Dimentions Created 15 years ago2009-03-02 20:24:56 UTC by Mowgli

Hey all. I'm having nightmares about compiling my map to find that I've made doors 10 foot wide and railings/barriers as thick as the player.

What are the ideal, 'realistic' dimensions of everything?

Railings based on the stock Half-Life {RAIL1C texture:
32h - What thickness looks least blocky?

Doors based on an article I read:
64w 96h - This doesn't seem right!!!

Windows:
height from floor/ceiling? - Should they rest level with the tops of railings/barriers???

Are there significant differences between HL1 and HL2 scaling?

The differences between Hl2 and HL1 are small, but existant. I've found you can get away with 6 unit thick walls, 3 unit thick doors, and 1 unit thick railings. If in doubt, though, use models to check your scale, as humanoid NPC's always show a good size for real-world objects when you compare them.

Basically, one map unit is approximately one US inch (2.3cm). So 60 units would be about 5 feet (a kid's height) or ~1.6 meters if you're looking at metric.

But don't scale tight areas of your maps to inches, since that does'nt always turn out good. The player is a bit fat compared to that scale.

There's one thing in particular that used to bug me. When you want a wall instead of a railing, or anything that the player looks out of/over (like a window), it's really noticeable when the wall is too thick - you can't look down over the walls. Sure I could replace it with a railing and make it as thin as I liked - but I like walls. Brick walls.

At the moment I think all my walls are 16 units thick. If this is too much, I've got quite an epic adjustment task ahead of me which I'd like to get out of the way before I start adding crazy detail!!

I'm mapping for HL1 at the moment by the way, despite how much I want to map for source again (don't ask).

I usually go 8 or 12 units for walls. 16 is rather thick.

6 is my magic number for walls. Mine are usually plaster or metal, though. Brick should be thicker. Go for 8 or 12.

I always try going for 96-112 x 80 units for simple doors, 4 to 2-unit-thick railings, 144 to 176 for ceiling height and, depending on what I'm mapping, 16-48 for wall thickness.

The basic dimensions on most sites usually end up looking somewhat small for me, so I mostly add another 16-32 units to each, which looks pretty good.

Thanks all, this is some useful info.

I think the height of walls/ceilings is something interesting to play with. High ceilings are usually considered desirable and give a light airy feeling, whereas low ceilings are cheap and claustrophobic. Some variation never hurt. Maybe it's best to change ceiling height between rooms, hallways, e.t.c.

I'm thinking realism here, primarily.

The player is a bit fat compared to that scale

Freeman can be a bit chubby. I think 48 units is the minimum a player can crawl through. In real life of course, a person of normal dimensions could squeeze though a lot smaller.

True dat.