Beautiful Arcades Created 13 years ago2011-10-09 08:45:15 UTC by Striker

I just played a recent uploaded map, fy_dystopia.I was impressed with the architecture and I would like to be able to create arcades like that too(notice the higher one and then those on the right of the image), but almost every time when I try some complicated geometry I fail.

I request some help, or links to some tutorials. Also, I think I knew how to make half spheres in the past( de_dome duh... but I made that with the messiest method possible), are there any tutorials for a proper one around?

The key is essentially clipping every cuboid brush into tetrahedrons (cross-cut in every view). Then you can transform-rotate that object (Ctrl+M) at any angle, forming any geometry you want without errors. Using that method to rotate also keeps every vertice on-grid, which keeps everything nice & clean.

Yeah, use only triangles and just practice...

I kind of understand the theory, and that's what I thought of also( remembering the tetrahedron terrain in hl1). But I really need a starting point, a practical example, or a tutorial :).

There is a dome tutorial, no idea where, try interlopers.

Displacements can do this fairly easily.

Also: Arch tool is your friend.

Using that method to rotate also keeps every vertice on-grid, which keeps everything nice & clean.

Hmmmm... no. Hammer 4 and up messes up your (advanced VM'ed) brushwork whenever you exit out of hammer and reload your map. It's been doing that ever since the SDK first came out and Valve never fixed it.

YAY for Propper!

Except that's source.

Damn, how good do you have to map to confuse Atom...

Confused? How am i confused?

You mentioned H4, and the map in the pic is for GoldSrc.

Oh shoot!

I guess i WAS confused then! I totally thought that was Source.

Edit: OK, start with 2 half arches and cross them together:
example

Note the points of intersection between them:
example

Clip them so that the points of intersection line up:
example
Always remember to check if this caused any vertices to fall off the grid. If this happened, just correct them with some quick VM work. You can also cut each brush of the arch into a triangular prism if this causes any invalid solids.

Duplicate and mirror your brushes, then put some space between them:
example

For that cool thin piece, you can just duplicate half of one of your arches...
example

...and use VM to match all of the vertices:
example
You shouldn't ever have to worry about these becoming invalid solids because all of the brushes' faces will all be oriented the same way. This piece should ALWAYS be at a 45 degree angle.

You only need to do this once. Just duplicate the rest:
example

So this is what you end up with.

For more complex structures or wider angles, like the curved walls to the right and far left of your screenshot, start with one arch that is wider than the other.

I am giving a slap on my face right now! It was that simple...

Thank you very much Soup Miner. Your help is appreciated

Glad I could help.

Wow cool, thanks Soup!

Another question for which I don't want to create another thread:

Is this tunnel made by using half of a torus?

How else? You can't make a structure like this by hand. I don't know Source too good but it's made either with a crushed half of a torus or with displacements. But I can guarantee the process is automated.

You could make it by hand, impertfectly of course but still pretty perfect as far as is possible with the limitations of everything having to be on grid. It would take work, but it could be done.

Yeah, it's easy, it only takes time. And the only problem is the lighting and clipping bugs when you're making something like this on GoldSrc, however new vluzacn's compiling tools (vhlt) should help a lot.

It's not a displacement. I turned on mat_wireframe 3 to check this:You can't make such a perfect tunnel curve manually. I mean, look at the polygons. They get larger and larger as they reach the outer curve. You have to use a torus for such a thing.
From the image it seems that the tunnel is mostly constructed using the arch tool, and then for the curve a torus is used.

These images are from a mod I recommend you playing, it's a fair amount of time (I think I played about half an hour): Joutooma(Hl2:Ep2 mod).

You could try building around a torus.
Make a torus, place brushes on the outside of the torus, and delete the torus.