those simple questions thread...

[eviltoast499]

Did you read my post? It has nothing to do with collision boxes for models. However that guide does solve another unrelated lighting issue I have so thanks for it anyways! There's no leaks, and the compile log gives no errors. Nothing in my map was changed when this happened, so I don't have many leads to follow. Yesterday I just opened it up and there they were, corrupted lights that get cut off randomly. Entire walls/floors that were once illuminated by a simple light now aren't, and remaking either still doesn't fix it.

[cz_squishy]

Did you remake the walls or just the lights? I don't know if this would cause the lighting to mess up but a manipulated vertex might have gone off grid like they tend to do after some saves

[Dr Evil]

On what I'm working on:



Should I miter the outer walls? or when I compile will things go to hell in a handbasket? I dont remember....I'm trying to optimize a little bit as I go because I'm not quite sure where I am going with this yet...

[joe_rogers_11155]

when i do walls that curve inward at 90 degrees, i usually allow the actual curving brushwork to be a func_detail or, more recently, a displacement standing up on its side.

[Dr Evil]

Thanks Joe...

I guess my next task is to figure out the best way to do the skybox...

[Dr Evil]

Is there a tutorial somewhere that I can use that can show me how to set up something so I can make a flythrough video for one of me maps?

Its for something i'm doing for a school project

Thanks!

[joe_rogers_11155]

gee, i always use fraps to record myself noclipping through the map while the timescale is slowed way down.

hell, I go so far as to bind hotkeys for slowing the timescale down from 100% to 50% and 25% for dramatic scenes and/or more precise control of the view (you turn slowly when the timescale is reduced). you can also turn on "notarget" in the console to ensure that no NPC's shoot at you or follow you around while you fly around recording.

Check out this old youtube video I made for an example of my "flying around" method.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNYCPOqbQPI#t=00m29s

[Dr Evil]

Is there a way to remove something from a Visgroup without removing the entire group and starting over?

For instance, I have a set of lights in a VisGroup for room A, but I want to copy those lights to a new room & create a seperate visgroup, but when I do this and try to hide one group, it hides them both?

[LordDz]

Select the new ones, right click on them in the 2D view, select properties and remove them from the visgroup and add them to another?

[joe_rogers_11155]

yea i'm pretty sure that should do the trick?

[Gambini]

First time ever this happens to me: I was just done with a new model, so i began to play with the shaders in its vmt file. The model was showing up fine either in hammer or game but for some reason when i added $envmap and $envmapmask and built cubemaps in game the model began to show a normal map from other model as its diffuse texture.

Fixed the issue by replacing $envmapmaskmap by "$normalmapalphaenvmapmask but in hammer and the model browser it keeps showing the wrong texture. So, if i open the model viewer, the model shows up fine, and so in game but hammer keeps being confused. Recompiling the model didnt work, at some point the only thing i could achieve is that now the model shows another wrong texture. Tried restarting hammer, restarting steam and rebooting my PC but NOTHING helps.

May be somewhere a cache file that keeps causing this problem?

[Dr Evil]

Select the new ones, right click on them in the 2D view, select properties and remove them from the visgroup and add them to another?

That did the trick. Thanks man... been mapping for a few years and never noticed the visgroup tab in properties lol

[Gambini]

Sorry for being repetitive but i can´t hit the nail with this problem (see two posts above). I have recompiled the model from 3dS exporter and from XSI Exporter. I checked and rechecked and there are no extra UV projections nor extra materials added to the model. Tried linking the model to a different vmt file, saved the vtf from photoshop and from VTFedit importing a clean TGA file. Nothing seems to change except at least replacing the wrong tile by ANOTHER wrong tile.

It is even worse than i thought, the model shows up fine in game but when i run buildcubemaps it gets screwed up again. Commenting all shader effects in the vmt doesnt help either. I have already put in game about 200 models done the same way and NEVER got a problem like this.

This is my qc file:

Code: Select all

$staticprop
$modelname "southernmost/letrina.mdl"
$scale "3.2"
$body "Body" "letrina_ref.smd"
$cdmaterials "models/southernmost"
$sequence idle "letrina_ref.smd"
$surfaceprop "boulder"
$collisionmodel "letrina_phys.smd"  { $concave }

This is what Studiomdl spits after compiling:

Code: Select all

GUIStudioMDL 2.2/Source - © 2007 Neil 'Jed' Jedrzejewski - http://www.wunderboy.org/

Loaded QC file - "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Mis documentos\Half life 2 archivos\letrina.qc"

Created command line: C:\Juegos\Steam\steamapps\user\sourcesdk\bin\source2009\bin\studiomdl.exe -game "c:\juegos\steam\steamapps\user\half-life 2 episode two\ep2" -nop4 -nox360 "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Mis documentos\Half life 2 archivos\letrina.qc"

qdir:    "c:\documents and settings\user\mis documentos\half life 2 archivos\"
gamedir: "c:\juegos\steam\steamapps\user\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\"
g_path:  "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Mis documentos\Half life 2 archivos\letrina.qc"
Building binary model files...
Working on "letrina.qc"
SMD MODEL letrina_ref.smd
SMD MODEL letrina_phys.smd
Model has 4 convex sub-parts
Collision model completed.
---------------------
writing c:\juegos\steam\steamapps\user\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models/southernmost/letrina.mdl:
bones          964 bytes (1)
animations     112 bytes (1 anims) (1 frames) [0:00]
sequences      220 bytes (1 seq)
ik/pose        164 bytes
eyeballs         0 bytes (0 eyeballs)
flexes           0 bytes (0 flexes)
textures        72 bytes
keyvalues        0 bytes
bone transforms        0 bytes
Collision model volume 5595.13 in^3
collision        0 bytes
total         1724
---------------------
writing c:\juegos\steam\steamapps\user\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models/southernmost/letrina.vvd:
vertices      6624 bytes (138 vertices)
tangents      2208 bytes (138 vertices)
total         8896 bytes
---------------------
Generating optimized mesh "c:\juegos\steam\steamapps\user\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models/southernmost/letrina.sw.vtx":
body parts:         8 bytes
models:            20 bytes
model LODs:        12 bytes
meshes:             9 bytes
strip groups:      25 bytes
strips:            27 bytes
verts:           1242 bytes
indices:         1164 bytes
bone changes:      16 bytes
everything:      2547 bytes
---------------------
Generating optimized mesh "c:\juegos\steam\steamapps\user\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models/southernmost/letrina.dx80.vtx":
body parts:         8 bytes
models:            20 bytes
model LODs:        12 bytes
meshes:             9 bytes
strip groups:      25 bytes
strips:            27 bytes
verts:           1242 bytes
indices:         1164 bytes
bone changes:      16 bytes
everything:      2547 bytes
---------------------
Generating optimized mesh "c:\juegos\steam\steamapps\user\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models/southernmost/letrina.dx90.vtx":
body parts:         8 bytes
models:            20 bytes
model LODs:        12 bytes
meshes:             9 bytes
strip groups:      25 bytes
strips:            27 bytes
verts:           1242 bytes
indices:         1164 bytes
bone changes:      16 bytes
everything:      2547 bytes

Completed "letrina.qc"

And this is the vmt file (notice I already tested disabling everything below "$basetexture"

Code: Select all

"VertexLitGeneric"
{
   "$basetexture" "models/southernmost/letrina"
    "$bumpmap" "models\southernmost\letrina_normal"
                "$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1
    "$envmap" "env_cubemap"
   "$envmaptint" .3 .3 .3
   "$phong" "1"
   "$phongboost" "10"
   "$phongfresnelranges" "[.1 .5 1]"
}

This is how the model looks in the model viewer (randomly it will show up a skybox texture instead but i cant reproduce it):



This is how the model shows up in hammer (funnily enough, showing the material of the previous model i compiled).



This is how the model looks ingame (before running cubemaps):



Then with cubemaps:



And with cubemaps but with all the shader parameters commented in the vmt file:



However all this seems to be random, sometimes it will show a mix of all textures used in the brushes around the model. Putting the model in another map neither changes anything. There are no warnings nor error messages nor in game nor in the compile log. I already tried deleting the .ain files placed in mod/maps/graphs too.

I´m clueless about what to try next

EDIT: reading my own post I realized this is the first time i try the "$surfaceprop" boulder. I somewhat got the hammer issue fixed by replacing it with concrete but the problem after building cubemaps still exists.

[Ark11]

In the .vmt isn't

Code: Select all

"$envmap" "env_cubemap"

supposed to be

Code: Select all

"$envmap" "1"

Try that.

[Gambini]

Nope. All my vmt files read "$envmap" "env_cubemap". It is not a boolean parameter because you have to tell to the engine what material render as reflection. env_cubemap will load the nearest cubemap, but you can put there another material, if necessary.

However, I never dismiss something before trying it first. But yeah, it didn´t work. Thanks anyway.

EDIT: GOTCHA!!! If anybody ever stumbles against this problem it is because after a bad material operation (i will assume the "surfaceprop boulder" introduced it) the material will be cached and won´t accept changes. typing flush in the console did the trick (after making hl2 crash).

One never goes to bed without learning something new. What´s funny is that the model is a latrine, so writting flush to take the shit out makes sense