Journal #8684

It finally happened, at last!

I tried to make a map for Team Fortress 2 for the first time, and guess what:

On the 22nd of March 2016, I, at last, became a Source mapper! Finally, after so much trouble around getting Hammer to not show the 'default scheme not loaded' error, and then after finding the most stunning solution, I launched Hammer 4! It worked!

I immediately started browsing for the grass texture, and after going through many blend textures, I found one of the most generic ones used in Half-Life 2. I made a brush which was 512x512 units big in the top view, and, of course, I put the skybox correctly.

And I can freely say how one of my biggest wishes were accomplished, which is actually being proven by the fact that it's raining (at the time of writing). Therefore, I'll celebrate this exact day every year.

So, since I already knew some things about Source mapping even if I never mapped for it at all, I proceeded to put some displacements into my first map, which I had done. I inserted some player spawn entities, one for each of the teams (remember, Team Fortress 2), and I also included a wooden box into the map thanks to Source's beautiful func_physboxes. And then I compiled the map, but I, as you could have thought, forgot to include a light entity. But, despite my earlier experiences with the VHLT compilers (they leave it dark, no fullbright), I still knew that the map will be lit. Because Source's compiling tools are different.

And it was lit, it also had a wooden box whose properties I had edited before, so it wasn't made out of glass. The map was very tiny, but big enough to be playable. Sadly, it was bedtime already

I already knew so much about Source mapping, yet I had no experience in it! Well, that's all because of the tutorials on this site, and probably some YouTube ones there and there. I used to read them a lot, that's why I made the map without errors out of the first try, and it wasn't that empty, since it had a breakable (ugly, but breakable) wooden prism in it.

So, that might just start my 15th evolution (which only affects me). Yeah, I had 14 of them... the latest one happened in January 2016. And the one before that happened in the winter of 2014, when I just started mapping.

The problem with VHE turned out to be that I didn't launch it from the correct folder. I had to go to my Team Fortress 2 folder, and then into the "bin" folder. I found hammer.exe there. But I actually discovered that on my brother's laptop (my brother is 5, but he understands mapping and such), while I was trying to make a map for it for the last time. I used my brother's laptop because Team Fortress 2 was downloading on mine, so it wasn't installed yet. And my brother and I got entirely surprised how there weren't any errors when I clicked on File-->New... And then I saw the tip of the ice berg, it seemed to be too good to be true, but I did it, and now I'm unstoppable! I can't wait to play with the cubemaps, and that flashy normal mapping, oh, especially with the physics...

Of course, my ever-lasting quest still continues, as I've found a new goal to achieve. I only have 2 games left to make maps for, Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source, and then, my quest will be almost complete.