GoldSource Mapping Tips Created 18 years ago2006-01-02 09:43:42 UTC by Kasperg

I think we could use this thread to discuss some mapping tips, tricks and common errors are not usually talked about in tutorials, but are still important. Most of these things apply to both HL and Source, and any other game level editor for that matter.
It'd be nice if people post their ideas and things they have trouble with while mapping (I'm not talking about a certain problem with a certain map)
You dont need to tell all your tricks. Some mappers are really secretive about how they work. But if you want to share anything, people will appreciate it.

Ok. Most of you probably know this, but other people (even people in the game industry like F.E.A.R's level designers) are still making this mistake.

It's not hard to see that the stairs on the left look really bad compared to the ones on the right. That's because they were made with several copy-paste commands and no retexturing at all. With a longer staircase and other textures, this effect can be horrible-looking.

Solving this could be as easy as selecting the odd numbered steps and giving them a scale of -1.00 in the X axis.

Yeah this thread is a good idea. Don't carve, Don't hollow cylinders. thats all I can really think of even though they are really stupid.

Here's another one:
When making a deathmatch map, you should keep in mind the importance of spawn-point placement. While this might sound obvious and most people tend to do it right, you need to carefully think and decide where the player will be looking at when he/she spawns.
If there's a nearby weapon, you might want to make the player face it so he can grab it right away.
You can make a player spawn in a big area, but if he's facing a corridor, he'll probably go in instead of turning around and fighting in that room.
Avoid spawn-points facing walls. You can put them next to walls, but you should always give the player the best area of sight possible.

etc

Nice thread.

Anyone got a tip on texturing? I always got a hard time figuring out my textures because most of the times they just don't match! The only one that I find easy to match are the lab ones, but they are so overused.

When I do find matching textures I mostly get the problem they don't fit in with my brushwork! It's anoying as hell.

Making custom wads for myself I sadly not a option, because I suck at texture making!

they don't fit in with my brushwork! It's anoying as hell.

Then work the other way around. Make brushwork according to the textures. Since most of them are 32x32, 64x64, 128x128 etc. You should always make your brushes with those dimensions. That way you'll avoid using the FIT tool for example.
About textures not fitting with each other: You can use lights to help you with that. Under a yellow/white light, textures will retain their colors. But if you use other types of light (green, red, blue etc) all the textures will have a similar color range and will look ok.
As for overused textures, I dont really think that's a problem. You can use them in new ways, light them however you like and the map might end up looking better than another that uses custom textures. Think about it.

Hm this thread has been made many a time and I remember blabbing on with a load of tips...

Um since I map for Source now I found that your limited to using the same props over and over...That is why learning to model is handy and making your own textures.

I wrote a guide in my journal page 3 and a physics tut for those who are new to Source.

But then I just realised this thread is in HL1 mapping so ignore me ;D

Hmm tip...Erm I suppose now that you have Source try to work on detail: Here is what I call detail:

Just spend time on a wall and make it more interesting with some bricks fallen out and lying on the floor etc...

Terrain, we all know how make them out of triangles, but shamfully not many people match them up with vertical aligned traingles to create a clif face, the trick is to match them up in each view and keep your 3d view near it so you can see if you do it right, also dont go low on the grid when working with train, deu to the angled faces this is not neccesary.

I know a very usefull texturing technique. It goes like this:

Lets say you have an arch like this:

This object is 256w 256l 160h, made out of 12 brushes, with a wall witdh of 16. The used texture is C1A0_LABW4.

Lets say want to retexture the top faces (marked red):

Lets apply a trim texture on those faces. I picked OUT_WALL2C. Go ahead and apply that texture to those top faces. You'll end up with this:

That looks horible so you need to rotate each face. This is done by selecting a single face, and start messing around with the toggle texture application. When you have once face alligned well, go for the next one. But you might all agree with me that this takes an awfull lot of time. There is in fact a very simple and quick way to get all those faces alligned. Here it goes:

First, apply the OUT_WALL2C texture to all the inner faces of the arch and make sure their're rotated 90 degrees. You should end with this:

And now for the magic spell. Select one inner face, hold the ALT button and right click on the opposite face. Like this:

WAOW! Nice eh? Do the same with all the other inner faces. Then just retexture all of the inner faces with the original texture, which was C1A0_LABW4. Dont forget to set the rotation to 0. You'll end up with this:

There you go.

thnx Muzz , I've always wanted a quick way. so , basically , the texture then fits in it's area , instead of all of the textures facing / then?

Nice one muzzle

I wanted to post that one instead of you! I use your technic all the time.

There's a tutorial on that on the Snarkpit too, Muzzle. It's usefull now and then, yeah.

About detail, I believe a certain professional mapper once said the devil is in the details. Whoever it was, he's right. With increasing production times, planning becomes more and more important if you want to avoid wasting your time on models, textures or map pieces that finally will never get used. It may take some time to get a good workflow, but if you want to continue mapping, spend some time on getting an efficient workflow. It's well worth it.

About detail again, small thing's aren't necessarily details. Large things can be details, on the other hand, just as small things can be. The shape of a large building can be a nice detail that works better than the texture applyment on the light pole next to it - the building with it's interesting shape draws much more attention than a light pole, doesn't it?
In other words: put in detail where it is likely to be noticed. Area's that are seen a lot should have a higher detail level than area's or surfaces you hardly ever see. You don't waste polygons in a pit-dark corridor, right? And ceilings are often much less detailed, since the player doesn't often get too close to it (and most of the time he'll spend his time looking at the walls and floors more than looking at the ceiling, so...).

In QTkRadient, when you use the hollow tool, all the brushes that are created intersect each other so you have to go round the whole thing sorting this out. A lot of people dont, and it creates split faces, perpednicular alignment and causes the 2 face effect where its almost like 2 faces are fighting for superiority of that place.

But thats QTk, why am i mentioning it here? Because people often make brushes go through other brushes. Doors for example.. It happens a lot when people are too lazy and use the carve tool instead of the clip tool.
but it doesnt matter what shape your brush is - even if its a simple square - a brush that goes through a larger brush will cause horrible split faces, will increase r_speeds and may create the 'line effect' where you can see where 2 brushes cross paths.

Just dont be lazy. Sort these little buggers because if you dont, they can turn into horrible compile errors (texture axis perpendicular to face, anyone?)

There's a tutorial on that on the Snarkpit too, Muzzle. It's usefull now and then, yeah.

Its there, not here. Hell with Snarkpit!

Its there, not here. Hell with Snarkpit!

Another tip: don't limit yourself to one site, or one resource only. Many people don't seem to search on Google, but there's other people that don't look at other known HL-mapping sites. Give them a try, you will often find new things even if you don't expect it.
Just like this thread shows: you can learn a lot from others. That doesn't stop with 'other mappers here', but extends to 'other mappers on other sites'.

To come back to the problem Kasperg first mentioned, that of obvious repetition, often using multiple 'layers' provides a solution.
See the word layer in a broad way here, as in decals (who are in fact just another layer over the surface underneath it - in fact, lightmaps are yet another layer too and we all know that lighting can make a huge difference), double faces (like some people use for water or electricity effects, I've used it in The Playtest for water) or multiple beams or sprites (I've used this to create fire with a random pattern, as seen in my map Guidance).

"I believe a certain professional mapper once said the devil is in the details"

Heh, it's a common general saying, not just a comment from that one mapper.

Heh, yeah, but it had to start somewhere...

I believe it was the Levelord who said it (first?). Dunno for sure though.

Speaking of detail.
When you are making a part of your map (a wall, a certain room etc) with a lot of detail, you must somehow mantain that level of detail throughout the map. I have seen lots of maps where one room is superb-looking but the rest of the map seems to have been done really fast and unwillingly. It happens to me sometimes.
Even though we sometimes make a map from a certain image or idea we have in our mind, more is needed to make a working game level. In the same way, a working game level is pretty boring without that image or idea behind it, and that's why some maps are clones of cloned maps...

Carving is not bad, neither is hollowing, if you are carefull it?s 100% error fre, a time saver! If you carve a block in a wall nothing bad will happen. but don?t carve cylinders and stuff like that!

Tosse@ =!Add On!= Dont carve unless you know what your doing..

When you make a map, use texlighting if at all possible (excluding light_environment for outdoors). It looks so bad when theres just a litten area effect in a box like hall with nothing "emitting" light.

Carving is not bad, neither is hollowing

Yep Grimreafer got it only if you know hat you are doing. I carve, I wouldent say I know what i'm doing but it always works for me. And I said don't hollow cylenders!

'Fraid i can't get screenies, but i know how to make acylinder wall without making a cylinder * yep , i am getting screenies* LATER

First , make a square 4x4 in the size grid you start with , now get your clipping tool and look at the "x" in the centre , follow the x to > side and go onto the 2nd lowest grid possible , and here:

xx>>>[
xx>>>[
here[ clip from there to the bottom of yer square , and go tor the 2nd bit of your corner:

[
[

---[
/ to that bit and clip , and do the same with the rest until you get a cylinder - like shape.transform it , then hollow it . there

IT WILL BE EASIER WITH SCREENIES BUT HOW DO YOU DO THE PRINTSCREEN THING AND WHERE DO THE PICTURES GO?they don't go crayz!

Ok well I dident understand any bit of that.

Press Print sceen or prt scrn on your key board its up near scroll lock.

Then go into paint, or something like that and pull down the edit menu and click paste.

thnx , now for the screenies.. this is the "x"http://img491.imageshack.us/my.php?image=16qq.png

the carve example http://img287.imageshack.us/my.php?image=carve8mz.png
and the full thing http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finale9ci.png

REMEMBER carve with the white/white not red/white or white/red! woops about the top.. ooeerrr..
hewre it is http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image="x".png

also ,when you've done that , you can / may delete the inner bit to have a carved cylinder area! TeH WOot!

That's an awfull cylinder... I'd use the cylinder shape and when necessary some vertex dragging afterwards. Only if necessary.

And those screenies didn't clear anything up. They were too small and your story isn't that organized... what you call carve is the clipping tool, judging by that screenshot, for example. So ah... what are you trying to say?

i just called the screenie carve co's it was me carving with the clip! but still , i'm only a... thinks of whats between ameatur and beginner whatever is between them!

I agree with what everybody else is saying about adding a little detail to your maps.

One thing I always try to do, just to add a little touch of realism to my maps, is to think about how people might actually get in and out of the place when it's NOT being used as a deathmatch arena. Whether it be a main entrance door which doesn't open, or a lift which isn't working, or a corridor that has collapsed ... something to make it feel like it is part of a larger world, which you can't quite reach now.

(Of course, that then prompts me to go build the rest of the complex as another level -- but maybe that's just me. :D)

Excellent Idea Kasperg!

Muzzie: That trick pwns!

One thing that really annoys me that I see all the time, is people not using Lip value on their sliding doors, so when they're open, you see the awful brush intersection.

My other tip off the top of my head would be to familiarize yourself with all the optioins for texturing under Face Properties. There are some powerful options in there to make any texturing job relatively easy. Two things I do all the time:

1. When texturing a many sided object, I get one side perfect, go down to the box where it says "lift and select" and change it to "apply all texture and values". In general, you can retexture many things quickly, with this method.

2. If your textuing something with the "treat as one" box checked, but it's not working, try hitting the "face" or "world" box, making them all the same.

Actually rowlaybob to make them all the same I usally use muzzle's trick.

@darkphoenix: I'd count that under both 'common sense' and 'immersion'. Important factors.

That's one of the reasons dm_adaptation won the HL2DM compo. Even if the layout of a map is small, it's part of a bigger world. In HL2 this is easier to achieve, specially in outdoor areas.
I recommend using the 3D Skybox to complete unaccesible areas of the map, not just to make a distant hill and some houses. And of course, give the brushes in the 3D skybox a lower lightmap value!!

I think I might be the only one who thinks this. but I think darker lighting and more gloomy settings make HL1 look more real. For some reason the lighting just works better with small gloomy lights illuminating a corridor than a few huge lights. In some places of the map I'm working on now you couldn't tell if it was HL1 or 2 from a screen shot. I'll post some later.

It helps when you have an idea for a map setting that you find a song that sets the mood you're thinking of and listen to it while working. Then you stay focused in that area longer and your maps turn out the way you want them.

Rowleybob: I first made the solid then I aglained the texture. Only then I Beveled the door. After I Beveled I copied the middle face's attributes(alt+right mouse click) to the other faces.

Anybody can show me a way of making that door from one part, I used three, the middle(with the trim texture) and the beveled sides.

TheGrimReafer: It's ok to use point lights. Texture lights are always fullbright(only with the color you applied to them) and all the texture emmits the light so all of it will be lighted too. If you don't want the texture to be fully lighted or if you have a texture that only a part of it emmits light you can use spot_lights/lights.

mmm, they are not fullbright. In the lights.rad your supposed to do a texture line like so..

MYTEXTURE 255 255 255 1000 (R* *G B* *Light intensity)

the lights work less effectively than the point entity versions of it
so you gotta put big amounts.. I believe 500-1000 is a dimmer light..

@Elon: you could also create two versions of that texture (as is common with light textures) and use some clipping and such so only the part you want to emit light is a lighting texture.
Alternately (and easier for the polycount) would be to create that light-emitting part as a shape, put it in front of the whole textured face, so it casts it's light onto that surface. Put this shape as an entity so it doesn't block the bouncing light and cover all it's other faces with the null texture and you can achieve a fair effect, I think. It should be worth a try.

Has anyone tried a light-emitting texture with { transparency? That'd be an easier way to create lighting textures with difficult shapes without having to clip or anything like that.

It doesn't emmit fullbright light but the texture it self will be shiny, I tried it when I wanted to make a computer! The computer was really bright although it emmited a very dim light, it looked nasty so I used spot_lights instead. I know how to use texture lighting or editing them.

Face Properties - Hide mask button: Makes it much easier to align textures--especially dark ones. Saves the eyes much misery!

Elon: You're right. I don't know what I was thinking!

Muzzie: I just tried your method and it works amzaingly well! Excellent!

but the texture it self will be shiny

That can actually be useful in some situations.

I made a pool cue pro[, and noticed you could barely see the white plastic tip--at the small end. So I made the white part a textlight with a brigtness value of 1, and it improved the appearance/contrast nicely.

Also nice If you want to make a texture appear to "glow" like a glowstick, tritium watch hands, etc.

When you make a map create all objects with the null texture only then texture the visible bits... It's harder null it later, and it will take more time.

You only need to use the null texture for unseen faces that are actually rendered. Unless you use a sky-textured box for your map (which is considered n00b-craft) there wont be many faces to null-texture. The compile process discards most faces...

I know but it's still annoying... looking for every face that faces a func_entity... ect

All that null blabbering doesn't really do much. It discards a few faces, you save some lightmap space... it often doesn't significantly decrease filesize or increase performance. First ask yourself if it's really worth it, if you really need that little extra performance (if it even gives you that extra performance), then decide if it's worth the time.

Time is a precious resource in the end...

// My personal point of view on this subject, feel free to nullify whatever you want.

I only nullify func_walls, and complex objects such as vertex manipulated solids.

I have noticed that by creating everything with the null texture, then working and textureing visible faces as I go, that compile times can be reduced by as much as 10 to 20%

i make everything with the null texture then go back and texture each viewable face.

I have noticed that by creating everything with the null texture, then working and textureing visible faces as I go, that compile times can be reduced by as much as 10 to 20%

Once again, it depends on how you design your map. Imagine you have an indoor only map. Unless you put it inside a big sky box, null texture wont really help you there. The time you waste retexturing would be more than the compile time you save...
In source maps, nodraw (same as null) is useful for outdoor areas: unseen sides of buildings like rooftops, brushes under big displacement surfaces etc

I bet that must of the experienced mappers know this, but I'll show a way of making curves wihout ANY vertex-manipulation.

I'll show, how to make a curved pipe here:

First, make 1 cylinder (32 x 32 x 128)
Then make another one and rotate it by 90 degrees.
Place both of them in an equal distance from each other.
It should look like this.Now clone both pipes and place them like this:Now, by using the shear tool (click 3 times on the brush), shear both new pipes untill the end touches the other pipe.Now clip the ends of the pipes at the place, where they meet up.And voila! A nice curved pipe!You can use this method to make almost any kind of shape or wall curve, like this wall here:

Take some care with that method if you don't want vertexes get messed up - you may not always get planar surfaces that way. It's fast though so it has it's advantages...

Better would be to model such pipes, though that's not common practice in HL mapping and may not be the best with shadowing and such, it is much more common in more recent games so it may be a good thing to get used to if you don't want to stick to one game only.

You and your modelling! Go away!

But i agree. There's a fair chance you'll create off grid vertices, which can cause some nasty side effects ingame.

But pipes in HL are fine. As long as you func_wall them! That way, HLVIS won't create leaves around it. This will decrease compile time and lower r_speeds.

Nice Daub. I learned the same thing while trying to copy..erm, study Muzzie's concrete bumpers from the compo 12

However, I think I VMed instead of clipping, which took much more time than your method.