Stairs in Source have always been a bumpy issue.
But with the Dust2 remake, Valve are finally taking STEPS to smooth out this problem.
The spiral stairs on Dust2 are no strangers to my videos.
I attacked them in my ‘New Dust2’ one the other day for having the same dodgy clipping
as the older map did, and also covered them in length the other year as part of my sprawling
epic stair clipping video which I suggest everybody checks out as soon as possible.
To recap, they clipped the top and bottom stairs, allowing for smooth navigation, but
left the middle ones bare, causing one’s vision to viciously vibrate as one ascends
or descends the said stairs.
No doubt they had tried to clip them, but quickly ran into a limitation with Source.
The engine CS:GO is based on really doesn’t like the shape made by trying to smoothly
clip the area between stairs.
You can do it in the editor, but it won’t work in-game and reloading the map will reset
the clips to different, inadequate shapes.
Source requires each side of a shape to be flat, and a ramp that goes around corners
like this curves one of the faces in some grotesque way.
Using 2 clips per stair instead of 1 avoids this problem and although the result isn’t
a perfect ramp, it’s certainly smoother than no clipping at all.
Problem is, if the step is narrow enough then it results in a ramp that’s steeper than
45 degrees.
It’s at this point that a ramp becomes a slope that’s steep enough to stop players
from running up.
This is what happened to the inner edge of the spiral staircase on Dust2.
Approach it too close to this side and you’ll come to a dead stop, only able to move backwards
or sideways to shallower ground.
Indeed, Valve attempted this method but chose not to use it because of this trade-off.
This 45 degree angle isn’t a problem with stairs.
So long as stairs are no taller than 18 units each, you can have them as narrow as you like.
Which itself leads to some weird situations that wouldn’t work in reality where players
can ascend entire floors almost instantly.
Getting down again, although almost as fast, isn’t recommended.
So of course, this kind of staircase shouldn’t be used in maps, though I have used this as
a trick to improve navigation on props.
When I remade Dust2 earlier this year I used these steps on the props here at A, making
it far more forgiving to navigate them.
Back to the spiral staircase example, it could have been smoothed out by making the clipping
out of lots of tiny 1 unit-tall stairs, all super close to each other.
This wouldn’t be completely SMOOTH, but each jump could be small enough that it stops
being such a big issue.
Or maybe it would be more annoying.
Who knows.
But all of this doesn’t matter, as Valve found a better way.
Or rather, RF did.
Like, a year ago.
He posted it in response to my original clipping video, showing a spiral staircase made out
of dozens of individual triangles, similar to how a displacement works.
Any way, Valve finally used this method in the new Dust2, crediting RF for the discovery.
But there was a problem: you would still get snagged on the inner corner where the slopes
are steeper than 45 degrees.
This only happened on the VERY inside edge because of how finely adjusted all of the
clipping brushes were.
But it still happened!
Ultimately, this comes down to the design of the map.
In its current state, this problem is inevitable.
Valve could redesign the staircase to have a shallower curve or ascent.
Or they could scrap it completely and replace it with 2 separate, straight stairways.
But this would be giving in!
Instead, they returned to RF, adjusted the positions of the clipping brushes… and added
another to the inner wall, to ensure that players can’t get close enough to get snagged
on the steep parts of the steps.
Problem solved!
So, not the tidiest of solutions, but one that keeps the staircase faithful to the older
versions of the map.
The trade-off is that it isn’t as wide as if it weren’t clipped, but the plus side
is that it’s smooth to travel up and down on.
This solution is a compromise.
But it would have been, whatever the outcome.
Ultimately it was down to Jess Cliffe on where to draw the line and in this case he has decided
to take community suggestions onboard for the official map.
Whenever people say that Valve doesn’t listen, just look at this spiral staircase and remember
that WE did this!
Or rather, RF did.
An honorable mention to DuongC too, who has created the smoothest staircase the world
has ever seen.
It used the same method as the one that Valve is now using, but with a LOT more clip brushes!
Who knows, now that Valve has addressed this problem, perhaps CS:GO will become the most
played game on Steam again or something.
It’s not as though PUBG’s stair clipping is any good.
So, it looks as though Valve is RAMPING up their work on Counter Strike.