portalnum > numareaportals

while attempting to optimize this house that is a part of an open kind of level, i decided to try my hand at adding areaportals at all the entrances and exits to "seal it up" and try to increase performance.

after adding the area portals to all the relevant openings to my house and texturing both sides of the area portal brushes with the ap texture, i compiled, CSS started, and then took me back to hammer without loading my map and i get this little window titled ENGINE ERROR that says:

portalnum > numareaportals.

I dont really know what it means, but i'd like a general solution for this error if anyone has it. I'm including my compile log in case that helps or if you notice something thats really slowing my perf down. Thanks Guys + Gals! ~BENDER

**YES i noticed the part about "area portal brush doesn't touch two areas" but can't I explain/understand how to fix.

** Executing...
** Command: "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk\bin\vbsp.exe"
** Parameters: -game "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\counter-strike source\cstrike" "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12"

Valve Software - vbsp.exe (Aug 4 2006)
2 threads
materialPath: c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\counter-strike source\cstrike\materials
Loading C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.vmf
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Processing areas...Wrote C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.lin

Brush 24461: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24504: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24446: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24446: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 24446: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas
done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 80 detail faces...done (0)
Merging details...done (0)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (0)
writing C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.prt...done (0)
Creating default cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/sky_day01_01*.vmt
Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.

No such variable "$hdrbasetexture" for material "skybox/sky_day01_01rt"
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_day01_01 to build the default cubemap!
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (1) (89141 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 479 texinfos to 394
Reduced 35 texdatas to 32 (808 bytes to 698)
Writing C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.bsp
2 seconds elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk\bin\vvis.exe"
** Parameters: -game "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\counter-strike source\cstrike" "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12"

Valve Software - vvis.exe (May 22 2006)
2 threads
reading c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.bsp
reading c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.prt
348 portalclusters
1115 numportals
BasePortalVis: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
PortalFlow: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (31)
Optimized: 320 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 51518
Average clusters visible: 148
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 338
visdatasize:31550 compressed from 33408
writing c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.bsp
31 seconds elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk\bin\vrad.exe"
** Parameters: -game "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\counter-strike source\cstrike" "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12"

Valve Software - vrad.exe SSE (May 22 2006)
----- Radiosity Simulator ----
2 threads
[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[1 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']

Loading c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.bsp
2066 faces
649386 square feet [93511712.00 square inches]
0 displacements
0 square feet [0.00 square inches]
2066 patches before subdivision
56520 patches after subdivision
0 direct lights
BuildFacelights: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (2)
BuildVisLeafs: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (66)
transfers 17000349, max 966
transfer lists: 129.7 megs
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #1 added RGB(0, 0, 0)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.0923 sec>
FinalLightFace: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
FinalLightFace Done
0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
ComputePerLeafAmbientLighting: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Ready to Finish

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 27/1024 1296/49152 ( 2.6%)
brushes 244/8192 2928/98304 ( 3.0%)
brushsides 1801/65536 14408/524288 ( 2.7%)
planes 1654/65536 33080/1310720 ( 2.5%)
vertexes 3415/65536 40980/786432 ( 5.2%)
nodes 881/65536 28192/2097152 ( 1.3%)
texinfos 394/12288 28368/884736 ( 3.2%)
texdata 32/2048 1024/65536 ( 1.6%)
dispinfos 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_verts 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_tris 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_lmsamples 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
faces 2066/65536 115696/3670016 ( 3.2%)
hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%)
origfaces 958/65536 53648/3670016 ( 1.5%)
leaves 909/65536 29088/2097152 ( 1.4%)
leaffaces 2571/65536 5142/131072 ( 3.9%)
leafbrushes 756/65536 1512/131072 ( 1.2%)
areas 2/256 16/2048 ( 0.8%)
surfedges 13288/512000 53152/2048000 ( 2.6%)
edges 7592/256000 30368/1024000 ( 3.0%)
LDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%)
HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%)
waterstrips 145/32768 1450/327680 ( 0.4%)
waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%)
waterindices 2454/65536 4908/131072 ( 3.7%)
cubemapsamples 0/1024 0/16384 ( 0.0%)
overlays 0/512 0/180224 ( 0.0%)
LDR lightdata [variable] 1926720/0 ( 0.0%)
HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 31550/16777216 ( 0.2%)
entdata [variable] 85091/393216 (21.6%)
LDR leaf ambient 909/65536 21816/1572864 ( 1.4%)
HDR leaf ambient 0/65536 0/1572864 ( 0.0%)
occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%)
static props [variable] 1/7998 ( 0.0%)
pakfile [variable] 20648/0 ( 0.0%)

Level flags = 0

Win32 Specific Data:
physics [variable] 89141/4194304 ( 2.1%)

Total Win32 BSP file data space used: 2620224 bytes

Total triangle count: 5365
Writing c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.bsp
1 minute, 11 seconds elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\tjbender\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\thehouse_v12.bsp" "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\counter-strike source\cstrike\maps\thehouse_v12.bsp"

** Executing...
** Command: "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\counter-strike source\hl2.exe"
** Parameters: -game "c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\tjbender\counter-strike source\cstrike" -dev -console +sv_lan 1 +map "thehouse_v12"

i've never heard of only using the areaportal texture on two faces, so that may be the root of your problem. (holding shift while applying the texture will put it on all faces of a brush)

you could also try loading the pointfile, as areaportal problems are often seen/treated by the engine the same way that leaks are.

---

i eat paint

All areaportals need the areaportal texture on all sides, and need to seperate two areas sealed by world brushes.

What you cannot have, is any opening in the house that leads to the outside that is not sealed by a world brush or areaportal. You can treat it like a leak, if there is a gap, all the areaportals to that area will fail. This means all doors, vents, and windows need to be sealed.

Finally, take a look at the areaportal_window entity. Instead of the regular areaportal, it turns on and off due to distance, not when a door is open or closed.

Good Luck.

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

OK thanks guys, so my first mistake is NOT using the areaportal texture on all sides of my areaportal brush.

Will a world brush that is a func_detail seal an area_portal area? the top of my house is all func_detail.

I will also try the area_portalwindow instead because all the openings of the house are always open.... i.e. there are no doors that swing open and closed. OK i will try and fix ang get back to you all. thanks for your time!

~BENDER

No, anything other than a world brush won't seal an area_portal. There's two solutions to this problem:

1) Turn the roof of your house back to world brushes. Why make it a func_detail anyway? I don't understand.

2) You can use regular area portals to seal off areas, but set the portals to "open." It'll still seal off the areas for the purposes of the engine, but you can just leave it open all the time... Of course, then that might negate the benefits of using area portals in the first place.

campaign, i reconsidered the use of regular area portals for the reasons you stated and opted for the areaportalwindow and it worked beautifully!

I had a few leaks in the house as well as not texturing the entire brush with the area portal texture. as it turns out, my roof was not func_detail, but thank you for the input on that situation anyway.

I had no idea th epower of areaportals until i used them, i literally saw fps increase from about 30+ to 150 to 200+!!! amazing! Thank you all SOOOO Much for your help!

No problem, we're glad to help :smile:

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/