Common mapping rules/advises

[Buggie]

In this topic listed some rules, which better follow, when do mapping.
Feel free comment, discuss or add own rules, from your experience.

I am not mapper. it just my observation for some patterns. Not necessary all rules here is true or need follow all time. Consider them as advises, but always use own head.

1. All small additive brushes must be semi-solid, unless need subtract something from it.

2. Huge additive brushes must be never semi-solid.

3. Brushes must be in original form, not use intersect/deintersect, unless you exactly know what you do.

4. Always use grid. Not less from 2 (better 4).

5. All floating in air additive brushes must be semi-solid.

6. Use separate surfaces/polys, for be sure there no linked polygons, which not fit to each other.

7. Use Transform permanent if there a lot transformation and appear glitches.

[darkbarrage99]

Yeah I got a rule, never release a final version of a map without testing and peer review!
The best way to find errors, botpathing and other things you missed is by asking for help.

[Buggie]

If speak about release, then there be next rules:

1. After you think map done, play it alone, locally, for find errors.

2. If all fine play with one bot, which follow you, for ensure, bot able reach all places where you be.

3. If all fine - play it with bots, at least 3 times.

4. If all fine - watch how bots play it at least 3 times. One bot alone, and after few of it. With use MindReader.

5. If all fine - repeat play with bots, and watch bots in network play. there many things goes to hell, and this step often forgotten.

6. If all fine - play it with real players if possible.

7. If all fine - can release.

If on some step something not good, best if start all tests from beginning. Especially if this goes to fix BSP errors. It can appear in different places.

[Swanky]

In this topic listed some rules, which better follow, when do mapping.
Feel free comment, discuss or add own rules, from your experience.

I am not mapper. it just my observation for some patterns. Not necessary all rules here is true or need follow all time. Consider them as advises, but always use own head.

1. All small additive brushes must be semi-solid, unless need subtract something from it.
2. Huge additive brushes must be never semi-solid.
3. Brushes must be in original form, not use intersect/deintersect, unless you exactly know what you do.
4. Always use grid. Not less from 2 (better 4).
5. All floating in air additive brushes must be semi-solid.
6. Use separate surfaces/polys, for be sure there no linked polygons, which not fit to each other.
7. Use Transform permanent if there a lot transformation and appear glitches.

1. Factually incorrect. Semi-solids will be hidden - or at least cause severe issues - if you fully embed them, as trim for example. They have their uses but in the vast majority of cases it's not necessary to use semis. Using special brushes such as curved ones as semis can also cause unique issues.
2. They shouldn't.
3. Mostly a case of it goes wrong if you're not knowing what you're doing. Applies to many things in UEd and life. As such telling people to not de/intersect is bad, I'd rather tell them to learn to use it correctly if they want to and give them some hints as to how it can work correctly. Either way, it's often easier just to manage brush forms with vertex editing.
4. Mostly a good practice. There are edge cases where it's useful to use gridsize 1, and even rarer cases where it's necessary to not use the grid at all. It's prone to causing errors, though, I agree.
5. See 1. Using regular brushes in mid air is also useful to break up cuts.
6. Can you translate this into a comprehensible language?
7. Acutally useful, though rarely used since there was never a really good tutorial for what permanently transform does in the past 25 years or so.

[Buggie]

6. select all brushes - right click - polys - separate. This allow solve a lot bsp issues. Editor like link polys on paste brushes and other sctions. And often it goes wrong. Or in moment of link, or even after.

7. Transform permanently apply all transformation to brush. Bake it. So it goes be simple brush, without, rotation, scale, and other things. As opposite side, you can lost ability change some stuff in easy way. Like scale rotated brush.

[Red_Fist]

permanently transform

Makes it so you can edit a brush as if the settings are starting out all over after it has been scaled , so zero "0", will be zero again.

If you take a really tall brush and try to keep shrinking it scaling it way down, it won't scale as small as you want.

But if you transform that scaled-down tall brush, it will scale again to get to a unit of 1 thickness.

[Tater]

I don't a problem in the world with semi-solids. The map dm--=sop=-at_home has a lot of "complicated" brushes in it and in BSP view all of the cuts are straight, no angles. There's a really nice bumper pool table in there with scrollwork on the main leg. After I built it there were cuts all over. All I did to eliminate them was to intersect the whole table then build it as a semi-solid and all cuts were gone and the BSP view shows no slants in it.