IrocJeff

So the area portal should only be on the visible sides and the skip texture should be on everything not visible is what your saying and that is more efficient than than just using the area portal texture all over?

You could put an area portal in the door between your two large rooms. Its just a brush the same size as your door just thinner. So if your door is 8 units thick you could make your area portal brush 2, 4, 6, units thick. Just texture the whole brush with the area portal texture. That should stop your framerate issues. You don't need to have them at every door, though. When you start putting in target speakers you may run into some crackling issues since the area portals cut off sound. I ran into that issue with my stuff. Here is a post I made about Area Portals and some issues with some good explanations. http://jkhub.org/topic/3401-stutters-on-some-area-portals-triggers/ As far as detail and structure everything that touches the void is structural. You can also have structural brushes inside a room such as a wall or cargo containers or something to block vis, too. It gets confusing sometimes depending on how many tutorials you read and each says slightly different things. Most everything inside a room will probably be detail. I have absolutely zero clue how Hint brushes work so someone is going to have to try and explain those.

Yeah, I'm willing to give it a go. I really like the color. Fire Away!

Here is it with some chrome texture I didn't use yet from texturelib.com.

This doesn't look to terrible. Looks like I see Stormtroopers, I see some Star Destroyers, TIEs, I'm interested in this Inquisitor fellow they are adding as well. When exactly is this going to place between Episode 3&4? It looks closer to 4 to me.

I went into Gimp and just made 3 quick blue, yellow, and green textures and added some noise to them.

They don't look good in black, that's for sure. The lights for test purposes I have are set at 500 or 600 I think so they make them look a bit brighter. I thought it gave a nice contrast the to drab Imperial textures. I'll darken up a bit the stock color textures and post more pics from the same location.

Decided to 86 the rotating stuff and go simple. I made rock walls and cut out two walls and put in a hallway. I'm thinking of adding more pipes below the reactor and having the player navigate down around the reactor structure to get to another area. I always loved in HL2 how they did power cables so I decided to try and add them here. It worked out pretty well. All they are are cylinders cut down til they are V-shaved and then I used the solid color textures on them. Hides the shape well with solid textures.

Yeah, I actually think that might be it. I'll have to try that method with the texture you used in the future. I did change my design a bit for the better. I'm still using Func_Rotating but I have 12 sided brushes, 5 stacked on each other with a cylinder in the middle, rotating at varying speeds and direction. This is enclosed partially with thickened bevels and some brushwork which makes it almost look like an electric motor armature with brushes around it in a partially open housing. Have no freakin clue what it does but it'll look cool with power cables and pipes and lights on it... hehe. Gotta keep moving on and can't get bogged down with some of this. I appreciate all your help on this.

They could be Noble pines.

All I did was make a brush 688x688 and turn it into a cylinder. Then, adjust the height so it looks like a ring, say 64 units tall. Again, neither of this matters as I've tried them with different sized patches. Next, thicken this to 8 units. After that is done, place an origin brush in the middle of the ring on the grid. Select all of them and turn into a func_rotating. In entity view, check start on and add speed 50 Compile and watch a wobbly orbit.

Well, it was the patch after all. I made 4 tall pillars and made them move around the reactor and they moved in a circle with no wobbles.

I tried what you mentioned above but no luck. The origin brush is working properly. I took the grid units and added them to the origin/value thingy from the editor and it was the same. I also did the info_null thing, which is really good to know, but my numbers I got from the editor grid were the same. Also, thanks for telling me about -speeds for other directions. I was going to ask that eventually. I'm really thinking its my patch. I'm going to try and make something other than rings from regular brushes and see what happens that way when used with a func_rotating.

I got it working but it seems my patches are wobbly when active. I have a ring that I thickened to 8 units and it is supposed to rotate between 4 pillars, one at north, south, east, and west. Seems half the turn is good then the other half is off, but, the ring is 688 x 688. Shouldn't it be a pretty symetrical turning action? Could it be the origin brush?

I'm making a reactor core and would like to make some rotating things around it. Can I assign this function to a patch like a cylinder or bevel or something? The manual just says: Game Function: Solid entity that rotates continuously. Rotates on the Z axis by default and requires an origin brush. It will always start on in the game and is not targetable.

Played a bit too much Doom 3 for some design ideas and ended up making a room that looks better going to a reactor then a drug lab, so, guess I'm going to make a small reactor area. I wasn't planning on it but I've gotten inspired. The pipe is actually my first ever homemade texture. I picked a light blue color in The Gimp and added some noise and I made a pipe texture.

That seems like a lot of learning to import a few models on my part. Khornsyrup volunteered to make some stuff for me so I just have to wait and see what he comes up with.

It was a greyish texured, cylinder shaped item that appeared in my map. I didn't look at tris or anything. It looked like a barrel to me. I didn't try any other models.

What's the proper way to get a model in game? If any? In a previous post it was said that q3map2 can compile 3ds and obj models. I made a new folder in my models directory and then downloaded a model of barrel and put it in there. I added it to the map and it showed up with no texture in the editor and when compiled, although the model itself showed up no problem in the test map. Do I have to re-texture these models myself?

I said the same about the description part. I think it'd be the easiest thing to do.

Those images were just to show the machines..Here are better ones. I added a Double Dragon and Mortal Kombat game in there since my token machine didn't work out to well. I still have to add the table legs since I totally forgot them. Going to put in some tv's on the wall and figure out a better sign. I decided on Emperor's Wok. Sign says Hunan, Cantonese, Szechuan, Dine in or take-out, Phone# KL5-5555. I may just go with a longer text sign above the yellow lights and put in two more menu item images. Here's a closeup of the soda fountain and some models from Nar Shaddaa. All I really need to do is find a tray model and some silver ware models and I'll be set. I'm still messing around with some textures and stuff for the trim around the serving windows but I'll take that stuff up later on. I'm starting the labs floor now which is a smallish area before you get to the production floor.

Personally, I can see where lil_binger is coming from but it really comes what your definition of modding is. When I first got here, I had to read through the forum posts because I didn't know where mapping went, either. I assumed it was in modding assistance but I had to look because mapping to me really isn't modding. I don't look at what I have done and say I've mad a mod, I'm just making levels. I always thought mods were more like total conversions where you take the game and turn it into something else that is different. Maybe all that has to be done is add the word mapping or level editing in the modding assistance description and it'll help people out more.

http://3dexport.com/free-3d-models I found this site and was wondering if anyone has used anything from here before?

I wasn't aware of that. I just found a website that has pay models but also over 800 freebies in various formats. lwo and obj were two of them. Going to post the site in the Arts forum..

So if I read what you answered right all these model types can go along with.md3's and can be used in game ? Or, are those what can be converted to .md3's?