Rock/Boulder Construction Created 16 years ago2007-12-14 06:38:07 UTC by The Free Man

I haven't done too much research on the subject, but I guess this is the first place I'd ask. Is there any way to make realistic-looking rocks? I know about the VM changing to make cliffs and stuff, but I wouldn't think that would work for rocks or boulders.

I know there's a rock model in the pak, but I want to use more than one, and I think people would notice that they look the same. I want to have something different each time to keep everything looking original.

And if it helps in any way, I'll point out I'm using Spirit.

Thanks if you can help.

Create a brush. Clip it, VM it, clip it more, VM it more, rotate it, rescale it, more clipping, more VM, more rotating. For brush based boulders, thats about it.

Create a brush. VM it, VM it more, more VM.

Fixed.

I use to make spikes and clip them.

If you're doing more hardcore clipping and VM, use Check for Problems frequently to make sure you're not creating invalid solids. Generally, after a while, you sorta know if your shape is invalid or not.

Athlete's idea sounds like a good way to get invalid solid errors. Either work with triangles and VM them, or use the clipping tool on a block and then rotate the brush a bit.

Isn't in Hammer a terrian maker tool?? Because in Quark there is a good one...xD

the first thing I tried was to just clip the sh*t out of a cube, but that didn't work at all. I'm not too good at the VMing, but I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

Isn't in Hammer a terrian maker tool?

Only source has one. He could get Nem's terrain generator, a program that you can use to make large terrain quickly, but even then, that's not very good for boulders.

Clipping a cube down is a great way to do it, as long as you understand the rules of clipping. If you just "clip the shit" out of it, of course it's not going to work. You'll end up with a mess of concave surfaces.

If you can't clip properly, my guess is VM is just going to be even more trouble, with the same results.

Why don't you convert the hl2 models of rocks to goldsource. Its not hard to do.

Actualy you can make boulders from clipping.They look quite realistic.

Just clip off the edges in every window (front,side,top) and delete de small parts . Voila !

Clipping is fine in general, but I only use it for on-vertex, straight cuts. Slicing up cubes at odd angles is a great way to get invalid solids.

Another way to make complicated shapes is to use objects made only out of "triangles" (as many people say), or 4-sided geometry only. You can use 2 of these together to make a pyramid, 3 to make a wedge, and 4 to make a cube.

Objects like these can be VM'd in almost any reasonalbe direction and NEVER yield an "invalid solid" error. You can rotate, scale, pretty much do whatever with them. It only becomes tricky when ur working with lots of these at once and it's sometimes difficult to select or see the vertices you
want to move around.

Start out with a simple spike and experiment! I can post an example if u need...

yep. As captain terror said, It's a great way to make stuff.
As long as each of the 4 sides have 3 edges each (triangular prism) You will never get in invalid brush unless you flip a point through the opposite side.

Like.. turning this: <| into this |> Without rotating.

Ahh... It's been a while since I read those tutorials. But now I actually understand them!

Thanks, this has helped quite a bit.