area portals proper use?

Hi I'm making quite a large map with lots of buildings and I'm not to sure how to use area portals and hint brushes.

Ive figured out from searching that area portals should be used over doorways in corridors, but should they be used for all doorways or only ones that open to large areas?

On another note, should windows have area portals over them aswell?

Thanx for any help :smile:

Both hint brushes and areaportals are used to control what is rendered in-game as to help performance wise.

I'd say put them over all or most doorways, if possible - Seems like it'd help the best performance-wise.

Windows should have hint brushes instead of areaportals.

If you're looking on how to create these types of brushes themselves...

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Levels/performance_and_visibility.html

OK thanks very much

btw how do i mark an answer as "correct" :rolleyes:

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Hey peeps,

I come a long way since i first signed upto the pit and now i have a question about area portals/hint brushes etc...

basically i have a map with a skybox surrounding it but the thing is i have a "veranda" on a mansion i have made and because of the skybox i can see the rest of my map like the start point and a set of stairs, the thing is i dont want to be able to see these because it looks really stupid lol.

I have attached a screenie and i was wondering how i mite go about making these "invisible" maybe there is a texture or something that hides the rest of my map when i am looking over the walls that surround my map.

The solution really is not to offer views like that. If you ARE going to offer views like that, then you need to build the environment to suit it. You shouldn't just have walls and then a skybox, you should build in the surrounding architecture. What should actually exist in the area to block the view? Whatever it is you answer to that question, well build that there :smile:

I know that this isn't exactly the answer you are hoping for, but its what we have to do as level designers.

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Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

ok thanx man, i'll use area portals in doors and things and build up the surrounds (somehow lol)

thanx