How precisely must one place botclips and player clips in maps? Does it matter if a clip brush intersects or completely encloses a structural brush? I don't care if it simply increases compile time (with the powerful PCs of today, it is not a serious matter) as long as no BSP errors are introduced. So far I have been very careful not to intersect clip brushes, but with more complex maps it can be a pain in the neck. Precise placement can take a long time, and I would rather spend that extra time making more maps.
Clip brushes can overlap over structural or detail brushes or even other clip brushes without any noticeable difference to compile times, so overlap and clip away! All clip brushes do is tell Q3 where to set up collision surfaces for players, bots, weapons, etc. depending on type of clip brush used.
Clip brushes can be as "precise" as you want them to be, you can place them over complex brushwork or models, or you can stick in places to smooth out movement so players don't snag on objects. Generally speaking for playerclip, if the player model can't fit in it or move that close to it or can't jump on it, clip it off. If you want to keep the player model away from it, clip it off.
Time to warm this thread up with another question: What's smarter/better/more efficient/xxx than to just make a poster "fit" (to avoid players getting stuck without having the need to use clip brushes and stuff) onto a wall with cgs-subtract, thus making it actually fit INto a wall? Or is the csg-subtract command not so bad after all? [I read in one of the faqs I've been going through when creating my first room that "real mappers create every single brush by themselves": bullshit or worth it?]
PS: In case you haven't noticed: the whole comment rhymes and that wasn't even intended, just pure coincidence
If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron.
-Lee Trevino, golfer who actually has been struck by lightning.
You ramble a bit so it's hard to see when one sentence ends and the other begins, so it's hard to notice that your post rhymes.
I would avoid using subtract unless you actually understand what it's doing. It's prone to create T-junctions at best and phantom brushes, leaks and other issues at worst. If you know how to handle things, you'd know how to spot and compensate for such issues, otherwise you're probably better off doing things the slightly longer way.
Personally, I have not found a single time that I needed to use subtract in probably the last 8 years or so.
I don't think there's an issue with clip intersecting walls, but for the sake of neatness, it's probably better to keep them flush in most cases.
- me adding clips with abandon (until no free space is left in the map...)