My first questions Created 18 years ago2005-12-13 10:32:11 UTC by gordonfreeman

Recently I've started mapping for source.
And now the first questions came up.First i tried putting down simple stuff crates etc using prop_physics but all of them were invisible. (only could see them when broken) and one more, whats the difference between the prop_physics and prop_physics_override? These may sound stupid to you guys but you can give the best help.

Ah glad you turned to the good side of the force...
The reason they are invisible is because you may have noticed in hammer that there is a circle in the middle of the model on the 2D square...Well that can be changed for big maps so when the player is far away it isn't drawn and becomes invisible.

In other words make a new prop_physics and don't touch the circle in the middle.

Prop_physics_overide is ahem what I accidently used in de_boshi...
Basically what it does is any physics object you have is solid...So if you made a shelf with that entity but accidently positioned it to float a little off the ground then it will just stay there floating...like a solid object where nothing effects it...

Change the fade numbers in properties.
I can't remember them though, and I can't check cuz someone ruined my hammer,, and the funny thing is,, the first name in his nickname is HA as in hammer! >=/

OK it worked so thanks.
And... there are a lot of tutorial vmfs downloaded with hammer i looked at the one with water but i dont seem to understand... what do you need and how do you make the water?

Great site for lots of tuts. Has a good one on water.

http://interlopers.net

thanks alot, it is good now i dont need to ask everything!
edit: followed the tutorial step by step BUT:
it didnt seem to reflect anythin and from below all i could see was black nothing. nearly like hl1 water.... can anyone help?

water is easy. you dont even have to make an entity.

just make your water brush, texture all faces nodraw except the top one. pick a water texture for that

My list of favorite tutorial/info sites:
http://www.akilling.org/akg/default.asp?akg=tutorials
http://www.interlopers.net/index.php?page=hl2.htm
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Docs
http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

And of course, TWHL and The Snarkpit.

Hope this helps.

[m]Do not 'bump' your topics (post pointlessly after half an hour of no replies![/m]

OK sorry 7th it won't happen again. Oh and I've changed the water texture and moved the env_cubemap a little higher. But I don't know which one solved the problem...
Edit: and what does water_lod_control do? Ive seen it in the sdk_water.vmf but i dont know hat it does

Place a cubemap above the water like you did and in-game type buildcubemaps and it'll work.

Water_lod_control tells the water when to change to cheap water. So if you have a large enough body of water, like a lake or ocean, after a certain distance from you, the water will change to a cheaper version of itself. It helps save on FPS.

OK thanks. One more, ive experimented around with rotating stuff and parenting entities, i dont know how to create rotating fan or something which obeys the laws of physics, so like something is rotating and it slows down and stops after an impact of something or after shot.

Not sure on that one, too complex for me
Probs with thrusters...

That is what the phys_motor is used for, go see it used in the sdk example maps

haha, that same thing happened to me when i started for source

The noobiesh problem was when i hl1 mapped and couldnt figure out how to see my map in 3d with textures instead of wireframe

ok i'll check it.
Is there a way to change the underwater viewable distance?

Not unless you edit the .vmt and remove the fog command line...

Um.. OK.
Can anyone can give me tips how to improve my lighting? Yet all I can do is placing normal light entities and light_environment from the skybox. I would thank for any good tips or links to tuts on this.

Well, I can give you a tip, use light_spotlights to enhance your lighting.

Remember to set the constant to 200000 or so for better results.

http://www.akilling.org/akg/?akg=tutlights

A very good place to learn about different lightning styles.

Sorry FresheD but it's light"ing"

thanks this looks good ill try some.
can anyone tell me how to create the combine forcefield?

Wanna know how I learnt? Via decompiling...

So they made a decompiler for source too... could you tell me from where can I get it?

Sorry FresheD but it's light"ing"

Dude, I know that..

I just typed fast, sjeesh..

Spare such "post-raisers" next time

would someone tell me where can I find a bsp decompiler for source?

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I Pm'd you it...A WEEK AGO!

So it was that... damn it...