Forum posts

I wish I could do some mapping for a SP mod since I'm tired of making multiplayer maps that I dont even get to play...

I'm not going to make my own mod project because I've lived that nightmare before and we all know how it usually ends: before it should

I'll use this thread to ask a simple question that has been going on my mind for quite a while:

Who in TWHL is actually interested in mapping ??

Did you bother reading the compile log before posting it?

Error: No visibile brushes
Description: All brushes are CLIP or ORIGIN (at least one must be normal/visible)
Howto Fix: self explanitory

In the Hammer menu, go to:
Map>>Go to Brush Number>> and put 32 in the entity. Maybe you have a brush entity with clip texture, which is forbidden in hammer

I have seen some forum threads regarding HL1 vs. HL2, and many people complaining about hl2 mapping and why they prefer to map for Hl1.

I'm going to make a list of some good and bad things regarding mapping for both games. People can add to the list and maybe some popular doubts about source mapping will be cleared.

What's good about Source mapping
-High resolution textures
-Selecting a reference brush when making a new one (automatically allows you make a brush just as tall/wide as the selected one)
-Detail brushes that give shadows but dont complicate leafthreading
-Shader effects (cubemaps, real-time reflections)
-Huge collection of props and decals/overlays to dress up the map
-Advanced trigger system (very advanced in fact)
-Sound library built into Hammer for easier access.

What's not so good about source mapping
-You need to logon to Steam, and load Source SDK...
-Occassional random hammer crashes
-General system slowdown (high memory usage)
-The amount of detail possible makes mapping much more time-consuming, sometimes forcing you to place props and more props...
-Default textures and props always end up in maps looking very similar, very "HLl2ish"
-Absence of an intuitive SDK program for creating materials
-Default skies seem to dictate how the light_enviroment has to be, making other light angles and colors look weird.

What's good about HL1 mapping
-Hammer 3.4 loads fast
-Textures, although not high res, can be placed next to each other and usually look right.
-Since detail is not the most important thing, making a nice and fun map is not a matter of years...
-At the same time, making a detailed hl1 map is much more of a feat than doing so with Source
-WAD files. Wally. A huge freedom for creating custom textures.

What's bad about HL1 mapping
-Less Hammer features
-Absence of displacements makes irregular terrain a much harder thing to do, either with VM of using Gensurf
-In SP mapping, it takes a lot of work to prevent a map from feeling empty (not so important in HLDM)
-No entity hierarchy (think about a brush rotating around its center as it's part of another rotating brush)
-Very poor and cryptic trigger system. (Hard to find mistakes)

Okay, I'm sure I left out many other things, so feel free to contribute to this thread

Are there actually switchable half-life textures?? which are those?
I thought that switchable lights were made with a point light entity and using the "turned off" textures that most of the lights have.

I just checked a map after compiling. I didnt get the nice glow effect I needed in a lamp

In a perfect world, it could actually work. But I doubt anyone would judge every single map that comes out each month.
Using the map ratings would be quite pointless since people can vote their own maps and do it several times.
The interesting aspect of this new section would be having a "quality map vault" where you know all you're going to find is nice maps.

I had one version in which you couldnt even jump from one building to another because the windows where placed too high. And it had a cloudy sky. I think the nuclear blast didnt even hurt the players... It was totally un-crossfire

Ok, I think I found the answer. Correct me if I'm wrong: it would be made with a prop_static using the volumetric_light model ?
this could be the way but maybe some of you know a better solution
thx

(this thread can be deleted)

Okay, I have done some investigation but I cant find anywhere the steps to create light ray effects like the ones in the Hl2 trainstation, dm_petrol or de_boshi.

I know how to create dustmotes but it's not what I'm looking for...
(Rabid & Habboi probably know the answer to this) Any ideas

Why dont you make a group of light types, check how they look ingame and then decide which light type/setting to use? That'd be only 1 compile.

By the way, I doubt UnrealEd is easier than Hammer. I havent bothered using it since it crashed everytime I opened it. (it came with an original UT2003)
Mappers will always find that other editors are harder when they know how to use one. I remember trying to make HL1 maps with Quark... it had some nice features but was a bit pointless overall.

Interesting steam news:

In the coming weeks we'll also be releasing a Source revived version of Half-Life 1: Deathmatch. People who already own Half-Life 1: Source will receive this as a free download

Does this mean that regular hl2 users will not have access to this game? I'm sure I would play online and map more for HLDM:source than HL2DM :

-Make a brush with the wall texture and make it a func_illusionary
-Make a door with the {blue or {invisible texture with a rendermode >> Solid and fxAmount>>100 or so

The player wont be able to cross the wall until the invisible door is open, so all you need to do is target the door with the multi_manager and make it stay open.

It could be worse guys...
Apart from the resolution (which on TV will look better than that), the only bad thing I see is the model textures, which look rather crappy & low res.
Still, I think it's an accomplishment to get the game working on the xbox (supposing framerates are fine)

What I dont understand is who this game is directed at. I'm sure HL fans will prefer to have this game for PC even if they have an Xbox, and tell xbox users that this game is worth a new PC

...mappers are often people who build buildings in real life. They know how a building is constructed, the shape, the measurement etc

That'd be me some years from now!
Some small mapping tips:
-A good map must have a reason for existing. Try to do something we havent seen before. (sounds hard)
-In deathmatch maps, avoid repetitive and labyrinthic hallways. The players must always know where they are. They need recognizable references in the map to orient themselves.
-A map must consist of different areas of different sizes. Weapon, item and respawn placements have the final word when it comes to game flow.
-Performance is the first objective. No matter how good looking a map can be, it wont be fun at 10 frames per second.
-Balance the map detail. In a small room, you can always place more pipes and other detail that in a big room.
-When trying a deathmatch map, think that other players consist of more polygons, so the r_speeds/+showbudget are not exactly what you see when you are playing it alone.
-Work on the 3 fundamental scales of mapping with the same effort:
1) Theme
2) Architecture
3)Detail
If one of these is wrong, the map wont work or at least it wont be remembered for long.

I'll think of other tips later, I need to go to the Post Office to send some Uni stuff :S

Last year,one of my classmates decided to use the Windows NetSend feature to have fun during class when the teacher was absent. He didnt realize that those messages he sent also appeared on the main server computer, so when the teacher came back, he found like 20 or so popup messages and got really really really angry.
But no one called the police. Our teachers know how computers work. The student was asked never to step into that class again.

It looks OK so far. My question is: is this a map of dr kleiners lab or just based on it?
If you're not doing so already, you can find the complete lab in the example map sdk_d1_trainstation_05.vmf and use it as a base instead of having to make everything from scratch

I think they look similar because of the textures, and of course those maps are made by the same mapper, its only logical they have the same style.
I need to finish dm_punishment and dm_anticitizen3, but after that I'm not sure if I'll make a new HL2DM map or work on the sequel for my Compo13 map
?

http://www.geocities.com/jm_ameyugo/Punishment.jpg

I might have posted these before. The difference now is that brushwork is done and it just needs items and more props.
I've finished all of my subjects at university so I'll probably finish it soon.

the atrocities that were done in the past by many, among them, my ancestors.

Your ancestors (and mine too) probably stayed in Andaluc?a instead of going out to conquer The World, and that's why we were born in Spain instead of South America.
The conquerors usually stayed where they went since they were tempted by the idea of owning land, slaves and maybe finding gold.

Adjust the clip distance for models and brushes, it helps a lot.
I think the main reason it's so slow is because of the amount of memory needed for the textures/materials.

descomunal = huge

1 un
2 deux
3 trois
4 quatre
5 cinq
6 six
7 sept
8 huit
9 neuf
10 dix

"La France vote NON a la Constitution europ?enne"
France votes NO to the European Constitution

(estoy de acuerdo con que el smiley es un careto descomunal)

By the way Im not dead yet, so new maps will appear within next month!

By the way, has anyone actually seen the row of little red ants in my map? They are in the wall to your right at the beginning of the map, and dissapear into the same door where the headcrab goes in. It's suppossed to be a unique detail but I dont know if anyone noticed

just like Andy mentioned: "Only if she loved me too"

But if you killed your friends to save the woman you love, and after a while she got bored of you and left, it would make you feel really really bad.
It would be a very selfish decision, since each of your friends might have a true love of their own.
There would have to be a very important reason for you to kill them, but in that case they wouldnt be your friends so the condition doesnt apply

My bad! Do sub-DirectX 9 cards still exist??

I think it would take the same time (or more) for you to upload the file and your friend downloading it afterwards, than a direct msn transfer

I think there's a point entity you can use to create doors.
The black space in the texture means it's a model texture, not a brush texture.
There are some textures without the black spaces that you can use with doors btw.

Yo need a full succesful compile for water to work properly.
By the way, cubemaps have nothing to do with water reflection to my knowledge.
Reflectivity is given by the water texture you apply. For example, dev_water3_exp will show up as expensive water and as such will have full reflections.

Why turn the graphics down when Source was made to be beautiful?

To make it actually playable?

If I remember correctly, when I changed the settings to minimum (both in effects and resolution) in one CS:source map, I got only 4 fps more. It means that if a map runs badly, it will do so no matter what (at least in my PC)
That's why I'm using the best settings:
"If the game's going to stutter, let it do so beautifully"

Just one question, since the different areas are boxes, are there any rules regarding sky brushes?
I imagine we can't make any since a map only uses one light_enviroment entity.

P IV 2.00 Ghz
512 DDR ram
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 128 MB

@ 1024x768

I had the best settings I could (except triliear filtering, antialiasing and others) But the thing is the other maps run considerably better with the same settings and with bots running around

false alarm, my bad.
Now I'm getting 20 fps in the same place, I dont know why. Much better than yesterday, with occassional jumps to 10 fps or so. The framerate isnt as bad as I thought but it's very irregular throughout the map.
Those drastic fps changes are the ones that can potentially get you killed when you turn a corner, emerge to a big area (with more polys) and the enemy team takes advantage of your momentary 5 fps rate
Did you guys try shooting at the 4 church bells in the map? you can actually make a song

Could anyone make a screenshot similar to the one I made?
It's from inside a small room with a window, but the engine is rendering too many things that are not visible. It's really strange since the rest of the maps run fine

I dont mean to ruin the fun, but I have some other things to say about this source version of de_inferno.
Very nice looking indeed, lots of detail (how much is really needed?) a great ambience and loyal to the concept of the original map.

But someone should go over to vALVE and say these simple words: vis blocks, hint brushes and occluders PLEASE. This is the first official map where I am getting such a bad, bad, bad performance without any other players in the game or programs running in the background.
I'm not making this up
http://www.geocities.com/jm_ameyugo/inferno3.jpg

Is anybody else having this kind of problem? the rest of the official maps run around 40 fps in my PC with max settings. What's wrong with this one??

Anyway, I agree with 7th about de_port. It looks like they copied (once again) a portion of a singleplayer map... The skybox reminded me of Grand Theft Auto III, with the fog and lack of reflections (hopefully to improve r_speeds) :

me! me! me! my map!

(btw, did you get my last email?)

never use the carve or hollow tools with Hammer :

Noone said it was for CS, I was talking about the CS skies, that you can perfectly use for Opposing Force maps. I remember there was a forest sky, but it was inside a forest, with very tall trees, I dont know if you could use that one.
Bryce would an easier program for creating custom skys, there was a Bryce 4 demo out there that maybe you can find... (my compo entry had a sky made by me)

I don't get a Europian sky my map is doomed

Didnt you think about having a sky before making your map? I dont know where you can find that, but not all of the CS skys are weird or hellish or snowy, there some pretty normal ones. What is the exact theme of your map?

I heard the first Soul Calibur for Dreamcast was completely flawless and pixel perfect
Could that be true?

when did you discover that texture misalignment?
the game came out October the 31th 1998 and noone noticed. I've played the game several times, and yes, there are some tiny flaws, but nothing that really called my attention or made the game experience worse

Maybe the opposite would be nice, but there's that Black Mesa:Source mod in the works and tons of remakes of HLDM maps out there

of course trapt!, I was replying to Hi's post:

maybe then "make a disaster sequence"?
i dont mean to my unpatient. Just a reccomendation

The new theme was decided 3 days ago. I've already contacted 7th so it's in his hands right now

The theme for Compo #14 will not be "build a machine" but it's going to be fun anyway. Just be patient

but www.250m.com is for site hosting, not file storage (which is what most of us need)
I guess I'll have to get a new geocities account or something. It would be nice if Gmail's 1Gb could be used for file storage instead of just f******* emails...

what kind of help do you need?

(apenas se entienden tus frases )

i did have to open with cs

Why? The contest rules asked for a map that works in HL version 1.1.1.0
I have the WON version of HL and it works perfectly, if you have HL in STEAM that's another problem. HL & WON have coexisted for more than 6 years but Steam is relatively new.
The compo map was singleplayer, so there was no need for Steam multiplayer support