Undetected errors

#1 I notticed that all invalid shapes were created by moving vertices (pyramid with cut off top created from cube, with all vertices dragged to grid, not convex). Not sure how much it helps but it's quite common for vertex-related deformations to go dee dee dee.

#2 Yes, 1.01 had quite a few issues with this, as well as the fact that while vertex editing lets you do pretty much what you want, if you make anything at all concave it will politely let you export, but it won't work at all in the engine (or at least, not what you expect).

It's important to get rid of all "angry red lines", as Matt puts it!

#3 Actually I tought that snapping to grid should protect me - after all proportional scaling one side of cube by 1 grid unit in x and y can't- theoretically at least- lead to creating concave shape and I had NO red lines whatsoever. Might be just my dumb "luck". Again- saving in *.map format and re- importing allows at least to identify problematic brushes (they simply disappear and there is a message on opening that constructor was unable to load x brushes because of geometry problems) but I tought you guys might want to know about that issue. Not a biggie in any case (of course if you want to see scene I will be only to happy to show you the file).

Other glitch encountered today- after scalling shape by -1 (to get mirror copy of it) I got it all overlit or all dark (black). I suspect it's normal related issue. Export to *.map and re- importing solves it as well. Hope it's of any use.

#4 I'll ping Matt (Fairfax) on these, but both of your errors sound like you really are using 1.01 (1.02 fixed many of these exact errors).

You may want to try completely uninstalling and reinstalling Constructor.

I'll be honest, I'm very much looking forward to what you can do with Constructor--you should have been much more "no, that isn't the best way to do that" when I asked you to make those interior models as dts several years ago....I still blush when I think back to how much I didn't know about the differences between dts and dif back then, hehehe.

#5 Problem with "showing off" is fact that level is being prepared for a certain company (I think you met with them some time ago, at least they claimed they've talked to you) so I am not allowed to disclose it to public untill project will get public as well, no matter how much I would like to. I can say that level is going to be a large baroque palace complex, with all bells and whistles- golden ornaments, shining marbles, fountains etc. so I am giving constructor and TGEA a hard time and surely I will keep sending error messages if I will spot any (if you do not mind that is).

When it comes to past... well... it was a good time and I really enjoyed that gig. Probably we've all learned new things since then and I do not think you have any reasons to blush- nobody has full knowledge from begining and you've been wiling to learn- results are clearly visible by now. Apart from that- models worked and that's what counts :)

Main Constructor workflow flaw at the moment ( IMHO of course ) is a way in which textures got to be applied (selecting faces). Texture allignment, scaling etc- it's all perfect and very comfortable but way of applying them seems to be a step back when compared to Hammer.

#6 Hi guys, sorry to bust into this thread OT, but had to comment on Radoslaw's comment:

"way in which textures got to be applied (selecting faces). Texture allignment, scaling etc- it's all perfect and very comfortable but way of applying them seems to be a step back when compared to Hammer."

Also compared to radiant too.. as it is, texturing is FAR too time consuming than it could, or indeed should
be.. also IMHO of course :D

Are any of the Constructor dev team familiar with Hammer or Radiant ?

#7 The texturing in Constructor is basically a straight rip-off of the texturing tools in Hammer. The only thing I didn't implement was that "align to viewport" feature.

#8 I have no doubts about alligning etc but thing that slows me (as a level designer working with tens of thousands of brushes - no, it is not an exageration) down is lack of possibility of choosing texture- say: seamles, flat black- and just clicking on faces to apply it to them. I got to choose a face, then to click "apply" button. It's ok in terms that it's very accurate and precise way of working but sometimes (like when applying null texture for example or any other "flat" texture) such an accuracy is less desired then possibility of working fast.

#9 Not exactly a bug but probably a thing worth mentioning. Recently it happened that I got level created for company I am working with by somebody else in Hammer, to correct some parts of it. Now- Level as it was compiled through map2dif_plus without much fuss, with no trace of leaks, bad brushes and such. Unfortuantely in Constructor not only it had about 18 bad brushes (not REALLY bad for level with more then 40 000 of them) but additionally it seems to have leaks. In simple words: the same geometry exported in two different ways shows two different behaviours. I suspect grid size/ vertex snapping to be a case but that's just my suspicion. Worth mentioning- such problem never appeared with levels that were made in Constructor only.

The more I work with this tool the more I like it. The only real issue (for me- I do not know much about other people) is texture placement mentioned above.

#10 Some new glitches:

- Constructor is unable to correctly apply texture to faces that have been rotated (in my case it was angle of 45 degrees)- there is no way to allign texture to face or to world. It forces me to export each and every level to Hammer for re- texturing and- honestly- in such a case it makes much more sense to work with Hammer alone.

- Levels built 100% in Constructor have 20 FPS framedrop when exported directly- compared to export to map->opening in Hammer->map2dif. Observed - at least by me- only on large levels (1000 brushes and more).

A minor thing- it might be my lack of knowledge (most probably) but possibility of switching off/on grid visibility would help a lot

#11 Radoslaw...

I don't think the texturing at an angle is necessarily a bug, but not very intuative. Try the following numbers for texturing at 45 degrees. I got them by creating a cube, rotating it, and clicking on a face:

Texture: Advanced (for the SIDES OF OBJECT AT 45 DEGREES)
-------------------------
U Axis
* X = 0.707107
* Y = 0.707107
* Z = 0
V Axis
* X = 0
* Y = 0
* Z = -1

Texture: Advanced (for the TOP/BOTTOM OF OBJECT AT 45 DEGREES)
-------------------------
U Axis
* X = 0.707107
* Y = 0.707107
* Z = 0
V Axis
* X = 0.707107
* Y = 0.707107
* Z = 0

*************
NOTE: You may need to make any combination of the 0.707107 number into a negative (-0.707107) for any/all axises, depending on which face you are clicking on.

Hope that helps.

#12 Woody- man, thanks for a hint. It's not like I personally do have a problem I do not know how to fix (I just import map file to hammer for texturing- I do not have time to find fixes or urge to do everything ONLY in Constructor- I got deadlines and customers that can get very anal when pissed off so I do not risk)- I just tought that GG people might want to know that such a problem occurs, that's all.