i have noticed that when walking through a map for the first time in a session, the map will lag up in certain places where hint brushes have been added, like when the game renders the next section of map, there is a bit of video lag. now it only does this the first walk through, after that it is smooth. does this happen on all maps? or is it just mine hehe, thanks

try:
sv_cheats 1
mat_wireframe 3

You can see where everything that is being rendered currently is, and as you walk around you see what is being drawn. For Source, area_portals are the new VIS hinting tools, hints can be used, but rarely.

yeah i have my map so it dont render everything at once, i have some good vis blocking working for me but as u said i use hints to take my corners so the streets are all rendering, i will have to check into area portals to see how they work vs hints, any tips on this, thanks.

chicken, i just read that you can only use area portals on doors and windows because there is no way to turn them on and off throughout a huge map, is this accurate or is their a way to trigger them on and off, thanks man, much appreciated. we tested the map last night, after initial walk through of map, the lag wasnt there and the map played wonderfully, thanks

actually i see u can turn them on and off with a trigger multiple, but i still dont seem to know how to get them to work right, i cant really find good tutorials on them either, except for using with a door and window, nothing about blocking vis in a large map with them, thanks

Don't need to trigger them on/off, even left in the open state, they cull what is drawn, so provide optimization benefits.

Here are a fews links to discussions about this ability:

http://www.dod-federation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=453&highlight=areaportal

http://www.mapcore.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6912&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

interesting stuff, im not fully understanding the open parts of the map and how to use this for those, who would volunteer to help me with this, trust me im easy to work with and very inteligent so picking up on this will not be tough, i just need someone to walk me through it. thanks, i would send my vmf to whoever wants to help and then we could meet in the map to review, thanks.

You can also use occluder brushes inside the walls of your building brushes especially when your walls are thin. It'll hide everything that's behind the occluder, thus reducing the number of polys to be rendered. Vis can sometimes anticipate things really weirdly (ie: rendering first floor when you're on the second, etc.)

Occluders only hide models, not brush work. You have to take that into account when using an occulder.

yeah most of my map is props not brushes, thats the bad thing about dummy bildings, most of the building is props. this city that the axis defend has a ton of buildings, a ton. i have the vis blocking working pretty good, we played it last night with no problems except i have the lag at the first of the map, but once i go through the map once, it never shows back up. i would love for some of you to look at it, its running usually all the time at our server, if interested let me know, thanks. i still dont know what to do with these portals for large areas, i have them working on buildings now, but for large areas, not sure what to do, thanks again, keep the ideas coming

It could just be the fact the engine is loading heaps of different textures, models and shaders all at once when you're entering that area.

Might pay to chuck in a camera there for when the map loads.

Check your budget and what spikes the most. It's always wise to limit the amount of textures and models in areas where lots of them are visible.

yeah the problem im having is in my city, there are so many buildings that i have to use props on them to get the look down, but at same time there are a lot of them. the open area on this map grabs buildings from both sides of the map and does slow me down to around 30 fps, but only in one or two places, so i think we are ok, we shall see when i launch beta here wont we lol

wow u got to love area portals, i have a problem, i tried removing my hints, which i dont have alot of them, but i do have a few in key places, and i placed some area portals in my maps instead. now parts of my map arent showing up at all and i can see my 3d skybox through it until i walk into it and boom the map appears, what is going on here? also what are some rules when using these, can the top of the touch a sky box and the bottom touch a no draw, i understand how they work with buildings, but not with the other parts of a map, thanks

sounds like a leak :D

If area portals act weird, open the point-file (its an option under... map or something in hammer) and have a look at what it points to.

well i know my map has no leaks, so your saying if you closed a room up with area portals and ur building has a leak, the pointfile will show the building leak to you?