Detail Brushes

I've been trying to make a map for a while now its going well till my friend pointed out something about Detail brushes? I've tried to find some Tutorials/Videos that would help me understand it better, and when to use it and not to use it. Could someone help explain this to me?

I'm not a mapper, and I'm sure Smithy or someone else will reply to your question as well.

However, I'm a collector of Tutorials & Guides, and found some that mention Detail Brushes.. ofc. it's possible you already found those, but I just wanted to add them just in case :).
(Btw, if you haven't downloaded it yet, here's my complete Tutorial package with every tutorial/guide I could find online regarding MOHAA, mapping, scripting etc.: http://www.x-null.net/tuts/MOHAA_TUT..._PACK_V1.3.zip
There's a Table of Contents included in which you can search for key words, which is how I found which guides contained chapters about Detail Brushes.)

The specific Tutorials (inside the above package) that had chapters about Detail Brushes were:
- Nemesis's Tutorials (Chapter: One Step Up, Sub-Chapter 'Detailed Brush’s and Cut vis Compile Time')
- The Rjukan Project Tutorials (Chapter: VIS Designing, Sub-Chapters: 'What is structural and detail brushes?' & 'Making the right brushes detail')

Hope it helps :)

I didn't see this! I've been checking the forums daily as well lol...

When it comes to building a map it's good to have in mind what areas you want to hide when you can't see them. This is where structural brushes come into play.

Whenever you place a brush down in Radiant, by default it is 'structural'. In the 2D view it will have black outlines. What a structural brush does is help the BSP compile determine how to break the map up into partitions. For example, a sealed room with 6 walls. If your brushes are structural then whatever is inside won't be rendered when you are outside (and vice versa). This method is what we use to improve FPS on maps. Your skybox always needs to be structural.

Detail brushes are generally speaking what they say on the tin... they are for detailing your map. They aren't used as a way to break your visibility compile up into partitions. So if you built a sealed room with detail brushes it won't try and hide what's behind those walls. They appear green in the editor.

Now, there is a limit to your visibility data so usually a large portion if not most of your brushes should be detail. If you find your VIS compile taking an inordinate amount of time (or stopping completely), it could be because you have every brush as structural so it's trying to determine visibility for what's behind a fence post, a skirting board, a door frame, damaged walls with holes in them, or any intricate and small brushwork, which it shouldn't be doing because they could never possibly block a player's view so much. You should always compile your maps with the best (and slowest) settings when you come to release it. If you release maps that have compiled with 'fast' VIS, then the calculations won't be as accurate as they should be. Lighting is best with '-final'. Obviously for testing it's no problem.

What I would suggest is look at the source MP maps that were released to us. While in Radiant, you can hide details by pressing CTRL+D (press again to hide them). Have a look at what they marked as detail and what is structural. Notice how their skybox fits snugly around the map or even cuts into the map. What is and what isn't structural isn't a strict rule with strict conditions. It's partly having a 'feel' for your map. For instance, my current level I'm working on uses heavy fog in open areas, and this naturally hides areas that are behind it, so almost all of my brushes are marked as detail as I don't need them breaking up areas.

More info is in the Evening Strike thread: http://www.mohaaaa.co.uk/forums/show...ing-Strike-Map

I have examples and images there which may help you out more. You set brushes as detail by selecting the desired brush(es) and right clicking and hitting 'Make Detail'.

G'day,
It's been too long since I edited so somebody please correct me if I have it mixed up.

Just to add to Smithy's great explanation, some brushes need to remain detailed regardless.
Any sloped brushes including ramps and rooftops plus it's always a good idea to make staircases detail too.
Slopes and staircases are very complicated for the compiler to work out. They require far more data which may exceed the limitations of a Q3 map.

Good luck with it. :)

Hey, Acca, nice to see you around! Yep, you're right. Intricate, delicate, or complex geometry like staircases, broken pieces, and debris etc.. should always be detail if you can help it.

I mention it a couple times in this post in the other thread (which is also linked in below) as well :): http://www.mohaaaa.co.uk/forums/show...ull=1#post1370

Structural brushes should be as simple as possible but it isn't something to sweat too much over as you are given leeway. For instance, with stairs I may make the steps triangle shaped and detail, but fill in the gap underneath with a bigger structural triangle brush:

Steps taken from my test_bocage2 map: https://image.ibb.co/miKBBp/steps.jpg

How they look with all details hidden: https://image.ibb.co/i8Edrp/slope.jpg

Side perspective: https://image.ibb.co/bySbcU/together.jpg