ask one of the many "expert" mappers on this site.