Solid's and semi-solids

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Whitey
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Solid's and semi-solids

Post by Whitey »

So i've made a few maps.
but never truely understood the use of semi-solids.
can anyone tell me when and why you would use a semi-solid? as opposed to a normal solid??
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LeviKOS
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Re: Solid's and semi-solids

Post by LeviKOS »

The best tutorial concerning semisolid I could ever find was this http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialssemi.htm
I'm sure this tutorial will help you :wink:
Myth
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Re: Solid's and semi-solids

Post by Myth »

Semi solids are just like solids but they don't occlude. That means they don't hide what's behind them. Solids hide what's behind them so the computer doesn't draw and calculate unnecesarry stuff. Now you may think that it's best to keep everything solid. That's also wrong. Calculating what's not visible is also part of the computers job. If there are lots of solids then the BSP Tree gets really complicated and it takes more time than necessary to calculate what's not visible.

On a side note: nonsolids are just like semisolids except that they don't collide. It's what you use for portals, decal sheets and stuff that you can't touch.

And one more addition. Subtracting any additive brush even solids is bad. Expect random HOMs and performance issues on large scale maps if you don't.
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