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area portals proper use?
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 Re: area portals proper use?
Posted by Sam37 on Wed Dec 15th at 9:41pm 2004

Hi I'm making quite a large map with lots of buildings and I'm not to sure how to use area portals and hint brushes.

Ive figured out from searching that area portals should be used over doorways in corridors, but should they be used for all doorways or only ones that open to large areas?

On another note, should windows have area portals over them aswell?

Thanx for any help





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 Re: area portals proper use?
Posted by RabidMonkey777 on Wed Dec 15th at 9:46pm 2004

Both hint brushes and areaportals are used to control what is rendered in-game as to help performance wise.

I'd say put them over all or most doorways, if possible - Seems like it'd help the best performance-wise.

Windows should have hint brushes instead of areaportals.

If you're looking on how to create these types of brushes themselves...

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Levels/performance_and_visibility.html



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 Re: area portals proper use?
Posted by Sam37 on Wed Dec 15th at 9:54pm 2004

OK thanks very much

btw how do i mark an answer as "correct"





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 Re: area portals proper use?
Posted by SnowmanDev on Mon Apr 24th at 7:06pm 2006

Some images in this post have been automatically down-sized, click on them to view the full sized versions:

Hey peeps,

I come a long way since i first signed upto the pit and now i have a question about area portals/hint brushes etc...

basically i have a map with a skybox surrounding it but the thing is i have a "veranda" on a mansion i have made and because of the skybox i can see the rest of my map like the start point and a set of stairs, the thing is i dont want to be able to see these because it looks really stupid lol.

I have attached a screenie and i was wondering how i mite go about making these "invisible" maybe there is a texture or something that hides the rest of my map when i am looking over the walls that surround my map.







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 Re: area portals proper use?
Posted by ReNo on Thu Apr 27th at 12:08am 2006

The solution really is not to offer views like that. If you ARE going to offer views like that, then you need to build the environment to suit it. You shouldn't just have walls and then a skybox, you should build in the surrounding architecture. What should actually exist in the area to block the view? Whatever it is you answer to that question, well build that there <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

I know that this isn't exactly the answer you are hoping for, but its what we have to do as level designers.



Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net



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 Re: area portals proper use?
Posted by SnowmanDev on Thu Apr 27th at 12:23am 2006

ok thanx man, i'll use area portals in doors and things and build up the surrounds (somehow lol)

thanx






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