connecting &%$$))&%$ rooms

[hartog 0]

ok i have that out of the way, let me explain my problem.

i am putting a tent in an outside world, and i want to make it possible to walk into the tent. so i made the outside of my tent and grouped all the parts together called "outtent" I then copied it and flipped the normals and made the inside called "intent", i know really creative names. i then scaled the inside down so it is smaller then the outside. I then followed mikes tut on the two rooms, hopeing that all the same ideas applyed. I made a box and then i had to ungroup the outside and boolen the box threw the plane that made the walls of the tent. i could move the box and see the hole.

i then did the same thing for the inside part of the tent, i again could see the hole that i made with the boolean. I then resized the box and fit it to the hole that i made. again all is good the hole is still there.

so next, according to all the tuts i have seen i should flip the normals of the box and then detach the faces for portal and delete the other. this is were the problem comes in. when i flip the normals the hole in the side of the tent goes away and is solid again. the view of the wiremesh still shows that there is a hole, but the tent is solid again.

so what did i do wrong?

i even did all the grouping like made the doorway and the inside and called it _2 and then gouped the outside of tent with the out side world and called it _1 i put in the portal p2_1 and it all exported fine, no errors. but in the render version i still cant see the hole. when in game the hole is gone. i am not sure what i did.

thanks for any advice. just to clairfy, the problem is not the portal it is the box that i boolean threw the walls of the tent.

thanks in advance

Hartog

[sleeper 0]

Theres no reason to make the tent a separate room is the main advise I can offer. Just dont use any portals there and group it all as group _1.

Its difficult for me to understand what is going on when Im not looking at it, sorry. But, there really isnt a reason to make the inside of the tent a room of its own. I think maybe a lot of people confuse rooms in a map with map rooms. They are two different things.

[hartog 0]

thanks for the advice sleeper.

so what you are saying and please correct me if i am wrong. I don't need to make the tents separate rooms becuase they are single rooms.

but if i make the _1 then will they rain inside if i make the map rainy?

I don't think it will matter for this map. but in future maps when i do building with mulitple rooms i will have to figure out what i did wrong.

thanks again

hartog

[sleeper 0]

Geometry blocks weather effects. You will always have the occasional glitch of snow or rain getting in in a corner or so but even with portals (I think even Neutrons Airport map in Frostbite had a spot like this).

For reference, if youve seen my map in Frostbite(Blue Ghost), its all 1 outdoor room. Youll notice that there is the cold-room breath effect inside the buildings because of this.

Its nice to figure out portals and rooms and isnt all that tough, I wouldnt bother doing it with a tent personally and I dont think most people would either.

[Dr.Jeckyl 0]

@Hartog: goto poly or face(can't remember at the moment) mode and delete the little rectangle that is still there. this happens to me alot too. OR if you goto vertex mode(convert to editable mesh>vertex) you will see 4 dots lit red. delete the face they are the corners for.

@Sleeper: he will not be able to light the tent differant than _1 if he makes it part of room _1. if i'm not mistaken. please correct me if i'm wrong.

[San 0]

Maybe it's because the tent is small, so it doesn't reduce much performance if it's together with the outdoor-room(_1).

[sleeper 0]

@Dr. J - Absolutely true that the tent cant be lit differently, but, its a tent, how differently should the ambient lighting be. Adding just one point light inside the tent will light it up any color or way you want. The ambient light outside should be dark enough anyways to give you proper shadows. Adding a sun outside will only add light outside except where the tent may be opened, which is just like in reality. He can either just leave the tent without a light inside, leaving it lit with just the ambient(dark) or like I said add a point inside as if from a latern or whatever. So theres no significant problem with the lighting.

@San- yes the tent would really be small polywise inside(normally, its just a tent). I doubt that he plans on making thousands of polys worth of details inside but if that were the case, then he would maybe want to consider making it a room of its own. Im guessing that its a tent similar to the ones in the stock maps so theres maybe only a couple hundred polys of beds or tables inside at most. Usually, from what I know, if youre having performance problems, reducing a couple hundred polys isnt enough to help. Unless his map is just so heavily detailed that he needs to cut polys wherever he possibly can, he shouldnt need to worry about all of the extra grouping and portals and tagging. It is good to learn and its up to the map maker themselves. Just my opinion.

[hartog 0]

thanks for all of the advice. and with the discussion it cleared up a lot. I will try to follow my motto of "KISS" = Keep It Simply Stupid.

the tent will have some boxes and tables in one and the others will be bunk tents.

I will go with Sleeper and make sure i add a point light as needed in the tents.

thanks guys

Hartog