cave issue

[Uriak]

So, my second project is a chasm/cave based map, and I'd like it to feature a variety of stalagmites, stalagtites, and rock pillars. And then I'm wondering, between the following solutions how to best do this mineral concretions :

-displacements
-brushes
-props

?

I fear that displacements may turn ugly and distorted, brushes to be costly to render and props too less versatile than the others. What do you think ?

[Spacemonkeynz]

If you're good at modeling, custom props.

Otherwise use displacements. You can do quite a lot with them.


I don't see how you could make anything like that with brushes.

[Uriak]

With vertex editing, but then I'm confronted with hammer modifying my brushes when I save and reload the map. I suppose it's a known issue, is there anything to do against it ?
Ho, and thanks, btw :)

[somehugenerd]

...vertex editing, but then I'm confronted with hammer modifying my brushes when I save and reload the map

I had some issues with this happening when I was trying to make some ramps a while back, they were angled pretty strangely, but everything fit together properly in the editor. Then I'd compile and play, only to see one side of one ramp be off by like 32 units in one corner, and the other one off by way more in a different corner...

The only thing that worked for me was to make them straight ramps instead of making the back edge angled. I figured it was just a bug that I'd have to work around.

[Immortal-D]

I'm actually making a similar area for the lower part of my ctf map. I found the easiest way was to create a cylinder and merge all the points at the top.

[Vander]

click here (http://www.blackmesasource.com/devblog.php?start_from=5&ucat=&archive=&subaction=&id=&)

Scroll down to "The Dam - A focus on the convex" Does a good job of explaining how Hammer sees invalid brushes.

Kick ass blog, this one in particular helped me in a similar situation.

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

I'm actually making a similar area for the lower part of my ctf map. I found the easiest way was to create a cylinder and merge all the points at the top.

Why not use a spike then?

[Immortal-D]

Why not use a spike then?

doh :(

[Uriak]

thanks for the reference, so far, I've tried by v-editing, a set of 3 six-edged cylinders but somehow I must have broken any of the hammer's laws. I'm going to be more conservative.

For very huge rock pillars, I suppose using displacements on a simple block may give some interesting results...

[Troublesome]

With vertex editing, but then I'm confronted with hammer modifying my brushes when I save and reload the map. I suppose it's a known issue, is there anything to do against it ?
Ho, and thanks, btw :)

This happens because you made a brush with invalid angles, if you make an angled brush you can press ALT+P to check if the brush is valid or not, I found that out the hard way.

One soloution is to cut the brush into triangles.

As for a fix, I doubt there will be one since this is not a bug, its a user error.

FYI. dont click the FIX or FIX ALL buttons, mostly they just remove the brush in question.

[Vander]

When you make an odd brush, if you see it bent at on odd angle that you know shouldnt be there, you can usually vertex edit it back to where the bend starts, then simply make another brush to make up what you trimmed off. Has worked for me before.

[Uriak]

thank you for tips. Today, I tried XSI and sucessfully exported my first model, so I think I'll combine both techniques for the layout, with huge brushes and tiny props.