I have a map that is mostly outdoors. I am trying to block the viewable distance so that the framerate isn't so bad. the question is do I have to have the walls go all the way up to the ceiling (sky) for it to block? in a couple of spots it makes more sense to use a fence/wall, but one that is only 150 units tall or so. will that work. will the compiler know that the player can't see over the wall? is that what hint brushes are for?

another thing, how can use some of the development tools while in my map? for instance I want to use gl_wireframe 2 to check vis. I added -dev to my dod shortcut so the commands are there, but it says that it can't be set in multiplayer. is there a single player mode for dod? obviously I am already just hitting start game, not connecting to a server. thanks.

genius, i was guna ask this aswell. In the vmf of coastline, the occluder brush didnt go all the way up to the sky, infact it was average wall height :/.

this is the area I am having problems with.
http://josh.whatsupslc.com/map/rogans_trees2.jpg

the problem is that there is more map beyond the trees at the end of the road, and to the right. one of my helpers has a lower end card and he gets 10fps from this spot. I think the game is drawing everything beyond the trees thinking you can see over them, and everything around the corner since it isn't a hard curve.

right now the trees are a solid brush about 3/4 of the way up, then a func_wall above that for the transparency between trees. could I just put a sky brush behind the func_wall that extended below the top edge of the solid tree brush to block vis? does the sky texture block vis at all? I have a couple of spots in my map that are unfinished where you can see right through a sky brush to map beyond it.

afa seeing around the corner goes, I'm thinking I'm going to have to put an S curve in the road or something to block vis...unless someone has an easier solution.

That is what hint brushes do. There are some good tutorials on hint brushes out there, one of them shows hint brushes in an office setup with cubicles to limit drawing the other cubicles, they lay the horizontal hint brush right over the cubicles (I think they used a few actually, as people could stand on things to see over a bit IIRC)

As to getting it into dev mode, I have it set up that way at home, but I can't recall how I did it as it was so much tougher in steam than in the old won system. It only works in single player. Simply go to "play games" and start a game up with a 1 player limit - I don't recall if I put a limit in the server cfg files or not, but it works for me. If nobody has given you any more info and the problem is still there I'll look up my setup at home.

You may not need an S curve, an angled hint brush just touching the corneer may be enough. I have one map with really bad speeds that I can't seem to hint into submission, but it is angled up and down through a city with multiple levels; you seem to have a failry flat world so it should be doable. If you want some help we can email about it, my addy is epinephrine(at)fraggerscentral*dot*com, feel free to get in touch.

Tutorials:
http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?doc=1043477348-95410300
http://www.gamedesign.net/node/52
http://fps.brainerd.net/hintbrushes.htm

Make sure you compile with FULL VIS when checking things like this, fast VIS does not make sky brushes block VIS.

Originally posted by Ginger Lord
Make sure you compile with FULL VIS when checking things like this, fast VIS does not make sky brushes block VIS.

thanks. I am using full vis while doing these checks, but the time I could see through the sky brush was probably on fast. so making a sky brush come down behind my func wall should help, correct?

epin...I'm not sure that using a hint brush vertically would help over the top of the trees, and I don't think I could make the correct angle where it would work (still wrapping my head around the whole concept tho). its possible that the correct horizontal brush would work, but it would be nice to just do it right with a vis blocking sky wall behind the trees. I might try a hint brush at an angle for the corner, but its a tight one and I'm not sure I can make it work. I'll probably take you up on your offer to help...thanks.

Right, I don't know what the best solution is, I know that I have seen horizontal hint brushes used, as well as angled and vertical. I'm actually one of the many mappers with lots of time spent but few maps, so I am not a pro like some of the wizards around here, but I have had some experience with hints and I'll do what I can to help out. Yes, you could drop a sky down behind the trees, that should solve the problem. You won't be able to toss a nade around a corner (over the trees) if you do that though. I know I am one of those folks who doesn't like having nades vanish into the sky or fail to go over a small hedge because of a sky texture, so I'd probably try to solve it another way if possible.

Here are two more tuts

http://home.comcast.net/~ninjagrinch/pyramidhint.htm
http://twhl.co.za/tutorial.php?id=71

I can't find the one with an office, cubicles and horizontal hint brushes, but I'll keep looking. A good thing to look at is the bit on pyramid shaped hint brushes - I had read it before but had forgotten about it, it does cut down on faces caused by the skip textures breaking faces.

to get into full developer mode (singleplayer)
boot dod, hit the ~ key to pull down console,
type: "map dod_mymap"
you can type "developer 1" and "gl_wireframe 1" and "r_speeds 1" first if u like, or after the map loads.
Just for fun try "Chase_active 1" as well
:)

about your map , each 'area' or 'room' should have its own skyblocks, and you should have winding pathways/roads/tunnels or whatever connecting them.
to put it real simply, just behind your row of 'trees', build TWO walls of SKY (they can be very thin if u like-nades will go thru) that go from the very bottom of your map to the very top (the sky)
build them BACK-TO-BACK so that each piece is only visible from inside that area, if u do this as-u-build its very easy and eliminates the need for hint brushes. I have NEVER used the hint brushes, and have made some wide-open maps with low r_speeds, the key is large, simplistic, brushwork for the ground/buildings etc.

thanks greenhorn that helps a lot. I've been thinking of pulling the various sections of the map apart into seperate "rooms" anyway, just to be sure they were self contained.

sooo, nades can go through solid sky texture?? thats a new one for me. I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm assuming that if it passes through void between, its gone, correct?

if you have 2 very thin pieces, it will go thru
basically sky acts like water for nades (dont ask me why) it slows them down alot, and if theres a gap between or its too thick it will get stuck, yes. If u make your sky out of 2 single-unit-thick pieces it wont slow down much, it will kinda pop out into the other room and drop to the ground abit.