I'm having a recurring issue with overlays and I can't seem to find a solution to it anywhere. I wonder if anyone here has encountered something similar? Basically, overlays don't seem to appear on certain brushes within my map. Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about:

This is what I know so far:

• Whether I use raw brushes or func_details doesn't make a difference
• My map is not fullbright
• A misbehaving overlay may initially appear in Hammer but when I compile and run the map it won't be there
• Restarting Hammer will cause such overlays to disappear from the program and appear as in the screenshot
• Deleting and recreating the brush does not work
• Deleting and recreating the overlay does not work
• Using the 'Pick...' tool to select the brush face that the overlay should appear on does not work. In fact, this will cause a misbehaving overlay that was previously appearing in Hammer to disappear.
• Clicking the 'Pick... button' for an overlay that is working causes the correct brush face to be highlighted. Doing so for a misbehaving overlay does not cause any visible brush face to be highlighted.
• Sometimes, after working in other areas of my map, overlays that were previously not appearing will randomly start working. Conversely, some that were behaving may start playing up.
• I'm not using custom textures - just unremarkable textures that are definitely intended to be overlays such as indicator lights and signs.

I'm at a bit of a loss with this. If anyone can shine a light on the problem I'll be extremely grateful.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Whether I use raw brushes or func_details doesn't make a difference

This does make a difference. Overlays only appear on raw brushes.
Edit: Sounds like I was wrong about this. You can place overlays on func_detail etc.

Pilchardo wrote:
- My map is not fullbright

I don't think this matters. Overlays should show up in fullbright maps.

Pilchardo wrote:
- A misbehaving overlay may initially appear in Hammer but when I compile and run the map it won't be there

This is also the case when you place an overlay on a func_detail or whatever.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Using the 'Pick...' tool to select the brush face that the overlay should appear on does not work. In fact, this will cause a misbehaving overlay that was previously appearing in Hammer to disappear.
- Clicking the 'Pick... button' for an overlay that is working causes the correct brush face to be highlighted. Doing so for a misbehaving overlay does not cause any visible brush face to be highlighted.

To use the pick tool you first need to click the pick button and then click on the desired face. This should change the numbers (surface IDs) that you see in the parameter. It sounds like the ones that aren't working don't have an assigned surface.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Sometimes, after working in other areas of my map, overlays that were previously not appearing will randomly start working. Conversely, some that were behaving may start playing up.

That's odd. Not sure what could cause that.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Whether I use raw brushes or func_details doesn't make a difference

It was said by the previous posted that they only show on World Brushes. I can't confirm or deny this. I'm not at a computer to test this either.

Pilchardo wrote:
- My map is not fullbright

Again, should not matter. Overlays are done at VBSP, and don't require lighting.

Pilchardo wrote:
- A misbehaving overlay may initially appear in Hammer but when I compile and run the map it won't be there

I've had overlays do some crazy things in Hammer, but are fine in game. But in this case, perhaps you've hit a limit?

Pilchardo wrote:
- Restarting Hammer will cause such overlays to disappear from the program and appear as in the screenshot

Sounds like a brush face number has changed. Make sure the overlay is set to the proper face number by using the eye dropper

Pilchardo wrote:
- Deleting and recreating the brush does not work
- Deleting and recreating the overlay does not work

Maybe you've hit a limit? You can only have 512 overlays in a level.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Using the 'Pick...' tool to select the brush face that the overlay should appear on does not work. In fact, this will cause a misbehaving overlay that was previously appearing in Hammer to disappear.

I... What... Never heard of this before.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Clicking the 'Pick... button' for an overlay that is working causes the correct brush face to be highlighted. Doing so for a misbehaving overlay does not cause any visible brush face to be highlighted.

Sounds like it lost it's brush face number.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Sometimes, after working in other areas of my map, overlays that were previously not appearing will randomly start working. Conversely, some that were behaving may start playing up.

Sounds like a limit issue? Or Maybe VBSP is not happy with your level, thus producing these strange results.

Pilchardo wrote:
- I'm not using custom textures - just unremarkable textures that are definitely intended to be overlays such as indicator lights and signs.

This should not matter. You can use almost any texture as a overlay. (At least in my experience)

If you need more help, feel free to add me on Steam and we can work this out in real time over Teamviewer or some other screen share service.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/TopHATTwaffle

Mevious wrote:
Pilchardo wrote:

• Whether I use raw brushes or func_details doesn't make a difference

This does make a difference. Overlays only appear on raw brushes.

You're wrong here, they can also be on func_details and func_brushes. HOWEVER; when you tie stuff to an entity you will get new brush ID's so you will have to re-apply it to a face. (In fact this is done widely in Aperture Valentine )

Pilchardo wrote:
- My map is not fullbright

Overlays should show up in fullbright maps.

Pilchardo wrote:
- A misbehaving overlay may initially appear in Hammer but when I compile and run the map it won't be there

Sounds like brush ID's changed. Delete the faces it has assigned now and re-apply.

Pilchardo wrote:
- Sometimes, after working in other areas of my map, overlays that were previously not appearing will randomly start working. Conversely, some that were behaving may start playing up.

Do you happen to have radius culling on? (the R in the red circle? If you do; disable it and see if the problems persist.

Radius culling isn't switched on. I actually tried turning it on for the hell of it but still get the same thing.

Pilchardo wrote:
Cheers for the replies. I think the 'pick' tool must be a clue here. When I use it and click on the desired surface, a number appears in the text field as you'd expect, but the overlay itself doesn't show up. Really weird.

This is hammer messing with you. Simply move the overlay in the 2d view (Move it up a unit, then back down a unit to it's origional place.) then it should show.

Pilchardo wrote:
Cheers for the replies. I think the 'pick' tool must be a clue here. When I use it and click on the desired surface, a number appears in the text field as you'd expect, but the overlay itself doesn't show up. Really weird.

Radius culling isn't switched on. I actually tried turning it on for the hell of it but still get the same thing.

It can happen overlays don't immediately show up in hammer, but they should show up in game normally. (while they still don't show up in hammer). If you re-applied the overlays to the correct sides save the map, restart hammer they should show up properly in hammer again too.

EDIT: Or do what TopHatt said

Lpfreaky90 wrote:
EDIT: Or do what TopHatt said

<3

There's an interesting I discovered recently that not everyone knows, it's that you can use the "pick" button on the overlay's properties dialog box to select multiple brushes' adjacent faces (or even not adjacent ones), not just one single face This is extremely helpful when placing the indicator lights.

josepezdj wrote:
There's an interesting I discovered recently that not everyone knows, it's that you can use the "pick" button on the overlay's properties dialog box to select multiple brushes' adjacent faces (or even not adjacent ones), not just one single face This is extremely helpful when placing the indicator lights.

To actually do this, hold CTRL whilst using the eye dropper and click the multiple faces.

TopHATTwaffle wrote:
To actually do this, hold CTRL whilst using the eye dropper and click the multiple faces.

Exactly

Unfortunately I still haven't got to the bottom of this though. Moving the overlay around in the 2D view doesn't seem to help and, while it seems like it's just Hammer's 3D view being a bit odd, the errant overlays don't appear in-game either.

It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if my installation of Hammer is dodgy. No-one else seems to have ever had this exact issue. Or maybe it's something that I'm doing wrong that is such a n00b mistake that no-one has thought to mention it.

I might fire my laptop up and see if I get the same thing on another machine.

Is it worth mentioning that I originally exported this map from the in-game puzzle maker? Shouldn't make a difference, I suppose, but I'm running out of ideas.

1. Re-placing the overlay
This would probably be the first thing you tried.

2. Re-making the brush
This would probably be second.

3. Making sure you're not using the decal tool/decal textures
Both completely possible mistakes.

4. Using a different overlay.
I've had trouble with certain ones being incompatible. For indicator lights, try use indicator_lights_floor and not _wall, the wall ones don't seem to work as well (for me, at least).

If you haven't done any of those, I'd recommend giving them a crack.

Basically, it seems that, for whatever reason, the brush faces I was having issues with were sharing face numbers with brushes in completely different parts of the map. I first discovered this when I clicked the 'Pick' button for one of the broken overlays and, completely by chance, I saw a brush face on the other side of the room become highlighted. Clicking that face and the one I actually wanted to put the overlay on both resulted in the same number appearing in the text box. (And yes, I did try clicking other faces too to confirm that the number did indeed change when I clicked around.)

Changing the other brush - the one I didn't want the overlay on - to a func_detail solved the problem. The overlays would then appear correctly where I wanted them.

The map I was dealing with had a lot of small brushes that were essentially detail but up until this point I hadn't been using func_detail entities at all (n00b mistake, quite possibly). All I can think is that the large number of brush faces I had was somehow causing Hammer to get confused.

I've since made nearly all the decorative brushes func_details and the problem hasn't reappeared. So not a definitive answer or solution but one that's just about good enough to get by. If I learn anything more on the subject I'll be sure to relay it.