Valve are terrible mappers
Saying they are terrible is kind of a long stretch, but I am going to reveal some secrets to you guys about something that is probably going to blow your mind:
The Valve Developer community is all wrong.
98% of the content written on that site is mainly from modders and mappers out there, not working or employed by Valve. I'm bringing this up because the VDC is resposnsible for our community understanding of what works in the source engine, and what not to do/do make sure to do concepts.
Little modders/mappers out there have gone to test the unconventional, the insane, simply because they are told "don't do this, madness ensues".
Brush work colliding with each other isn't a huge deal. Textures not being aligned doesn't matter. there's no engine overhead or cost, or anything of that sort if you do things wrong. In fact non-conventional usages of most structural elements usually wins the day. I shipped both infinfling and redirecting redirection with overlapping brushes.
Someone up at valve once said something that got lost in the tubes of the internet, but he said exactly as so: "It doesn't matter how it looks like in hammer, as long as it works right and looks good in-game". And that is super, super true. If you go into all the shipped valve vmf's that is literally the case.
The editor is not equal to the way the engine works, and renders things. Which genrally is most peoples problem of understanding. There's no doubt that clean mapping is a good thing, however it isn't something you need to kill yourself over. Letting some shit just be "wrong or improper" isn't a big deal if everything else is pretty clean and optimized.
That didn't blow my mind... actually most of that stuff seems to be common sense to me. A couple things I didn't realize, but still it's common sense to me.
My Work
[spoiler]Maps:
Revenge of the Angry Turrets
Capture the Cube [Co-op]
Capture the Cube 2 [Co-op]
TPWEGTH Sample Map
Aperture Aquatic Testing Center
Aperture Aquatic Testing Center 2
Aperture Time Testing Center
ML's Halloween Trick - 1000 downloads!
ML's Halloween Treat
ML's Combination - 1000 downloads!
ML's Jailbreak Labyrinth
ML's Tricky Teamwork [Co-op]
WIP:
"Capture the Cube 3"
Workshop Maps Link: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198008890579/myworkshopfiles/[/spoiler]
[edit] actually it's chamber 09, file name confused me, lol.
I find instances great in most circumstances, but they really need to optimise how they make them.
I noticed that in the light instances they have portal bumpers on them. In Portal 1 this would have been ok, because you needed portal bumpers otherwise the portal would open up half way on the edge of the white texture. In Portal 2 they fixed this with coding for the Portal gun itself and it never usually overlaps 'black' textures anyway.
I don't recall that one could place portals half-way over the metal surfaces. Portal bumpers are sadly still necessary if you want to place a portal when you aim near the edge of a portable surface. Try to place a portal on a 64x128 portable surface in the middle of a metal wall. Without a portal bumper, it's a bit trickier.
Placement helper will fix that, and frankly should be used anyway.
PortalStories.com
"Oh, in case you got covered in that repulsion gel, here's some advice the lab boys gave me: DO NOT get covered in the repulsion gel."
On a small portable surface, yes, a placement helper is preferable to a bumper. It doesn't make much sense to use helpers on larger surfaces though. So again, bumpers are "necessary".
If you need a bumper then it would make sense to make them yourself, not to put it on the light instance and this is where I was getting at.
Just made a small room with a large white surface meeting a large black surface, not portal placing problems. Also this situation is not addressed with bumpers in Valves maps. I think it is fine to have the two meet without bumpers. The same room with a small 64x128 white brush in the middle is difficult to place with out the bumper, but it doesnt glitch when you place it. Your argument is invalid.
PortalStories.com
"Oh, in case you got covered in that repulsion gel, here's some advice the lab boys gave me: DO NOT get covered in the repulsion gel."
If you need a bumper then it would make sense to make them yourself, not to put it on the light instance and this is where I was getting at.
Ah, true, although it can come in handy some times.
I made a room too and tested this. It's by far easier to place portals near the edges of portable surfaces in Portal 2. However, it isn't perfect, not even on larger surfaces, especially not in corners. The extra trouble of creating portal bumpers may not pay off most times though.
ChickenMobile point out a glitch to me in the coop hub due to the lack of bumpers. So I retract my statement.
PortalStories.com
"Oh, in case you got covered in that repulsion gel, here's some advice the lab boys gave me: DO NOT get covered in the repulsion gel."