Forum posts

Save your self some time and grief by learning how to use -wadinclude in your HLCSG compile. If the map is just for you and you are learning/practicing..why not, just a bit of increased filesize on maps you will probably delete anyhow as you progress in skill.

To use this function is fairly basic...first of all make sure you are using a version of Zoner's Halflife Tools...(ZHLT)
http://ammahls.com/index.php?page=downloadcat&cat=tools

I'm assuming as a new mapper, you are using Hammer to do your compiles...if you are, press f9 and clickie the "expert" button. On your HLCSG command line it will say $csg_exe....leave that be. In the parameters part I'd have mine set like this with a basic setup.

$path$file -wadinclude nameofwadhere -high.... I put the .wad file I am using to include in the map right in my core hammer directory so I don't need have to type in pathnames...heheh lazy like that
You don't need to put .wad on the filename when using -wadinclude either

Here is some documentation on this from ZHLT on the -wadinclude function...

-wadinclude :: file Place textures used from wad specified into bsp.

This option will cause csg to include used textures from the named wadfile into the bsp. It does partial name matching, is not case sensitive, and can also match directory names. If multiple includes need to be done, -wadinclude must be specified multiple times, once for each include. Only textures actually used in the map are included into the bsp.

Happy mapping man!

Hrmm Jeremy, your terrain on your very first post would be great for a desert/sand terrain tho, where you would actually see terrain variation to that extent. I think your terrain looks much better now IMHO. This thing is screaming DoD at me for some reason

Gameplay wise... Some advice on your hosties, space them apart somewhat so you don't get another one of those "one sided T maps" like cs_militia, cs_assault etc...don't fall into those traps man.

As far as your square treeline...you using that as a map border or building off from it? Maybe suggest a stream or some running water to kill the monotony. It would fit given what I have seen so far.

I used 3.3 for a while and downgraded back to 2.53. For no reason my compile would fail and I'm psychotically anal about my vertices and tight brushwork.

What I usually did was just copy my map, paste it as a new file in the same location, so I didnt have to realign all my textures.... that usually solved it for some odd reason. Worth a try anyhow, only will take a minute or so to do. I swear VHE corrupts brushes all on its own sometimes.

dont forget the sides of your ladder brushes, if you dont do those, you will get some really messed up looking ladders from the sides, top, bottom, if visible.

ah, my bad... heheh forgot about the obvious

Sometimes I'm so lazy. I guess the new version of VTF Explorer is out, came out on 11-7. You guys will love this program, and if you don't have it, go grab it ASAP.

http://www.hl2source.com/?content=projects&id=vtftool

Peace out.

Tetsu0, yep had the same thing happen to me several times, but with 3.5.
C&P'ing in a new file solved the issue for me every time. I still have no idea what is causing it. I tried shift-z toggle but to no avail, recascading my windows, changing the 3d view to no success.

gotta love C&P

I'm convinced that it is evil, mischievous mapping gnomes conspiring against mappers worldwide.

dude, ya gotta be more specific or post your compile log. It could be many, many things. This is beyond vague. You can't ask a doctor for help if you don't tell him where it hurts.

Be more specific and provide screenshots, documentation of some sort.

ah, you need the latest fgd for CS.

http://dev.valve-erc.com/projects/fgd/documents/103463080941876300/attached/halflife-cs-expert.zip

just find an expert cs fgd and unzip it to your fgd folder in your VHE folder and then use that FGD in your hammer setup.

kinda hard to tell what you are saying with that small bit of info, but here is what I can offer on just basic texturing techniques.

Your texture alignment doesnt not automatically align to your brushes. Sometimes you may be fortunate/plan ahead enough to use textures that just happen to be the correct size as your brush for instance a wall 128 wide or long X 128 high, with its point of origin on 0 in the z axis.
This would align properly if the brush was in the just right place and you were using a texture that was 128x128.

Soooo if you were to use a texture, let's say was 64X64, it would appear that it was tiled 4x on that 128X128 brush forementioned. If you used a brush that was 32x32...16x tiles.

You will need to either adjust the x or y axis of the texture manually until it aligns to your liking.

You will need to scale it to your liking using both the x and y axis as well if you want to manually do this. Really good for texturing parts of a texture visibly.

other things you can do is use the justification buttons in VHE, (right left top center bottom).

If you want to just stretch the image to your liking, use the fit option, but bear in mind, that stretching textures more than 2x or less than .5x is not recommended. If you do too much stretching and fitting you can get some really odd luminol errors etc.

and lastly sometimes you need to rotate your textures. Keeping it simple, lets say you have a nice symmetrical map thing goin on. You make a giant toilet prefab and texture it, looks all great. You want that same toilet elsewhere, so you clone it, spin it 90 degrees. You will note that the textures are still at the angle of which you first created and textured it. You will need to use the "rotation" option in the texture tool and enter 90 degrees and click apply to get those textures looking the way it did beforehand.

Hope this helps ya some, if you managed to actually read it all

ARghhh the dreaded pipe bends....lol get your aspirin, beer, and some calming music in the background

sv_gravity # .... but I dunno if you can code that into a map in a compile

here is a link to a page with all of the parameters you can use with zhlt 2.53

http://www.zhlt.info/command-reference.html

get wally and make your own null, skip, hint, origin, etc textures.
you can make them any size you want, any colors etc, so long as you name them correctly.

I can't imagine a dedicated mapper not using wally or a likeminded program.

yeah I usually take it easy on the poly count, but like I said this was an FY map, so it was tightly placed, or a high concentration of polys in a small area. I knew the centerpiece was going to be an issue ahead of time for lower end machines. The null thing I was referring to here came in handy because of the many unseen sides of stuff in the interior, multibevelled pillars, faceted pillar faces, benches, fountains, cylindrical planters. It's sometimes really hard in Hammer to get to all of the unseen faces after the fact, especially when dealing with aesthetic brushes, some 1-4x in size. Nulling them before hand makes it easier to access those sides without having to spin your view and zoom all over the place

I'll post a screenie in a bit to show ya why the r_speeds were an issue in this particular situation. It's running 1816 faces in a 656X656X428 hull in one section. When I played this on my low end gaming box, a 2.8ghz with an Geforce FX 5500, I dropped down to 30fps in the center. It ran fine on my Radeon box...heheh go figure. I don't think hint brushes would help in a situation like this, the hull is just too small.
I use hint brushes in my larger CS maps effectively.

Was fooling around, creating an fy map for xmas...yeah I know, but I went totally balls to the walls with this thing architecturally, custom sequence lighting, realistic looking benches, skylights etc....

the downside was the r_speeds and the poly count. Soooo, here is what I did, and I wondered if anyone else here has done this.

I selected my entire map, save for the sky textures and textured it all to "null." I then retextured the entire thing anywhere it was visible to the player with the proper texturing. Needless to say it completely solved the r_speed issue. I've used null textures before on the undersides and backs of walls, but never to this extent.

Anyone here map completely with null textures and then fill in the spots with the regular textures?