How many clip brushes have you used?

How many clip brushes do you usually use in your maps?

I chose under 100, I usually try to block the players access using regular brushes. Also, it's my understanding that you can extend a clip brush into other brushes with no ill effect, which further lowers the number I use. However I do find clip brushes useful in conjunction with rails and other func_illusionary type textures.

i really only start thinking of lots of clip-brushes when the old max_clipnode error shows up.

its just interesting cause they help with clipnodes, but they also help the flow of DM maps. I mean you need to clip those maps up to keep them smooth and playing well. I plan to use a ton in my fairytale map so I know it runs well. Plus it'll help a ton cause I use a ton of vertex and terrain so it'll smooth out the clipnodes.

I chose under 100, i dont really know how to use the clip, [ pst! does any one know where theres a tut for how to use clip? ] Isn't the clip just like null?

I don't make maps that require many clip brushes, as I make sure there's plenty of headroom and no snaggable areas. Then I worked on the snarkpitcrewmap, and there's at least 500 of those damn things in there...

Sloth: A clip brush acts as an invisible wall where the player can't get through. You use it to block off areas that you don't want players f**king around in and to smooth out areas to prevent people from getting caught on the decoration, especially when you make a lot of vertex manipulated solids at crazy angles.

What JFry said more or less - my clip brushes tend to be large and all
consuming along the top of walls, over the sky (for mad gaussers) or
into potential "get stuck" situations. Never really counted tbh - I
imagine just under or just over 100...

yes plz explain this clipnode thing.

Clipnodes basically divide the map between places the player can go and places he/she/it cant. The more complex geometry you have the more clipnodes you have. Theres a limit to clipnodes unfortunately, but if you stick a big clip brush over your complex geometry, youll have fewer clipnodes in the map.

I usually use under 100... I've never had the clipnode problem tbh (look at my maps and see why :razz: ) so all I use them for is grates you can shoot thru and stuff.

Hundreds! Literally masses! Often to irritate the player :biggrin: .

In all seriousness though, I tend to use them for stopping the player walking straight through models etc.

world brushes have vertex points on their corners. the clipping hull (it stops you walking through walls) has clipnodes on the corners/angles.

so if you have a big complex rockface, there will be lots of clipnodes generated by it's clipping hull. however, if you cover the rockface with a big clip brush, it culls most, if not all, of the clipnodes that are contained in it.

i think

:biggrin:

I don't think I've ever used even one.

Clipbrush is the evil! Use invisible func_walls with {BLUE-texture instead!

But that would serve a different purpose, as that would also stop bullets. Why are clip brushes evil?

Anyway, I don't tend to use many, I've most likely never used more than 100 in a map.

I usualy use quite a few >200 sometimes, because I tend to exceed the clipnode limit, and I'm very fond of hallway architecture that requires some smoothing.

ghost of evilspy said:
Clipbrush is the evil! Use invisible func_walls with {BLUE-texture instead!

So it can look lame when you shoot it whilst adding more entities? Great idea!

And, I assume, be rendered and therefore add to your polycount as well :smile:

that's something i've often wondered, but never got 'round to testing out. whether invisible func_walls add to the r's or not.

hum... first : what a clip brush is ?

When creating a level, its like you are creating one giant model. Then ontop of that you have the Hull of clipnodes. Clipnodes basically are the way the game defines places you can go and can not go. The reason there are two hulls like this is so that you can go through func_illusionaries. Which are not defined in the clipping hull. If you have a lot of architecture and brushes in a small area, say a drawer that you can see into. If you place a clip brush over the whole drawer, since a normal drawer a player can not enter, the clipnodes simply define the surrounding of the drawer, not bothering with defining inside that. Now think that on the grander scheme of things and you can see why you can use clipbrushes to help your clipnodes.

The other use of clipbrushes is to smooth out hallways and corners. Say you have a wall with pillars on either side. If you stick the pillars out I think 16 units the player can get snagged on it. If you use a clip brush to do a 45degree angle wedge type deal, you'll smooth it out so the player slides right by it. This way the player does not get snagged. This is esp. helpful in DM maps when speed is key and you can't keep getting snagged on things or you'll start swearing at the map creator.

maybe I'll write a tutorial

If a func_ brush is set to '0' it does not render polies. It is light-mapped, so it's best to scale the texture up to like 10 to reduce time spent on it though. But being an entity it will have a small but possibly cumulative effect on the fps (but not polies.) This is only the case for a 0 and texture setting.

You can get snagged on any depth of wall, steps would be 16. Sometimes even adding clip in a section near a wall doesn't seem to work though (I have a few areas in belfort like this where there is clip and everything but you still get snagged for some reason.

Can you get a monster (e.g. the Apache) to see the player and fire on the player, but be unable to hit him because there's some sort of wall in the way? Normally they won't shoot if there's an invisible wall, right?

clip brushes merely define the clipping hull. They do not block line of site and I dont think they bother with AI. Making a brush and putting {blue on it is not the same thing as a clip brush. An invisible brush in this manner may or may not block line of sight for AI, I dunno.

A surprising number of people have no idea what a clip brush is, which is rather disturbing, since it was one of the first things I learned about this stupid game. Didn't anybody read HB's tutorials on www.contaminated.net/wavelength back in 1998? :razz:

EDIT: Apparently that site no longer exists? Wavelength and Radium were the only HL sites I visited back in the day... :sad:

edit: I think I need to whip up a basic tutorial :~P

Ferret said:
edit: I think I need to whip up a basic tutorial :~P

Plz, i sorta understand what they mean, but i need to know how to put it to use.