those simple questions thread...

[Killergarcia]

Is there a way to make env_sprites stay visible through fog?

[Gambini]

Make them glow or glow_spaceworld.

-staticproppolys, -staticproplighting and -textureshadows are always on by default for me.
Im in the process of making a large city syle Gmod map. My current brush count is up at ~5200 and ive only done about 2/3 of the total map. So im going back over and converting what i can into models. I would rather have 3 models for a single building than on average 100-150 brushes. 1 it saves on world brushes/ func_detail, 2 i can use a single block brush to cull visibility, 3 i can add a lot more detail to the building. Im also quite close to the t-jun limit.

I can´t be very precise without seeing the map but you should reduce brushwork by replacing small details with models. Things like windowframes, staircases, roof panels, chimneys, lucarnes, beams, baseboards, all kind of furniture, etc. Those will make the shading difference less noticeable (or not notibeable at all) and you will save more brushes than with big buildings.

[TheDanishMaster]

I have a map which loads in chunks much like in minecraft. Anything I can do to fix this or at least be able to control it in somehow?

Of course the entire map is already loaded but pops up visible in chunks depending on how far away you are and it looks terrible

[Dives]

In Source?
Is the console complaining about anything?

[Gary]

Loads in chunks? Sounds like a vis issue. ... could you post a video of this?

[Gary]

In relation to game programming, how important is trigonometry?

[Jangalomph]

Pretty important, If you wanna get into programming actual 3d world things, It'd be important. Base shaders and all of that are pretty math heavy and would need calculus and trig, Which is what I'm going to take in college.

In game development, there are a lot of situations where you need to use the trigonometric functions. When programming a game, you'll often need to do things like find the distance between two points or make an object move. Here are a few examples:

Rotating a spaceship or other vehicle

Properly handling the trajectory of projectiles shot from a rotated weapon

Calculating a new trajectory after a collision between two objects such as billiard balls or heads

Determining if a collision between two objects is happening

Finding the angle of trajectory (given the speed of an object in the x direction and y direction)

Check these links for further reading:

http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/4436/camera-field-of-view-3d-projections-trigonometry

http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=30617&seqNum=6



The most obvious use of trigonometry is to get an object to move in any given direction, without trigonometry this is impossible.

Code: Select all

//Example code, will move the object speed units in the given direction (degrees)
d2r = pi / 180; //Conversion from degrees to radians
this.x += speed * cos (direction * d2r);
this.y += speed *-sin (direction * d2r);
It is also used for other things, such as:

Executing transformations on 2d sprites to create rotation.
Is used very extensively in projecting a 3d view.
Due to the shape of a sine wave it can be used to create smooth transitions between 2 values.
Creating sine waves for the purpose of audio synthesis.
Drawing circular objects such as circles and spheres.
Determining the location of a point which is on the arm of a pivot.

[TheDanishMaster]

Sorry about the delay, but yeah I also think it's an issue with vis but I'm not sure. Sometimes reloading the map fixes it but instead the r_farz seems to be pretty low when it's at -1. In the video I change it to 50k so you can clearly see the chunk thingy. And it happens in all the larger areas of the map. And it is Source if you can't tell

[Aus_Karlos]

Ive had a similar error like that before, it was a single areaportalwindowbrush I had accedently mixed up the start and end fade vaules. IE Start fade 200 end fade 150..

[Killergarcia]

Make them glow or glow_spaceworld.

Those didn't work - they fade out once the fog gets to full thickness. (I'm using env_fog controller, by the way)

What I'm trying to do is make lights like these, but I need them to be visible from any distance through the fog:

Am I going about it wrong? Is there a better way to do it than sprites? Not intentionally hijacking the thread, btw

[Armageddon]

I do believe in the original Dear Esther he used an env_light_glow with some distance settings, seemed to work well for his radio tower.

[Dives]

The radio tower in Dear Esther was always a part of the 3D skybox. The very impressive Skydome that Robert Briscoe constructed,

[Gambini]

Those didn't work - they fade out once the fog gets to full thickness.

Well, I´d never use full fog max density because it looks like shit. If you tone it down to 0.8 or something like that I´m pretty sure the sprites will be visible and your map will look better.

[Epifire]

So here's a simple question, when has the Lighting Preview ever worked like it's supposed to in Hammer? I don't use it for extremely accurate lighting but I turn it on to see dark areas of my map and where some lights need to be.

Kinda makes me think on other settings too like Ray Traced Preview, as well as HDR. Things that make me wonder where Hammer was really going back in the day.

[Dives]

I was so excited when I heard lighting preview was coming in the orange box engine. Turned out to be a worthless turd. It only shows light_spot entities and no light bounce. Meaning pretty much that what you see in the lighting preview will be very different from what you see in-game, making the whole feature pointless.
Ray Traced Preview doesn't even work in any version of hammer I've tried it in.