Sizeing Right? Created 16 years ago2007-05-24 21:28:13 UTC by Cyborg

I always have the problem on brush sizes, if I first start a map, and get a layout going. It's ether way to big, or just somehow mis-shapended. I know hammer shows the dimensions of the current bursh you have select, but that doesn't seem to help much. Does anyone have any tips on getting correct sizes?

For Half-Life, make your steps 8 or 16 units high (8 is usually better), and your doors about 64 units wide and 96 units high. For Counter-Strike, your steps should be 8 units high (16 will look about the height of a desk), and your doors should be 48 units wide and 80 units in height.

Based on these simple dimensions, you can get a feel of your scale. Also use your player start to judge how big things will be. It's not perfect, but it gives you a general idea of the scale you're working on.

But always remember that for Counter-Strike, things are significantly smaller than in Half-Life. This means that all those prefabs (which I personally think are already too big) will look really horrible.

Hammer also shows the dimensions of selected brushes if ya didn't know.

I usually base my maps on blocks of 64 units. the player is a little smaller than 64 units wide and long, and 128 units high. My halls are usually 128 wide or 198 wide, which is 2 or 3 players wide. Its just a useful guide for me.

As far as objects go, i found it effective to proportion objects to inches. Ironically, 1 inch = 1 hammer unit. (despite what you might hear, the player is 73 units high. 72 inches = 6 feet)

Here is a copypaste from VERC, which has accurate dimension info. (thanks VERC!)
[quote]
Ground Obstacle Height
This is the maximum height, in units, an object can be while still allowing the player to walk over it.

* crouched: 18
* standing: 18

Overhead Obstacle Height
This is the minimum distance, in units, that can be between the ground and an object while still allowing the player to pass underneath.

* crouched: 37
* standing: 73

Minimum Path Width
This is the minimum width, in units, that can be between two objects while still allowing the player to pass between them.

* width: 33

Jump Height
This is the maximum height, in units, an object can be while still allowing the player to jump on top of it.

* crouched: 44
* walking: 44
* running crouch-jump: 62

Jump Span
This is the maximum distance, in units, that can be between two objects of the same heigh, while still allowing the player to jump from one object to the other.

* crouched: 99
* walking: 109
* running: 239
* running crouch-jump: 259

[/quote]

EDIT: Yeah, the player size in cs is noticebly smaller, making the map feel larger.

I know hammer shows the dimensions of the current bursh you have select

...

Hammer also shows the dimensions of selected brushes if ya didn't know.

In case anyone cares, after some intense calculations, I measure 1 unit to equal 2.5 cm (sorry for all those who don't use the metric system )

This could be helpful if you want to made something to life scale in
Half-Life.

The units don't actually equate to anything. There's nothing in the engine that has an exact, accepted measurement, thus nothing that can be used to calculate what 1 unit actually represents.

Though I guess you could 'guesstimate' it as being close to 2.5, if you wish.

If you're trying to build something to scale in Half-Life, it's still going to be easier just to eyeball it, and it'll probably end up looking more realistic.

Just put out a info_player start and use that as to measure.
That's what I do and it works fine! That way you'll see how big the player will be on every location of the map.

What Tosse said.
It's the easiest way to get your scale right.

I measured it off the "official" average height of a person (assuming Gordon isn't a giant or a midget ) and then used the bounding box height in units of the info_player_start entity, divided the average by the number of units high and ta-da! You work out how big one unit is. Not that hard, some of us were paying attention in math class!

I can mow use this to make fine detail mapping, eg cups, bottles, bikes, anything you use fine brushes for. Keeps the scale good. Best of all, make something twice as big as normal using the "1 unit = 5 cm" measurement ratio, scale it to 50% and you have VERY fine brushes, if HL lets you get away with it or not depends on what you are making.