Editing FAQ - Troubleshooting & How-To
Below are some common issues and questions mappers have had in the Editor's Guild forum with common solutions.
Troubleshooting FAQ
Q. Some of my brushes have disappeared or turned black and won't render.
A. This can happen when two touching brushes around the seam are not perfectly flush with one another and the rendering hiccups for those brushes & brushes behind it, either there's a tiny wedge or overlap or gap or weird angle between them. The usual solution is to make sure the brushes are snapped to the grid and perfectly flush against one another, or more generally to simplify the brushwork around the seam of the disappearing brushes.
Q. My AI will not pass through a visportal no matter how I set up the path nodes.
A. Check that the sides of the visportal use the nodraw texture (except for the portal-face itself of course).
Q. My visportal is not closing like it should (you can check this with by typing "r_showportals 1" in the console).
A. A common reason for that is that the two areas separated by the portal are not hermetically sealed, i.e., that there may be an unportaled gap between the two, possibly covered up by func_static (which do not seal) or possibly caused by an inadvertent hole created by the first FAQ question above. Another reason may be that all sides of the visportal are not flush against sealing brushes. (Burying visportals into brushes also is possible but not as recommended as making them flush with the brushes).
Q. My streetlight, candle, lamp, light-creating object, causes a weird shadow I want to get rid of.
A. Put the spawnarg "noshadows" "1" on the offending object.
Q. How do you get AI to walk on complex terrain patches?
A. You can always lay down invisible monsterclip brushes and the AI can walk on it. Use a "material" texture so it causes the right sound for footsteps.
General Editing FAQ
Q. How do I make an object into loot?
A. Instructions are here [1]
Q. How do I set up a put-object-here objective?
A. Instructions are here [2]
Q. How do I set up a "ghosting" objective (e.g., you are busted if you are seen.)
A. Instructions are here [3]
Q. What's a good way to make caves?
A. Some tips are here [4]
Q. How do I add music or ambient sounds?
Q. Can I dynamically adjust the ambient lighting?
A. Check out the article for Location Settings
