Selecting something in 3D view Created 16 years ago2007-12-07 19:47:34 UTC by Flash 103

I've used Hammer once before, I think a year or so ago. I like building things, so it was right down my alley. Either way, I soon bought a new computer and forgot all about it.

Now I had the urge to build maps again. I just started with a simple room to refresh my memory on how this all works, but I've ran into a problem.

I cannot select anything in the 3D camera window. I remember being able to click on an object or wall to select it. It was very helpful to pick a face of an object to move/change a texture on it, but I can't even do that. I've tried everything and for the life of me I cannot figure out what is wrong. All I can do is move around the map.

So my question is: What is wrong?

Thank you for your time.

When you try to select it are you still with that camera tool selected? U should have the Selection Tool

I do have the selection tool selected, and I have it in textured mode, it's the only mode I keep it in.

And yes, I do see something in the camera window. This is why I'm so confused...

When I move the camera around and select a wall with the selection tool whilst moving, it sort of lags like as if it was selecting something, but, it doesn't.

I've just opened my map to see if it were to work now, it didn't. The program actually stop responding after a few clicks on the 3D view. I tried it again, and after a minute of clicking, it crashed again...

I guess I should just mention I have Vista, if it matters... it seems for a lot of things, it does. :

yeah, it's vista.

I hear vista is powered by a boiler that runs on hopes, dreams, babies, and lies. Did you try putting more of those in?

I substituted more babies for the lies. Does that matter? Should I throw more lies in? What about human souls? I heard I needs a marginal amount of those as well.

But seriously, does anyone know the problem?

microsoft decided that since they didn't own the rights to it, they'll drop nearly all OpenGL support in vista. hammer runs on OpenGL, so basically you're screwed.

Do you have an ATI-card?

Lots of people that have this problem have an ATI-card so I think the problem is the shitty drivers they provide...

no, it's vista.

Definitely Vista.

correction

dont use vista for hammer 3.4

Haha, and I do have an ATI card also.

So I'm screwed? Nothing else I can do to fix it? That's so lame... this is really the only computer I have.

Well actually, my brother has a computer with XP, but it's been broken for months, it turns on and doesn't get past the motherboard screen. Coincidently, a repair man is coming over today to hopefully fix it.

Anyways, thank you all for helping! I appreciate it!

Hammer worked for me with vista. But i think it was because it was upgraded from XP and vista was using the XP openGL drivers from the windows.old (the folder vista throws all the useless xp crap into after the upgrade) folder.
Plus that's where the executable was located. SO that could be why it still worked for me. Idk.

Unfortunately, I bought this computer new from Dell with Vista on it. I guess that is why it worked for you and not me.

Just map source, you'll live.

Hahaha.
Yeah. Yet. The source engine is already aging technology.

/me wants real-time lighting

imagine it... no compiling rad.

Well I decided on using the PC in my bedroom that is a few years old. I completely forgot about it, but it has XP on it. And the 3D thing works in it, thank God!

Now I need to look through all the tutorials again... It's been a while. I feel so lost and like a giant noob. I can't even remember how to make a door stay locked...

cough
master
cough

If you don't get it to run in Vista there is always Quark(never tried it myself though).

Having a door stay locked doesn't need a master.

You need to name the door.
Set speed, lip and if its an rotating door, deg to 0.
Select a Locked Sound and done.

A locked door.

Even just naming it "locked" actually locks it

Really?

What the.

Edit: it works. Whattha!
You still need to specify a locked sound though.

But neat!

Yeah I finally figured out how to lock the door, like you said, name it, and put a lock sound.

If anyone cares to help some more, what I have done is made a map where I start off in a small living quarters. What I am trying to do is keep the door out to the hallway locked until I put on the HEV suit. The best I can do is make the HEV suit open the door and keep it open once when I wear it (if I let it close after a few seconds, the door stays locked and traps me in the room >_>). My goal is to make it only unlock the door, and then I can open it by walking into it like a normal door.

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with one of those trigger entities, but I can't remember what to use or how to set it up.

I am using an Ati Card and having no problems. Also you tried deleting youe version and getting 3.5? I use 3.5 but my system is not VISTA...

set the door to stay open, and then tick the toggle flag.
Set the Suit's target to the door.
Place a trigger_once outside the door to close the door once you're outside of it.

Since the door is set to toggle. (with delay before close at -1 and reset time 0) it will remain open until the trigger_once is triggered.

The trigger_once, will only activate once (hence 'once') whereas a trigger_multiple will trigger multiple times (infinite if you really want to)

So.

HEV suit >> door open
trigger_once >> door close / stay closed.

It could also be done with a multisource, if you want the door to remain locked, or unable to open until you get the HEV, and then once you have it, you go back and open the door.

true, but that doesn't require a multisource. That'll over-complicate things. If a door has a trigger activating it. Only the trigger will open the door.[i think, if i can recall] Or there's a way other than a multisource to achieve the same effect.

Well what I want to do is to only have the door unlock when I grab the HEV suit, and I can open it by myself, both from the inside and outside, meaning that the door would close by itself after a few seconds when I open it (and not stay locked).

So pretty much: HEV Suit -> unlock door

But that's interesting, how exactly does the trigger_once/multiple work? Do I just place it somewhere and when I walk into the space where it's located it triggers whatever I linked it to?

And I have another question/problem. But first, I want to thank everyone who has replied thus far, you have all been very helpful with reacquainting me to Hammer.

Anyways, my question/problem is that I think I'm doing something wrong. I'm making my map and I noticed from the near beginning that it would always tell me WARNING and something in reference to the LeafThreads (I'm not even sure what those are...) and the number of them when I compile my map. Originally it was like 15, and then it dropped a bit, but then as I built the map up some more, it rose up to around 200 or so.

Now I have a security pavilion in my map, near the center, it's sort of like a lobby place. Anyways, all was fine until I added some details to it, like signs, computers, and four light sources. Now, whenever I compile with VIS on, it sort of just gets stuck there, really on the LeafThreads part. I know sometimes it takes a while, it was doing around four minutes before this, but now I can leave my computer on for an hour while it does this and it does not budge.

And when I turn VIS off and let everything stay bright, the game goes super SLOW and lags a lot!

What the heck am I doing wrong?

And yes, I'm now using those Zoner Compile Tools, and it still gets stuck.

But that's interesting, how exactly does the trigger_once/multiple work? Do I just place it somewhere and when I walk into the space where it's located it triggers whatever I linked it to?

Yup. It's basically a big field, that when walked into triggers whatever you set it to. Trigger blocks are invisible in-game, usually textured with the aaatrigger texture.

I'm making my map and I noticed from the near beginning that it would always tell me WARNING and something in reference to the LeafThreads

Copy-pasta the whole compile log. I'm guessing you have some "Saw into leaf" errors or something.

And when I turn VIS off and let everything stay bright, the game goes super SLOW and lags a lot!

This is because the whole map is being rendered at the same time. Type gl_wireframe 2 (I think it is? Can't remember) in the console and check for yourself. VIS decides what should be rendered (i.e. what's visible to the player) and what shouldn't.

If you want to do this the cheating way, here's what i'd do.

First off, make the door back to normal. Just have the door a regular, open when walk into, door and then do the following.

make a brush (on the HEV side) in front of the door. Make it the same size as the door. Tie it to an entity, and make it into a func_wall_toggle. Name it like door_lock or something.
Render mode: texture
Render fx: 1

This will make the wall essentially invisible.
Once triggered by the HEV suit, it'll just disappear, and then your door will be accessible . Basically, just block the door with the invisible func_wall_toggle. Not too far away from the door that it's too noticeable. 8 units should do nicely.

Okay, here is the whole compile log. I actually had to get rid of most of my security pavilion and the 8 light sources that accompany it, because otherwise, it gets stuck at VIS.

** Executing...
** Command: Change Directory
** Parameters: C:SIERRAHalf-Life

** Executing...
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "C:SIERRAHalf-LifevalvemapsDorm.map" "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm.map"

** Executing...
** Command: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlcsg.exe
** Parameters: "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"

hlcsg v3.4 Final (Feb 25 2006)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (amckern@yahoo.com)
--- BEGIN hlcsg ---
Command line: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlcsg.exe "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"
Entering C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm.map

Current hlcsg Settings
Name | Setting | Default
--------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 1 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
max lighting memory [ 6291456 ] [ 6291456 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

noclip [ off ] [ off ]
null texture stripping[ on ] [ on ]
clipnode economy mode [ on ] [ on ]
clip hull type [ legacy ] [ legacy ]
onlyents [ off ] [ off ]
wadtextures [ on ] [ on ]
skyclip [ on ] [ on ]
hullfile [ None ] [ None ]
nullfile [ None ] [ None ]
min surface area [ 0.500 ] [ 0.500 ]
brush union threshold [ 0.000 ] [ 0.000 ]

Using mapfile wad configuration
Wadinclude list :
[zhlt.wad]

0 brushes (totalling 0 sides) discarded from clipping hulls
CreateBrush:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (2.69 seconds)
SetModelCenters:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (0.00 seconds)
CSGBrush:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (1.64 seconds)

Using Wadfile: sierrahalf-lifevalveliquids.wad

• Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (32 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: sierrahalf-lifevalvespraypaint.wad

• Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (14 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: sierrahalf-lifevalvexeno.wad

• Contains 1 used texture, 1.41 percent of map (264 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: sierrahalf-lifevalvedecals.wad

• Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (222 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: sierrahalf-lifevalvegfx.wad

• Contains 0 used textures, 0.00 percent of map (7 textures in wad)

Using Wadfile: sierrahalf-lifevalvehalflife.wad

• Contains 70 used textures, 98.59 percent of map (3116 textures in wad)

added 9 additional animating textures.
Texture usage is at 0.52 mb (of 4.00 mb MAX)
5.03 seconds elapsed

--- END hlcsg ---

** Executing...
** Command: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlbsp.exe
** Parameters: "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"

hlbsp v3.4 Final (Feb 25 2006)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (amckern@yahoo.com)
--- BEGIN hlbsp ---
Command line: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlbsp.exe "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"

Current hlbsp Settings
Name | Setting | Default
------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 1 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

noclip [ off ] [ off ]
nofill [ off ] [ off ]
noopt [ off ] [ off ]
null tex. stripping [ on ] [ on ]
notjunc [ off ] [ off ]
subdivide size [ 240 ] [ 240 ] (Min 64) (Max 512)
max node size [ 1024 ] [ 1024 ] (Min 64) (Max 8192)

SolidBSP [hull 0] 500...1000...1500...1527 (0.27 seconds)
BSP generation successful, writing portal file 'C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm.prt'
SolidBSP [hull 1] 500...1000...1161 (0.14 seconds)
SolidBSP [hull 2] 500...1000...1041 (0.13 seconds)
SolidBSP [hull 3] 500...1000...1251 (0.17 seconds)
3.08 seconds elapsed

--- END hlbsp ---

** Executing...
** Command: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlvis.exe
** Parameters: "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"

hlvis v3.4 Final (Feb 25 2006)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (amckern@yahoo.com)
--- BEGIN hlvis ---
Command line: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlvis.exe "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"
700 portalleafs
2316 numportals

= Current hlvis Settings =
Name | Setting | Default
------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 1 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
max vis distance [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

fast vis [ off ] [ off ]
full vis [ off ] [ off ]

BasePortalVis:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (2.00 seconds)
LeafThread:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (637.80 seconds)
Warning: Leaf portals saw into leaf

Problem at portal between leaves 212 and 222:
   (1560.159 275.480 -154.041)
(1560.153 275.482 -154.019)
(1556.291 277.413 -157.881)
(1548.897 281.947 -182.000)
(1550.950 281.122 -184.000)
(1551.109 281.051 -184.000)

average leafs visible: 302
g_visdatasize:43478 compressed from 61600
639.88 seconds elapsed [10m 39s]

--- END hlvis ---

** Executing...
** Command: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlrad.exe
** Parameters: "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"

hlrad v3.4 Final (Feb 25 2006)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (amckern@yahoo.com)
--- BEGIN hlrad ---
Command line: C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1hlrad.exe "C:Documents and SettingsCustomerDesktopMapsDorm"

= Current hlrad Settings =
Name | Setting | Default
-------------------|---------------------|------------------------
threads [ 1 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ off ] [ off ]
estimate [ off ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 4194304 ] [ 4194304 ]
max lighting memory [ 6291456 ] [ 6291456 ]
priority [ Normal ] [ Normal ]

vismatrix algorithm [ Original ] [ Original ]
oversampling (-extra)[ off ] [ off ]
bounces [ 1 ] [ 1 ]
bounce dynamic light [ on ] [ on ]
ambient light [ 0.000 0.000 0.000 ] [ 0.000 0.000 0.000 ]
maximum light [ 255.000 ] [ 256.000 ]
circus mode [ off ] [ off ]

smoothing threshold [ 50.000 ] [ 50.000 ]
direct threshold [ 25.000 ] [ 25.000 ]
direct light scale [ 2.000 ] [ 2.000 ]
coring threshold [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]
patch interpolation [ on ] [ on ]

texscale [ on ] [ on ]
patch subdividing [ on ] [ on ]
chop value [ 64.000 ] [ 64.000 ]
texchop value [ 32.000 ] [ 32.000 ]

global fade [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]
global falloff [ 2 ] [ 2 ]
global light scale [ 1.000 1.000 1.000 ] [ 1.000 1.000 1.000 ]
global gamma [ 0.500 0.500 0.500 ] [ 0.500 0.500 0.500 ]
global light scale [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]
global sky diffusion [ 1.000 ] [ 1.000 ]

opaque entities [ on ] [ on ]
sky lighting fix [ on ] [ on ]
incremental [ off ] [ off ]
dump [ off ] [ off ]

colour jitter [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ] [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
monochromatic jitter [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ] [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
softlight hack [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ] [ 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
diffuse hack [ on ] [ on ]
spotlight points [ on ] [ on ]

custom shadows with bounce light

[               off ] [               off ]

rgb transfers [ off ] [ off ]

[Reading texlights from 'C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1lights.rad']
[59 texlights parsed from 'C:DOCUME~1CustomerDesktopZONER'~1lights.rad']

4158 faces
Create Patches : 19887 base patches
0 opaque faces
180835 square feet [26040268.00 square inches]
362 direct lights

BuildFacelights:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (36.77 seconds)
visibility matrix : 23.6 megs
BuildVisLeafs:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (108.84 seconds)
MakeScales:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (47.89 seconds)
SwapTransfers:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (234.45 seconds)
Transfer Lists : 52915832 : 52.92M transfers

Indices :    20200460 :   19.26M bytes
   Data :   211663328 :  201.86M bytes

Bounce 1 GatherLight:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (122.63 seconds)
FinalLightFace:
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%... (4.48 seconds)
561.41 seconds elapsed [9m 21s]

--- END hlrad ---

So yeah, it seems that there is some leafs looking at leafs or something. What exactly does that even mean? And how do I fix it? Is it causing my problem?

(1560.159 275.480 -154.041)

These are the co-ordinates of the problem area. (X, Y, Z format)
Go in your top view and move the mouse around until you're in the general area, and go simplify the brushwork in those areas. (The location of the cursor can be found by looking at the bottom right in the lower status bar)

You can also try the following:

Use a HINT brush in that area,
Compile without the -fast option. (regular compile, or full vis)

http://twhl.co.za/tutorial.php?id=71 - HINT brush tutorial. Basically, they split up vis leaves for the engine.(could possibly reduce compile times) It won't render anything behind it (in-relation to the player) unless the brush is seen. The tutorial explains it better.

Hope it helps.

Ask Tommy, he knows all.