Quote from Pilchardo on March 11, 2013, 6:54 pm

I'd just like to say that I love this forum - your help is very much appreciated!

Unfortunately I still haven't got to the bottom of this though. Moving the overlay around in the 2D view doesn't seem to help and, while it seems like it's just Hammer's 3D view being a bit odd, the errant overlays don't appear in-game either.

It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if my installation of Hammer is dodgy. No-one else seems to have ever had this exact issue. Or maybe it's something that I'm doing wrong that is such a n00b mistake that no-one has thought to mention it.

I might fire my laptop up and see if I get the same thing on another machine.

Is it worth mentioning that I originally exported this map from the in-game puzzle maker? Shouldn't make a difference, I suppose, but I'm running out of ideas.

Quote from TopHATTwaffle on March 11, 2013, 6:56 pm

I should have some time tonight to take a look if you want. I just ask that you hope on Skype or some other VOIP service with me so we can get to the bottom of it together. Then when we find it, you leave what the cause was. I find that's better then us just solving it for you.

Quote from Pilchardo on March 11, 2013, 7:01 pm

That's very kind of you indeed but unfortunately it's time to call it a night for me. I'm not going to have any time tomorrow either but I may take you up on the offer in a couple of days if it still stands. Cheers!

Quote from TopHATTwaffle on March 11, 2013, 7:11 pm

Sure thing, just throw me an add, and send me a message when you have some time.

Quote from srs bsnss on March 13, 2013, 10:59 am

I take it that you've already tried:

1. Re-placing the overlay
This would probably be the first thing you tried.

2. Re-making the brush
This would probably be second.

3. Making sure you're not using the decal tool/decal textures
Both completely possible mistakes.

4. Using a different overlay.
I've had trouble with certain ones being incompatible. For indicator lights, try use indicator_lights_floor and not _wall, the wall ones don't seem to work as well (for me, at least).

If you haven't done any of those, I'd recommend giving them a crack.

Quote from Pilchardo on March 13, 2013, 5:56 pm

Well I seem to have found a partial answer to the problem and have in any case solved the immediate issues I was having.

Basically, it seems that, for whatever reason, the brush faces I was having issues with were sharing face numbers with brushes in completely different parts of the map. I first discovered this when I clicked the 'Pick' button for one of the broken overlays and, completely by chance, I saw a brush face on the other side of the room become highlighted. Clicking that face and the one I actually wanted to put the overlay on both resulted in the same number appearing in the text box. (And yes, I did try clicking other faces too to confirm that the number did indeed change when I clicked around.)

Changing the other brush - the one I didn't want the overlay on - to a func_detail solved the problem. The overlays would then appear correctly where I wanted them.

The map I was dealing with had a lot of small brushes that were essentially detail but up until this point I hadn't been using func_detail entities at all (n00b mistake, quite possibly). All I can think is that the large number of brush faces I had was somehow causing Hammer to get confused.

I've since made nearly all the decorative brushes func_details and the problem hasn't reappeared. So not a definitive answer or solution but one that's just about good enough to get by. If I learn anything more on the subject I'll be sure to relay it.