Some questions within Hammer

[Dario D.]

1: How do you get a func_train to be REALLY loud? Loud like the trains in HL2.

I have a func_train that goes by, and it's quiet as a mouse; only hearable from like 30 feet away, barely.

2: How do you setup a particle system? I hear making your own particle system is no easy task. I just want simple smoke that takes a very long time to fade, and that I can link to the train.

3: My map doesn't seem to be able to compile vvis unless it's on "fast" mode. Never gets past around "...1...2...3...4.", even with 18-hour compiles on my AMD 2800+. I've gone through EXTENSIVE cleaning up and optimizing, with little progress in compile times, except of course Fast mode. How do I fix this?

My map is big, but not THAT big. (see here)

However, the level sits within a quite large level box. I needed room for scenery and enough space for the train to run in large circles (without hearing it).

Level box is this big compared to level - seen from overhead:

Green stuff is func_detail scenery. Yellow lines is train path of invisible train, intended to just emit sound and smoke.

 

[Dan]

heh, that green diagonal line wiggles when you scroll up and down.

 

[JFry]

I believe the actual train is an ambient generic as opposed to a sound from within the func_train entity.

For a smoke particle system you can use env_smoke.

When you say "sits within a large level box" do you mean you enclosed your entire level with huge hollowed out cube? That's what it looks like anyway. If that's not the case, I'll pm you my email and you can send me the rmf if you want me to take a look at what might be causing the huge vis time.

 

[Ti133700N]

That NewbBrush, as I call it, is probably the reason of the long VIS calculations. You could always try to convert some more special brushes to entities but the main reason of the long compile is the skybox.