hint brushes and areaportals

On load I get the error "numareaportals > areaportals" presented as a dialog box and css/hl2 crashes.

I carefully crafted my map to have nice segmented areas. I've studied a couple of maps, and in particular the sdk_cbble map, to see how hint brushes are used. I've read this forum's postings, and anything else I can find on the web. I understand how vis works pretty well I think.

The main map areas are sectioned off by the skybox brushes. These main areas are connected by doorways, hallways and tunnels. Prior to adding the areaportals, I was getting 150-250FPS in all but one area (where I think I have an overlapping geometry problem).

I've been pretty rigorous about making always-open area portals for each doorway, tunnel entry, or archway (the map is similar in path structure to de_dust). I haven't missed any.

Should I change the brushes to hint brushes, am I doing something wrong by using always-open area portals, or is this error caused by some oddity I don't understand? For example, in the middle of one of the areas, I have a building with three open doors. This creates an area within an area. Can't see why that's a problem. But it's an idea.

Here is another idea: do I have to be more careful about really using the hints? For example, I can't quite guess how the underground tunnel area is being segmented. Does adding more "instruction" help Vis? Should I be more granular?

Thanks. This is pretty interesting stuff. and it's SO MUCH BETTER than the Quake 2/Unreal days....

I'm not sure on the exact rules, but personally I only use areaportals in large areas of my maps (i.e. entrances into large open areas) and HINT brushes in other places (e.g. in corridors and smaller rooms).

I don't know what this error means, but have you tried running VBPS -glview (the glview.exe) on your map and looking around? If you have visibility problems with your map, this is a good alternative to mat_wireframe in the console...