Hammer Cordon Usage

Ever want to test one little thing on your map, but not wait the sometimes hours it can take for a full vis compile? Well you can! Just use cordon boundaries.

Cordon boundaries will compile only the part of the map you tell it to. Say you want to compile one room, or want to test out some lighting; you can compile that small area without compiling the rest of the map, and without waiting for a full or even fast vis compile of the whole map. You can also use cordons to eliminate areas when trying to find the location of a problem.

To use cordon boundaries first load the map you want to compile. Then look on the tool bar for an icon that is a black and yellow box. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/HL2photo/1.jpg

Of the two buttons shown circled above, click the active icon, the cordon edit button (the hollowed out yellow and black square on the right). Then go to 2d views and draw the box around the part of the map you want to compile like so: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/HL2photo/2.jpg

Once you have the area you want compiled boxed off, the cordon toggle button (fully colored in black and yellow) will become active. Click this and Hammer should look like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/HL2photo/3.jpg

One side note: You must include an info_player_start or an info_player_deathmatch inside your cordon boundary or else your map will not work.

Compile, it will take considerably less time then it did with the whole map. I got a 6-minute vis down to 2 seconds when I compiled.

The one downside is the annoying black and purple texture that represents where the cordon boundary is. It can make you sick after moving around a lot. However, this can easily be changed to a different texture by going to the Game Configuration tab and clicking browse by Cordon texture, here you can select a texture that would give you less of a headache, I generally choose skybox, as it makes it as it's normal. This is a picture of the menu:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c250/GenDeathRaiser/cordon.gif