Hi, im a beginner making my first map with the help of various tutorials, especially the official Halo editing resource. I had got into level design in id Tech 3 engine for the game tremulous. Im really happy that halo ce mapping allows for arbitrary modeling.
However the thing that causes a roadblock for me is the strange sealed world rule that whatever bases you make must be attached to ground/the world level box. This is so weird in design and complicated to achieve.

• I know that there are tutorials on attaching the base to ground but why is this necessary? Is there a way of compiling bases without attaching them?


• If you dont need a hill like terrain which needs tessellation of the ground, dont you think this adds a lot of unnecessary poly count?


• What about bases which float in air or are never in contact with the ground?

Trying to attach base gives me either of these errors in tool:
### WARNING found # degenerate triangles
### ERROR edge # is open (red)
I have tried in different ways and yet this big problem has put me off in my progress. Please help me to learn and overcome these doubts.

It doesn't all have to be one consecutive sealed element, but those elements should be sealed, and they shouldn't intersect.
A map with a terrain is just one case scenario. Terrain is just a material with a texture. Replace terrain with floor, cliffs with walls, and sky with ceiling, and you get basically the same thing as far as tool is concerned.
It doesn't even have to be inside out. You could have a floating platform, with or without a large inverted +sky sphere or box. (Without means no sky usage, and all lighting must be done with materials.)

A degenerate triangle is a triangle which is a line. Can be hard to find, as it'll look like just another edge. Hide faces around it and you'll be left with a sliver of a triangle.
Open edges means you got holes to patch. Edge mode of editable_mesh hase a Select Open Edges button, and editable_poly has a special edge mode, the 3rd one, and in it selecting all will also select open edges.
Edited by bobbysoon on Feb 9, 2014 at 06:23 AM

just to add on to what bobbysoon said,
convert the model to editable poly, click on the border tool, scroll over the whole model.
Now the open area will be selected and surrounded with red lines, hit Z to zoom in on the error.
That's the quickest and simplest way to find open edges.

Edit: Best to use that as a quick check at times while modeling, that way as soon as anything is left open,
you will catch it and fix it before it becomes a problem.
Edited by ally on Feb 9, 2014 at 07:55 AM

Just to add to what ally said :)

If you get open edge errors you should weld all verts at a value of 0.01
Edited by Maniac1000 on Feb 9, 2014 at 12:49 PM