Doing Things with Blocks

System

I'm testing entities out. I'm using three blocks that use func_physbox. Now I have questions!

How can I make a func_physbox explode? I've set Explosion Damage, Radius, and Magnitude. They don't work.

How do I change the weight of the blocks?

Different faces are darker than others due to dynamic lighting. How can I fix this?

What would I do to make the block kill (and destroy) whatever it hits?

These are the few questions I have. Help would be appreciated.

Jahhur

I think you can use env_explosion. Parent it to the physbox and make the physbox activate the env_explosion when destroyed.

Not sure about the weight. There is the mass scale option but I'm not sure if it works correctly.

The faces always have the same lightning they have when they spawn. So if your physbox is on the ground, the bottom face is gonna be pitch black because no light hits it. You can fix this by placing the physboxes in the air so light can hit them from every direction, or use the minimum light level which is a number between 0 and 1. 0 allows pitch black areas in the physbox and 1 means the physbox is fullbright.

If you want the physbox to destroy a wall for example, you can create a trigger_once brush around the wall, and have it destroy the wall when activated. Then use filter entities to make it so that only your physbox can activate the trigger_once.

Tschoppo

1. if you haven´t set a health then they can´t "die" and won´t explode
2. don´t know
3. different faces are darker than others ?
4. don´t know also

Unknown

Thanks for help. Would it be easier if the blocks were models though? Then the light problem wouldn't happen and it could be set as explosive by default.

Tschoppo

there is a program on gamebanana makes models out of brushes

Unknown

I think I've heard of it. It never worked for me. Can I have a link? Otherwise I could make the model with something like Softimage XSI.

Jahhur

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Propper

Unknown

Ah, I remember now. I had no idea where to put it and ended up messing things up. Where can I place the files?

Tschoppo

The folders in this ZIP file mirror the folders in the SDK. For best results, unzip the file to your steamapps\<username> folder, and let your zip utility keep directories intact.

mrmong

you can export brushes into max/maya/xsi as well. also including displacements and stuff. Just press export to DXF. (you will probably need to weld the verts but if your importing brushes you should really tidy up the geometry anyway and even add more detail as props are a lot cheaper than brushes to render) and it makes a good base for adding models on top of brushes if they need to be lined up exactly.

Tschoppo

I´m asking me how is it possible that some kind of geometry is rendered more easily then other i mean, is it the geometry itself or is it because models have cheaper collision and such?
Does that also mean that prefabs are harder to render as the same prefab as a model made with propper?