those simple questions thread...

[Major Banter]

Okay guys I just got a really weird warning. I wish I had taken a screenie, it said something about coming across a deleted item, but the weird part was the second sentence. "Tell a programmer." - um, what?

Too many verts, ask programmer to increase (something or other) count?

If it's something along those lines, you've got too many brushes in your map.

[bleakside]

It's okay, I managed to get it sorted, I don't have that many. I don't even know what "ask programmer to increase count" means

[joe_rogers_11155]

It's an old Valve-internal note to the devs.

[bleakside]

Ah ok. By the way, if I feel I've made a particularly good map, is there somewhere on here to upload it to get feedback?

[joe_rogers_11155]

We have a Map Pimpage thread. You can post there for showing off your awesome maps, or to get helpful criticism on how to improve a work in progress. We usually have something to say.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3153&p=476487#p476487

[no00dylan]

I wanted to see if someone could give me a hand with something... I'm working in 3ds max 2011, learning how to bake ambient occlusion to my models. I can get it to render to texture just fine, but it seems like no matter how I do it the rendered texture doesn't match my UVW map.

[Dr. Delta]

I wanted to see if someone could give me a hand with something... I'm working in 3ds max 2011, learning how to bake ambient occlusion to my models. I can get it to render to texture just fine, but it seems like no matter how I do it the rendered texture doesn't match my UVW map.

Un-tick 'automatic unwrap' and select 'existing unwrap' or something like that

[no00dylan]

Oh snap. Thanks!

[bleakside]

I'm currently trying to practise with portal doors, but whenever I'm across the room from them, they make the walls they're portalling to appear white, unless I get very close. I'm also getting an issue of seeing through the wall that the door faces. My portal doors are the same size as the door frame (192 x 128) so they should fit fine so I'm not sure what's going on.

[joe_rogers_11155]

areaportals can cause leaks if they are not used and/or placed properly (see below). so check for leaks by trying to display the pointfile. if it loads up automatically then you have at least one leak; if it asks where the pointfile is stored, then you have no leaks. the pointfile draws a red line in your map that shows what is leaking from/through where.

similar to a normal leak, areaportals must seal off perfectly as well. if you have a leak with an areaportal, you will normally see the red line going from one face of the areaportal and circling around to the other side of the same areaportal.

in your areaportal's properties, you can control whether the areaportal is open or closed using I/O in-game (an areaportalwindow will open and close automatically based on distance, which you can set). I usually just leave them open all the time unless there is a good reason to close it. i use areaportals to seal off things like houses and apartments from the "outside world"...i place one inside each doorway, window, crack in the wall, exposed hole, chimney, etc that the indoor area has. that will *usually* make it easier to create visleaves and will also tend to improve frame rates.

PS: dont forget to check out the VDC, which is the perfect place for learning more about mapping and entities.

[bleakside]

Thanks Joe. It's not a leak as such, there's no point file and there is no problem with compiling.

I've attached a screenie to show what I mean, I tried to do it before but it wouldn't let me. I'm using portal doors to create the illusion of a "multidimensional" test chamber. One has to get across the room to hit a button, which reopens the door at the start and also activates the portal door behind it, so it appears that when the door reopens, it reopens somewhere else.

[joe_rogers_11155]

i dont know how areaportals interact with the in-game ApSci portals.

[Tawnik]

OK i am brand new here and i have just started learning how to map in hammer ( i have some 3ds max experience but i am brushing up on that again right now too) anyway i am BRAND new to hammer so i just found out that carve is the devil and i went through and replaced everything i used carve on. ANYWAY one of the next things i am adding to my map is a curb like around a street its basically going to be a culdesack(sp?) and then a straight street and everything i have currently made is up on the raised area above street level.

the way i thought made most sense to do it right now is to add another brush on top of the current "bottom" of the level and then cut that new brush into the shape of the curb that i want, so the original "bottom" brush would only be visable where the street is now... is this completely retarded or does that sound like an ok way of going about something like this?

p.s. after finding out the carve tool sucks i am pretty timid about doing much more to the map until i am confident i am not doing something stupid again so i wont have to replace a bunch of junk in the future lol.

[joe_rogers_11155]

You should use the vertex manipulation tool to make that happen.

Give these tutorials a shot.
First, Vertex Manipulation: http://www.interlopers.net/tutorials/2860
Then, Curved Roads: http://www.interlopers.net/tutorials/31415

If you have more questions, this is the perfect place to ask and get help. Don't forget to check out the VDC (Valve Developer Community) https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Docs (bookmark this URL and use it often) which can provide all of the developer's own technical information on all entities and Hammer tools.

Carve is the devil.

[bleakside]

Yes, carve is a tool in the colloquial sense as much as the technical sense.

Thanks for the tip on kerbs by the way, I was just looking at one on the way home thinking about making a street! It's an omen that I must make maps instead of dinner.