strange usage of hint

Hi,

I was trying to create one big optimization tutorial, however, Ive
stumbled onto a problem I cant solve, its about hints. I know how hints
work (atleast I think I do) but valve used them in their maps in a (to
me) strange way. They've created walls (1 unit thick, with HINT on all
sides) around certain objects (usually with lots of details), but I
have no idea why they did it. These boxes seem to be made around
complicated models, but not around all of them, and sometimes they've
created hints at the place of a desktops. ahh, just look at the pics
below...

Someone pointed me to it, and heard valve used that way to give the
entities inside those boxes a bigger rendering priority (and thats all
I know now). But, after a bit of testing, I came to the conclusion that
it didnt matter much (or at all), therefore im in a complete mystery
why valve did this...Is there anyone here who can shed a little light
on this matter?

Pics of what mean (from sdk_d1_trainstation_05.vmf, kleiners lab)

(made this one opaque so you can see it better: )

http://www.student.kun.nl/rvanhoorn/hints.JPG

notice the desks at this one:

http://www.student.kun.nl/rvanhoorn/hints2.JPG

BTW I have a hint brush tutorial on the way that I completed a long time ago, just need to re-work the pictures (I would have submitted it erlier, but snarkpit was down), but in answer to your question the reason why there is a hint brush around it is so that all thoes models are in their own vis leaf. But the main reason for this (includint those skip brushes) is so multiple models can me moved at the same time, if you noticed if you move multiple models then they get mis aligned to the grid, if you put a brush around it, they can move with ease :biggrin: , found this out after many cursings to the models that wouldnt move to where I wanted them to go.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe they did that to speed up compile time. Just a shot in the dark. On a side note, lots of cubemaps in pic # 2 as well. Not a bad thing I guess.

Edit: Just read Omega's comment. I now know that I know nothing. Very comforting.

BTW I have a hint brush tutorial on the way that I completed a
long time ago, just need to re-work the pictures (I would have
submitted it erlier, but snarkpit was down), but in answer to your
question the reason why there is a hint brush around it is so that all
thoes models are in their own vis leaf. But the main reason for this
(includint those skip brushes) is so multiple models can me moved at
the same time, if you noticed if you move multiple models then they get
mis aligned to the grid, if you put a brush around it, they can move
with ease :biggrin: , found this out after many cursings to the models that wouldnt move to where I wanted them to go.

ok, I understand that, but why not use a single brush then instead of four seperate walls?

also, what would be the great advantage of putting all those entitities in one leaf (especially in that lab)

(srry, cant seem to edit my posts)

Hmmm 4 brushes...... I have no clue, the inner workings of valve is a mystery to me, I only recently discovered that the skip brushes were used to move multiple models around, maybe it has something to do with once you leave the area the models in those hint brushes get taken out?

Really no clue, I am also perplexed of the use of occluder and noclip brushes in the source maps like the coast one.

In your case, the 4 walls should create four 1 unit-thick walls above
them, maybe they have a purpose about rendering advantages.

Try flying around with noclip and "mat_leafvis 1" to see what all those hints produces

There is a sdk map example with hints, and the text messages speaks
about "barrels on the other side are not rendered" but that's a bit
weird if you think you can never see those barrels (they're behind a
wall)