Hello! Ive recently begun portaling my map and I think I've kind of fucked myself here. When I first behan the map (A year and and a half ago), I was still a noob and my mapping work was very sloppy. Ex: tons of overlapping brushes, gaps, and such. Mostly thanks to the fact that  did not use the snap to grid function  And of course this has come back to bite me in the ass now that I have more experience in mappping.

I think the obvious solution would be to redo the structural parts of the buildings so that they can actually be portaled correctly without gaps and overlaps. Let me know if there may be a easier, less time consuming solution.

I only just learned how to portal a few days ago (just doing buildings atm) so I still have tons of questions as to what is and isn't allowed when portaling. Any other tips and suggestions would be helpful as well so let me know

- Am I correct in saying that portals can overlap detail brushes, but not structural brushes?
- There are not allowed to be any gaps OR overlaps in the structual brushes in a cell?
- Only one face of a portal brush can have the portal texture?
- Do portal brushed need to be square/rectangular or can they be cut to fit a certain aera?
- Lets say I have a building. This building has a upper and lower floor. Should I portal the entire building as a whole or do the top and bottom floor seperately?
-  It there are two portal cells next to each other, what side do you put the portal texture on, on the brush separating the two portals?
- Will clips interfere with portals in any way?
- Will models interfere with portals in any way?

- If I have an opening like this:


...and I make some of it detail like this:


...am allowed to do this?:


or is there a better way?

I think that's all the questions I have. Any help and advice is appreciated 

http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php/topic,5931.msg65198.html#msg65198

This will help you, since Make and I had nice convo about portaling, lol

- Am I correct in saying that portals can overlap detail brushes, but not structural brushes?
  -Yes
- There are not allowed to be any gaps OR overlaps in the structual brushes in a cell?
  -Structural brushes overlapping is fine, but not portal brushes. Green/Blue counts as structural, and yellow is open
- Only one face of a portal brush can have the portal texture?
  -One apposing face on each brush, the opposite sides, can have green/blue, not both.
- Do portal brushed need to be square/rectangular or can they be cut to fit a certain aera?
  -They can be cut, as long as yellow touches yellow evenly, but it is best to square off your structural areas making non-square areas detail.
- Lets say I have a building. This building has a upper and lower floor. Should I portal the entire building as a whole or do the top and bottom floor seperately?
  -Honestly you do what you can, but portalling is best done by line of sight. Even once you do basic portalling by rooms, you can then do more by additionally portalling by line of sight.
-  It there are two portal cells next to each other, what side do you put the portal texture on, on the brush separating the two portals?
  -There are multiple ways of portalling, the big brushes and just sealing the openings. The big brushes, only one brush can have the green/blue texture. With the sealing method the green portal goes on the outside, but brushes don't touch in this method.
- Will clips interfere with portals in any way?
  -Clips do not count, filter them out.
- Will models interfere with portals in any way?
  -Models do not count, filter them out.

I added answers above to each question.

As far as that area is concerned, you are prob getting portal areas that way. I see possibly open yellow and overlapping structural brushes going into portal brushes. This area could prove to be difficult if nothing snaps to grid, but there are many tricks and a few ways of doing it. You'll either have to cut that extra off the floor/structural brush and make it detail, or extend it with caulk/structural brush. Extending will make 4 portal brushes needed, and cutting it back would make 2 portal brushes needed.

If you snapped to grid then just make two/four brushes to complete the two walls and put green/blue texture on outside, but the rest will be yellow portal brush.

If not, the easiest way is to overlap the opening with a structural caulk brush, that covers each wall. Then start cutting so that it is as close to the good wall as possible, with snap on, not going into the wall so nothing protrudes the area you are portalling inside these caulk brushes, being left with two caulk brushes that meet at corner perfectly, and seal off that area. Then making everything caulk again and deselct everything and only select the two inside brushes you are left with and make them yellow portal. Then select the outside faces and make them blue/green portal texture. So now you should have two new walls in caulk and portal that meet at the corner perfectly, and meet the caulk perfectly, sealing that area. You will still get errors of course until you close off the area, anywhere else the room has a hole, but once those are sealed, it should work.

Its hard to explain, good luck, and let me know if I can explain something better.

Thanks so much for the imfo guys. I'm not gonna lie I'm still pretty confused about some stuff but I think I just need to map out some simple buildings in a test map and try to portal those before attempting to portal my map. I'm sure I will have more questions along the way. Thanks.

I think I am getting the hang of this now and I have successfully portaled a few buildings. However, I STILL have a few more questions:

1. Do portal cells need to be square? And if they do need to be square, how would I go about portaling a room like this?


2. If I have two portals next to each other, what side, if not both, does the portal texture go on on the brush between the two cells?


3. Is there a minimum amount of portal brushes needed for one 'cell'?

I'll get this eventually lol.

1. Do portal cells need to be square?

No, as long as it is "air tight" then the portal should work.

2. If I have two portals next to each other, what side, if not both, does the portal texture go on on the brush between the two cells?

I think I know which tutorial you watched (blackjackjohnnie's) and that tutorial states which side the portal and no draw textures are suppose to be on; however, this is misleading since it doesn't actually matter. The no draw texture (yellow one) actually isn't rendered in game (similar to a chaulk but without the collision). So, when it comes to joining 2 rooms, it really doesn't matter, but I prefer putting the portal texture (blue one) on the outsides of windows and doors for a building.

3. Is there a minimum amount of portal brushes needed for one 'cell'?

No, a cell is created when there is a completely sealed room, adding a portal just adds a "window" in a sense to allow the player to see into that cell from another cell.

Great, thanks for the help