Problems with area portals

[myLord]

I placed area portals in all the doorways and windows of my map, and I don't think that they are working...
Also, now there is a major problem with the water.

http://img830.imageshack.us/i/hl220100811171712.mp4/
http://img713.imageshack.us/i/hl220100811171809.mp4/

IrishBandit told me about this thing called "optimization", that has to do with cleaning up your map so it won't lag and you won't get map errors and such.  So I watched a few tutorials about optimization and I was told if I put brushes with the Area Portal texture and make them a func_area_portal entity at every opening of a room it would only render what I could see through the area portal, thus reducing lag. heres a vid describing that, and the manual way to do it... which I just might have to try, even though it will be an extreme challenge, considering my map is pretty messy...

Source SDK Tutorial - Optimizing

[IrishBandit]

For that door, you need to have a func_areaportal there and link it up with the door entity.
for the water, you may have a leak, check for leaks by going to Map>load pointfile; a red line will go from an entity to a leak, seal the hole and load it again fix the leak; repeat until it comes up with an "open" window, close that and all your leaks are sealed.

I suggest these 5 tutorials
Hammer Tutorial #21 optimization Part 1- Func _detail and Skybox
Hammer Tutorial #21 optimization Part 2- Solving Leaks, Fish bowl therey
Hammer Tutorial #21 optimization Part 3- Hint and Skip
Hammer Tutorial #21 optimization Part 4- Area Portals
Hammer Tutorial #21 optimization Part 5- Occluders

[Global_Meltdown]

Great Videos I think I'm going to sticky this!

[IrishBandit]

A non-optimization - related thing

Don't use dx80 water textures, they look horrible and the normal ones refract and reflect.