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Render hidden VisGroups?

Is there a way to render disabled VisGroups, when I compile the game? I have some VisGroups that I disable when I edit the map, so I have a better overview, but then I have to enable them every time I compile the map and disable them when I'm done testing. Thanks.

No, that's the entire point of visgroups. Just make sure all of them that you want enabled are enabled when you go to compile.

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tehsleeper wrote:
ust make sure all of them that you want enabled are enabled when you go to compile.

But, what about build automation? Oh the humanity.

My first thought is to write a makefile.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'm not a mapper.

"Games are made out of smaller games ? turtles all the way down, until you hit the game that is so trivial and stupid it isn?t deserving of the name." --Raph Koster

There's no real right and wrong way to use visgroups. Generally I think most people build a map in "sections" with each area in it's own visgroup. That way you can quickly use the Cordon tool around a specific room/puzzle, enable the visgroup for that specific room/puzzle, and go through the development process quickly.

If you are doing a "final build" of your map then you can go to "show all groups" in the Edit or View menu (I think, been a while since I fired Hammer) or just checkmark all of your custom visgroups.

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I could have sworn there was a vbsp argument to compile hidden groups, but when I searched for it just now I couldn't find anything. I have a little program that I wrote to enable/disable certain groups before compiling. You can place it at the beginning of your compile process, and I can send it to you if you'd like.

My problem is, that I have big "invisible" covers around a puzzle, so that objects don't fall out of it. The player can't walk to those covers, so that's no problem. But I can't edit the puzzle properly with the covers being infront of it. I have to disable them. And when I compile I always forget to enable them.

Mevious wrote:
I could have sworn there was a vbsp argument to compile hidden groups, but when I searched for it just now I couldn't find anything. I have a little program that I wrote to enable/disable certain groups before compiling. You can place it at the beginning of your compile process, and I can send it to you if you'd like.

I searched for an argument too, but couldn't find anything. I'd very appreciate it, if you could send me the script, thanks!

Uh, you shouldn't put a giant hollow box around your map. That is bad for about a thousand reasons.

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I'm not sure why?
It's not around the map. Only around the puzzle. The player is outside of it and can control things inside it using buttons and put portals into it. He can't walk up to the invisible walls.

Maybe you aren't doing what I'm talking about, which is a good thing. If you read the most amazing Source optimization guide on the internet then what a lot of novice mappers will do is create a giant hollow box around their entire map to seal any leaks (since a lot of novice mappers don't know what a leak is and how to prevent or fix them).

The actual part of the article is under "Notices", but I strongly recommend reading the entire document in it's entirety. Great read and very informative.

EDIT
I will say that some of it is a little irrelevant or outdated, specifically stuff about dynamic lighting. The document was writen for the original Source 1.0, pre-Episode 1 and the engine has made some advancements since then.

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