Sparklies

Hi. I realize that this is a basic question, but I have been unable to find an answer. What causes "sparklies" (the bright dots where two brushes meet), and how do you eliminate them?

I have a rather simple map which was sparklie-free until my last compile, now there's lots of 'em. What's going on?

Thanks!

Err, can you post a screenshot? :smile:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Well, a bit more detail. I have a simple stairwell which is smooth on the underside. The stairs wrap around a tall square room (the stairs are attached to the wall). I'll admit the starwell is ridiculously long (I've been throwing watermelons down it for the last half hour - quite fun). I get sparklies between the steps on the more distant stairs.

I took apart a Valve map, took a section of their stairs (a func_detail), placed in it my map and they looked even worse. All of the stairs look fine up close though. I can't take screenshots at the moment, but I'll try later.

Again, we are talking about an insanely deep stairwell; it stretches two thirds of the vertical space available in the editor... perhaps that is the problem? (I'm a university prof and this will be used in a discussion on visual perception).

<div><div>quoting omegaslayer from this thread

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

A quote from the VERC collective:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>These are indices that are stored to represent various tessellations that vbsp does. When they were first created they were only used to subdivide water meshes (that's why they are often referred to as water indices). In HL2, they are only used to fix cracks in the world. Normally each face is fan-tessellated, so no indices are stored, but with several t-junctions on the face's edges this is often not possible and a separate tessellation is generated and stored. </DIV></DIV>

I hate to tell you, but there isn't any real way to solve this. It merely means you have a very large and brush (world brushes) complex map. Turnign stuff to func_detail wont work because func_detail is considered part of the "world brushes". They only thing you can do is reduce the # of brushes you have in your map and turn a lot of stuff into models.

</div></div>

a stairwell that's as long as you say yours is, could probably be considered a brush complex map.

</DIV></DIV>

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i eat paint

Well, I've made an odd discovery. I have one map which gives the error message "too many portals" when it compiles. If I complile this map with hl2 open in the background I see numerous sparklies when I run the game. If I then switch to one of my other problem-free maps in game I also see several sparklies. If I close hammer, and close and restart hl2 the sparklies are gone (although I can still find one or two in my problem map if I really hunt for them).

I like to keep both hammer and hl2 open so that I can switch back and forth to playtest between compiles (I tend to make maps one small piece at a time and then stick them together). I didn't realize this was an issue.

fishy said:
<DIV>
<DIV>
quoting omegaslayer from this thread

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

A quote from the VERC collective:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>These are indices that are stored to represent various tessellations that vbsp does. When they were first created they were only used to subdivide water meshes (that's why they are often referred to as water indices). In HL2, they are only used to fix cracks in the world. Normally each face is fan-tessellated, so no indices are stored, but with several t-junctions on the face's edges this is often not possible and a separate tessellation is generated and stored.

I hate to tell you, but there isn't any real way to solve this. It merely means you have a very large and brush (world brushes) complex map. Turnign stuff to func_detail wont work because func_detail is considered part of the "world brushes". They only thing you can do is reduce the # of brushes you have in your map and turn a lot of stuff into models.

</DIV></DIV>

a stairwell that's as long as you say yours is, could probably be considered a brush complex map.

</DIV></DIV>
</div></div>

i thought vbsp automatically fixes up t junctions ?

look at your compile log, in the vbsp section, and check if you see

"notjunc=true"

if this is the case you'll indeed see tiny white dots on older graphic cards. in my experience anyway.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

Intersting. I always thought this has something to do with graphics cards (drivers). But it sounds logical. I suppose t-junctions are where to polygon-corners meet a at the edge of a third?

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Why snark works.

I seem to have solved my problem, although I can't figure out why this is happening. I need to restart HL2 evertime I compile a new map. If I don't do this my lighting is off (too bright, but not full bright) and I get lots of sparkles. If I restart HL2 the map is fine. Can anyone offer an explanation for this?

Note that I do have a reasonably good graphics card (an ATI X850XT).