windows

[afkik]

I have made alot of cool levels for unreal tournament now but i don't make alot of windows. I have made a window in a level that is in space. The floor is pretty big with a large window in it. I used a special brush and i made it using unrealed 2.0 into transparent window, then i rebuilt everything and then i walked on it and i fell through. So i made the collision properties so you could go through it and it still didn't work, so finaly i just put an invisible brush inside of and it is ok. Is there an easier way using a special brush?

[ChrisToth.hu]

The problem is not with the spec. brush but with it's settings. Probably you've set solidity to non-solid or you've used a sheet (which doesn't have solidity).

Sheets won't block players unless combined with invisible collision hulls.
If it's not a sheet: Use semi-solid or solid brushes instead of non-solids. Non-solids are buggy and like to cause BSP errors. But leave some place between the window and it's frame because if they touch each other then you'll be able to see through the frame where it touches the transp window.

[afkik]

I didn't use a sheet, and i tried using a regular brush and i can't get it small enough to not touch the frame and it does that weird crap.

[tarquin]

Make a sheet brush where you want the glass of your window to be. Add your sheet brush using the 'special' tool. Set the window options -- transparent etc, and give it a suitable glass texture.
If you want what's on the other side of the window to be a different zone, set the zone portal flag too.
Now build a regular brush that fills the window exactly -- the sheet will be inside it. Add this as a semisolid, with the 'invisible collision hull' settings.
This will be invisible and will block the player.
If you want the window to have a ledge, so the player can stand next to the glass, make the semsolid a little bit thinner.
This is how windows and grilles are made in the Epic maps -- look at DMConveyor's walkways, or the windows in DMPhobos.
Turn the little player icon on the 3D view window's title bar on and off -- you'll see a texture that appears and disappears. This is the semisolid. What you see with the plater thing on is the sheet. Shirt-left click on the textures to see the brush.
PS when you set the playertest thing to off, you need to move the camera for the textures it has hidden to come back. It's a bug.... ;)

[ChrisToth.hu]

Good, Tarquin.

But I don't think that the collision hull should touch any other geometry. That's not obvious but may cause errors.

Make it a little bit smaller than the frame. Or build it for just the correct size and rightclick on it and under properties-brush-mainscale-scale add a number like 0.99 for all three axes.

[Fuzzpilz]

I haven't had any problems with making semi-solid collision hulls the exactly right size - except once. I wanted to make a hole in a catwalk, with glass in it. When you do this kind of thing, don't make the collision hull exactly level with the surface with the hole you're blocking, since it won't collide if you do.

[tarquin]

Oops! I forgot abou that. I've had that problem too.
I just made the semisolid slimmer, so the player feels a little dip in the floor over the grille part -- which adds realism anyway, and is good for gameplay: harder to get a headshot.

[ChrisToth.hu]

As I said it won't cause problems all the time but it could. I've got once a cool BSP hole next to it and when I resized it it disappeared. I just wrote this stuff to give some hint if something is messy.