Pipe Problem

Well, here's the deal: I want my pipes to bend, and I don't want
to use models. The problem I had is similar to that which I've
already read about in various areas here on SnarkyPat, but none of the
solutions really worked for me (or I didn't understand how to use them).

Basically, I had very perfect looking pipes that bend in the Hammer
Editor, but I got the inevitable "force plane: bad normal" error (i.e.,
this brush is too small or doesn't fit on the grid). This was
very disappointing considering how great/perfect they were. So, I
removed all of my torus bends, and replaced them with one I constructed
via vertex manipulation out of 3 cylinders. This method made it
past the compiler but, for reasons completely beyond my comprehension,
in-game they looked like someone had been chewing on them (even though
they looked great in the editor). I also tried the "displacement
method", which I'm not sure could even be considered a method, as using
subdivision to make pipes is only good for straight pipes, not bent
ones. Hard to beat the smoothness of displacements, though.

The only other method I've heard mention of is the staggered arch (or
something to that effect?), and I don't have any idea how to do that
one. It was only mentioned, but never really explained.
There really aren't any tutorials about this sort thing here on
SnarkPit, or anywhere else either.

So here's what the work so far looks like:

Example Image
1 - Example
Image 2

Is there any way to make these bends in the Hammer Editor? All of my pipes are 8 faced, if that helps.

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My maps are stupid.

I believe the problem is that the curve becomes too small. With smaller cylinders intersecting you have to do 90%uFFFD cuts.

But, you could move the pipe away from the wall and try it then, there should be more room. You might also have to change the cylinders to hexagons instead of octagons too ... not sure though, but I've always had problems when using octagonal cylinders that are small ... for some reason.

Otherwise, just follow this tutorial (Not sure what happened to the screen-shots though)

But the actual process is pretty simple and gives nice results.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Otherwise, just follow this tutorial (Not sure what happened to the screen-shots though)

But the actual process is pretty simple and gives nice results.

I'm sure that tutorial would really help me, actually, except for that
fact that he does a lot of "like so", "as such" and "like this"...
rendering the tutorial rather useless without the images. I can't
do anything "like so" if all I see is a broken image icon.

Man, that sucks. That's the only bent pipe tutorial for about a million miles too.

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My maps are stupid.

Well, there's another one for arched ceilings which follows the same technique here.

However, it's not spot on, so be cautious and use your best judgement. It should give you the general idea of how to do it though, so you can adapt it to whatever need be.

These also have the same information (I just searched google real quick to find them)

http://www.cs-maps.org/index.php?page=2-stage.htm
http://forum.interlopers.net/viewtopic.php?t=1807 (detailed tutorial using the torus)

I'm sure there's many others. Honestly though, I'd suggest trying to get the torus method to work, since it is hl2 and it is smoother and much easier then making cylinders and rotating them.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Ok, thanks a lot bud. I searched on google too, but didn't have
the same luck. I'll give those tuts a shot and report back.
:wink:

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My maps are stupid.

"force plane: bad normal" error (i.e.,
this brush is too small or doesn't fit on the grid)

you got two things mixed up.

"force plane: bad normal" means you have a bad texture normal, either
due to an invalid solid or hammer goofup. If it is the latter, you can
just fix it with the texture tool (align to world or align to face) if
it isnt, use vertex manipulation to make the brush valid again. either
add some vertices, or cut the brush in two (since triangular brushes
cant be invalid)

"warning: brush xxx microbrush" means the brush is too small

zombie_computer said:
"force plane: bad normal" error (i.e., this brush is too small or doesn't fit on the grid)

you got two things mixed up.

"force plane: bad normal" means you have a bad texture normal, either due to an invalid solid or hammer goofup. If it is the latter, you can just fix it with the texture tool (align to world or align to face) if it isnt, use vertex manipulation to make the brush valid again. either add some vertices, or cut the brush in two (since triangular brushes cant be invalid)

"warning: brush xxx microbrush" means the brush is too small

Thanks for the clarification, I was just going off of assumptions I made based off of what "seemed" to be the problem. I also retract my claim that the torus brush doesn't work... it's just not useful for small bends, almost always causing the bad normal error at sizes around 8x8 units or less. Probably due to the fact that the small size doesn't allow for an inside area.

Thanks! I used the 45 degree method and, while they don't look as good as a torus would've, they get the job done. If any can get a small torus to work, let me know!

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My maps are stupid.

Ahh, the beauty of QuArK's path_duplicator...

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http://maze5.net

mazemaster said:
Ahh, the beauty of QuArK's path_duplicator...

[image removed]

lmao m8, anyways, ithink the torus tool is the seed of evil witch just screws up when i compile it, i think using the cilinder tecnique or using vertex manupulation ( hard work! ) it a much better aproach.

( but that's just my idea and i'm no great mapper.. )

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Oh yeah also - if you are vertex manipulating cylinders you may often come to an invalid brush problem. That is normally due to the faces of the cylinder being not-flat by a tiny bit, even though other than that the brush is perfectly OK. The trick to fixing that is using the edge-insert tool. In vertex manip mode, selece 2 verticies and hit ctrl+f. Now an edge will be created between them, splitting one face into 2. Just make sure that you choose the right set of verticies to connect otherwise you will have a concave brush.

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http://maze5.net