More nodraw woes

Ramah Palmer · Post by **Ramah Palmer** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 4:45 pm

Hi,
Anyone have any idea why a texture would disappear when viewed from one side when the rest of the brush is made with nodraw?
My gantries (damn the gantries!!!

) look fine from above when I'm walking on them, but when viewed from below there is no texture there. As I say, the rest of the brush is nodraw.
I've got a similar problem with a rafter texture elsewhere in the map.
Any ideas?

Random · Post by **Random** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 7:36 pm

Now did you try to use the search function there are 5 pages worth of stuff there when i did a search on No Draw and it be resonable to say this question has been brought up before. But just incase it isnt i will throw out a two observations after reading most of them.

Is it snapped to grid, sometimes brushes will appear to be not there if not. This would have nothing to do with no draw but will produce the same effect you described.

Is it in AA or SH, nodraw doesnt work the same in both from what i understand.

I doubt this will help but its a start

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:05 pm

most textures don't have the setting of cull=none in their shader. This means that they'll be drawn just from one side. So they are invisible from the other. What might be good for FPS in normal cases is of course bad when u use nodraw on the other brushe's faces because now, the backside of that face ought to be visible.

As a solution u can make your own shader for the texture with the line cull=none inserted or choose a texture where this is already done

Ramah Palmer · Post by **Ramah Palmer** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 8:08 am

Random, I DID do a check m8, and although I found plenty of topics with nodraw in them (many originating from me

) none (apart from one started by tltrude where he mentions the same problem but no answer is given) seems to have my problem.
Wacko, I originally made a custom shader to go with my decking and have checked it and it DOES have cull = none in it. Half of my decking I have now returned to the original deckset1 texture and changed the properties mentioned in another topic to get the same result (a texture that you can shoot through) but these also appear exactly the same - seen from only one side.
I'm currently working in AA and have been told by a friend (although I haven't verified this) that the texture DOES show up from the other side in SH.
All the vertices are snapped to grid by the way.
This is getting really annoying.

Random · Post by **Random** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 9:19 am

Hmm i am stumped as well so it works in SH but not in AA but you are making the map for AA with the AA version of radiant? and you are using nodraw on 5 sides and the deckgrate on one and it doesnt show up on one of the 2 visible sides?

Just for kicks you arent using a patch here are you? Could you post a pic of what it looks like before and after compile, i think im having a hard time visualising the problem.

THanks

Zip · Post by **Zip** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 11:37 am

Wacko! Haven't seen you for ages. Where you been?

panTera · Post by **panTera** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 11:57 am

I found that sometimes if you apply a texture the properties are not set at all. I click with the middle mousebutton on the textureface (to shift the properties to the Inspector) and then when I press S to see the texture flags nothing is checked. Usually it helps to select the brush/face and again click the right texture in the texture window. Bring up the Inspector again to see if the right flags (according to the shader) are checked.
Also changing the surface properties with the Surface Inspector (S) in Radiant doesn't seem to work. It might remember some of the changes when compiled from within radiant but it's save to say that the next time you load the map the old properties will be restored (due to the shader).

Looking at the shader for the deckgrate_set1 texture:
surfaceParm fence
surfaceparm metal
surfaceParm nomarks
surfaceParm grill
cull none
nopicmip
nomipmaps

The shader has the line 'cull none/cull disable' so it should work. To test this, you can make a flat brush and only apply that deckgrate texture. Now if the texture is really set to 'cull none', you should see a double layer from both angles (up and down). If you only see one layer then the shader for some reason seems to conflict with your changes in the surface properties (if you made them). In that case just delete the brush and make a new one. Then give the whole brush the 'nodraw' texture first and then apply the deckgrate texture to the top or bottom face and don't change anything in the surface inspector.

(Hey Zip, hey Wacko!

)

Zip · Post by **Zip** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 12:02 pm

Excuse me Palmer .... Hi PanTera

Ramah Palmer · Post by **Ramah Palmer** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:08 pm

Zip, condsider yourself excused.

Ok, Pantera, I tried your suggestions. I see what you mean now about the settings in the Surface Inspector changing. I had the alpha channel thing set but on reload it has disappeared.
I tried texturing a brush both top and bottom with the deckgrate_set1 texture and it looks ok when viewed from both sides. So for some reason even though cull is set to NONE it is only drawing the texture on one side.
Unfortunately if I do not change the surface properties of the texture I cannot shoot through it (this is one of the first problems I came across when starting mapping a few months ago and it's STILL coming back to haunt me).
I've yet to try building a new brush and doing as you said with the nodraw but as that is how I made the brushes originally I do not think it will make a difference. But I'll try it later.
Random, I have taken some screenies and if I don't sort this out soon I will try and get them published for you. (Only haven't done so far coz I'm an internet noob when it comes to things like that).

panTera · Post by **panTera** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 1:09 pm

Right, after some small tests I begin to understand why this is so confusing. Somehow the surfaceparms for that deckgrate_set1 texture wouldn't load correctly. I made a brush with nodraw and the deckgrate and the only flag that was checked was alphashadow(?) Doesn't make sense as that flag is turned off in the shader with "//".
I then thought about the mainta folder in my main directory. In pak1.pk3 in the mainta-directory (SH) there's also a shader called 'general_industrial' so there's the conflict. (I also noticed they added a 'surfaceparm wood' in the shader for that metal deckgrate texture...what a mess.)

I don't know if you have spearhead installed, if so, rename the mainta folder when you're working in Mohradiant on a Mohaa map. As soon as I did this, the texture+shader worked okay. I now can shoot through the alphaparts of the grate and it is drawn from both sides.

Ramah Palmer · Post by **Ramah Palmer** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 2:55 pm

Thanks Pantera, I appreciate the time you've spent for this stupid problem. I will give that a try.
If I do that though, once the map is compiled I am safe to rename my MAINTA dir back without causing any conflict?
I've just recompiled the map with the deckgrate texture on BOTH sides of the brush and it looks fine in AA, but you can obviously guess what happens in SH?

panTera · Post by **panTera** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 8:17 pm

Yes it's save to rename the mainta dir back after mapping. I'm also trying to make my map compatible with Mohaa and SH but after some bugs and problems like this one I'll just aim for Mohaa. Some of my sounds won't work in SH and the map seems fullbright and washed out. But goodluck with your map, hope it works out alright.