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Old 05-18-2008, 03:22 PM   #20
Sh4x
Retired FF Staff
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts Rated Helpful 0 Times
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crazycarl
Nukem: now that I've got a good look at your map, I can tell you that hint brushes will do you absolutely no good. This is because the player has a straight view out the front door, into the yard, and into the other bases. You've changed all the walls which, in the original map, served to block visibility.

That's ok, though, because it gives me a chance to talk about func_areaportalwindow. This handy entity can stop entire portions of a map from being rendered based on how far you are from it. It's like a door that "opens" when you approach and "closes" when you move far away.

There are some big limitations though. The first is technical. You must seal off an area completely for an areaportal to work. That is, if you put one in the front door of a house, you have to put one in the back door and all the windows and the chimney as well. Thus you define the outside as area 1 and inside as area 2.

The second is an important consideration in multiplayer games. When an areaportal is closed, you can't see anything behind it (That's the point). It looks like a blank wall. So if you have a sniper standing right behind one, he's at a huge advantage, because he can see everyone but they can't see him until they get close. So you shouldn't put one at any potential sniper spots. A glass window is a good place to use one, or you can put one around the corner from the entrance, so no one sees it until they are close enough to see through it anyway.

Aardvark uses these (It's why the big flagroom window goes opaque when you are on the other side of the yard), and I believe dropdown does too(the fog is there to hide the effect). I know exactly where you might use these in murderball. Let me know if you are interested.
Just for the record, ff_dropdown only uses the "Z clip plane" or something like that (cant remember the exact name) which is a property of the fog. So let's say I put the fog to end at 5000, then I put the clip plane right after that so it clips everything that you can't see anyways. I had to use fog cause the front of the base is so wide open and you can see deep into it even from far away.

ff_aardvark uses the areaportals tho.
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