Arg! I still don't get the "condensation things" problem! 
You mean the panes of glass that are all wavy? The idea there is that the rain is hitting in the windows. Else, maybe you're talking about how the rain falls as sheets? Well, you got me there. I tried to place enough of those volumetric brushes to make it look random to some degree, but I know it can look odd. The triangular skylamp is a funky shape to work with though. Maybe I'll keep at it though. I'll work something out.
The BSP hole is like that stain on a white shirt - it ain't coming out. Not even with the industrial strength cleaner.
Seriously, I have my suspicions on why the BSP hole happens, but everything I have done has failed to fix it. The BSP hole lies above the lower flight of stairs. Get up to a slightly high elevation in UnrealEd and move back and forth and you'll see it, usually on the third stair. You'll see to the skybox outside the windows.
My theory is this. The walls at this point are angled and, thus, the stairs intersect the walls at a point that's off the grid. Although this doesn't explain why the error doesn't appear on the second flight of stairs, weird floating-point errors might just favor this particular spot.
The problem is, I've tried to test this by rebuilding the room out of cubes instead of trapezoids. However, the problem is still there. And solid or semi-solid, first or last, no logical combination seems to work.
What I do know is this. If the stairs do not lie flush with the wall - straight or sloped - the error does not appear. My preliminary solution was "Alright, let's add some trim to the sides of the stairs" and so this was done, adding some basic stretched cubes flush to the wall and a stairway in between. My thought was that perhaps stairs were too complicated, but surely UnrealEd could handle a rectangular solid flush against an angle. Oddly, the BSP hole continued to manifest itself on the stairs.
Although I could just leave some space on both sides of the stair, it could look suspicious and a bit sloppy (though no sloppier than a BSP hole). I also have fears that a situation might be creatured where a player or weapon could get stuck, although an ICH would address that. Another solution I've found is that if I make ramps here instead, the BSP error goes away, though I don't think ramps look good in this particular location.
Either way, the stairs are cursed.
And for future reference: angled walls + solids flush to them = food for UnrealEd goblin. No way, nu-uh, not doing that again. Next time I'm taking a page from DM-Grinder.
I know fixing BSP holes is nice, but how super-necessary is it? I'll play Phobos Moon and, from the sniping point, half the level vanishes. For that matter, because I just stumbled across this one, how does one ever know if they have all been found? Maybe this is something I get an eye for after I've done enough of these.
You mean the panes of glass that are all wavy? The idea there is that the rain is hitting in the windows. Else, maybe you're talking about how the rain falls as sheets? Well, you got me there. I tried to place enough of those volumetric brushes to make it look random to some degree, but I know it can look odd. The triangular skylamp is a funky shape to work with though. Maybe I'll keep at it though. I'll work something out.
The BSP hole is like that stain on a white shirt - it ain't coming out. Not even with the industrial strength cleaner.
Seriously, I have my suspicions on why the BSP hole happens, but everything I have done has failed to fix it. The BSP hole lies above the lower flight of stairs. Get up to a slightly high elevation in UnrealEd and move back and forth and you'll see it, usually on the third stair. You'll see to the skybox outside the windows.
My theory is this. The walls at this point are angled and, thus, the stairs intersect the walls at a point that's off the grid. Although this doesn't explain why the error doesn't appear on the second flight of stairs, weird floating-point errors might just favor this particular spot.
The problem is, I've tried to test this by rebuilding the room out of cubes instead of trapezoids. However, the problem is still there. And solid or semi-solid, first or last, no logical combination seems to work.
What I do know is this. If the stairs do not lie flush with the wall - straight or sloped - the error does not appear. My preliminary solution was "Alright, let's add some trim to the sides of the stairs" and so this was done, adding some basic stretched cubes flush to the wall and a stairway in between. My thought was that perhaps stairs were too complicated, but surely UnrealEd could handle a rectangular solid flush against an angle. Oddly, the BSP hole continued to manifest itself on the stairs.
Although I could just leave some space on both sides of the stair, it could look suspicious and a bit sloppy (though no sloppier than a BSP hole). I also have fears that a situation might be creatured where a player or weapon could get stuck, although an ICH would address that. Another solution I've found is that if I make ramps here instead, the BSP error goes away, though I don't think ramps look good in this particular location.
Either way, the stairs are cursed.
And for future reference: angled walls + solids flush to them = food for UnrealEd goblin. No way, nu-uh, not doing that again. Next time I'm taking a page from DM-Grinder.I know fixing BSP holes is nice, but how super-necessary is it? I'll play Phobos Moon and, from the sniping point, half the level vanishes.
For that matter, because I just stumbled across this one, how does one ever know if they have all been found? Maybe this is something I get an eye for after I've done enough of these. 
