Editor: Invisible CollisionHulls

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£éè£å-(DOG)-
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Editor: Invisible CollisionHulls

Post by £éè£å-(DOG)- »

Hi :-)

One of the main reasons for BSP errors is the wrong use of Invisible CollisionHulls.
These brushes are nothing else than invisible SemiSolids, in editor shown as brown brushes.
When you use a CollisionHull for example to block a window, make sure that this brush does not touch or cross any other brush.
Always make it a little smaller than the gap you want to fill with it.
Wrong used CollisionHulls can cause several BSP errors:
HOM effects (Hall of Mirror), invisible gaps in grounds or walls where players can fall or go through, worst of all - invisible blocks somewhere in the map.

Kami
Master_Unreal

Re: Editor: Invisible CollisionHulls

Post by Master_Unreal »

LOL, I've seen this mistake so many times, its easy to avoid yet many people do not :lol:

This is what it'll look like, and this error just looks ugly
Image

That's because, as kami said, its touching the brushes, THIS is a good example of what you want to do
Image

It's not just in this game too, sometimes if you have badly built levels, you'll get the hall of mirrors effect, might look something like this
Image
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Re: Editor: Invisible CollisionHulls

Post by £éè£å-(DOG)- »

Hi :-)

MU don't mix up the brushes :lol:
I meant SemiSolids, the dark brown ones, or pink when you highlight them :lol:

Another important tip:
Never let NonSolid brushes ( the darker green ones) touch or cross a ZonePortal. This causes weird errors in the map.

Once again the SemiSolids:
Don't sink SemiSolid brushes into nothingness, means outside of the map. In my experience, this causes HOM's. If you have to place such a brush at the edge of the map, deintersect it first. This way no part of the brush will be outside of the map.
Do not let touch a SemiSolid brush a NonSolid brush. This causes collision errors. Also make sure, that a SemiSolid brush never touch or cross a ZonePortal.
Master_Unreal

Re: Editor: Invisible CollisionHulls

Post by Master_Unreal »

LOL yeah I messed up there a bit :lol:

One question though, does it have to be an accumulated amount of semisolid brushes or just one? I don't see any errors with it other than a shadow where the brush is, I do however see a HOM effect with regular brushes though
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Re: Editor: Invisible CollisionHulls

Post by £éè£å-(DOG)- »

You mean the amount of used SemiSolid brushes in a map?
Well, I'm still not sure about that. Some people say, they should be used rarely, others say it doesn't matter. Take a look at the Paci maps, he used tons of SemiSolid brushes for his maps and they just work fine.
The hard part is, that a SemiSolid brush can cause HOM's even if it seems to be 100% correct placed, but on the other side they also can work without problems. In some maps I could solve a problem when changing a SemiSolid to solid, in other cases that didn't work.

In some little tests I got different results. Sometimes I had weird errors, other times all were well. In bigger, more complex maps it's not easy to find the reason for a certain error. When I have a map with some BSP errors, I check the geometry for possible bad things which could be the reason and fix what I've found. In some cases the map works fine after that, but I also got maps which I just can't fix, no matter what I try. Best example is the last one, Nightfall.unr. This map is just a nightmare and I tried over three days to fix the BSP, but all I got was a compromise. There are still errors, but they don't affect the gameplay.

BSP is really a science, well sure for me :lol: :lol: :lol:
I can do a lot of things in a map, but BSP is the hardest part for me. That also was the reason why I gave up to make maps :lol: :lol: :lol:
Master_Unreal

Re: Editor: Invisible CollisionHulls

Post by Master_Unreal »

Ah lol, this actually sparked part of my memory, I remember quite a bit about semisolids now, I can definitely tell you about them from my experience lol

When I first did my mappack, I used semisolids everywhere i could, that wasn't really a great idea, cause what ends up happening, is Solid brushes don't get cut, but other SemiSolids, this was because there was lots of brush collision, etc. If the brush is really complex however, it could possibly end up cutting a solid brush, after this I would only use semisolids if the brush was complex or if I was trying to remove a bsp hole
I can do a lot of things in a map, but BSP is the hardest part for me. That also was the reason why I gave up to make maps :lol: :lol: :lol:
nah, BSP is nothing compared to getting ideas for a room and details to add, to this day that still drives me crazy :lol:

I'd love to see what you would come up with though, how long ago did you try making your own maps? I think you would do great, seeing some of the things you've done other maps, you should really give it a try again :)
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