White dotted lines inside DIFs

#1 In constructor go to System/Preferences/All Prefs and uncheck Hidden Surface Removal, Detail Brush HSR and Alternate HSR. This should help.

#2 Thanks, I will try this as soon as I get back home from work.

will let you know how I get on :) much appreciated for your quick reply Apparatus.

#3 Does this arise from creating a brush with a texture applied, then cutting and shaping it; leaving render able texture on 'hidden' surfaces?? Face to face, hidden?

Is there a NULL texture you can apply to these surfaces or build brushes out of the NULL the texture first, then apply bitmaps to any rendering surface??

Just curious; I've always stayed away from BSP construction, but keep an eye peeled for good sound modeling technique....

Thanks

#4 Hi Apparatus,
I just tried loading up constructor to have a go. They were all already unchecked apart from Hidden Surface Removal. So I unchecked it, exported the DIF and tried again in TGE.
But the same problem is there.

Hi Rex:
for a wall, I just made the boxes and shaped it then textured. I have not hidden any of the faces yet. This problem occurs when the faces are touching.

haven't played with hiding or NULL textures yet. This could be the problem? What do you think Apparatus?

Thanks for the help guys.

#5 As long as you are using snap on create and upon slicing a brush, everything is okay. Even if the face is aligned to the grid (visually) it doesn't mean that it's ok; BSP is tricky if you rotate the brush or move it without the snap option checked. Weird, but it's true. It's better to always move vertices not faces - Sometimes I check if the brush is okay (when I know I moved it a bit) by selecting the connecting faces corresponding verts and move it a little. It usually snaps to grid nicely but often when the brush has been edited or rotated it will create bad faces, and Constructor warns you with a red line.

Back to topic : lets say you do need those faces sliced there and also don't want to draw invisible faces - select the touching faces, switch to vertex mode (ctrl+1) and translate right or left a grid unit. If everything is okay, the dotted lines will disappear because the faces are aligned. Else, delete the entire brush and start over with snap.

HSR hides hidden surfaces (touching faces i.e) and it's a good tool. It requires a clean construction though, because if you have any overlaping brushes you might expect holes where you don't want to.

#6 Hi Apparatus,

Thanks for that great advice, I didnt use constructor to originally create the buildings, but imported them to constructor before exporting as DIFs. I will try the method you said above, hopefully will be able to get it okay without starting again.

thanks again and fingers crossed for happy results :)

#7 Dif will always have some issue, fix this and you'll find something else that doesn't look right. My solution is to use art to hide problems. You need that wall to be a couple of brushes? Place a 1x6 board over it. Got some horizontal splits? Add a chairrail. Light leaks at the ceiling-wall intersections? Great spot for some crown molding. Even an old shack (what your model appears to be) occasionally had some fancy woodwork, so if you keep it handmade rough looking, it won't be out of place.

#8 Those verticle seams, to me, are caused by your roof beams penetrating the walls - see how the seams line up with the beams line up? Check very carefully right there, you may have to zoom in to see it. What's happening is that Constructor is splitting that wall brush at those locations leaving seams.

Something you could try would be to select the wall and csg subtract it from the roof beams - you may need to hide other brushes before you do so.

Eric Madison has a great idea but you can actually fix every seam and light leak in constructor with a little bit of tedious trial and error.

#9 Thanks guys.

Im pretty sure that the faces are only touching and not overlapping but will go through again checking snap being on and hiding faces.

BSP construction is a lot more painful than I thought it would be from first look. But still quite fun.

Thanks again for all the advice, will let you know how i get on