When is it OK to overlap brushes?

[War Master]

I know you want to avoid Z fighting but there's a couple of unique situations I need to clear up.

 

1. A fog brush and an outside brush. I don't see any harm when I do this.

 

2. A terrain func_group with another terrain func_group. I need to block off some parts in my map, so is this going to cause any compile problems?.

[wedge2211]

Fog/water brushes can intersect other brushes, but shouldn't intersect each other (so far as I know...). I'm not sure what you mean by terrain groups, aren't those just regular brushes created by the plugin? If so, then, NO.

 

The only other brushes I think can intersect things safely are clip, areaportal, and hint.

[DigitalVapor]

I know what he means. Yeah terrain groups are just clusters of oddly cut brushes that are grouped together and look like mountains or hills and such. but they can be an ENORMOUS pain in the arse to manage. especialy when they arent created with corners and walls in mind. The mapper would have to cut and modify the groups heavily to create a decent result without intersecting other terrain groups when creating a wraparound canyon. Gensurf really is fairly lame since its results are often useless. I say AVOID overlapping terrains if possible, but ONLY if possible. When it gets to be more work to shape your mountain than to make the rest of the level, the mountain is no longer worth the hassle. But if your going to overlap make sure its in an area where it wont be easily noticed.

[War Master]

Thanks for the response. I had to block off 2 different parts of my mountains and it's way to difficult to make a brush that conforms to all the triangles. I don't see any z fighting at all! All the mountains are detail and the add-on brushes are as well, I don't know if this makes a difference or what?