joe.to forums

okay, so, I've come incredibly close to finishing and compiling this abstract map I've been working on for the past few months. problem is, I'm worried that other parts of the level will be visible through the skybox - as i've seen in other maps of mine. the brush faces (or at least almost all of them) that touch the void are nodraw.

is there anyway to prevent this? i really don't want to have to remove the skybox in the places that I'll likely have to.

and does this problem only happen if you have a 3d skybox? or only when you don't?

16 views and no replies?

Post some pictures because I don't exactly get it.

only solution I can think of is to build part of the exterior of the building and move the skybox further away from the window

I have never once experienced this issue in source. I think it was primarily a goldsrc problem.

I'd say copy that one part of the map and compile it separately, as a test. If you experience that problem, try creating a box around the window for the skybox, instead of having the texture flush with the side.

Another problem:
I'm trying to make a prop_dynamic_override (citizen model) sit on a couch. I added a trigger_look in front of him so when the player looks at him, he stands up, and then disappears. Thing is, every time i go into hammer he is in the normal "ragdoll" mode, even if i adjust it in the models tab and save it. Do I have to add a trigger that sets his animation to that, too?

ignore what he looks like in hammer, it should display whatever animation you set in-game

i would do that if, when i re-launched hammer, his animation was still the same. but it resets to the default animation when i look in the tab, and i even tried to set his animation in the model browser (but that seems to do nothing).

but, even though it does this, it should still look like he's sitting, right?

edit it once, save it, and don't ever look at the object properties for that entity again
I think that's how it worked for me

alright, thanks.

sorry for all the questions, but do you know of a place i can find a nice space skybox? i tried previously to make a big box of a space texture, but it looked really tacky because you could see the edges. I haven't seen any skyboxes in the links you posted here.

okay, so, i compiled it and there isn't a leak i don't think, but i can see the level through the skybox - like i was worried i would.

it isn't so much as a small problem as i thought it would be - if I can't fix it i really basically have to jump ship on this one, unless i revamp practically everything.

every room that there is a skybox i can see other parts of the level. is there any fix for this, at all?

There is a fix. Infact, its more of a standard procedure in most maps. You have to basically segregate each room with an area_portal brush.

Basically, what you are getting is a leak, in that the engine assumes that the level geometry is all one floor. Using the area portal to segregate each room into separate visleafs can solve the problem.

Source Wiki wrote:Every visible surface of a map is part of one visleaf or another. Visleafs are used primarily by the Rendering Engine to determine (before rendering each frame) which areas of the map might need to be rendered on screen.

Basically, the engine doesn't know what should be rendered on screen. By adding areaportals, you seperate each visleaf cluster, allowing you to control what should be rendered when.

That wiki has a ton of info on how many of the entities and textures work.

now that I've got all that cleared up, my prop_dynamic_override, even if I compile it while his animation is set to Sit_Chair and it displays this in hammer, upon compilation it shows him in the T-position. I don't quite understand what is wrong here, if anyone could help.

you're typing that in for "Default Animation" and not just selecting it from the model tab right?