Wierd, wierd problem Created 17 years ago2007-02-05 15:04:39 UTC by Playbus

Rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated

I know I haven't posted here in ageees, I've been busy, but between work crap I have been working feverishly on Day15.

And now I have a very odd problem.

I've got a fairly large outdoor area. It was fine, until the point I threw away the old skybox and installed a shiny new one.

Now, with the new skybox, I get wierd white and black polygons being rendered on the screen when you walk through certain places on the map. It happens very quickly - so for example if you are moving you will only see a quick white flash, and then it's all normal again. However you can fairly easily find spots to stand in the map where it happens constantly. I've found over a dozen places where it happens! Here are some examples of what it looks like:

Now, because the problem started when I changed the skybox, I figure it has to be the skybox which is causing the problem.

But, the new skybox took me ages, and looks nice apart from having this effect. I'd rather not have to make it all again.

Also, the problem only happens with a full compile. If I only run BSP, it never happens.

And, the FPS drops massively if you stand still in one of the problem spots. The swap buffers go through the roof.

I've gone through the compile log, no errors at all. Clean as a whistle. Hammer also reports no problems.

Anyone got any suggestions?

PS I can't wait to show you all Day15

Compile the map with cordon bounds without the skybox to be 100% sure the problem is there.
Make sure you don't have any hidden objects in the skybox (I had a weird shadow problem in Railway21 because of that)
The screenshots look weird... almost like a GFX card malfunction.

I've tried just removing the skybox entirely. It fixes the problem. It has to be something in the skybox. I'm fairly sure there's no hidden objects in there -- but I'm off to check that now.

As well as models, I did make some buildings with brushes and then scaled them down to go in the skybox --- I don't get any microbrush errors in the compile, but at the moment they are currently my prime suspect. I'll try just removing those.

The only annoying thing about this really is that it only happens with a full compile, which currently stands at about 40mins on this map......

It's the scaled down buildings in the skybox.

Damnit.

I'm a bit confused because it wasn't like they were very intricate buildings, just a bunch of blocks and wedges really. I've done similar things before and not had this problem....wierd.

Anyway. Time to make some new buildings.