hello, again guys,

First let me say that I appreciate all the help you've given so far. It has allowed me to continue my "mapquest" :) without too much frustration.

i have a few questions regarding glass and/or windows.

i have a large area of glass windows that are breakable. Instead of one big sheet of glass though, I made each pane independent so that you can break them individually. when I made it originally it was one big pane with a cubmap. The glass functions as expected, but I seem to be having a problem with reflections on the glass. I'm getting the purple and black checkerboard as the reflected image instead of the surrounding environment. i have a single cubemap in the center of all the panes and I'm wondering if I need to have a cubemap for each individual pane of glass? Any advice on rendering glass correctly would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I think you can tie multiple faces to a single cubemap, so you might try that. I thought the purple checkerboard was due to a texture not being resident on your computer? Is the texture you are using for the glass a custom one or not a stock dod texture? Is it applied to all the glass panes?

I think you can tie multiple faces to a single cubemap, so you might try that. I thought the purple checkerboard was due to a texture not being resident on your computer? Is the texture you are using for the glass a custom one or not a stock dod texture? Is it applied to all the glass panes?

stock and yes. It's not the glass texture itself that's not there it's the translucent reflection that is not there. Funny thing is it reflected the skybox once correctly. Even though at the time it was not even exposed to the skybox as it was completely enclosed within the walls of the building. I may try the multiple tie you suggested.

I assume you also have "-engine ep1" in your launch options for the SDK?

http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1090066&highlight=sdk#post1090066

Have you tried rerunning buildcubemaps? Also, what type of glass entity is it? Is it a func_breakable, or func_breakable_surf?

I have found that if you go to your desktop from ingame , them back ingame, you get the checkered stuff where reflections should be, restart game to fix

I assume you also have "-engine ep1" in your launch options for the SDK?

http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1090066&highlight=sdk#post1090066

yes. i am using that option

Have you tried rerunning buildcubemaps? Also, what type of glass entity is it? Is it a func_breakable, or func_breakable_surf?

It is a func_breakable. Though I do not see a difference in behavior between the 2 entities

I have found that if you go to your desktop from ingame , them back ingame, you get the checkered stuff where reflections should be, restart game to fix

I have been doing this, so you may be on to something here. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I'll have to run a methodic test to see if this is the case.


Also, regarding cubemaps... I have 24 panes of glass in a foyer area that are all tied to a single cubemap. i have many more windows to put into this building. Would it be feasible to use a single cubemap for all of the windows in the building or should I have seperate cubemaps for groups of windows (i.e. north, south east and west walls)? And... does the cubemap have to be within sight of the window to work correctly? Meaning will it work if there is a wall between the glass and the cubemap?

It is a func_breakable. Though I do not see a difference in behavior between the 2 entities

A func_breakable will shatter in the same manner as glass from Half Life (i.e. all at once and the pieces immediately disappear). A func_breakable_surf will actually shatter around the bullet entry, and crack, only breaking fully when an explosive goes off nearby.

your choice on how to do the cube maps, experiment and see what looks best, remember that the more cubemaps you use, the BIGGER the bsp will be after building the cubemaps.

you can build a map with just one cube map in it, the engine/compile tools ( i forget which) automatically picks the nearest cubemap for all surfaces that need em, remember that you can change the look of the reflection by moving the cubemaps toward/away/up down/left and right.
I would try one CM for each window(not pane of glass), set about 128 units in front and centered . if this makes the bsp to big , use one cm per "face" of the structure.