im making a map atm and i'm having problems with a few areaportals.

Most of them work fine but there is a few like the pics below:

Outside of the House:
http://www.dliclan.co.uk/files/Mr-Softy/dod_dli_cr440003.jpg

Inside the house, looking out through the doorway
http://www.dliclan.co.uk/files/Mr-Softy/dod_dli_cr440004.jpg

Anyone know how to fix this, it happens in the windows of the same house(s) that are having this problem aswell...

Please Help

Thanks Alot

Mr-Softy

You have a leak

He doesn't have a leak in the hull of the map because RAd is compiling correctly, he does however most liukely have an area leak

Make sure that your problem area is completely air tight

Make sure that all of your area portals are flush with the brushes and that none of the area portals are touching the same area on both sides

If you have an area leak, doesnt the engine just ignore that area?
Did you set your area portals to 'open'?

area portals are tricky to set up, every portal brush may only touch 2 area's at the same time, and they have to 100% close an area, easyest example is a box, if you divide it in 2 with an areaportal, but the portal is not touching the wall, you get an area leak, which means on area touches the other, almost like a regular vis leak, the screenshot your showing is just that!, easy fix, compile your map on bsp only, it ll give you the name of the brushes and a PRT file or pointfile that you can load in hammer, it ll creat a line in your view ports like with regular leaks, this way you can easyily track down the leak and fix it,

hrmm maybe i should really do some examples later,

hrmm maybe i should really do some examples later
Please do, IR. We're begging for it! You played my map, you've seen how much my optimization sucks! :p

Ill whip up a quick area portal example map for you guys, gimme about 30 mins

Anyone got ahost for it?

Ok, i have a areaportal example .vmf for you guys, can someone host it?

If the example is 2 hollowed out cubes connected by a door and an area portal, then no. Examples like these are far from useful for source mapping.

Besides, I personally don't even bother with Area Portals, just use hint brushes.

The map is actually a structure with 3 openings which use an areaportal each and inculde a func_detail and prop_static inside the opening

Hint brushes are no where near as advanced as areaportals, all hint brushes do is tell the compile tools where to cplit leafs to help vis calculate what not to draw at agiven time, areaportals actually create areas which the engine knows are to be occluded from certain viewpoints and they are VERY precise

Yeah Dash, really, start using them. I wouldn't want to play a map that doesn't use them, the engine is very keen on areaportals....

Someth|ngWicked gimme a shout on msn and ill host it for you:
mrsofty_18@hotmail.com

Cheerz

Sent and thanks

Here it is:

Download Areaportal Example (http://www.dliclan.co.uk/files/Mr-Softy/sdk_example_areaportals_1.zip)

I have only been using area portals for a few days but here is what i know about them so far

- You can only have an areaportal tied to a single brush, so complex holes in walls must use multiple brushes each tied an an areaportal, i am sure you can just put one 6 faces brush through the hole and it will work just fine but i am a neat freek so i like top make sure everything is flush, you can however clip the brushes as needed, an areaportal brush can have as many sides as you want as long as it is convex, just like any other brush

- Areaportals will not work with displacement maps alone, they must touch vis blocking geometry (models, func_details, displacement maps, etc. are not vis blocking geometry) on all 4 sides so if you want to devide up a map with rolling hills and such make sure that all 4 sides (assuming its a 6 sides brush) of the areaportal brush are touching the skybox, or func_occluder if you have them inside your hills, like you should

- Sometimes copy/pasting func
_areaportals in hammer can cause a rare error when you try to run the map which makes the engine check for the wrong number of areaportals andit will not load the map

Any other questions about them let me know . . .

Thing is that i dont understand atm, is why it is not working with some of the buildings on my current map, Ive loaded the pointfile and it shows no leaks near the areaportals, and they are not touching any func_details etc.

if anyone wants my .vmf file to see i'll send it over to them, although the map isnt fully completed :)

Thanks

Mr-Softy

Is the "initial state" option set to open?

Send it to me Mr Softy, I'll have a look at your areaportals.

yes the initial state is set to open

have u got msn Furyo?
that would be easier for me :)
mrsofty_18@hotmail.com

Thanks

Mr-Softy

Problems taken care of, multiple leaks in the skybox and areaportals not sealed. Map is looking good though, but won't be the next big thing in Source performance until Softy fixes it some :)

The best way to exliminate skybox leaks is to just use the cordon bounds tool to enclose your map, it will act exactly like a skybox accept it will not compile any items outside of it's boundries