Tutorial: Setup Guide: CS Last edited 21 years ago2003-03-08 05:00:00 UTC

This tutorial is for the WON (pre-Steam) version of Counter-Strike.

If you have decided to map for CS, and have found it impossible to get everything working, don't be discouraged. There are some really good home grown CS maps out there, but they all began with getting WorldCraft (or Hammer 3.4) set up properly. It's the most complicated stage, believe it or not.

In the WorldCraft Editor, go to Tools -> Options and click on the Game Configurations tab. This tutorial assumes you left the installation paths as default when you installed the game. It is also a good idea to make sure you have the latest upgrade to both CS and Half-Life.

So, having brought up the Game Configurations tab, the first setting, Configuration, might already have Half-Life in it (If you have been using WorldCraft to edit for the original game). Just click Edit, then Add and type in CS or Counter-Strike. It doesn't matter what you type, as this is just for identification. Once you have entered the name, you can only change it by deleting the whole configuration. Now close the edit box.

Before we begin, just note that most of these settings aren't required if you're using external compile methods (like batch or GUI). Only the FGD location and WAD files are needed. Obviously you won't be able to compile within Worldcraft unless you set the other stuff up as well.

Game Data Files

You need this path to point to the FGD file you want to use. You should NOT have two FGD files entered here - when the game attempts to run, it will not be able to initialize entities that do not belong to the game and this may cause it to crash.

You should be able to find a file called halflife-cs.fgd in your Hammer/fgd/counter-strike folder. It's good practice to check for updated FGDs every now and then. Downloads of the FGDs used for our entity guides can be found at the relevant Entity Guide page.

Texture Format and Map Type

These are not changeable. I assume they were put there for later versions so that more than just Half-Life could be mapped for, but they have not yet been utilized, so don't worry about them.

Default PointEntity and SolidEntity class

This lets you select default entities that are selected when you start a map. It's convenient to choose info_player_start as your default point entity, and func_wall as the default solid one.

Game Executable Directory

This is the folder that your cstrike.exe file is in, but do not point this option at your exe file. Just choose the folder that it lives in. In the case of the retail version installed with the default paths it would be C:/Sierra/Counter-Strike.

Mod Directory

This is the directory that CS-specific files are in. For the retail version, C:/Sierra/Counter-Strike/ is the place.

Game Directory

This defines where the Valve folder is under Counter-Strike. This setting and the Mod Directory path allow the editor to search for sprites to display in the 3D view.

RMF directory

RMF is WorldCraft's proprietary format, that maps will be saved in by default. So select a path on your drive that you want to store RMFs in. This setting does not affect compilation, and is used solely by the editor when you want to re-open a file to edit.

Build Programs

Ok we are half way there. Click on the Build Programs tab. Under Configuration, you should find Counter-Strike, or whatever you typed in originally in the Game Configuration tab. If it is not there, click OK at the bottom of the Configure Worldcraft box, and reopen it with Tools -> Options. Select the new configuration before continuing.

Game Executable

This should point to the cstrike.exe file in your Counter-Strike folder. It should show the .exe file, and not a shortcut. Browse to find it.

The next four paths are compile tools. These can be found in the WorldCraft folder, or in the Hammertools folder for Hammer. Mine are in C:/Program Files/Valve Hammer Editor/tools/. If however you have decided to use Zoners Half-Life Tools (and you should), then find them wherever you put them. Zoners compile tools have 'hl' as a prefix to the compile type and the ones shipped with WorldCraft are prefixed with 'q'.

Place compiled maps in this directory...

This directory is where the compiled .bsp files are placed when you compile your map. So the path you choose here should be where the Game would normally look for its map files. For Counter-Strike, this is normally in C:/Sierra/Counter-Strike/cstrike/maps/. If this path is not correct and you compile your map with the option to run the game, you will get a "Map not Found on Server" error.

For mod mapping you are almost set to go. The only thing you still have to do is to add your textures with the Texture tab. Be careful here: WAD files selected here remain constant across the set of configurations you define. Textures should be removed and reloaded when switching from one type of mod mapping to the next to prevent the inclusion of textures that are not standard with the mod. If you do compile a map with non-standard textures, be sure to keep a copy of the .wad files and pass them on to your friends when they test the map (and distribute them with the BSP).

Start mapping, create a box, make it hollow and place an info_player_start entity and an info_player_deathmatch entity inside the box, place a light in the middle of the room.

To compile your map, press F9. In Normal mode make sure all the boxes are checked at Normal [ you might need to add -game cstrike to the Additional Command Parameters box at the top of the compile box] then click OK.If you choose Expert Mode, select Half-Life: Counterstrike (full) from the drop-down menu and click Go!

Happy Mapping!