Area portal

[Asgarath83]

I Know is a stupid question but as mapper i am again noob.

What is the exactly function of Area Portal system shader and how can i use it in a map? for what i have understood, area portal make this:

- cut the map in separate area and so FX, entities and all things contain it not affect displaying efx particels or load or FPS lag of player that is in another area.

- some vis effect (i not again undestood what is the Vis and how it work in a map.

- in case of target_noise, areaportal block the sound propagation.

 

Question is: soundset , efx etc are blocked by area portal right? if i have a map builded with physic clip and misc_model buildings, how the map i am working, the area portal need to be placed upon all physic clipper or only in the hallways and doors? (the physics clips are considered as brush by engine?)

thanks for any answer : 3

[Didz]

Area portals only work when inside doors that open and close. Basically they let the engine know that whenever doors are closed, the other side of the area portal should not be rendered at all. And when the doors are open, the area portal gets toggled so that it will show everything behind the door.

 

There was a nice tutorial I read many years ago that explained how to do area portals properly. I can't seem to find it now though.

[Lazarus]

Bassically you make a brush in your door (if its a sliding door) with one side textured with areaportal, the other sides with skip. It gets more complicated when you do rotating doors. Lassev wrote a nice tutorial about it. http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/tutorials/rotadoor_index.htm.

 

I am curious how it responds to func_statics that function as a door. might need to look into that.

[Ramikad]

All of the above. I'd add that Areaportals can only be used in conjunction with any STRUCTURAL brush. DETAIL brushes won't work with areaportals. To make a very basic example, you want to "seal" a room with structural brushes (walls, ceiling, floor, doors), and make crates and decorative stuff detail brushes.

 

Portals however don't stop at Areaportals: there are also Hint Portals, that can be used very well in corridors that curve (again, with structural brushes). Here's a tutorial about them:

 

http://map-forge.net/wiki/doku.php?id=tutorials:hintportals_data:hintportals1

 

And last but not least, the obscure Antiportals. I haven't gotten quite far with them, but as far as I understand, they create "holes" that prevent the rendering of anything that's beyond them if you look at them straight, but they do NOT add up to .bsp space. All in all I'm not even sure you need to hide them in a structural brush, or if detail brushes work fine. My knowledge about it is limited

 

VIS would stand for "Visibility", I guess. There are a few values that affect it: distancecull will set the max distance after which objects and brushes start disappearing. And there's blocksize or chopsize, that... I don't know what they actually do.

 

As a final note, as Pande once mentioned, a good VIS compile leads to a better Light compile.

[Asgarath83]

mmmm i think for the particolar structure of my cathderal that "hint" can work better of area portal, there are not really "doors" in my map. thanks for all, men.

[eezstreet]

Bassically you make a brush in your door (if its a sliding door) with one side textured with areaportal, the other sides with skip. It gets more complicated when you do rotating doors. Lassev wrote a nice tutorial about it. http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/tutorials/rotadoor_index.htm.

 

I am curious how it responds to func_statics that function as a door. might need to look into that.

Works with func_statics too, since doors also function in a similar fashion. (They're both bmodels)

[AngelModder]

Func static can not be used  like a door to toggle area portal even though  they're similar entities. The func static rotating door triggers a bogus caulk normal door via the script, that in turn toggles the area portals effect. As for hint portal's, just be sure none of them can see each other, other wise you end up with a dreadful effect.

[Asgarath83]

one hint brush for every hallway of my cathedral, behind every dome door, should be sufficient for solve some drop FPS issue

my doors are MD3 models, otherwise, so they not oopen, all my cathedrail is a giant collage of MD3 buildings >_> only the central is marked as solid, the other have a large amount of physic clips colliders for make solids doors, walls, ceiling and floors. 

after i end to place light and Fxrunner i will build the physic clips of model and i convert to misc_model_static for prevent shader issues.

[AngelModder]

Building with misc models is fun, I considered doing that with Titanic, just modeling it all out and clipping it. However in the end some time's this creates more work for you and more strain on the engine. It can only handle so many models. For a smaller project it's fine but some of them meh.. Any ways good luck!

[Asgarath83]

Building with misc models is fun, I considered doing that with Titanic, just modeling it all out and clipping it. However in the end some time's this creates more work for you and more strain on the engine. It can only handle so many models. For a smaller project it's fine but some of them meh.. Any ways good luck!

Yes, the models are builded by a my friend that is a nice modeller, i am good to script the maps or NPC, or SAB, but for making a map i am just a noob. i ported the md3 textured with @@mrwonko custom propertsies tecnique (become me madness for make all shader info to EVERY damn mesh of the cathedral! XDDD ) but after i assembled my little cathedral in a map that have only skybox and a grass brush as ground. the more nasty part was :

1- put ALL md3 object inside the domes for decoration , and make all area i want... a book read room, a training arena, an alchemy laboratory, a magical forge, some altairs with element powers brazier.... glyph temples in the underground, a history book room,  a necromancy laborator, a nature botanic room.... a time straming device chamber and a dimension streaming device chamber (like the chronoplastic chamber of soul reaver 2 ) all that with md3 >,< now i am putting lighting. after i make physics clip for all objects inside the dome and ambiental efx with fxrunners.... the final part are

- shadering

- triggering, scripting of doors and interactive and magical usables objects.

- optimization of misc_model for not flood too many entities, because some object i build with a merge of more MD3 parts... and so, i will make a unique compose MD3 for that.

- convert misc_model to misc_model static.

- music,

 

after i make another version of map with the cathedral by outside, just the building, the forest and another building near with the homes of the Reapers. all that for the area of Pillars of Nosgoth. it's a mod inspirated to a LOK italian role playing game that is placed in 1000 years after soul reaver game in a nosgoth with balance restored and Pillars again scraping the sky... and at the end, i will make a third map with the lair of vampires of alliance into the rebuildied Nupraptor Retreat.

so... it's a clan map...  i have also a lot of stuff by neo dark ages mod, return to wolf castlestein, many temples and mansion maps (like the resident evil map md3 models... i was lost without all that plants and objects...  also darkj forces mod is very useful, i place some of the skeletons dead of Talay map into the necromancy laborator upon the tables. ) ^^

My SP code is edited for makling  a more LOK gameplay with the help of serenity937 and ensiform i make some of cool this summer. now i am making this "clans" map and after i have only to make some hundred of NPCs of villains of the Lok games. ROTFL. however is just an hobby and because my map have a large amount of material for this ugly project i will never host here. is a personal project for me and my friends. :3 

[AngelModder]

Well theirs nothing wrong with a personal project, to be honest while I will be releasing Titanic, the community is not why I've built it. I've built it simply to have my own mid poly model of it to put through what ever I chose (tastefully) and simulate the sinking etc as a learning and demonstration tool. While it has been fun in the past to play in it with others don't get me wrong, mainly it is for me to witness what happened and to feed the information in to create a simulation of that event. I've been asked why do I even bother with Titanic Honor And Glory being made, well quiet simply put, I was here first, and that's theirs, this is mine, this I can adjust, theirs I wont be able to. This I can script out influences like the pump's that when used right add time to the sinking based on there outtake of water vs the ships intake. It is for me to test theories and see the answers to what if's.
Long story short, never be ashamed of your work, but I do understand some thing's are better kept for our selves.

Sincerely AngelModder™