info_node on func_wall Created 2 years ago2022-01-20 12:49:10 UTC by UbOh

Why func_wall allows info_node placement on it? Does the engine specifically check for "func_wall" classname while generating the paths, or is there a hidden flag or an entity keyvalue applied to it? Can a mapper replicate this behaviour with other entities without touching code?

func_walls have an internal `FL_WORLDBRUSH` flag set, so they're treated as world brushes when the node-graph is generated. The only other entity that also has this flag set is func_breakable, but only when its Material Type is set to 'Unbreakable glass' and when its Render Mode is not set to 'Normal'.

I don't know if these internal flags can be written to, but if so then you could try adding a flags property to an entity and setting it to 33554432 (that'll set the 26th bit, which is the FL_WORLDBRUSH flag).

If that doesn't work then the next thing I would try is to generate the node-graph using a custom version of the map (one with additional func_walls). Apparently HL will only rebuild a .nod file if the .bsp file is newer, so it should be possible to trick HL by first creating a normal .bsp, backing it up, then creating a custom .bsp (extra func_walls), using that to generate the .nod file, and then restoring the normal .bsp file. It might even be possible to strip the info_nodes from the normal .bsp if you need to save space for other entities. Fully automating this process might be a bit tricky because HL must be launched to build the node-graph...

I tried setting the flag with func_breakable, func_door and func_illusionary. All of them got deleted with "SUB_Remove called on entity with health > 0", without generating paths.

But, building two versions of maps with nodes and without nodes is a great idea and I didn't notice any problems while trying it (only tested with info_node though). This could save me some entities in the future since I tend to use a lot of nodes :). Maybe using ripent to create the two versions (saving the untouched, node version later) can save from the trouble of compiling the map twice.