Quake3World

when it is structual but does not when detail.
Don't you think this is odd?

No, not really. Especially if the nodraw has a bit of the shader that gives it that "hardness".

I remember back when I had a problem with a default flag shader that was supposed to be non-solid but a portion of the shader made it solid from different angles. I had redid the flag numerous times and it changed location of solidness each time I tried to fix it. After messing about for quite some time, I had gotten it fixed as someone on another forum had asked me about the shader. Then looking at it, I had found the culprit.
Right now I can't remember what it was that I changed as I am tired, just got off work.
I will look thru my stuff later today and find the shader in question and might be able to show you what it was that caused it to be like that and what I did to fix it.

guys... what is the 'make structural' and 'make detail' options for? I tried to use them to see what happens, but can't really tell whats going on. Could you just give me a quick definition for each please fellas. Cheers

Billybob06 wrote:guys... what is the 'make structural' and 'make detail' options for? I tried to use them to see what happens, but can't really tell whats going on. Could you just give me a quick definition for each please fellas. Cheers

To understand detail and structural you must understand the 'VIS' stage of compiling. Basically, when a level is compiled the game determines what can be seen from any point in the map, and so when you're in-game and standing at a certain point, the game doesn't have to bother drawing things you can't see.

Structural brushes serve to 'block' the view from any area of the level, so that an adjacent room might not be 'visible' from that room. Detail brushes do not block that view, and are pretty much ignored by the VIS stage.

Also, a requirement of building a proper Q3 level is that it is completely 'sealed' from the outside world. Imagine you were to fill your level up with water, would it leak out of the level in any places? This is essentially what qualifies a level as being sealed or 'leaking'. Structural brushes count as sealing the level, detail brushes do not and will cause leaks.

nodrawnonsolid doesn't have surfaceparm trans, which means that it is considered vis blocking and shadow casting when structural, but ignored when detail.

Pimping my hint tutorial to Billybob... also includes a bunch of links to other tutorials/explanations:
http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3620

Everytime I look at the result of that hinting session, I get a massive e-boner.

obsidian wrote:nodrawnonsolid doesn't have surfaceparm trans, which means that it is considered vis blocking and shadow casting when structural, but ignored when detail.

So this means any texture whose surface(content) parm is nonsolid does not cast shadow when marked detail?

surfaceparm trans basically instructs the compiler that the surface is not to be used for vis or light. You use it on stuff like water, because you don't want the water to block vis or cast shadows.

I'm asking about nonsolid, not trans.
See? :icon11:

If my Q is too difficult to answer, then what the main use of nodrawnonsolid?
You know it is used, for example, for light beam in q3dm17sample.map but it's absolutely not correct if not completely wrong.

edit:
O.K.
I got it.
This is the way it is.