I need to make a brush sphere in Hammer. I'm not sure what's the best method, but I tend to end up with invalid structures after I finish making it look nice.

I use the cylindres approach, making each one smaller as I get closer to the top and the "cap" ends up as a cone. Works fine for 8-side cylindres, but that looks too crude so I want to make it 12. I'd only need to stack 3 for the top half, then copy and invert to have the bottom half.

Of course, it might be best to make a model, but I don't know how to make proper models. Anyone has any ideas that I can try for a brush sphere? I'd rather not ask someone to model a sphere for me.

Thanks...

I'd actually like to know how to make a hollow dome like in Uplink Extended.
Perhaps The Mighty Atom/ Muzzleflash can help us both.

You could use PB's twister, set up a sphere, and set it to put out the globe in goldsource mode.

http://www.users.on.net/~imperialcarp/Twister/Twister.html

Cool. What would I need to run it? Anything special?

The .NET framework, which you should already have.

Too bad Hammer does not support NURBS, because with NURBS you can make a perfectly smooth sphere.

@DiscoStu: I know you said that you need to make a brush sphere, but if you are interested, I can get you a low poly sphere model instead in the following file formats:

.obj
.3ds
.x
.cob
.dxf
.wrl

why dont you just get an .MDL plugin and offer the sphere to him in that? >_>

Man. Twister seems well made, but a good looking sphere in it takes a long time for HLBSP.
I am not using the high poly sphere in any maps, because VIS and RAD would likely take a million years. And even then, I'm func_walling it.

Nice tool though, thanks.

Nah I just want a brush sphere to keep it simple. Because I believe it should be a bit more complicated to animate it if it were a model... right?

Edit: This is what I did... shouldn't it work?

Looks like a good sphere to me.

This is the method I use. Just take a cone "spike" and from its side view cut it about twice. than with vertex manipulation grab each cut and move it down. Than vm the point of the spike downwards. Than just grab the whole thing, copy and paste it and rotate it 180 degrees and attach it to the bottom. Sometimes they don't look perfect but it almost always works for me.

Yeah but are your verteces on grid?

No but who cares?

You can add more segments to make it much better looking.

These are all only six segmented ones.

No but who cares?

Well, your compiler for one. I'm usually fine with rotating simple cubes and getting off-grid vertices, but if you can avoid it while making complex architecture you're way better off.

I've made a perfect igloo before by vertex manipulating a hollow cylinder so the sides go in towards the top. Copy and rotate and you have yourself a hollow sphere. This way you won't end up with 5 billion triangles like Twister makes.

And if you don't need an interior, this works fine too:That's not geometrically perfect, but it's completely feasible to be.

So in the end, it turns out my idea wasn't such a weird thing. I just needed a 48 ? ball. You'll soon find out whether it worked or not in the final compile...

Edit:
Error: Entity 7, Brush 1, Side 24: has a coplanar plane at (-18, 11, 78), texture WHITE
Error: Entity 7, Brush 2, Side 17: has a coplanar plane at (21, -12, 90), texture WHITE
Error: Entity 7, Brush 2, Side 23: has a coplanar plane at (-21, 12, 90), texture WHITE
Error: Entity 7, Brush 3, Side 17: has a coplanar plane at (21, 12, 90), texture WHITE
Error: Entity 7, Brush 3, Side 23: has a coplanar plane at (-21, -12, 90), texture WHITE
Error: Entity 7, Brush 4, Side 18: has a coplanar plane at (18, 10, 102), texture WHITE
Error: Entity 7, Brush 4, Side 24: has a coplanar plane at (-18, -11, 102), texture WHITE

Oh well. Gotta give a closer look to those vertices.

Edit2: LeafThread is taking way longer than I'd like for a test map...

One eazy, error-free way:

1. make a cylinder the diameter of the sphere you want.
2. clip the cylinder into segements
3. Use the scaling tool--Alt-E--to "shrink" segments to the desired taper. (you can rotate a copy of the cylinder and line it up behind your segments, to get the proper angles.

Warning: After you're done scaling segments, DO NOT try to VM them, or it will produce bad errors. (multiple re-scaling using the Alt-E tool however is fine)

Making lots error-free objects this way is simple, though your're limited by not being able to manipulate them with VM after they are scaled. (you could make the entire sphere out of tetragons and VM each thing to keep everything on grid, but this is largely unnecessary and a waste of time) Using the Alt-E scaling tool, you can also shrink stuff really small with many many sub-unit verticies, and STILL get no error..

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Interesting, thanks. I had totally forgotten about Alt-E.

Maybe I should try it, my sphere looked so nice in Hammer but it looks so very misaligned when compiled! I'll post a screenshot or two later.

Use the scaling tool--Alt-E--to "shrink" segments to the desired taper. (you can rotate

This is totally the tool you need...I just made a dome ceiling using an arch and then ALT-E the top....then i just copy, flip it upside-down so the edges map and repeat the process on the top side again...bit fiddly but possible

but does scaling snap to grid?

Usually, yes...I think, I don't check every time

HA! Does it matter really? My sphere was beautifully aligned to Hammer's grid and this is what came up in game:Yeah half the vertices are misaligned. And it's only the top half of the sphere.

HLFIX IS YOUR FRIEND! >.<

What's HLFIX? O_o

It's a tool that makes sure all your on-grid vertices stay that way when you compile. Else... ^^^^ that happens.
Check the links page? Idk where to locate it right now tho. Maybe a forum or tutorial search would help.

EDIT

HLFIX!!!

Yay! Interesting. Thanks!

Make sure you check the technical information, and i believe the COMPILATOR supports HLFIX. I'm not 100% sure

The new version does, but its not out yet. But you're using a neta, so you can.

YAY! Btw i still havent tried it yet... I was caught up in tring to fix my source entry - which i scrapped. So i'll load it up tonight. SorryAtom. (You'll get your review i promise!)

The beta you're using should also compile Source maps. Note: it does only compile Ep1 engine maps. For some stupid reason Orange Box maps fail to compile.

Wait, I can't use it in Hammer then?

It's a pre-compile tool. you run the RMF through HLFIX and then compile it. Read the site.

Usage

hlfix <mapname>[.rmf] [options]

Options:
-o <outfile> Output file (default is <mapname>.map or <mapname>.rmf)
-w <wadfile> WAD list file (default is wad.txt)
-r Output to RMF file instead of MAP file
-nt Don't tesselate non-planar faces
-nd Don't decompose non-convex solids
-nu Don't unite coplanar faces
-na Don't perform ANY geometry correction
-v Process and output visible objects only
-e <number> Epsilon factor for numeric comparisons (default is 1.0)

you can create a batch file in your maps folder something along the lines of

hlfix messedupcube.rmf -r

Save that as like.. cube.bat (save as type from notepad)
and it'll show up like a file with a gear on it. Double click it and it'll run hlfix with your map, and the "-r" outputs it as a .rmf not a map.BUT if you forget the "-r" extension, it'll output it as a .map, then you can use the wonders of the COMPILATOR to compile your map more effiiently than you can dream.

I remember Pepper made an example of this when I was a new member

http://www.twhl.co.za/vault.php?map=872

BUT if you forget the "-r" extension, it'll output it as a .map, then you can use the wonders of the COMPILATOR to compile your map more effiiently than you can dream.

Ah, the famous Compilator. I tend to forget it. I'll have to try it.

but does scaling snap to grid?

no not usually, but it will remain error free unless you try to VM it.

HLFIX is your friend

Hell yeah it is. Using HLFix, you have SO MUCH MORE flexibility in how you can build stuff, with no visual errors. I would not recommend using Hammer without it!

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