A Novice Question...

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

Hello. I'm new to using Hammer - I just started a week or two ago. I've read all the tutorials here and a few elsewhere, and am on a mission to create my first complicated map. I have one question, though, before I get too far along the creation process:

Is it better (perfomance-wise) to have intersecting brushes, or to cut them up in small chunks so that they never intersect?

This screenshot here provides an example where I used smaller, cut up, non-intersecting brushes. The four red brushes are a pillar (split up), the yellow brushes are walls coming to a corner, and the light blue is the floor. I apologise if these are complicated, but I tried to demonstrate the example as best as possible.



I'm trying to avoid making a big mistake and having to go back and split up / re-attach everything once the map is finished.

Thank you in advance.

I would not recommend cutting up that pillar at all. If anything, shrink each of those yellow walls so that they meet the red pillar, not each other. Make the pillar completely solid; this IMO seems most logical, because it is less for the engine to figure out.

However, it probably shouldn't matter whether those walls are meeting each other or not, but the more cuts in that pillar, the more data the vbsp has to figure. So, the pillar needs to be solid regardless, but it can just sit on top of the walls as well. This will make more work for the engine during compile time (if you have more setups like this) but should run the same once in game.

The first choice is what I recommend though...

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

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

That does seem more logical. What about the floor, though? The pillar goes through multiple floors. Should I simply cut the pillar into large chunks, dividing each of the floors? Or should I split up the floor and slice a bit out of the corner?

Also, I guess the main question now is: are intersecting brushes a problem? (e.g. the pillar going through through the floor on the way to the bottom of the building)

Thanks again.

Edit: Here's a screenshot of the pillar after I pulled the walls back.



This reduced the slicing, but some was still necessary to prevent colliding with the floor. Now each level has three chunks: One connecting the floor to the ceiling, and the other two making room for the floor.

If left as world brushes, the pillars and cross beams will only give vis extra work, and they wont do any vis-blocking.

Turning them into func_details will speed up vis, and also allow them to intersect with no problems.

---

i eat paint

Thank you; this helped quite a bit. I didn't know anything about func_detail, but I did some reading and that cleared a lot up. I would've been making everything out of brushes, hehe.

My question now is:

When I select a group of brushes, hit CTRL+T and make them func_detail entities, it seems to make the whole group an entity but not the individual brushes. If I look at the properties of one of the items in the group, it doesn't say it's a func_entity, but when I select the whole group and look at the properties, it says it is.



This example is the corner of a sidewalk.

Sorry for all these questions. Perhaps other noobs can look here and find some answers to the things that no one really tells you :smile:

Yes, that's right: if you wanted each individual brush to be a func_detail, then you would have to separately select each and apply it as such. That is no glitch, if you think about it, that's the only way to create brush-based entities, because if you select a group and tie it as a func_detail, then the whole group should belong together and make less work for the engine.

I didn't see any question marks in your post; did I give you the correct responce? What's your question?

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Ah, okay - so if I can, I want to group things together as a func_detail? I'm just trying to make everything as "inexpensive" as I can right now, and I thought that I'd have to apply func_detail to everything (instead of grouping some things).

Thanks for all the help.

Mark it as answered.

Nvm.

---

Red lights are optional.