i was having a look at the .vmf file for dod_flash (decompiled with vmex), and i noticed these big vertical brushes with the tools/toolstrigger texture on them.
They seem to be dividing the outdoor space in big areas. Also they are used to cover every open window and doorway.
I can't really figure out their purpose though, what are they for? and what does the toolstrigger texture do? :confused:

must have something to do with optimization, but they're not the same as hint-brushes.. i know what those are for.

any help is appreciated

If you look at the brush properties, they're probably set to some sort of entity? I think they are there for HDR, to work with the logic relay, to let it know where you are. It divides the areas so you get the "proper" light amount or something.

Could be wrong but that's what I made off them so far...

no, they appear to be just normal brushes, when looking at their properties you only get VisGroup info.

it could be that the decompiler doesn't support the entity (yet) and just shows them as normal brush.

their placing in the map makes sense if they divide areas with different light amounts, so you're probably right.
i'm not planning on using HDR yet so i won't bother with them for now.
thx,

blue

this is because they are tied to HDR entities. Like Furyo said. Since these entities do not exist yet in hammer, they simply don't show up as a know entity.

BTW, a good way to learn more about HDR right now is to unclick the "smartedit" button in any entity's properties. If you do this on env_tonemap_controller, you'll see it actually has quite a few option fields, that "smartedit" doesn't show now (again SDK release is needed ;) )