Areaportal questions

[Krane]

1) Do areaportals works in MP?

2) If yes, can we have a building with 3 or 4 doors connecting to 3 or 4 different rooms? Or areaportals only works "one-by-one"?

[jv_map]

1. yes 2. yes

For example see V2, this map is literally loaded with areaportals

[Krane]

Thanks jv

1)Uff...

2)Well, my tests indicates that areaportals only works 1x1. Let's see:

Imagine room A with 2 doors connecting to North and South.

Now imagine room B side by side with room A. It have 2 doors also connecting to North and South.

This way,works!

Now imagine you open a passage from room A to room B, creating a big room with 4 connections to the outside world.

This way doesn't work!

hmmm...I have now a big room sealed by 4 areaportals and nothing happens....Only the compile error.

[tltrude]

An area has to be sealed by structual and area brushes. And, it can't have func_windows or other entities (like exploders) in the walls. The area brushes have to be hidden inside the door brushes, so they can't be seen from either side of a door. But, you probably know all that.

The act of opening a func_door that seals an area is what triggers the area brushes (all of them) to stop hiding what is outside. So, opening the door between your two rooms would of turned off all five of the area brushes! That's why you got the error.

One way to fix it would be to combine the two rooms into one big structure, with a detail wall that is contained within. The door in the detail wall should not have an area brush.

One thing that confused me was that the large open parts (outside area) of a map is considered an area, but only if it is completly sealed from the void. When a player is inside a sealed area room, the outside is not drawn untill the seal between the two areas ( the room and the outside) is broken. The opposite is also true--when a player is outside, the inside of the sealed room is not drawn.

I hope that helps, and makes sence!

[Krane]

Thanks tltrude, makes sense.

In this meantime I was testing and realize that areaportals can work with multiple "portals". In fact my problem is that one of the doors from room B is the problem (not the door that connects both rooms), just another door, I made the portal like in the others but...for some reason doesn't work with this door. The compiler says "...don't touch 2 areas...". Maybe the brush is too thick..I'll figure out.

[tltrude]

I tested it myself, and could not get the rooms to stop being areas. When I had a connecting door, both rooms were seperate areas. when I open the connecting door, the two rooms became one area and still kept the outside area hidden. My doors are 4 units thick, and the area brushes are 2 units thick.

You must have a leak in room B's structure!

[Krane]

yeah, maybe... I've looking for this leak a lot...it's a small room but I can't find it anywhere...

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I'm very noob om areaportals.

[wacko]

in searching such a leak, it may be helpful to
1st: filter everything with View>Filter>All
2nd show WorldBrushes (structurals) with View>Filter>WorldBrushes (Alt+1)
3rd show Brushes with Caulk faces (Alt+6)
4th show the Areaportals (Ctrl+P)
This way u ought to see just brushes, which are really sealing your room...
But u probably knew this before

[Krane]

Thanks Wacko!

I've found the d*** leak!

Traveling in spectator mode made me see where the little crap was...


Thanks again guys!

btw: areaportals are very cool!

[Bjarne BZR]

btw: areaportals are very cool!

Yes the are, and you don't have to only put them in doors, you can put them inside (as in the no-go example above) an exploder and switch them of manually with scripting when the exploader is exploded, or do the same in a manually scripted hatch in the floor (See the Areaportals tutorial ).