so you have invisible props? heres how to fix it.

[mike-o]

So youve placed your regular prop_physics or whatever in your map, but when you compile it, you dont see it. That is due to a resource-conserving feature called the "visibility sphere". When outside of the visibility sphere, you cannot see the prop. When you are in it - you guessed it - you can see it.

1. Right click your prop and click "properties". Notice the extremely small circle right under the chair's "axles" or whatever you want to call them - thats the visibility sphere.



2. Scroll down in the left side of the window to "Start Fade Dist". This defines how far away you need to be for the prop to be invisible. The higher (or lower if negative) the number is, the bigger the visibility sphere. It defaults to -1. We want no visibility sphere so that you can see the prop from anywhere on the map, so set this to zero.



3. The next is optional, the fade scale. This is basically a flag to determine whether or not the model fades out. DirectX7 cards automatically cause props to fade unless this flag is set to 0. Numbers smaller than 1 cause the prop to fade out at further distances, and greater than 1 cause it to fade out at closer distances. Setting it to zero turns off forcible fades, but adds to the budget.



And viola, it shows up in game. I hope this makes sense. If you get to be an advanced mapper, you will want to learn about when to use the visibilty sphere instead of just getting rid of it. But for now, youre OK.

[YokaI]

This is useful, but at the same time isnt :heart attack:

anyway, most of us good mappers know this (even i know this, and im not a good mapper)

They Really just neet to think about what "fade distance" means...


Anyway, although simple... diserves a stick.... does not diserve to be in tutorials

[Dead-Inside]

This is a problem you only have at one time in your mapping career (Without having the answer that is).

Also, nothing says you need to use fade distances to optimize your map, you can do just aswell without.

[YokaI]

not the point...

This is a good sticky cause fad distances changes sometimes just by copying a model. really. So to get noobs to stop asking it you might as well sticky

[Dead-Inside]

Yes but the reason why it hasn't been done before (anywhere) is because the questions won't stop anyway. People who ask these questions usually aren't experienced enough to go look for the answer but rather just have it handed to them.

[Cr4ig]

Thx mike-o. I think this is useful, because the amount of times that I havehad people asking why they can't see there models. I'm sure Blink will put it up later.

[mike-o]

Thx mike-o. I think this is useful, because the amount of times that I havehad people asking why they can't see there models. I'm sure Blink will put it up later.

Yea, i noticed the crazy amount of people asking this. You dont have to make it a sticky, but maybe lump it into the sticky already there. Or maybe make a sticky pertaining to nub questions. i dont know.

writing this was pretty fun, maybe ill make some tutorials for advanced / intermediate mappers.

[RabidGoat]

thanks for answering a question about fade values that I was afraid to ask. I thought it was useful.

Are there any stupid questions for HL2 level editing?

No.

Can I learn how to level edit from a foozeball table?

I stand corrected.

Your friendly neiborhood Hammer n00b-

Rabid Goat

[zombie@computer]

ow but fade distances are really usefull, only more for static props and for those rooms you just can't optimize using hints and or areaportals

[mike-o]

ow but fade distances are really usefull, only more for static props and for those rooms you just can't optimize using hints and or areaportals

yea, at the end of this tutorial i said its important to know when to use visibility spheres once you really get into mapping.

i cant believe this isnt in the source common problems sticky *hint hint*!

[miscreat]

thanks had this problem before and had it again last night. now i know why. cheers

[mike-o]

yea bro

[Blink]

Thx Mike

[mike-o]

rad i got stickied

[Spartan]

I haven't bothered to read everyone's posts so I'm not sure if anybody has noted this yet. Another reason for not seeing models in a map can also be because they were deleted during the compile process. Check your compiling log incase. Some models must be used on dynamic entities such as a "prop_physics". I discovered this when I put some models into a map using the "prop_static" entitie.