Rooms Visible Through Skybox

[Question Mark]

I have small rooms off of my exterior area and they're visible through the 2D skybox. I would prefer to avoid moving them below the ground if possible. I've tried nodraw and 2d sky textures and they dont fix it.

Is there any way to make them not show up? Would a 3D skybox not have this problem?

Here's a screenshot to show what i mean:

[IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18722727/skybox-problem.jpg[/IMG]

P.S. The map shown in that screenshot is fast compiled, would a full compile prevent the room from being visible?

[Maloof?]

From my experience it's pretty difficult to solve that issue

Proper use of visleafs and whatnot should prevent that area from rendering at all though, which should solve the issue

[Question Mark]

I have the map optimized. I built a ton of func_viscluster's and full compile time was reduced to 4 hours (its a huge outdoor area) as well as FPS increasing by 200% everywhere.

[DaApocalypse]

Have you tried using func_areaportal or func_areaportalwindow to seal off the area?

[Question Mark]

[QUOTE=DaApocalypse;40055265]Have you tried using func_areaportal or func_areaportalwindow to seal off the area?[/QUOTE]

No, how would i do that for the rooms off of my exterior area? Simply sticking it in the doorway leading to the room wouldnt fix my problem since the whole room is visible from tall buildings.

[IronPhoenix]

You could block it with tall buildings, then work the 3d skybox to fit.

[Freakrules]

I'm pretty sure one intelligently placed areaportal would do the trick.
Alternatively, you could just make a 3D Skybox (buildings or just a flat plane) to cover the rooms...

[Question Mark]

Can area portals exist out in the void? I thought entities cant.

[HighdefGE]

[QUOTE=Question Mark;40063205]Can area portals exist out in the void? I thought entities cant.[/QUOTE]

No, they meant you should place one between that outside area and the corridor. Just make sure you compile VIS normally and not fast.

[HeavnSeven]

Try optimizing in those areas it's visible, and if you really can't fix that (never seen that before) add some buildings to block it off from players in the inner part of the map (it's a ghetto idea, but it might "fix" it.)

[Question Mark]

Eh, i couldnt get it working properly so i just added a texture that looks like sky and added some cloud textures in front of it. It looks cheap, but it fits the style of the map better than a regular skybox anyways.

Thanks for the help.