Introduction

This is a short article comparing the use of pyramid shaped hint brushes (5 faces) versus box shaped brushes (6-faces). It is not a tutorial on HINT brushes, but rather a supplement to any of the HINT brush tutorials that are out there already. If you don't know what a HINT brush is yet, then I suggest you go read a HINT brush tutorial first. The test map is the same one used in the article on HINT brushes by Andy of TWHL, so you should check out that article first, as images and statistics from it are referenced, but not duplicated.

1. (pir׳ə mid)

2. Saving Face (Pyramid VS Box)

3. The Many Faces of Evil

4. Now You See It...Now You Don't

(pir׳ə mid) Geom. A solid having a polygonal base, and triangular sides that meet in a point.

A pyramid HINT brush, as defined by me, is a 5-sided brush, with a rectangular base and four triangular sides. The HINT texture is placed on the base of the pyramid, and the other four sides are covered with the SKIP texture.

There are many ways you can end up with a pyramid shaped brush in Hammer, but I prefer to start with a regular box brush. Then, simply choose any one of the six faces, and merge all four vertices of that face.  Another option would be to use the Spike primitive, with four faces, then rotate it so the rectangular base aligns with the grid axes.

The logic behind this shape, as opposed to a 6-sided box, is that only the four edges of the HINT face touch and split other brushes. The edges of all of the SKIP faces slope away from any other brushes, and thereby do not cause any splits. Additionally, pyramid HINT brushes are best used in pairs, with the HINT faces of two brushes meeting up exactly at a corner, and forming a slight angle towards the corner. This slight angle ensures that the pair of portals, created at the HINT faces during BSP, will not be able to see each other during VIS, and hence, the areas beyond the portals will not be visible to each other. Here's a top view of the test map, with all the pyramid HINT brushes in place:

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   Saving Face (Pyramid VS Box)

This picture shows the original hint10.rmf, but with the four box HINT brushes replaced with 10 pyramid HINT brushes. Even though there are an additional 6 HINT faces splitting the up the level, there is a net wpoly drop of 52 faces (343-291=52).

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The Many Faces of Evil

   When using box style HINT brushes, one of the problems is that even though the SKIP faces aren't rendered, they still cut up your map like Anakin vs. the Sand People...not a pretty sight. But the pyramid design allows you to precisely place a pair of HINT brushes on the exact edge of the corner and only creates six splits for the pair, one for each edge of the HINT faces minus the edges that match up with the corner. A box brush on the other hand, has 8 edges, and if you're VERY careful will only cause 8 splits, but more typically will cause 12 or more splits when cutting through a corner, which equates to about 4 to 6+ additional faces per HINT brush. If you're HINTing a large level, those extra faces will add up mighty fast. Here we see box brushes in action:

Look at all those pointless, skinny little faces, gobbling up precious wpolies!

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Now you see it...

...now you don't!

 

This pair of pictures illustrates the Line-of-sight concept of placing HINT brushes diagonally across corners, which not only guarantees that what's on the other side of the HINT won't be rendered, but also allows the mapper more flexibility in specifying what will get rendered when the corner is approached from either direction. But this time, the pictures show pyramid brushes in action. Notice, that the floor and ceiling are only split once where the edge of the HINT face touches it. Also notice that the corner is not split at all, due to the precise placement of the pyramid brushes. Compare to the picture with box brushes above.

Another now-you-see-it...

...now-you-don't example.

NOTE: The original hint10.rmf had all of the detail brushes grouped into two func_walls, which made them visible across the whole map. In the above four pictures, I separated the detail brushes into 7 separate func_walls, one for each section of the map created by the HINT brushes. This was to better illustrate that everything beyond the HINT brush isn't rendered.

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Conclusion

There's really no single best method for using HINT brushes. The shape and placement of a HINT brush will largely depend on the layout and design of your map. But for standard corridor style maps, I think it's safe to say that the best placement is diagonally at inside corners, and the best shape to use is a pyramid.

Download the test map:

ng_hint10.zip(19k)