Area portals, The spawn of satan.

[AcousticToad]

Ok, my maps nearly done, time to do final optimisations, lets throw in area portals, oh wait, no they wont work.

After following the tutorial on verc (http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Levels/performance_and_visibility.html that one) I place a 1 unit thick piece of areaportal brush through my doorways, to which, when compiling produces:

Brush 49336: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49501: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49400: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49400: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49501: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49400: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49336: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49346: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49346: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49336: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49511: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49511: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49471: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49359: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49387: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49387: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49359: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49471: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49387: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49359: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49359: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Brush 49387: areaportal brush doesn't touch two areas

Then when and if it does compile, it gives an error box saying:

numportal > nonumportal

Or something similar, this is annoying because putting these in is the last major thing, hopefully the visual lag (from the world rendering bar in showbudget) will be gone and I can release.

Anyone have any tips on using them? There wasn't a sample map to figure it out either.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[poseyjmac]

there isn't a vmf for it, but in the sdk documentation they do describe how to place them. i followed that and they worked well.

make sure the 4 skinny sides of the area portal are flush with a world brush. hey that rhymes.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Imagine an areaportal as a door. It has to fit flush within it's frame.

 

[Night-Wolf]

Yeah ditto what they said, ive been pissing about with these things for days with limited outcome! Make sure they are totally flush then if you still get those errors, load up your pointfile and look for the leak. Remember the section your trying to seal has to be AIR tight ie - no leaks at all, like a bubble, if theres a hole anywhere in the bubble the portal wont work! When it says not touching two areas it means exactly that, the 2 areas arent totally sealed from each other so there isnt 2 seperate areas!

Hope you understand my rambling!

PS - Pi Mu Rho, been playing your map watergate and I think its pretty good! :thumbs: Needs more armour though! :cheese:

 

[mantis50]

quick question reagarding this. If you have only one door to this room, and a small glass window in the corner, will the areaportal still work in the door frame as mentioned?...or will the window cause it to have an error?

 

[Night-Wolf]

the window will cause an error, its basically a hole in the wall! if you can work areaportalwindows out then stick one of those in there

 

[AcousticToad]

I think the windows are where I have been failing, my door is perfectly flush, yet I forgot that I had 2 windows, a second door and a hole in the floor (albeit covered by a grate, dunno if that would cause it)

I did load the pointfile however and it was coming out of the center of the portal, into the floor, around under the world and into the water.

Dunno why I didn't think of windows

Since my 2 main warehouse have doors to enter from the sides and the lower areas, would portals still work if they are closed ones, or would the geometry behind it be invisible. The only other portals i've worked with were limited in Doom 3 and they made it so only what you could see was rendered, so say my warehouse has the doors going in, if i was standing far away looking in would only the area in the players view be visible while the rest was hidden?

Im rambling again, cheers for the help.