Portal Limitations
by Greg Gardinier · in Artist Corner · 01/24/2006 (8:31 pm) · 1 replies
I am currently using hammer with map2dif to get my maps into torque.
Right now I am very confused as to what is required for portals to work. I have gotten them to work if I build a basic cube shaped room and place a square hole in it with a portal brush over the top.
What I would like to be able to do is to create a large room in which has a cylindrical tunnel running into it. However I have been unable to get portals to work under this circumstance.
So I have a few questions.
Will portals work if the portal brush has more than four sides?
Will a portal work if a room has holes/doors that don't have portals over them? (I realize these holes would just a blurry mess since everything else is being culled)
Finally, are there any additional requirements related to the distance between the portal brush and the hole, or the shape or size of the portal brush.
As of right now I am really stuck and am not sure how to proceed since I have created some pretty complicated maps that I would like to use portals with to improve frame rate and better control lighting, but so far I have not been able to get portals to work with these maps, and I am unsure why.
Thanks
Right now I am very confused as to what is required for portals to work. I have gotten them to work if I build a basic cube shaped room and place a square hole in it with a portal brush over the top.
What I would like to be able to do is to create a large room in which has a cylindrical tunnel running into it. However I have been unable to get portals to work under this circumstance.
So I have a few questions.
Will portals work if the portal brush has more than four sides?
Will a portal work if a room has holes/doors that don't have portals over them? (I realize these holes would just a blurry mess since everything else is being culled)
Finally, are there any additional requirements related to the distance between the portal brush and the hole, or the shape or size of the portal brush.
As of right now I am really stuck and am not sure how to proceed since I have created some pretty complicated maps that I would like to use portals with to improve frame rate and better control lighting, but so far I have not been able to get portals to work with these maps, and I am unsure why.
Thanks
About the author
Associate Matt Fairfax
PopCap
Yes.
No. In order for portals to work they need to be used in conjuction with sealed rooms/areas. You can use as many portals as you need to seal an area but the more you use the less useful they become.
The portal brush needs to completely fill the hole you are sealing and overlap a little into the surrounding geometry. In general you want the portal brush to be very thin. Also having the portal brush be coplanar with any of the surrounding brushes can cause problems. You can not portalize detail brushes.