This building will not even export one portal..
by Meyou · in Constructor · 08/22/2008 (7:26 pm) · 15 replies
I have tried placing a portal in almost every window in this building but crashed when I exported. I then tried placing one portal in one window and still crashed.
the method..
I placed a brush in the window, making the brush a little bigger square and thinner..(just like a glass pane)...I then went to export as .dif. All of the surrounding brushes are structural where the portal is set. I am about to decide 4 months of building have went completely down the drain and that all of these buildings I have built will need to be rebuilt...I am betting half of the brushes are bad in one way or another.
At this point I really need to know what is wrong. I was planning on keeping our project and buildings secret and on a downlow but I might need someone to look at them and tell me if I need a rebuild. I would rather know now than a year down the road when we are ready to make something happen.
I will email everything I have or just the one in question in this thread ASAP if someone is wiling to take a look at them and let me know what I need to do...
the method..
I placed a brush in the window, making the brush a little bigger square and thinner..(just like a glass pane)...I then went to export as .dif. All of the surrounding brushes are structural where the portal is set. I am about to decide 4 months of building have went completely down the drain and that all of these buildings I have built will need to be rebuilt...I am betting half of the brushes are bad in one way or another.
At this point I really need to know what is wrong. I was planning on keeping our project and buildings secret and on a downlow but I might need someone to look at them and tell me if I need a rebuild. I would rather know now than a year down the road when we are ready to make something happen.
I will email everything I have or just the one in question in this thread ASAP if someone is wiling to take a look at them and let me know what I need to do...
#2
08/22/2008 (7:53 pm)
Also try using few portals, having a bunch of portals, might not work so well. Particularly if you have lots of rooms/levels. Check for leaks
#3
Alan...thanks for offering to look at it...let me try your and Edwards suggestions and I'll be back in here in the morning and I'll let you know. Hopefully with this new fresh breath I can take it on with a different look at things.
08/22/2008 (9:28 pm)
Ok...you guys have made me think a bit about this. I may have a few more leads now. And here is a few more methods I need to tell on how I created the portals. I created a brush, made it portal, sized and placed it. I think my first mistake was I moved and scaled the portal after it was created. I tried scaling the portal bigger and that still crashed, so that leads me to creating it in place. Alan...thanks for offering to look at it...let me try your and Edwards suggestions and I'll be back in here in the morning and I'll let you know. Hopefully with this new fresh breath I can take it on with a different look at things.
#5
08/22/2008 (9:57 pm)
Sometimes it's better to make the structural outline first (and very simple) and portalize it. That way you don't have to deal with all sorts of brushes being in the way when you want to figure out what's wrong with the zoning. Then you can go back in and start adding details. (and be sure they are detail brushes.)
#6
08/23/2008 (9:23 am)
I am not able to stay on this as much as I would like today but this morning I did a quick test and here is the result...well I seem to be making some progress...I changed all brushes to structural and then just placed one portal and exported as normal .dif...didn't crash but fatal error occured....I hope that the problem now hangs in the portal itself. I just copied a portal and pasted it, I didn't actually build the portal in place... 
#7
08/23/2008 (10:19 am)
You need to change some of your structural brushes to detail brushes since it is splitting up your geometry like crazy.
#8
08/23/2008 (8:46 pm)
Ok...let me run through what I have done with the portals so far....I set everything to detail and just changed the brushes around the portal to structural. I went to prefs/ export and turned off HSR. On the portal itself I just made a cube, sized it, placed it, and then declared it a portal while in place, never moved it after that and then tried to export as normal .dif, still crashing.....***Heres what is crazy*** the entire build did not export but I copied a piece of the wall that has the portal with it and it exported fine....I could use some help here guys...
#9
08/23/2008 (9:00 pm)
@Meyou - the structural brushes need to define enclosed volumes.
#10
08/23/2008 (9:41 pm)
@ Jaimi, I'm not sure I completely understand what you mean, so you might have to elaborate a little more on that. If you mean what I think you mean, it would be that the structural brushes should not break up and should continue on until they have formed a box or zone. Or simply put, the structural brushes are the zone. Is that correct? If so, then no detail brushes should make contact with the portal or that zone. Is this also correct?...
#11
"It is pointless to use a lot of portals, because now you have created many of the 'thing' lists."
Well, then how much light and sound can we put in a mission if we can't use many portals or if using many portals is not suggested? I want to be fairly complex and have many areas in one build having different light and sound. And, what is the suggested method for making complex zones like I am wanting to do?
08/24/2008 (3:02 pm)
O.k....I am even more confused now after reading this...tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/Constructor/Portals"It is pointless to use a lot of portals, because now you have created many of the 'thing' lists."
Well, then how much light and sound can we put in a mission if we can't use many portals or if using many portals is not suggested? I want to be fairly complex and have many areas in one build having different light and sound. And, what is the suggested method for making complex zones like I am wanting to do?
#12
The structural brushes are cut up and create zones. To work correctly, the zones need to be fully enclosed. Say for example, you are building a house made of one room. The four walls, the ceiling, and the floor would all be "structural". The crown molding, the couches, the trim, etc. Would be detail brushes. The portal brush would go around the place where the door is. You can't just make one wall a structural brush, that won't make a zone - the zone needs to be fully enclosed by structural brushes or portals.
08/24/2008 (3:21 pm)
@Meyou - The structural brushes are cut up and create zones. To work correctly, the zones need to be fully enclosed. Say for example, you are building a house made of one room. The four walls, the ceiling, and the floor would all be "structural". The crown molding, the couches, the trim, etc. Would be detail brushes. The portal brush would go around the place where the door is. You can't just make one wall a structural brush, that won't make a zone - the zone needs to be fully enclosed by structural brushes or portals.
#13
08/24/2008 (3:34 pm)
Jaimi, ok..we are on the same page. That is what I thought you meant, I just had to verify that. I think one of my problems is I'm learning how to use portals and zones on a fairly complex build..(it is the courthouse I sent you before.) Not really complex I just have tons of brushes to deal with. Just a little overwhelming...
#14
08/24/2008 (4:00 pm)
Wooo-hoooo!!!!!!!!.....It finally exported with a portal in it...that is progress... I moved the portal upstairs this time and to another window, on a different wall....hopefully I'm getting there...I need to see what is wrong downstairs...
#15
08/25/2008 (9:21 am)
Well, that was a premature celebration....it will not even export what was exporting last night...Are dif's really this lossy. Are the grid units actually breaking up that bad between opening and closing constructor. I placed five portals successfully last night and today it will not even export one portal again. It won't even export in the same place as last night.....what the hell is going on? would someone please explain this..... 
Torque Owner Alan James
Really Really Good Things Studio
Have you tried not making the portal brush so thin? I know Map2Dif (pretty much al flavors) doesn't like thin portal brushes. I primarily use 3D World Studio, but occasionally when I'm exporting/building the dif Map2Dif crashes on really thin portal brushes.
Try just testing making them by making them thicker - and also try it making sure the portal brush doesn't share a plane with a regular brush - that may be wrong, but I've had issues with that too.
Try that first, if you don't have any luck, post again and I can take a look at the one building you're having trouble with, Constructor's interface makes me psychotic, but I'm proficient enough to at least see if there is something obvious.