is there such a texture?

i need to seal off a part of my map that is not visible from the other side, because of a huge treeline. unfortunately, that treeline is not solid, so i thought i'll put a nodraw inside. it all works except for the light, which is blocked by the wall. so therefore i thought, i need a texture that blocks visiblity but not the light.

i tried some in a small testmap and none (except for areaportals) work the way i need it. but areaportals are not really an option, becaue the wall is huuuge! and what i read, it has to be enclosed in brushes, which is also not really possible...

That texture you need doesn't exist. Please post a screenie (even in Hammer) of said area, so we can advise you as to what else you could do

ok, here goes the screenie.

this version is actually working pretty good. only problem is the shadow created from that wall...

http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8167/plateauvisproblemjt3.jpg

There should be shadows to some extent in the area because there's huge trees... but a huge sqaure obviously isn't right. What if the nodraw was only part of the hieght and then the skybox was brought down to touch it? Or maybe, this could totally cause other errors, the sky box could possibly be brought down all the way through the trees and meeting a ground level nodraw.

bringing the sky down is something i really have to try. i'ts a huge box at the moment. i just thought about replacing the whole nodraw brush with skybox texture, but does it even block visibility?
if it doesn't, i cannot take the nodraw any further down, because then the lower part of the map can be seen again from the highest point :(

Skybox textures if sealed correctly block vis iirc.

this would be amazing!!
i'll try it out right now :)

yes sky tool blocks VIS. However it emits light as well (it would be a subtle difference I bet). What you could do is raise the ground with the tree line, and enclose an always closed areaportal (making it touch small world brushes placed at both ends as well as an occluder to block all models from being rendered.

Choices choices :)

actually i tried both ways already. first i had an occluder just about there in that size of the nodraw. it all worked out fine until i added more details. now it's even slower than when its deactivated...depending on the point where you stand... well, i've been warned about them ;)

second was an 1unit wide areaportal, touching sky and ground and on both sides was a small nodraw "stick" from bottom to top. it didn't work at all. no idea what i did wrong (also tried to close/open it ingame with commands).

maybe, if this with the skybox-texture doesn't work the way i want it, i'll get that file out again and test a little more. unfortunately, it takes like 2h+ to compile with an areaportal inside. is that normal?

success !!! thanks gingerlord!!

Originally posted by pedroleum
second was an 1unit wide areaportal, touching sky and ground and on both sides was a small nodraw "stick" from bottom to top. it didn't work at all. no idea what i did wrong (also tried to close/open it ingame with commands).
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To my understanding, that is an inproper use of an area portal.

The fact that area portals must be surrounded with nodraws or brushes isn't the point in itself, but that each side of the area portal must be completely isolated "volumes"... so it DOES need to be surrounded, but a nodraw "stick" wouldn't isolate the volumes on each side.

oh, then this was the problem :P
i almost thought so... why in hells name would the workaround be so easy then ;)

my problem is, that i cannot completely seal the parts from each other...(at least i think i can't)

Of course. Which is why using an areaportal doesn't make sense. :D

i think i got a good solution with the half nodraw, half skybox... works like a charm :)
mebbie i could drag down the skybox all way..

Originally posted by pedroleum
unfortunately, it takes like 2h+ to compile with an areaportal inside. is that normal?

Turn off Rad in the compile options. You don't need to build the map with lighting to test out this stuff. It should build the map in seconds.

:)

You'll be blocking grenades/rifle grenades too with that method.....


Dunno if that is a wise choice looking at your map's layout.

You do not need VIS nor RAD to test areaportals, func_occluders, pretty much any brush based entity does not require RAD or VIS cept for water but that is not really an entity

Areaportals create "zones" inside their "volumes" and their calculations are a post process that is why using them to much in areas that they dont need to be in can actually hurt your performance in some cases, using them to occlude the inside of buildings and zone off certain parts of outdoor maps is fine, for your treeline a sky brush is the way to go, you could put an occluder inside the skybrush to make sure that the occlussion of models is alot more precise but func_occluders do not occlude world geometry

thanks for all the replys

i'll use the areaportals for my buildings then i guess!
the skybox seems to be the only acceptable solution. the grenades not going through isn't really a problem i think... but i have to try it out.

How about you calculate the distance and make a light fog with a far z clip instead?

no fog!! only if i tried everything else... as a last solution.... :P

Originally posted by pedroleum
no fog!! only if i tried everything else... as a last solution.... :P

I dread the FPS already....

To my knowledge, far z clipping is the only aspect of the fog controller that would increase performance... and since it should be beyond the fog's end -for the vast majority of source projects it would be far enough away that everything should be obstructed anyway.

dod_campazzo is the only dod:source map I can think of off hand in which fog could effectively be used for performance.

...and dod_pier

Originally posted by nave
To my knowledge, far z clipping is the only aspect of the fog controller that would increase performance... and since it should be beyond the fog's end -for the vast majority of source projects it would be far enough away that everything should be obstructed anyway.

dod_campazzo is the only dod:source map I can think of off hand in which fog could effectively be used for performance.

You're forgetting that maps are also made of models, and that those models fading distance can be a lot tighter if you have fog. Brushes are also fog dependant, in that you can set most of your func_detail brushes to func_lod instead.

Mmmmm, lod.

But, due to the power of vis and areaportals on a well designed level, I think fog should be in the last page in the optimization book. :D

thats what i'm doing now. lowering the model complexity.

i tried some lod models but with not quite the effect i hoped for.
i just do it again ;)

bringing in your skybox as much as you can all over the map will really help you to area portal off large sections. And since it blocks vis, having it in the right places is crucial. if you havnt already looked at how they use it on flash, you should definately check that out. good luck!

If you put a sky brush in that treeline you could use an areaportal on end (making a T) to section the map into 2 zones, this would contract the culling frustrume considerably