A variety of questions
-The mapping wiki says to decorate the holes in the ceiling with rusty frames and foliage. What is the name of the rusty frame model(s)? I couldn't find it anywhere.
-After changing the mandatory observation room into a broken one, I get stuck on a black screen upon loading the map. Quite odd. Anyone know what might be causing this?'
Edit: Haha, nice post rank.
tesselode wrote:
-After changing the mandatory observation room into a broken one, I get stuck on a black screen upon loading the map. Quite odd. Anyone know what might be causing this?'
Leaks, probably. I genuinely doubt that the geometry of those instances is plug-and-play. Post your compile log in [code] tags and we'll see.
msleeper wrote:
tesselode wrote:-After changing the mandatory observation room into a broken one, I get stuck on a black screen upon loading the map. Quite odd. Anyone know what might be causing this?'
Leaks, probably. I genuinely doubt that the geometry of those instances is plug-and-play. Post your compile log in [code] tags and we'll see.
OK, guess what. Since I assumed that the map would work fine if I didn't make any changes, I assumed that it was not working because I changed the observation room. It turns out, it was broken even without any changes. I figured out why: apparently I can't have spaces in the file name of the map.
So that problem's solved. I still could use help finding the rusty frame model, though.
tesselode wrote:
-The mapping wiki says to decorate the holes in the ceiling with rusty frames and foliage. What is the name of the rusty frame model(s)? I couldn't find it anywhere.
type "destruction" into the model browser and scroll down somewhere near the bottom. You'll see everything you'd need there.
Anyway, it turns out the black screen problem is still there. The map worked after I renamed it, but it broke again when I tried changing the observation room again. Here's a compile log:
materialPath: c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\materials
Loading C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.vmf
ConVarRef gpu_level doesn't point to an existing ConVar
nummapplanes: ( 7538 / 65536 )
nummapbrushes: ( 1336 / 8192 )
nummapbrushsides: ( 11268 / 65536 )
num_map_overlays: ( 9 / 512 )
nummodels: ( 0 / 1024 )
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 574 detail faces...done (0)
Merging details...done (1)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (0)
writing C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.prt...Building visibility clusters...
done (0)
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (0) (486873 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 2249 texinfos to 560
Reduced 47 texdatas to 42 (1339 bytes to 1199)
Writing C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.bsp
4 seconds elapsed
2 threads
reading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.bsp
reading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.prt
93 portalclusters
150 numportals
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Optimized: 115 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 2866
Average clusters visible: 30
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 34
visdatasize:2255 compressed from 2976
writing c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.bsp
0 seconds elapsed
[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[59 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']
Loading c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.bsp
1576 faces
182235 square feet [26241918.00 square inches]
0 Displacements
0 Square Feet [0.00 Square Inches]
1576 patches before subdivision
zero area child patch
13580 patches after subdivision
61 direct lights
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10transfers 1078002, max 371
transfer lists: 8.2 megs
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #1 added RGB(28161, 34724, 37927)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #2 added RGB(16609, 20682, 22546)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #3 added RGB(10829, 13555, 14727)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #4 added RGB(7194, 9031, 9751)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #5 added RGB(4866, 6119, 6553)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #6 added RGB(3312, 4169, 4421)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #7 added RGB(2266, 2853, 2993)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #8 added RGB(1554, 1957, 2029)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #9 added RGB(1068, 1345, 1378)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #10 added RGB(735, 925, 936)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #11 added RGB(506, 637, 636)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #12 added RGB(349, 438, 433)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #13 added RGB(240, 302, 294)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #14 added RGB(166, 208, 200)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #15 added RGB(114, 143, 136)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #16 added RGB(79, 99, 93)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #17 added RGB(54, 68, 63)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #18 added RGB(37, 47, 43)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #19 added RGB(26, 32, 29)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #20 added RGB(18, 22, 20)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #21 added RGB(12, 15, 14)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #22 added RGB(8, 11, 9)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #23 added RGB(6, 7, 6)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #24 added RGB(4, 5, 4)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #25 added RGB(3, 3, 3)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #26 added RGB(2, 2, 2)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #27 added RGB(1, 2, 1)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #28 added RGB(1, 1, 1)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #29 added RGB(1, 1, 1)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.0061 sec>
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10FinalLightFace Done
22 of 22 (100% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Writing leaf ambient...done
Ready to Finish
Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 54/1024 2592/49152 ( 5.3%)
brushes 1336/8192 16032/98304 (16.3%)
brushsides 11318/65536 90544/524288 (17.3%)
planes 7566/65536 151320/1310720 (11.5%)
vertexes 3539/65536 42468/786432 ( 5.4%)
nodes 886/65536 28352/2097152 ( 1.4%)
texinfos 560/12288 40320/884736 ( 4.6%)
texdata 42/2048 1344/65536 ( 2.1%)
dispinfos 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_verts 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_tris 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_multiblend 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_lmsamples 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
faces 1576/65536 88256/3670016 ( 2.4%)
hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%)
origfaces 1353/65536 75768/3670016 ( 2.1%)
facebrushes 456/0 912/0 ( 0.0%)
facebrushlists 1576/0 6304/0 ( 0.0%)
leaves 941/65536 30112/2097152 ( 1.4%)
leaffaces 1808/65536 3616/131072 ( 2.8%)
leafbrushes 2657/65536 5314/131072 ( 4.1%)
areas 9/256 72/2048 ( 3.5%)
surfedges 12745/512000 50980/2048000 ( 2.5%)
edges 8062/256000 32248/1024000 ( 3.1%)
LDR worldlights 61/8192 6100/819200 ( 0.7%)
HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/819200 ( 0.0%)
leafwaterdata 0/32768 0/393216 ( 0.0%)
waterstrips 167/32768 1670/327680 ( 0.5%)
waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%)
waterindices 2802/65536 5604/131072 ( 4.3%)
cubemapsamples 3/1024 48/16384 ( 0.3%)
overlays 9/512 3168/180224 ( 1.8%)
LDR lightdata [variable] 935900/0 ( 0.0%)
HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 2255/16777216 ( 0.0%)
entdata [variable] 137949/393216 (35.1%)
LDR ambient table 941/65536 3764/262144 ( 1.4%)
HDR ambient table 941/65536 3764/262144 ( 1.4%)
LDR leaf ambient 3322/65536 93016/1835008 ( 5.1%)
HDR leaf ambient 941/65536 26348/1835008 ( 1.4%)
occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%)
static props [variable] 1/12720 ( 0.0%)
pakfile [variable] 298580/0 ( 0.0%)
physics [variable] 486873/4194304 (11.6%)
physics terrain [variable] 2/1048576 ( 0.0%)
Level flags = 0
Total triangle count: 4181
Writing c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\sdk_content\maps\peti_map.bsp
11 seconds elapsed
My observation room is intersecting some brushes and not quite fitting in the space I put it in. Is that the problem?
I don't think there's anything wrong in that compile log. So your problem should be caused by something you're missing in another level. If I understood yourr problem well, that black screen appears right when you try to load the map from the game menu (Play community chambers), right? or is it via the developer console? Also these questions:
-
Have you tried to remove that observation room and check again if you can run the map?
-
Have you got more than 1 observation room inside your map?
-
Have you modified more stuff than just the visual look into that observation room?
Load the map ingame and when you see the black screen, noclip around to see where you are starting. If you started in a blacked out entrance room, try this: Double click your entrance elevator instance and check if the no_player_start value is set to 1.
To find out if LP is right, type mat_fullbright 1 into the console. Do you see everything again? Then the problem is that you have no light.
If you start and only hear wind sound that means for some reason you started at the origin of the grid and outside your actualy map. I had that problem with one pti map. Try to move everything (draw a rectangle about everything and hit enter in one of the 2D views) away from the origin and compiling again.
josepezdj wrote:
I don't think there's anything wrong in that compile log. So your problem should be caused by something you're missing in another level. If I understood yourr problem well, that black screen appears right when you try to load the map from the game menu (Play community chambers), right? or is it via the developer console? Also these questions:
Have you tried to remove that observation room and check again if you can run the map?
Have you got more than 1 observation room inside your map?
Have you modified more stuff than just the visual look into that observation room?
I'm loading from the console by using map peti_map.
- yes, that doesn't help
- no
- All I did was change the p2editor observation room into a standard one, and then move/rotate it to get it into the wall again.
lpfreaky90 wrote:
could it be that the observation room was your only light source?
It is, but I think PTI editor automatically adds in point lights every few blocks or so.
zivi7 wrote:
I've been doing those PTI to Hammer transitions, too, and had similar problems.Load the map ingame and when you see the black screen, noclip around to see where you are starting. If you started in a blacked out entrance room, try this: Double click your entrance elevator instance and check if the no_player_start value is set to 1.
To find out if LP is right, type mat_fullbright 1 into the console. Do you see everything again? Then the problem is that you have no light.
If you start and only hear wind sound that means for some reason you started at the origin of the grid and outside your actualy map. I had that problem with one pti map. Try to move everything (draw a rectangle about everything and hit enter in one of the 2D views) away from the origin and compiling again.
I'm not getting any wind sound. The lighting is actually working, once I used noclip, it turns out I've spawning right in the entrance, and once I get into the room everything looks fine. I tried changing the no_player_start to 0, at first it worked, and then I changed it back to 1 to make sure that was the problem, and it still worked. Then every time I switched it after that, it didn't work. So apparently that's not the problem.
tesselode wrote:
3. All I did was change the p2editor observation room into a standard one, and then move/rotate it to get it into the wall again.
This is my bet: I think that when you changed that observation room for a different one, you didn't care about the inner items and their names. Each observation room uses to come with an env_ projected_texture which is a special entity as you can't have more than just 1 active at the same time into your level. Surely this entity was triggered somehow and now maybe your map continuous looking for it to lighten it up but fails...
You mentioned you only changed it for a standard one and that you removed any, but have you tried to place again that one you added in the first place? in the case that it was placed into your map automatically, can you remember the name/location of that first obs-room? Try to place it again and see if your map works again...
And if your map works again, try now to modify THAT observation room visuals (textures, glass, even window frames...) but leave the rest as it comes.
josepezdj wrote:
tesselode wrote:
- All I did was change the p2editor observation room into a standard one, and then move/rotate it to get it into the wall again.
This is my bet: I think that when you changed that observation room for a different one, you didn't care about the inner items and their names. Each observation room uses to come with an env_ projected_texture which is a special entity as you can't have more than just 1 active at the same time into your level. Surely this entity was triggered somehow and now maybe your map continuous looking for it to lighten it up but fails...
You mentioned you only changed it for a standard one and that you removed any, but have you tried to place again that one you added in the first place? in the case that it was placed into your map automatically, can you remember the name/location of that first obs-room? Try to place it again and see if your map works again...
And if your map works again, try now to modify THAT observation room visuals (textures, glass, even window frames...) but leave the rest as it comes.
I tried changing the vmf back to the p2editor observation room; it didn't help. Keep in mind that all I did to change it to the standard observation room was change the vmf filename, so the fixup name should be intact from the editor. Is it supposed to be observationroom2 by any chance?
Edit: On another note, even though I've been saving periodically by pressing Ctrl+S, when I close the program, it asks me if I want to save my changes. Maybe it hasn't been saving properly? Or does it always do that?
tesselode wrote:
I'm not getting any wind sound. The lighting is actually working, once I used noclip, it turns out I've spawning right in the entrance, and once I get into the room everything looks fine. I tried changing the no_player_start to 0, at first it worked, and then I changed it back to 1 to make sure that was the problem, and it still worked. Then every time I switched it after that, it didn't work. So apparently that's not the problem.
The way you describe it it DOES sound like a problem. I made a thread about this behaviour: puzzle-creator/how-to-reimplement-the-pti-elevators-after-hammer-polish-t6371.html
Quote:
How to fix the entrance:Move the camera inside the entrance elevator. Doubleclick into the orange "blob" that's filling the whole elevator. That's the func_instance combining all the stuff happening in the beginning. You should see the Class Info now. See the second entry from the top: $no_player_start. Change its value from 0 to 1. That should do it.
Edit: It might be necessary to also do this for the entrance room. So doubleclick into the orange "blob" that's filling the whole entrance room. Change the $no_player_start value to 1 here, too.
Note: If it happens to you that after doing this and compiling you suddenly start in a black room without a portalgun, this helped me: Save and close Hammer, open it again and load the map, compile again.
And while editing my latest map in Hammer, I found that this last problem might have to do with having something of the map at the origin (the point where the x y and z axis meet up). You could try to move everything away from it.
zivi7 wrote:
tesselode wrote:I'm not getting any wind sound. The lighting is actually working, once I used noclip, it turns out I've spawning right in the entrance, and once I get into the room everything looks fine. I tried changing the no_player_start to 0, at first it worked, and then I changed it back to 1 to make sure that was the problem, and it still worked. Then every time I switched it after that, it didn't work. So apparently that's not the problem.
The way you describe it it DOES sound like a problem. I made a thread about this behaviour: puzzle-creator/how-to-reimplement-the-pti-elevators-after-hammer-polish-t6371.html
Quote:
How to fix the entrance:
Move the camera inside the entrance elevator. Doubleclick into the orange "blob" that's filling the whole elevator. That's the func_instance combining all the stuff happening in the beginning. You should see the Class Info now. See the second entry from the top: $no_player_start. Change its value from 0 to 1. That should do it.
Edit: It might be necessary to also do this for the entrance room. So doubleclick into the orange "blob" that's filling the whole entrance room. Change the $no_player_start value to 1 here, too.
Note: If it happens to you that after doing this and compiling you suddenly start in a black room without a portalgun, this helped me: Save and close Hammer, open it again and load the map, compile again.
And while editing my latest map in Hammer, I found that this last problem might have to do with having something of the map at the origin (the point where the x y and z axis meet up). You could try to move everything away from it.
So...this pretty much occurs randomly when compiling? Because that's what it seems like.
Any idea how I did that so I can avoid doing that again?
Edit: On second thought, I might have accidentally hit H.
Edit 2: Alright, moving everything away from the origin seems to work. I even changed the observation room and it hasn't thrown up on me. Thanks, zivi7.

the mandatory observation room is mandatory because it has some vital logic relays, last I checked, I recommend building your own elevators from instances, especially if you want to go with the overgrown theme
I also recommend you learn how to use hammer for normal map making before you try to jump to the fancy stuff IE. detailing.