What's the best way to fill a triangle

Machtspruch

This has probably been answered before, but what's the best way to fill a triangle made by LSBs, for example, using a single texture and using the least amount of pieces possible and not making it look messy? Is it impossible?

Thanks for your suggestions

Krash

There's no one answer as it really depends on the angle and size, but anything close to a right triangle can be filled with a single cubic beam resized (given equal underlay space opposite the filled area), and most others can be filled with some 2-3 piece combination of resized beams or plasma routers. Plasma routers are good for a lot of different shapes, and particularly useful for tight angles, but they only come in the one colour and you need to make sure to account for roughly double the length of your fillable section.
Generally when building and you know you have a triangle you'll want to fill in, make sure to give it a little space to overlap. You might try to keep the shapes in mind and imagine the space they cover if stretched to an odd size; if you have trouble try grabbing a scrap of paper and filling in triangles with nothing but rectangles, see where they overflow and what you can do to cover it up.

Larger scale triangles are usually worth sparing a few extra pieces if you can't fill it in one. One of the methods you might try on something large involves a bit of a step process. So say if you use a horizontal step-fill you would use a gradually decreasing step-scale matching up with the edge of the angle, followed by covering over the last empty spaces on the edges with a single beam.

If I might throw a bit of a rough diagram in here:

|_|\
|__|\
|___|\
|____|\

|_\ \\
|__\ \\
|___\ \\
|____\ \\

A variation on that can be done from the side beams, with the closing beam down the center. Again, depending on the angle and scale, you might choose to use more or less pieces according to your own tastes.

// / / |  | \ \ \\
  // / / /|  |\ \ \ \\
 // / / / |  | \ \ \ \\
// / / / /|  |\ \ \ \ \\

Eehk

I always liked doing it like this cause it looks cool and it's easy to make it very uniform and even. Just deploy the next beam onto the bottom of the beam you just deployed. Edit the scale of the beams to make them flush with the angled beam.

     / / | | | | \ \
    / /| | | | | |\ \
   / /_| | | | | |_\ \
  / /__|_| | | |_|__\ \
 / /_____|_| |_|_____\ \
/ /________| |________\ \

Dark Dragon DX

Krash

There's no one answer as it really depends on the angle and size, but anything close to a right triangle can be filled with a single cubic beam resized (given equal underlay space opposite the filled area), and most others can be filled with some 2-3 piece combination of resized beams or plasma routers. Plasma routers are good for a lot of different shapes, and particularly useful for tight angles, but they only come in the one colour and you need to make sure to account for roughly double the length of your fillable section.
Generally when building and you know you have a triangle you'll want to fill in, make sure to give it a little space to overlap. You might try to keep the shapes in mind and imagine the space they cover if stretched to an odd size; if you have trouble try grabbing a scrap of paper and filling in triangles with nothing but rectangles, see where they overflow and what you can do to cover it up.

Larger scale triangles are usually worth sparing a few extra pieces if you can't fill it in one. One of the methods you might try on something large involves a bit of a step process. So say if you use a horizontal step-fill you would use a gradually decreasing step-scale matching up with the edge of the angle, followed by covering over the last empty spaces on the edges with a single beam.

If I might throw a bit of a rough diagram in here:

|_|\
|__|\
|___|\
|____|\

|_\ \\
|__\ \\
|___\ \\
|____\ \\

A variation on that can be done from the side beams, with the closing beam down the center. Again, depending on the angle and scale, you might choose to use more or less pieces according to your own tastes.

// / / |  | \ \ \\
  // / / /|  |\ \ \ \\
 // / / / |  | \ \ \ \\
// / / / /|  |\ \ \ \ \\

Or something simpler? Use a DTS shape that's a triangle already.

Eizieki

A good way (if you're running the server yourself) is to use the map editor - it's the most peice friendly elegant way of filling the space if you can do it just right, but that depends on the space you're trying to fill.

Say you have a triangular gap between the curve / angle of your roof and wall on the corner of a building.. so something like this:
......_____
.... / |
.../__|<<<<<Here's our gap.
..|
..|

Could be triangular or an irregular shape like this one, it dosen't matter unless we end up with bits of it sticking out of the walls when we're finished!


You could either stretch one of the surrounding peices using the editor, or put another one in place and stretch that to fill the gap. Doing it this way lets you flatten it slightly so you don't get an unsightly mesh where the two textures of the flush surfaces overlay, so it looks like the bits of the object you stretched to fill the hole aren't there because they're hidden inside the wall.

If you can't use the editor, the ones mentioned above are good ways of doing it, but use up a lot of peices.

Krash

Actually Eiz, with the wonders of modern technology we can actually do that kind of filling without the editor these days.
Using a few chat commands and a combination of the tools you can do just about any of the sizing operations the editor could do. I tried to explain it at first but I probably didn't do a very good job of it. The diagrams I included were more for a large triangle (like in this old pyramid) where the filling beams are actually about... 90 x 1.3 x 400 or somewhere around there.

The corner you show can be filled by using a command similar to //setsize 8 0.9 8 on a beam deployed in the centerpoint of the outer line, or if you want to get more exact, you'd stick a 50cm beam on the end, isometric rotate it and size to match the length of the line, and then size it to fit the hole.
You can also use //set rot 30 which would change the degree the construction tool rotates the beam and make for a more interesting slope.

Dark Dragon DX

Or something simpler? Use a DTS shape that's a triangle already.

That's cheating.

Eizieki

Arrrr, very good, newfangled technology =D

Nice pyramid, whos handiwork, yours?

Zaxxman

the last thing you could try is sticking a square into the ground, rotated towards a point, and diagonal in a diamond shape, at halfway through the ground, you are left with a "triangle"

Shane

Ah, one of our great creations. The pyramid really sets it off.

Machtspruch

There are lots of good ideas here, thanks guys...by the way, that pyramid is freakin awesome :cool: :clap: