my map is doing its job and giving me a headache bigtime.  when i run the map, it wants to render the entire level, not just the visible leafs.  even when i'm in a room, it renders the entire length of the level and i can see this with mat_wireframe 1.  the level isn't leaked and it isn't boxed.  i even have a few hint brushes toward the middle to make sure that it split it up.  i know the hint brushes are cutting the level because i can see it with mat_leafvis 1, but it still renders everything.  if i can't get his problem fixed i will have to give up this map which really dissapoints me because i have to tons of time into it making it look nice. 

if you guys have any ideas i'm all ears.  if you want to take a look yourself just hit me up on x-fire and i will send you the mapfile.

i wasn't aware that you needed to box the map, i thought the only reason i did that in the past was because i wasn't carefull enough and it fixed my leak problems the easy way.  i will try doing that and see if it works.  thanks for your help as always kusa. 

just saw your post now.  i tried converting most of the brushes in the map to func_detail and made sure that the surrounding ones were regular brushes so that it would leak.  this didn't work, it still renders the entire level all the time.  from what i understand about the cordon feature is that it allows you to compile small bits of you map for testing purposes.  since i have done everything except the lighting in my map, it still compiles in like 1 minute.  so i wouldn't need to use it as a time saver.

as far as checking for visleafs.  i tried typing mat_leafvis 1 into the console so that it would show me which ones i was in, but of course this doesn't really tell you anything beyond that.  what i'm also using is mat_wireframe 1 to show me what is being rendered.  it always shows the entire level when it really should only show you what visleafs are being rendered (if i understand it correctly).  it seems to be acting like its leaked because i had this issue before on a former map, but i was able to fix it by fixing the leaks.  this one isn't leaked, so i have no idea why it's doing this.  thanks again kusa, i will have to just keep messing around and hope something works.  let me know if you come up with anything else.

That's right. Do you still see a whole map (in this case whole area you select with cordon) when you compile as a small part?

With this testing you may chase down which area has the problem.

ok so after a lot of experimenting i went to compile and it started caculating portal vis.  it never used to do this before and the whole thing would compile in like 15 seconds.  now it seems like it will take an hour or so to compile.  i haven't added any lights in yet, so hopefully whatever i did worked and it is now actually trying to calculate the vis leafs.  i will let it compile overnight and check tomorrow to see if i get better results.  if this works and only the visable leafs are rendered (and not the whole map), all i have left would be the lighting.

right now i have no hint brushes