detail brush help

[veheikko]

where i need detail brush?
where i must put it?
please tell everything about detail brush because i didn't understand anything about richdiesall

[aazell]

Ok here's some pointers on detail brushes.

There are 2 types of brush on a map

structural (i can't spell) and detail

Anything that touches the void on the outside of the map (thats the grey endless space that you build your map in) must be structural.

When you create any brushes decide then if it needs to be structural or detail.

Does it touch the void?
If you zoom your camera out into the void and look back at your map can you see it?

If you can see it then leave well alone. All brushes are structural by default.

If you can't see it then highlight that brush and right click in any of the 2d windows. Near the top of the menu that appears is the option "Make Detail". Click on it and that brush is then a detail brush.

If you can make all the brushes that don't touch the void into detail brushes then your map will compile much much quicker.

Here's a few tips

Entities cannot be detail brushes.
Curves cannot be detail brushes.

If you want to see which brushes are detail and which are not then just hold down ctrl and hit D. That will make all detail brushes dissapear and leave you only with structural brushes.

Or vice versa if you go to the view menu and look under "Show" the bottom menu option will allow you to only see detail brushes and make all the structural brushes dissapear.

hope this is clear.

Please feel free to ask any more questions.

[rgoer]

aazell mentioned:

Entities cannot be detail brushes.
Curves cannot be detail brushes.

This is sort-of true, but doesn't paint the whole picture. Here is the real low-down on structural vs. entity brushes:

Let's say you are building a map that consists of a field, a building, and a sky up above.

You build your skybox and your field "floor." These, of course, you are going to set to be "structural," because they touch the void. Aazell was correct about that: any brush that touches the void must be structural.

Where we get to the finer points of structural/detail debate is at the building construction. The brushes that form the building probably do not touch the void, so your first instinct may be to make those brushes into detail brushes. However, assuming that the interior of the building is sealed off by a door/areaportal, you probably do not want to be able to see the inside of the building while you are outside in the field. This is why the outer walls of the building must also be structural brushes.

Do you understand the VIS process of map compiling? This is the stage where q3map2/sof2map decides what portions of the map should be drawn, depending on where the player's point-of-view is located. Detail brushes (this is the important part) are invisible during the VIS process (just like curves/patch meshes and entities), so, if you were to make the outer walls of the building into detail brushes, the triangles that make up the interior of the building would be drawn no matter where the player was. This is not how you want it to be (unless you don't mind an absolute **** fps), so you need to learn to use structural brushes to "section off" the various parts of your map.

Keep in mind these things:

No detail brush may touch the void.
No curve/patch mesh may touch the void.
No entity may touch the void.
Structural brushes create portals (during VIS).

So, if you design your map consientiously around these key concepts, you'll see a vast improvement in fps (though you might see a bit of a hit on your compile time--long compile time is worth it, however, while ****e fps is not).

[aazell]

Nice explaination.

My present maps don't have any outdoor area's so it didn't really occur to me the example you gave above.

Thanks for clarifying my points.

[rgoer]

Even for indoor maps, for any area that is completely "sealed off" from another, you should make sure that the brushes that do the "sealing off" are structural, and not detail. Go ahead and make the map with all detail brushes, then test it with r_showtris on; you'll see what I'm talking about.