Alright I have a road that I want to use a hint brush to block the parts that are not supposed to be seen. I think I know what I should do but would like some advise. Would I use option 1 or 2 or neither.

or this one? THX

Well, I only see one option, the one you have in your drawing. And from my some-what limited knowledge of Hint brushes, that would be the correct way to use it.
EDIT: First one me thinks

Option1.

But if I were you, I would try the 2 options with gl_wireframe 2 and r_speeds 1 to see what is really the best. It depends on the environnement of these roads.
It takes time, but you'll be sure to have the best result.
:cool:

Do you put the hint brush through other brushes? Or do you manually carve it to the road?

to make a hint brush you simply texture a brush with null, you the pick one face and apply hint. then tihnk of it like a big knife cutting the level along the brush face with hint on it.

ok, so you only apply the hint to one face? I beleive in all of the tutorials it doesnt say anything about that...I just want to make sure...

yup, one face, the side you want the vis to be split :)
But from what I understand the other sides need to be skip texture? I might be wrong.

Yes, only one face.

1. The first example to use a hint brush -for people wanting to learn how to use them- is a door. Place a brush covered with the null or Skip texture, like this:
http://wwwetu.utc.fr/~ngadenne/gaddy/tuto/hint02.jpg
Then, apply the Hint texture on 1 face, like this:
http://wwwetu.utc.fr/~ngadenne/gaddy/tuto/hint03.jpg
In that particular case, the hint won't cut any block.
(source : http://wwwetu.utc.fr/~ngadenne/gaddy/tuto/optimisation(partie1).htm but sorry, it is not in english :( )

2. Compiling is only possible with zhlt, since the original Hammer vis.exe won't recognize the hint, and will show a brush as if the Hint texture was not a special one.

The vis will be longer when using the hint brushes. But there will be 2* less wpolys.

3. Then, take a look ingame at what draws the engine, with gl_wireframe 2, and r_speeds 1 to be able to compare with and without the use of hint brushes. A bad use of hints will increase wpolys!!!
gl_wireframe 2 shows what draws the engine. Each line is a cut.

Some examples with nice pictures: http://www.poisonville.net/hypov8/tuts/hint.htm
Here you can see now that Mexikilla's road r_speeds can be improved with different manners.
More infos here : http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Tutorials/tutorial.php?id=2 (yeah I am a bad boy, this tutorial comes from CS, but we all use the same engine, I hope you won't excomunicate me for this :rolleyes: and it is a good example for Mexikilla's road)

Try, test, compare, do, redo, retest, recompare, it is really worth.
Good luck.

Wow thanks for the info Mythic_Kruger. But the only thing I am a little confused about is the placement of the hint. For example look at your door screenshot. To split the portals vertically I would put it on the horizontal face? So the brush is actually a plane that keeps on going through the ground and splits the portals. Or would I put it on the bottom face?Thanks.