How to Split the level in portals and keep the framerate

[Veleran]

Each room or level section you want to separate,must be first of all tightly closed.
The door brush-for instance must be the same shape with the door opening.
In any case Dont use cut brushes for the opening.-This technique requires frequent bsp refreash,and this slows down things.

1-Well,next thing is to select the door model(it is an animating model)
and flag the door brush "area" in brush properties.
The door now acts like a solid wall when its closed.

Otherwise-like all models do,
it wont stop the camera from rendering what is behind the door model.

Now if you run the level,you can t go through the door-it is like an invisible barrier prevents you.

2-In the editor,place in the same spot with the door brush,another brush and flag it "Hint".

This "Hint" brush allows you to move through portals and solid walls.

3-The hint brush must not cover the whole door opening,
because the player will be stuck into the walls of the opening because his bounding box will touch both the hint and the wall brushes.

Make the hint brush a little narrower than the door,and make sure it is large enough for the characters to pass through.

Now when the door is closed,whatever is behind the door wont be rendered,and the framerate will be better.

4-Keep an eye at the console during compile for messages like:

"Warning:Area brush only touches one area"-
Which means the door doent cover the whole door opening.

Or-"Warning:Area brush touches more than one area"

Which ussually happens when there is an open space next to the door when it is closed.
For instance:
A Sliding door that has an empty slot in the wall to move into-
So sliding doors must move into a solid wall when they are open-
not into an opening.

[Jay]

it is like an invisible barrier prevents you.

This can be solved simply by setting 'Rotating' in the Door-Entity to true.


You are using a bug to solve the problem: Originally, Hint-Brushes were for forcing creation of portals in the same spot as they are (and they are doing it quite good) but somehow there seems to a bug and they make that you can move through the brushes they are touching.