Entities/Brushes Vanishing at Certain Po Created 8 years ago2015-08-02 22:00:31 UTC by Noxx

Hello again TWHL,

I'm having a weird issue with a single spot in my map. At the top of a staircase a brush with a transparent texture and a few entities such as item_generic and env_sprite don't appear. However as I move down the staircase they show up right where they should be. If I go back up to a certain hight they disappear again.

I'm confused as to what might be causing this. I've looked around the forums and didn't see any other threads about this and wanted to know if any of you out there might know what's causing this and if there is a way to fix it.

Here are some in game screenshots of what it looks like.

Higher up the staircaseLower down the staircase

Too many entities on screen at once. Some more advanced users will be able to explain how to use hint brushes to fix that.

I think it will be related to the structure of the map. It looks like some leaf is blocking the POV of the player, so the entities won´t show as normal until you pass the leaf (going downstairs as you do).

Mmmmm, and,DiscoStu please (please x 1000, hahaha!) what about moving entities like monsters?, will they be affected by hintbrushes?.

I mean, If I divide an open range map with hintbrushes, and then I put a horde of monsters in it, will the hintbrushes make the engine consider only the entities between the player and the hintbrush, or will it take them as a whole causing the problem that Noxx has?, will it also can prevent the NO FREE EDICTS error? :?

The issue you're having there is (in my opinion) leaf node related.
When you're halfway up the ramp, you're occupying a leaf node that the engine doesn't think can see the fire.
A hint brush could help with that.
I would first try to create a hint brush that faces the floor and is on the same plane as your wall trim.That will force the room to be divided half-way up the ramp and then the engine will calculate all other leaf nodes. You should be able to see the fire after that.

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Also, use the latest VHLT

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To answer your question abaddon, HINT brushes only define edges of vis leaves. You can have 100 vis leafs in a row, and so long as the first can see the last (essentially a ray-trace), you'll be able to see everything within those.
This is why VIS takes so freakin long - it almost has to check if every single vis leaf can see every other one.

If you are compiling VIS in fast mode first try compiling VIS in normal and -full modes

So I spent all day yesterday trying out the suggestions. The hint brush Tetsu0 suggested sort of worked(I had to point the hint upward and not downward though) for making the brush with the grate stay visible, the only problem was that when you moved through where the hint brush was in game the brush with the grate in the middle of the room disappeared(i.e. you could see it coming down the stairs then you would enter the location where the hint brush is and it would disappear and then it would reappear at the bottom of the staircase.

None of this helped with the flames and other ents in the other room as well

I have been using the latest Vluzacn's ZHLT v33 throughout my entire map. And I always compile in normal, and I did do full VIS every time I compiled trying to figuring this out yesterday.

I even tried deleting the hand railing for the staircase like abbadon said with no luck.

I'm stumped. Do I just give up and remove the detail from those two rooms? They are not super important rooms but I love detailing things in my map and would be kinda bummed if I had to leave them square and bland.

What do you guys think?

This has nothing to do with too many details, it's probably a bug, you should email vluzacn, ive heard hes releasing a new version soon

Imo, with Vluzacn tools, you could fix this by using an info_overview_point in the visleaf where your sprite is located. Make sure it's 'Reversed' is set to yes, within properties.

I agree with Kachito. It worked for me many times, especially on big models using the cycler_sprite entity.

But, I can see that the fire sprites in your map are located behind a stair/step, or anyway a piece of brush. That could contribute to make them disappear because it has created an addition VIS leaf on the other side of the glass windows.
To check if that's the problem, tie that stair/step brush as a func_detail entity, and set its detail level to "2" in the object properties. Then tell me if it has worked.

Good luck.

I've been messing with it for the past few days with placement of hint brushes, rebuilding the room etc, and I still can't seem to fix it. It's that one plane Tetsu0 pointed out earlier in that screenshot that has been the real problem, no matter what I do whenever I walk through it, things disappear.

Kachito, I've tried the info_overview_point with the reversed property set to yes but it didn't do anything, it's possible I don't have it positioned right though. The thing I'm more concerned about though is the func_wall brush with the transparent grate texture on it disappearing. The glass brush in the door doesn't disappear even though it's a func_wall too, is the error just making things disappear at random, or is it affected by placment?

Alberto, I've done what you've said and it didn't seem to effect anything. I should note that I applied the func_detail to the grouped stairs and not to individual steps, should I try that?

I'm debating just deleting the problem ents and just having that room be very plain, unless you guys have anymore ideas.

Have you tried different compile tools?
Is that grate it's own entity - aka it's not a group?

Try replacing the func_walls with func_illusionary and placing a clip brush over them.
I know it's a pain, but there are so many other things to try.

can you post the god damn .rmf?

^^^^^^^^^

Alright here it is.

edit: forgot the .wad, it's fixed now

I removed that hint skip thing in the middle, compiled with -full and nothings disappearing

Also I noticed that everything in your map is off grid. It's not a bad thing, but relying on grid makes it way easier to map and to avoid bugs. It's nice that youre using func_detail but you dont need to use it for very big walls, they should remain world brushes so visibility can be calculated properly.

Hmm, does that mean the problem is either the computer I'm compiling on or the compiling tools I'm using, right?

Sorry for being off the grind. I started the map before I learned why that is a bad idea and I just make do now. And I'll make sure to get rid of the func_details on the large walls, I wasn't aware of that.

Also could you give me the version you compiled? I just wanna see what happens when I run it.

Thanks again for the help.

I used vhlt33

http://www.2shared.com/file/ZeTefSIa/fissionfix9.html

Also Version v34 is out http://forums.svencoop.com/showthread.php/42174-Vluzacn-s-ZHLT-v34-Update?p=507379#post507379
Noxx if you have more question just ask here or if they are sven-coop realated feel free to ask me or @ our forums.
Dat Bruce

Mapping off grid is not a bad idea, its a great ability if you get hold of it. If you wanna map something realistic, youll never be on grid

Off grid bothers me, but it's alright if you use HLFIX or Sledge. I'd still recommend sticking to at least 8 unit grid with world sealing brushes.