A couple of days ago i asked a question about BSP holes and ways to prevent them, someone said it wasn't possible to prefend them. Since then i learned a lot and found some practical ways to possibly prevent BSP holes, while you can't prevent them 100 % you can however minimize the risk of them.
First of all i don't know much about how the engine uses and processes geometry and since this is only based on what i've experienced, i could be wrong on several occasions. (just reply if this is the case)
Well let's get on with some hints then.
First BSP holes seems to occur when you build complex Brushes, like when ussing the 2d shape editor in some occasions, especialy if you use vertex editing on this brush. Also vertex editing seems to have this effect in some occasions.
From what i found out it seems to occur when for example you twist a sertan face so that it's not straight anymore.
To clearify: hold your hands in front of you and point 2 fingers up (one of each hand) imagin a line from top to top of your fingers and one from the base to base of the finger. Now you have one face(side) of your brush. This is not a problem for the editor. But now point 1 finger to your front and one up, you'll see that the face of the brush get twisted and round, and it seems that the rounder you make it the more likely there's going to be a hole. A good way to preventing map holes is to make sure faces are straight, how?
If you use the vertex editing tool make sure not to modify a brush to havily, you certanly have to look out with vertex editing 2d shape editorial shapes (thus you made a complex shape with the 2d shape editor and afterwards you vertex edit this shape some more).
Instaid of using the vertex editing tool try using the clip brushes tool (on complex shapes, not on simple cubes). why ? because the clipping tool cuts a straight face while if you use the vertex tool you are likely to twist the brush to a rounder shape (which the editor can't really handle). In my experience it's better to clip the brush twice than vertex edit it one time.
Another good way, but also a more complex method to make a complex brush is not with unrealed but with a program like milkscape3d (a free low polygon modeling program), or 3d studio max (haven't try this one, too expensive). This is because with a program like milkscape3d you cut a face in more pieces, as an example, if you create your brush with unrealed your face is one square box (most of the time) while with milkscape this box will consist of two triangles, which are easier to manipulate while maintaining a flat shape. just try it, make a box in unreal and drag one vertex back, and drag the opposite vertex also back, you'll twist the face(in this example not nececairly creating a hole), if that same face where two triangles they would always be flat!
I used milkscape to create a wing with engines for a airplane which worked great, while when i did it with unrealed i got holes in all my geometry.
I know i may be wrong with certain things but as i said before this is only from what i experienced and observed when making my map. But overal these alternate methods worked fine for me. So as a conclusion:
- use clipping rather than vertex editing for complex geometry
- If this doesn't work consider using something else like milkscape3d (or 3d studio max).
Oh yeah something i didn't mention earlier is that maybe (i don't know) using shapes from another frogram like milkscape3d will slow your level down a bit, since the brush you imported has more faces. Again i don't know if this is correct.
Good luck with preventing those anoying mapholes and i hope these hints will work.
(sorry for spelling errors or unclear text)
First of all i don't know much about how the engine uses and processes geometry and since this is only based on what i've experienced, i could be wrong on several occasions. (just reply if this is the case)
Well let's get on with some hints then.
First BSP holes seems to occur when you build complex Brushes, like when ussing the 2d shape editor in some occasions, especialy if you use vertex editing on this brush. Also vertex editing seems to have this effect in some occasions.
From what i found out it seems to occur when for example you twist a sertan face so that it's not straight anymore.
To clearify: hold your hands in front of you and point 2 fingers up (one of each hand) imagin a line from top to top of your fingers and one from the base to base of the finger. Now you have one face(side) of your brush. This is not a problem for the editor. But now point 1 finger to your front and one up, you'll see that the face of the brush get twisted and round, and it seems that the rounder you make it the more likely there's going to be a hole. A good way to preventing map holes is to make sure faces are straight, how?
If you use the vertex editing tool make sure not to modify a brush to havily, you certanly have to look out with vertex editing 2d shape editorial shapes (thus you made a complex shape with the 2d shape editor and afterwards you vertex edit this shape some more).
Instaid of using the vertex editing tool try using the clip brushes tool (on complex shapes, not on simple cubes). why ? because the clipping tool cuts a straight face while if you use the vertex tool you are likely to twist the brush to a rounder shape (which the editor can't really handle). In my experience it's better to clip the brush twice than vertex edit it one time.
Another good way, but also a more complex method to make a complex brush is not with unrealed but with a program like milkscape3d (a free low polygon modeling program), or 3d studio max (haven't try this one, too expensive). This is because with a program like milkscape3d you cut a face in more pieces, as an example, if you create your brush with unrealed your face is one square box (most of the time) while with milkscape this box will consist of two triangles, which are easier to manipulate while maintaining a flat shape. just try it, make a box in unreal and drag one vertex back, and drag the opposite vertex also back, you'll twist the face(in this example not nececairly creating a hole), if that same face where two triangles they would always be flat!
I used milkscape to create a wing with engines for a airplane which worked great, while when i did it with unrealed i got holes in all my geometry.
I know i may be wrong with certain things but as i said before this is only from what i experienced and observed when making my map. But overal these alternate methods worked fine for me. So as a conclusion:
- use clipping rather than vertex editing for complex geometry
- If this doesn't work consider using something else like milkscape3d (or 3d studio max).
Oh yeah something i didn't mention earlier is that maybe (i don't know) using shapes from another frogram like milkscape3d will slow your level down a bit, since the brush you imported has more faces. Again i don't know if this is correct.
Good luck with preventing those anoying mapholes and i hope these hints will work.
(sorry for spelling errors or unclear text)