Brush split after compiling

(houdao920) #1

Guys, here’s a problem after I compiled my map…
some brush has cracks in the surface, and some brush has been pressed(length and width changed!)
but it look very OK in GTKradiant though…
anyone has an idea…
here’s what I meant

(Pegazus) #2

Did you happen to use grid size 1 or below 1 at that spot? Using grid size 1 or below 1 can get you these kind of problems.

(houdao920) #3

No wonder…I am using the size of 0.25…
but without this ratio I can’t the brush fit …
Maybe put anothe brush behide to cover the crack will do?..

(IndyJones) #4

try to make a model from it. export it to obj, and then convert it to md3…

(Pegazus) #5

[QUOTE=houdao920;201049]
Maybe put anothe brush behide to cover the crack will do?..[/QUOTE]

You could do it like that but then you would get probably Z-Fighting.
I will explain it just in case.

What that means is you have 2 brushes with the same Z values. In other words when two brushes come in contact with each other the pixels will flicker. I am positive you have seen it happen before.

Here is an example.

As IndyJones suggested one way to do it is with a model, but it can get problematic.
I’d suggest if it is not a big work, redo it but don’t use brush sizes 1 or below 1. Also i think i should note that using rotation tool is bad too, it can give the same effect as you had before.

Alternatively
If nothing helps anymore, add texture faces (remove caulk) on the brush sides that are problematic. It might help to fix it.

(-SSF-Sage) #6

Before you start… BACKUP!

Are those brushes structural? Many times in similar cases the brushes are structural. If yes, make them detail (ctrl+m). Test.

Second step. Check you don’t have double brushes.

Third step, if you use Gtk Radiant 1.4.0, run brush clean up.

Then you can choose grid 1 and snap-to-grid (ctrl+g). Do note that it’s probable that you have not done very good brushwork since you ended up in this situation, so snap to grid might ruin the whole thing for you aka it might take some time to fix it.

If it’s still broken, have a deeper look at the brushwork. To prevent this (and a lot of other things) in future; learn to make better brushwork.

And always work on grid (not random clipper clips and rotations, do snap-to-grids frequently) and preferably don’t go under grid 1 unless you really have to. I have never seen a real evidence that going under grid 1 would do anything noticeable damage, but atleast it’s a lot easier to align things up. You’ll remember this when you spend half of your time zooming in and out.

(stealth6) #7

if you have been messing around with vertices use triangular brushes, square ones tend to get screwed up in my experience

(IndyJones) #8

that’s correct, just use cutter tool.

(FireFly) #9

I would suggest that you don’t use any brushes below 2 units: not only will it create artifacts - like the cracks you see - but creating these small sized brushes will decrease your fps and increase the endsize of your bsp file.

I assume - because you’re working with 0.25 brushsize - that what you are creating is very small ingame? If that’s the case I would suggest to create this thing on a larger scale, convert it into an ASE file and import it back into gtkradiant using the ‘modelscale’ key with a very low value

(aaa3) #10

apart from the much better methods the other posters showed up, u could still get this one working, by making these cover brushes somewhat more close to the viewer, avoiding z-fight. it is not a very nice one but if the thing is far away and u accept that it will be somewhat visible and ugly, and u dont want to spend more work on the stuff by using the real solutions, then i think it will do.

just dont forget not to simply texture that brush with the same texture, but to copy it with its alignments scales etc (there is a menu point for that, copy face tx iirc) from the surrounding stuff, and paste it to the cover face. (and the rest of that brush should be nodrawnonsolid. maybe with contentpriority)

(houdao920) #11

IndyJones: Yes. A model will help I think, but what I am doing a part of a building so maybe the model won’t fit in other part of the building quite well…

Pegazus: Thanks for the Z-fighting thing. I did see this before, and even in Radiant I am mess with the flicks that the two brushes made when they hit. Now I finally know why. But I think if I made the cover brush 1 unit up the surface, it seems theres no such problem ^ ^,and I think that 1 unit will not be easily seen if I don’t tell you where it is :smiley:

{SSF}Sage: Thanks for the reply
1.The brush are made to detail.
2.I check the brush again and it is not double brush.(i see double brush could cause texture transparency sometimes and that is no good!)
3.what is snap-to-grid really do in mapping? Is it help to prevent brush crashing or allowing me dragging the verticals of the brush around?
I agree with you that not using under grid 1 and it don’t make much difference on the visual effect.
Maybe I should change another way of brushwork, here’s how I make it.

stealth6: Thanks for the help. and what you mean is to use the clip and split to cut the square brush into triangles, how can I do that? won’t the brush be into many many parts so that take much time to edit?

FireFly: You are right.:)…make a big one, convert to ASE, load it back and shrink its size!! I think it is worth a try!
Anyway, here’s how it looked, and it is not small, and thats a HUGE crack (even lager than last time I compile and that is strange…)I just want it more accurate to attach verticals after rotate…I hate rotation, but I guess I have to this time…


so tiny people on the bridge…

aaa3: Thanks for the suggestion, thats what i am doing ,make it closer to the viewer, and it looked…OK to me. But I don’t get this line “to copy it with its alignments scales etc (there is a menu point for that, copy face tx iirc) from the surrounding stuff, and paste it to the cover face” did you mean I should use ctrl+shift and select only one face(which is on the back side) of the brush so that its other faces are nosolid and nodraw?

(ducks) #12

I’d worry less about making a perfectly regular/round shape and work with the grid.

It might look a little mis-shapen or even a bit ridiculous on the 2D grid, but in-game, in full 3D with a whole range of distractions, no one will notice nor care :slight_smile:

Otherwise, if it really must be perfect, then use a model, as has been suggested already.

(aaa3) #13

[with that i only meant to select a face in the surrounding, copy face texture, and paste it onto 1 surface of the cover-brush].
on ur 1st picture the method is not good in which you r making it, if the arrows meaning that you are pushing the vertices inwards. instead try using the 3 point clipper tool. with vert pushing you will get the remaining verts screwed up sometimes. (ok, not always but you seem a bit beginner for this anyway… after some more exp in radi u might learn by urself how to carefully use the vertex tool)

i know it is a bit slow; but u can save some work by cutting the rortationally-symmetrical brush into quarters, do only one of these (which will be 3 cuts since the stuff is octagonal [in your simplified example, the real seems to be more-sided]), and then clone and rotate it 3x, and reunite with merge.

p.s. i love your last pic :slight_smile:

(stealth6) #14

now I see that and what aaa3 said, i think I recently had the same problem.
The first step you are doing is fine imo, but just don’t use a very small grid,try to keep it at 4 if possible or 8. (with such a big tower I think 8 is possible)

then the second step is screwin it up I think, as aaa3 said use the clipper too, select the points and then cut.
I think it should come out nicely then.

(IndyJones) #15

with radiant 1.4, you can ‘copy/paste’ texture settings by using mouse scroll button.