[article] Pipe-Works (part 2)

This is a discussion topic for the article "Pipe-Works (part 2)" by Sinner_D which can be found here

Article description:

T- and X- junctions

If you turn them into func_walls then why do you need to clip them? I may be wrong but func_walls intersecting shouldn't cause face_splitting.

Func_walls and func_walls split.

Bland pipe texture, but very useful to the newbies, and its kept simple too.

EDIT: Damn, reno beat me to that

Func_walls intersecting func_walls WILL cause face splitting, so a tactic LIKE this would be useful though this one is rather unnecessarily complex. Instead it would be more efficient to make your two pipes that cross, and at the intersection, clip off a section of one of them and turn this part into a func_wall. This will stop any face splitting, and won't require any complex brush manipulation, provided the rest of the pipes are world brushes that is.

Despite being more work than needed for the situation, the tutorial gives a decent enough insight into brush manipulation and how cylinders can fit together.

Good thing I didn't rate it. I always have one of mine a solid and the other a func_wall so I wasn't sure.

I would have gone with a 12 sided cylinder for the sake of clarity and simplicity but that's neither here nor there.

I recall that func_walls only split each other when intersecting brushes are part of the same func_wall, so using separate func_walls (or one world brush and one func_wall) might yield some good results. I could be wrong, of course, but brush faces on one entity shouldn't combine faces with faces on another.

You all can go func_wall yourselves...ah hahaha

well i guess its more work the needed, but it does look nice and once you prefab that morphed section, its a breeze

It should look the same whether they overlap OR meet like in your method, and if they overlap its much simpler on the compiling process AND uses less faces, so is, if anything, going to have a lower polycount. Don't mean to rain on your parade, I just think its unnecessary and long winded to use the method you describe in this situation.

16 sided pipe!?! jesus go 8 it looks fine and takes THAT MUCH POLYGONS LESS

Well guys ive given this some thought, and yes you are all right in that aspect, however if i were going to be doing some complecated things like having the top half of the pipes burst open in flames(which i am currently working on, and the reason for me writing this tut), my technic would be absolutely neccisary. but for simple pipes in a map, yes it would be better to just func_wall the section that meets.

Make step 5 a little clearer by telling people either to use vertex manipulation or the clip tool. 'Morph' mightn't mean much to a newbie.

The tutorial explains the subject fine, except that CM should've been mentioned and that both parts would better be put into seperate func_walls, but aside from that, nice.

But I wonder... do pipes really break apart at such intersections? Or at the connections with another pipe part? Since these intersections are usually a special pipe part, and I suppose the connections between pipe parts are the weakest spots in pipelines...

So when are people gonna learn to use models to create pipes.
they look ugly as brushes cos they dont have smoothing on them.

That Y-Junction looks alot like a T. Minor detail I know, but they really are different shapes. Also I didn't know func_walls split faces on other func_walls. Ya learn something new everyday, unless you are lazy.

Without reading it all, i will say.. 1) i never bisect the same size pipes, it looks shoddy, 2)and i always copy/paste a small portion if the pipe i insert and turn it into a func_wall to reduce splitting.. i copy/paste the small portion to also reduce the ugly func_wall-no shadow the lights cause..
/2cents