Quote from taco on July 5, 2008, 2:14 pm

This kind of depends on what you have already done.

For instance, I wouldn't consider "Placing Invisible Brushes in Light Strokes" or "Fixing getting stuck" as small final touches but as rather freaking important.

This makes me wonder, do you have:
- portal bumpers
- hint brushes
- area portals
- indicator lights
- etc.

Quote from Farragar on July 5, 2008, 4:48 pm

A few off the top of my head.

-Gradient overlays on recessed lighting
-Check cameras detach properly
-Check cubes respawn if they're fizzled
-All textures properly aligned, unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.

Quote from bizob on July 5, 2008, 9:55 pm

Don't forget to build your cubemaps (if you're using any) in both LDR and HDR modes, and make sure they don't cause any weird, unrealistic reflections.

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mat_specular 0
buildcubemaps
mat_hdr_level 0 (to go to LDR)
map mapname (to reload map)
buildcubemaps
mat_hdr_level 2 (to go back to HDR)
map mapname (to reload map)
mat_specular 1

Quote from Remmiz on July 5, 2008, 10:13 pm

Most of that is unnecessary. You just need to do:

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buildcubemaps
mat_hdr_level 0 (or 2 if you were already at 0)
buildcubemaps
mat_hdr_level 2 (or 0 if you started at 0)


Quote from Doomsday192 on July 5, 2008, 11:23 pm

Remmiz wrote:

Most of that is unnecessary.

mat_specular is mostly useful in TF2 maps, because alot of the time the default cubemaps show up as missing textures and, as a result, the next built cubemaps will record those in it.

but that's because of the skyboxes in TF2; in portal you don't have to worry about skyboxes, so yeah, it is ununnecessary

Quote from Mek on July 6, 2008, 6:13 am

Well, I am getting these done while mapping:
- alignment of textures
- indicator lights
- portal bumpers
- invisible, clip, npc clip brushes and these (==fixing found bugs)
- ragdoll of cameras
- area portals
- respawning of cubes (belongs to the logic of particular puzzle)
The things I leave for the end, when the brushwork and all the above is done:
- cubemap entities placement and building cubemaps to see if things are looking right
- sounds/soundscapes placement
- lighting, recessed lighting (at last, because compilation of this takes the most time).

hope I didn't forget something

Quote from Bulska on July 6, 2008, 9:38 am

- Textures are aligned
- Indicator Lights work properly
- Portal Bumpers where needed
- All camera's work
- Soundscapes placed

But I have no idea how these things work:
- Area portals
- Hint brushes
- Cubemaps

There's some problem with a cube dropper, and some nasty ways to get stuck. I'll get to fixing that first.

Quote from Mek on July 6, 2008, 10:58 am

Cubemaps control reflections, more here
Areaportals are great for optimizing performance of your map. Basically, what is on the other side of the areaportal does not get rendered (excepting the areas you see through the areaportal). More here

Quote from Frostyfrog on July 11, 2008, 1:40 pm

Hint brushes split up the Vis-leafs. An example would be that you have a room that looks like:

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      _______
     |      |
_0___|      |____()

Legend wrote:

0 = barrel
() = Player

There is a wall, there is a barrel on the other side but you don't want the client to render it, the compile, by default, will generate more vis-leafs then needed. the client draws what is in the current leaf and the leafes around it, and it you place a hint brush over the top, (becuase the player can see the top of the other side) you will find that if you use the mat_wireframe command, you can no longer see the barrel.

Note: this was from my memory from watching the advanced level design dvd sold by Valve.