Really Stuck / making .bsp Created 17 years ago2007-07-24 10:42:03 UTC by PissCloud

I seem to have a silly problem with Valve Hammer Editor, I had it working a long time ago with no problems, but after a new install of it + Half-Life I can't get any map to load.

All the compile tools (tried VH tolls and Zoner's) are set up in the options, the error report checks and reports no errors for the map. Also in the options are "RTF directory" (valve hammer editormaps) and one for "place compiled maps in this directory before running the game" (half-lifevalvemaps) I have a info_player_start and a light in a simple box room.

F9 to load a map and it says cannot find map mymapname on server.

I've tried another editor called QuArK and it loads with no problems, but the tools and design suck balls so I'm not using that.

Here's something I don't understand - VHE saves maps in either .rtf or .map and QuArK saves them in bsp, is that right? The maps that are already in the half-lifevalvemaps folder are .bsp

It seems like H-L is not loading the maps becasue it's not bsp.

Please help, I'm going crazy with this mutherfucka.

Since I'm not overly familar with Quark, I won't comment on it, so I'll just say this instead.

RMFs are Valve's pre-compiled map format. They're essentially a form of text file (open one in Notepad and you'll see what I mean). When you hit F9, Hammer loads up four seperate programs in order to compile (or render) different aspects of a map (the physical geometry, the lighting, the visibility calculations and so on).

Not finding a map on the server can mean a few things, but the easiest thing to do first is to go to your maps directory in the HL folder and check if there's a rendered BSP there in the first place. If not, check your maps directory in the Hammer folder. Hammer compiles the BSP there first before copying it over to whatever maps folder you specified for the game.

Now, onto other issues: I would highly recommend switching over to Zoners Half-Life Tools instead of using the old q(uake) tools for compiling. The q tools are woefully outdated: Zoners are far more efficient and give a better insight into any compile errors that might have cropped up.

Your Hammer settings are fine, so I'm guessing there's an error in your map. Post the contents of the compile window in here.

You can't save your map as a *.bsp in QuArK, but can save it as *.map and *.qkm. I am sure, using it about 2 years. You have to compile the map like in Hammer...

Great sucess!

It works now, but I'm not exactly sure why..

I'd read a lot of different tutorials on how to set the thing up - the helpfile within Worldcraft should be enough.. Followed it to a tee, doesn't work.

After reading a comment somewhere.. I read that the links to each compile tool should not have spaces (btw I did try both the WC tools and Zoner's), but each program had a default install dir with spaces! If this was the problem I'm sure it would have stumped a lot of people because it obviosly doesn't metion that in the helpfile.

Also following the WC helpfile, I added just the halflife.wad to the texture setup. Another guide (maybe here?) said to load a few of them from the Half-Life folder so I tried that. The box room I was trying to make to test only had the AATrigger (Pink logo) texture in it and had no errors.

So, after doing both of these changes I tried Run again and to my surprise it worked!

Just a couple more questions now, I'll add them in the forum to seperate from this post.

Cheers.

I have his problem. Only when I do get mine to load, the bsp file refuses to update, leaving me with an old version. If I try to do anything to this situation, the map doesn't find itself. My bsp is stuck.

I had the problem you're describing, and it was because I'd screwed up along the compile line, and set the compile options for Spirit when the map was saving in the Valve/Maps folder. Make sure your HL is looking in the right mod directory when you compile, or separately load up HL and choose the mod you want before using the console to run the map.

I'm not using any kind of mods on this one. After this happened, I tried use a hollowed cube with a start and a light entities in it, and I got the same error. Screenshots to follow.

Try a front end compiler. This is just a Windows application that'll ease the process of compiling your maps. Plus, front ends even have more options.

Here are some front end compilers:

Half-Life Compilation Controller Outdated tool. I don't recommend this one.

Nem's Batch Compiler Pretty big tool that supports Half-Life 1 and Source games and mods.

The Compilator My own front end compiler. Made for beginning mappers. Supports only Half-Life 1 games and mods, so if you're gonna stick to Half-Life 1, pick this one.

How are you loading your map? Best is to check the "Don't run the game" at the compile-settings and then start up HL manually after compile and then starting up your map by writing "map name_of_your_map" in console.

Here are the screenshots.So, there you have it. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

very cool pictures!! Can you please do me a favour and put one up showing how to do the wad include option for compiling? If I understand it right I will then only need to upload a bsp map to a server and it will run - don't need to worry about the wad files after that.

At "Run Map [Advanced]" uncheck the box "$game_exe..." and after the compile start up HL manually and load your map(with instructions I gave you above), does it work then?

Also, are there any errors in the compile-log?

Holy crap, garganto pictures. I was trying to link to them instead of post them directly, but oh well.
I post these at my school because my computer isn't connected to the interweb, but I'll try that, Killer-Duck. Compiling without running, I think I have tried that, I'm not sure. I'll try it and post back later. Thanks.
Kill_The_Bug, wad include option? I thought you'd just upload it in a pak file as a whole and the game would take it as it needed it.

Have you actually tried my batch compiler yet (see a few posts up)? I know you're gonna find it usefull.

Ok. Downloaded that, then downloaded .Net Framework 3.0. Then downloaded MS Installer 3.0. And after all that (I have dialup at home), I'm ready to try it... when I get home.
I looked at it and it looks very good though.

.NET Framwork 3.0 eh? Never tested it for that, only for 2.0. Oh well.
So does it work?

Heh, was using a different thing called 'The Compilator.' Thing needed that and the MS Installer to run.
Batch compiler works awesome, but my problem with Hammer seems to have gone away. I'll use Batch for the last one, because it makes including wads much easier.

Killer_Duck, in Hammer use the -wadinclude parameter in the command line, or just get a third party compiler.

Killer_Duck, in Hammer use the -wadinclude parameter in the command line, or just get a third party compiler.

What!? I think you meant that for Kill_the_bug.

Oh, heh, yeah.

Sorry, Killer-Duck.

ok. but first i will introduce myself, im' Halflife_master im actually just a kid honest! .actually i use a different technique in compiling maps i create a batch file (.bat). frst you create a file called mapname.bat where mapname is the name of your map. right-clik it and click it then type the following in this format:

@echo off
hlcsg mapname
hlbsp mapname
hlvis mapname
hlrad mapname
copy mapname.bsp "C:half-lifecstrikemaps"
cd C:half-life
pause
hl -dev -console -game cstrike +sv_cheats 1 +map mapname

but before this you must put the folllowing files in the same folder with the batch file and the .map:
hlcsg
hlbsp
hlvis
hlrad

i already forgot the name of the website so just search it on google
then if you r already done doing the procedures above click on the .bat file and it will compile the just put it in the halflifevalvemaps folder!!!!!!!!!