Disappearing faces when adding geometry?

[EmeraldTiger]

I've been wanting to get back into UT3 mapping and today I encountered this issue:

I want to make a triangular prism to "slant off" the intersection of two catwalks to make it smoother, etc. So I went an deleted two vertices off a rectangular prism in the geometry editing mode and when I went to add a brush, a lot of faces suddenly disappear. The brush itself is placed and shows up, etc. but it causes havoc on brushes I've added / subtracted previously.

Screens for before / after:


Here is I about to place the triangular prism brush.


After placement. Note the red arrows pointing to the missing faces.

Also, when I go in-game, I get the Hall-of-Mirrors effect on these missing faces. Collision still works, they just don't draw.

In the Map Checker I only get two things - an error pointing out the lack of player starts (obviously has nothing to do with the issue, and will happen during development before enough starts are placed) and a "null materials reference". Even if I use a regular texture though, I still get this problem. You would think there would be some BSP error being reported, but there isn't.

I understand hacking around with complex BSP geometry can be messy, but this is an alpha so it's obviously going to be mostly brushwork before I move onto putting models in place, which would be cleaner. (Unless you have a more efficient method of producing alphas for levels, in which case I'm listening) Plus, all I did was delete two vertices to make a triangular prism. I didn't know such a small change could cause so much trouble. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[TKBS]

lmao- are you serious? - you want to create a triangle so you deleted 2 verts from a rectangle ?????? LOL WOOT!!!
- deleting verts will always cause problems

* Just use a triangle ffs.... = a Cylinder with 3 sides!!

- also you could try a subtractive method instead of adding geometry- think about it thoroughly first- then remove geometry and leaving the 'slanted side'
-[pro tip] so for what you want- you could build a large cube [for the room]; then remove a smaller 5 sided shape leaving the shape you want.

- lol this problem cheered me up - funny stuff

[EmeraldTiger]

Dude... I didn't know that. I've never been taught that deleting vertices would cause problems, all that I read - now I know - you can't expect everyone to know everything, especially for newbies. I also tried a cylinder with three sides, but the edges don't match up perfectly, leaving a very small / gap space which can't be matched perfectly by changing grid size. I also used a cube and then subtracted from it with a triangular prism brush by moving the edges over each other instead of deleting them, but then I get a new problem where the faces right below and above the prism don't draw. I also tried another, additive triangular prism which I made by moving edges over each other as well, and I get the same problem.

Thanks for the help, but you seriously need to calm down, man.

[Darkn3ss is QnL]

@ EmeraldTiger

Looks like a sirious BSP error you have there.
the NullMaterialsReference is a warning in which the editor tells us that a BSP face does not have a material applied to it.
The disappearence of your BSP is due to your newly created brush by faulty clipping or the improper use of vertex deletion (like TBKS said lol)

If you haven't tried to clip the brush, but delete a vertex, I strongly recommend you start clipping
If you already use it, then its probably caused by clipping the brush in a non valid angle.
If you're using a small Grid, try using Grid 16. Then you clip the brush perfectly fitting the clip-marker exactly on the grid.

Hope that helps for you.

Oh yea just ignore TKBS, he has never been a beginner before.. (or never advanced lolol jks man)

[EmeraldTiger]

Thank you for the help, I'll keep it in mind. Unfortunately, I did run into a new problem - I can't select 2D actors anymore. Stuff like lights, player starts, bot nodes, etc. can't be selected, although they can still be created. Static meshes and the like can be selected just fine. I looked on the forums and it said my search results were "too common" (lol) and also on Google, but strangely I haven't seen anyone having a similar issue of being unable to select 2D actors, I'd think my problem would have happened before. Did I press a bad key? Thanks in advance, I'm posting this here since I don't want to clutter up the editing forum with too many problem threads.

[TKBS]

-Some flags might be turned off;

-Show Flags [like this]
click this lil triange [or rectangle with 2 points missing in your language ]

2d objects are sprites right?
so chosoe them on


- hope it helps

[TKBS]

-Some flags might be turned off;

-Show Flags [like this]
click this lil triange [or rectangle with 2 points missing in your language ]

2d objects are sprites right?
so chosoe them on


- hope it helps

[EmeraldTiger]

The sprites seem to be on already. The flags menu seems to control the visibility of objects, and while the lights / 2d actors are visible, they can't be selected. I can't remember what key or button I pressed to cause it, if that is the cause at all. Is there some key or command that controls what objects can and can't be selected?

Sorry if these are all stupid questions... I just happen to run into a bunch of problems with various programs and even Google happens to fail me, which is unfortunate.

[theycallmepiatt]

I was about to post that i was having a similar problem - even made the video with my screen to show the disappearing geometry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-kk...ature=youtu.be and then I found this post.

is there a proper way to delete geometry after adding it that would keep someone from getting this problem.

or if you are having it, is there an easier way to fix it than just searching for geometry overlaps?

[TKBS]

@ justin - your in the wrong forum BUT..
-- i think that you need to change the BSP call call order function

..
- i.e. change the priority of the brush/ bsp you are building
- a qucik fix is to simply copy and paste the BSP into a text file [notepad] and re-paste it all in a new order into a new map file
- both will work- 1st is correct way to fix- 2nd is an easy fix

p.s. osrry i forget how to change the call order- lol- Probably coz i build my brushes in the correct order-

[theycallmepiatt]

thanks i'll look into it! I didn't know there was a certain order you had to build your geometry in. I figured you just... built what you needed, then modeled static meshes on top / around 'em as you needed them. And it's ok that you didn't spell out how to fix it. I'm sure if I search around I'll figure it out. At least I know what I'm looking for now!