Compiled map big block appeard

basically when i compile my map this big block appeard which you can walk through, shoot through but not see through. its the same texture as my bunkers, i tried deleting them and recompiling but there was no difference. The block always appears.

Heres a screenshot (hopefully)

URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]

ideas on the problem, and/or how to solve it will be much much much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jamie. =]

So, uhh, when did this first appear? What exactly have you done in your map that could possibly cause this? It's pretty hard to tell what's going on without more info... :smile:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Basically, it first a appeared a short time ago, i didnt take much notice thinking it was a one off thing, maybe my graphics card going stupid. But it kept appearing. Basically, ive done some clipping, added in models and carving.

I was thinking maybe carving something a few too many times caused it?

Ah, yes. Carving can result in quite a few nasty problems. I never use it anymore, because there are almost always safer alternatives. It basically comes down to knowing the rules: brushes must always be convex, their surfaces must always be flat, no two surfaces on the same brush may lie on the same plane. That's all iirc.

Anyway, in Hammer, try Alt + P: Check for problems. See what messages you get. There's probably a malformed brush somewhere that's causing you this trouble. Also, did the compile log report anything unusual?

EDIT: Added a 'brush rule', apparently I didn't finish my post when submitting it. :wink:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

If you have a 3D skybox you might have a little chunk floting in there.

And yes, never use the carve tool... I don't know why it is even in hammer.

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Reality has become a commodity.

3D skyboxes are always drawn behind the rest of the map, so that shouldn't be an issue.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

I agree with Captian P. Carving can cause geometry where the vertexes aren't aligned to the grid.

vbsp.exe, during the compile process, where all unnecessary polygons are cut and merged, will try to force vertexes back on grid, moving and streching polygons to achieve better optimized geometry. This can cause odd results that do not even show up in alt-p dialogs because they happen during compile (often not even showing errors in the compile log!). Even worse: Carving first, then scaling down the result. It narrows the geometry even more and causes additional problems.

Long story short: Don't carve. In the end, it won't save you any time over doing it manually.

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Why snark works.

Ok thanks guys, much appreciated.

And yeah, i been working on this every now n then when i can, and i used to carve everything because the clip tool confused me, but now i understand it and never use carve.

It messes up displacement which anoys me xD.

Thanks again, ill go back n figure out the prob be deleting my carvs. :]

<STRIKE>this problem can happen in half life 1 too, where the map is too big, so if you walk towards the black block, it'll actually start dissapearing, the only way to fix this is to save and compile map, run hl1\hl2 and run it using the console. of course the others might be right, but i've experienced this and it only happens when you run the map using hammer, but not running it directly through half life. give it a shot before you try removing anything, it'll definatly help since ot would let you know that you don't have to remove anything and can keep on mapping, but if you've already removed stuff and the problem still happens, then i sent you this too late, and you should always try to load it using half life before removing stuff, as you'll have to re-add everything you removed after.</STRIKE>

EDIT: it was so dark i didn't realize it wasn't black and was a texture, seems like you do have a block in the skybox that's making that mess.