I'd have to agree there actually...

Strictly speaking, leaks aren't the most problematic thing you'll run into while mapping. If you map correctly, you'll find it pretty impossible to generate a leak. I barely have leaks anymore (they usually come around cos I've done something silly, like leave an entity in the void) and they're pretty easy to find.

Never ever ever ever ever ever put a sky box around your map. It drives the compiler crazy because it has to "compile" the outside of the map aswell. Not to mention horrid lighting and frame rate in the game. There is no soultution to leaks, just easy ways of finding them.

When you have a leak, the compiler tells you the closest entity for the leak. It also gives the co-ordinates for the leak. The first 2 are the x and y co-ordinates. This mean that you can hover your mouse over the top view in hammer until you find the entity. Using this will give you a rough idea of the area.

You can also place a big box over the suspected area or the whole map and make the box smaller and smaller, compiling every time. IF you suddenly get the leak error, you know that the error is in between the box as it is now, and the way it was before you last moved it.

If you map correctly, you'll find it pretty impossible to generate a leak.

I get leaks pretty often when fiddling with complex architecture and they're sometimes very hard to find & fix without drastic stuff like that block-over-map method, or creating info_targets every 256 units to get a better idea of where your leak is.

Here is one I learnt from my years of experience. I hope you remember this one.

Subtle detail is just as important as normal/obvious detail, don't ever question that. Obvious detail makes the level interesting and subtle detail makes the level more like a real place. The mind will subconsciously pick up these subtle details and it will add to the over all realism. In fact, it is a lack of these subtle details that the player will pick up. The same rule applies for sound design, you need your obvious more louder sounds, and your quieter subtle sounds.

So the next time you think about adding a piece of rubbish here, or a tiny crack there, or some tiny detail or subtle sound that you think its not worth because not many players will notice it, you had better add it in and add in some other subtle detail as punishment for even questioning its existence.

Manson ?!?!?!

Spam ?!?!?! - mod

I rarely get leaks anymore, like Ant said, if you make a map using your brain then the risk of an unintentional leak is almost impossible.

leak finding methods

there are more than 7 ways to find leaks. But not all are useful in all situations.

1. easiest if you can run VHE 3.5 editor, is to compile CSG/BSP only, then import the points file into the VHE 3.5 version. however you can also load the pointfile into VHE3.4 or WC 3.3, but it does not work so well.

1b. one improvement for VHE 3.4 or WC 3.3 in editor leak finding is to edit the point file with wordpad, removing all but the first and last points. this tends to make a straight line - much easier to read, but far less exact.

2. second easiest and most common leakfinder is to open the map in play and load in the pointfile in console with "particles 50000". You will then see a dotted line in your level that bounces around like crazy! Just follow it, and the point where it leaves the level is where the leak is happening.

3. There is a handy program called "Leakmarker" (v0.1). It reads your pts-files and draw boxes around leaks, so you can find leaks by ease. however this program has been known to fail in some cases. don't get stuck on it too much.

4. the purple/red brush leakfinding method. basicly you skybox around your level with with brushes with red texture lighting. this plugs the leaks temp, and will give a red light showing thru any leak area. do NOT keep the skybox afterward!

4b. another editor version is to use the 3d view with red/purple brush skybox. don't compile, but use the 3d color view and cruise your level looking for red/purple thru the cracks. do NOT keep the skybox afterward!

5. some recommend the the BIG BRUSH method, such as the Snark Pit, although i don't find it so great for multi leaks. best for teeeny leaks or weird ones. brush covers 1/2 map, either leak or no. then 1/4 where you think problem is. then 1/8, 1/16, 1/32. by then you should have a good idea.

however sometimes even the big brush method will not help if there is an entity buried in a brush, or outside the map somehow. be aware of that.

6. if you have really complex architecture, there is the skyboxing/wireframe 2 method developed by ComCray at the Collective - a lot like purple brush, but using wireframe to see if you can see the skybox polys instead of looking for a purple face. better for teeeny multiple leaks. do NOT keep the skybox afterward!

7. ComCray also developed the visgrouping method over at the collective too. this was again for some complex architecture that developed a leak. in what you think is the problem area, visgroup the brushes/blocks that are the outside "border" into one group. make all of them a bright color so they show up well.
now set one screen into 3-D flat view mode and size it to full-screen (shift+z).
When you move around the leak area in the one screen you may see some flickering here and there, sometimes the flickering will be a visible seam which stays in view for a a few seconds. That's where the leak is.
What happens is that the screen renderer tries to light up the side of a brush which should actually be covered by the brush next to it.

8. i think there are other methods, but if you are still stuck at this point, consider a new map?

From Verc collective forum by tommy14, 21st Jul 2003

OK i have 2 tips that i can share today

Tip#1 Make your maps as realistic as possible.

Means that what you make your map make it look like everyday things.
Like for example, when you build a small warehouse and there is no columns or pillars, it's so unreal and your map will suck. it'll look ugly

Tip#2 Let your imaginationflow freely while makin' your maps.

Meeans that when you create your maps you just make all the parts in diferent locations in the grid then later organize it

I'll give more of my tips if i can think of some. I wish this was a big help for the compo

Thank you captain obvious.
I shall stay away from warehouses.
Like always

Tip#1

Not always the case. Some sur-real maps have been extremely popular. Can't name any right now though.

Tip#2

Let your imagination flow freely and then cut it down with your brain. Your "imagination" needs to fit in the engine limits.

Not always the case. Some sur-real maps have been extremely popular. Can't name any right now though.

Most HL maps, especially HL1 maps, have a very unrealistic sense to them imho.
It only helps increasing originality.

Surely you can create realistic enviroments, but even then a specific enviroment gets spiced up with for example, pillars, that in reality don't belong in that specific area one is creating. Why? Because it makes things more interesting. Not all games are realistic WW2 games..

Beware of surreal maps in source though. If you aim to do one with custom textures and glowy looking stuff, it's very hard to get to look right.

If you make shiny/glowing things, they dont look exactly right with a normal map. Everything else (assuming you use standard tex's) does use it though. That will make your textures look out of place, so it takes a looot of tweaking.

Leaks:

If you know that walls usualy connect to a floor at the bottom and the cealing at the top, you are very unlikely to get leaks, if you just stick to that basic rules.

If you did create a leak, (leaks are indeed created, they don't just appear randomly) just open the map in hammer and look around, the leak is pretty much always a wall that doesn't go all the way up or all the way down.

Unless you have a big window in the cealing and forgot to but a skybrush on top of it.

Details:

Adding details in a HL1 map is a tricky, tricky thing to do. Details made out of brushes is sometimes needed, like vents, lights and other basic stuff. But I've noticed that the best way to add details in HL1 is simply to alter the textures. If you already have custom textures, make a bunch of different walltexture with the same base but add grafiti, stains, paincracks and whatnot on them, or use decals to make the same effect.

Brick walls.

All the bricks in a brick wall doesn't look the same. Most of the time they have slightly different shades of the colour they have. Keep this in mind when you make brickwall textures, make a few different textures that tile with eachother but looks different, it will make your walls look sooo much better.

Lighting:

I know, Im one of the few people that uses lightbulbs insted of texlights. I use this method simply because that's the way it's done in real life. Just look at the room you're in now, unless it's a tiny, tiny room, the light isn't as static as with texlights in HL. Some walls are more lit then others.

Also, if your map has windows, use a light a enviorment so that some light is coming in from the windows. Small effect, I know but it really makes a difference.

Not always the case. Some sur-real maps have been extremely popular. Can't name any right now though.

(i was going to post a link to my 'my maps' page, but there is none, or i can't find it. i liked that feature, where did it go?)

Even if you can't find a leak, use the NULL texture to place another layer of brushes on the outside of the problematic area. This stops the leak from reaching the void, and are usually visible if you noclip around in game through the walls of the inclosed area. I deal with tricky geometry all the time, this is the only way for me to solidify my maps.

Another good practice is to fill areas the player cannot get to with the clip brush. I.e., above and outer scenery around the map. I believe this cuts down on clip nodes since the complex nature of the objects you're blocking out will be inside a clip block, and what you see is on the visual hull, which you should NULL the backsides of anyway.

Best habit i have is one where I make stuff and test compile it constantly. Before I finish a map, I may have compiled it close to 40 times. Each time, I pay close attention to the compile log. Watching the summary and usage percentages carefully. This can easily let you know how much more detail you can add. If the usages are like 60% clipnodes, 55% faces, and 95/400 models, you can add a great deal more in detail, if the number are reaching the maximum, you may want to NULL and block clip as much as possible, or combine entities into common groups rather than individuals (like a bunnch of small lighting fixtures in one part of a hallway), or delete absurd details hogging your map resources, like a crazy brush prefab.

Try to add extra realism to a map.
Placing lights for example. Even if the map is set in daytime, you should still put in light sources (eg, lightbulbs), even if they are unnecessary and turned of. In a building new lights aren't put up every night. They're there in the daytime as well.
For realistic placement of light sources, try making a version of the map that has no daylight. Place the lights so that there are no unrealistically dark areas.

Regarding the hlbsp: Error: Exceeded MAX_MAP_CLIPNODES error:

If you're running out of clipnodes, and you can't redesign the map, try setting the cliptype to "simple" to give some more clipnode leeway.

Zoner's Command Reference says "smallest" frees up the most clipnodes, but I've found running -CLIPTYPE SIMPLE works the best; it reduced my clipnodes from an uncompilable 150% to a compilable 99.5%!

)

Precise mode almost halves the ammount and keeps the clean collisions. ZHLT upgraded the code quite a bit to do that. Now I compile only in Precise, which allows me to add larger and more complex areas. Believe it or not, my Pylons map was huge, I had maxed the nodes out and switched to precise to see what would happen, it cut it down to about ~45%! overall the map was finished at ~75% and i could have added more if i wanted to.

Use precise mode. its good.

Also, anything generally flat that has fine detial (like a ceiling or something) place clip brush over it to flatten it out so it counts as 1 instead of 32 or whatever. Any area the play can not access, fill it in with the clip brush so the number is drastically lowered. Also a good idea for multiplayer maps to keep control of where the player can go. For fine details like lights and cords, use func_illusionary to save on even more, not by much but it adds up.

Clipnodes max out fast sometimes, so reduce them when necessary. no one is going to miss being able to stand on a tiny little edge on the wall, or the window sill. get it?

Work smarter, not harder.

Idk i thought precise made more clipnodes, but reduced sticky corners. I use precise most of the time too, but my map makes too much clipnodes with precise; maybe it depends on the map?

Anyway i found another way to drastically reduce clipnodes which goes along with what you were sayin: I dropped my clipnodes from 97% to 74% by taking a half-a-dozen intricate buildings/vehicles and making them func_illusionaries. (using then simple clipbrush shapes to approximate the shape of the bugger like you'd do with a model.

Now i can build the protoss portion of my map using this method! It should be noted you'd probably never use this method in a regular, playable map, as my wpolys are up around 5000 right now, lawl. Probably in a normal, well-built MP map, you should never run out of clipnodes.

When I see a map , I judge it a little ( since I am a mapper - not a good one - , so ....) . How , you ask ?
I'm judging the map by 2 aspects : life and arhitecture . A map that has good arhitecture but has a lack of life is useless and boring ( it's boring because there are other good games a player can play , and because GoldSource is really old now , it's in a tight competition with other new engines) .
A map that is full of life , animated and interactive but without good arhitecture , well ,it works , but it can be better . the hybrid is the best . Try building a hybrid .

To be honest , I'm not respecting this tip all the time .

This time i have a good one

Tip for map ambiences.

Make an extra folder then extract the sounds from the pak0.pak file and put it in that folder you just created so you dont need to open pak explorer to view each name of the file and putting the directory in teh ambient_generic entity

same goes for sprites...

Not so sure about that, HLG, here's why:

To preview sounds, use either Wally or PakScape. Both of these application can play sound by simply doubleclicking the wav.

For sprites, you use Sprite Explorer. Not only can you compile individual bmp's, gifs and whatnot into new sprites, it also allows you to preview all the sprites found in Half-Life, animated and single frame sprites.

The same goes for models. Jed's Model Viewer allows you to preview all animation sequences, replace textures, resize and more.

You can't do all of this in Windows.

Still, i would recommend extracting only sprites and models into valve/models and valve/sprites to make models and sprites visible in Hammer (requires Hammer 3.5 beta and a FGD file that support this). Extracting sounds is pointless and a waste of space.

Yes. I'm approaching my 80gb limit as we speak. (4gig to go baby!)
I probably have 7 copies of every half life file that ever existed somewhere.

Mapping tips :

F9 is a no-no

Use compilator

I probably have 7 copies of every half life file that ever existed somewhere.

Hah, same here. I'll just format my HDD once I back things up.

Muzzleflash: oh...nice advice tries out

A map that is full of life , animated and interactive but without good arhitecture , well ,it works , but it can be better grin - . the hybrid is the best . Try building a hybrid .

Returning to my affirmations , a map full of life can beat a map with a masterpiece arhitecture . Why ? Imagine yourself in a big museum , with extremely good arhitecture and big , but without artifacts , sculptures , books etc ...

Life also = interactivity . Killing monsters isn't always fun . I'm not very good at making tips or tutorials , so here are some ideas :

1.Killing monsters with weapons isn't always fun . Try inventing mechanism that act as a weapon ( and I'm not reffering to the func_tanks , altough they're fun sometimes too) . For example : You're in a train and the train follows a line ( theoretically ... practically it follows some path_tracks) . Why put them near the line and not on the line ? Trust me , crushing monsters is fun .

2. Make monsters kill themselves . An example ? OK : You end up in a huge room with a huge pit . At the other side of the pit there is a swarm of houndeyes . Why not make some scripted_sequences and force them to fall in the pit ? ( in game it'll look like they come after you and then they fall) .

3. When I played Duke Nukem I saw a lot of scenes with explosions that damaged building , earthquakes etc .... try adding these in your level , too .

4. Inspire from the real world , not from other games. Inspire from your own childish fantasies , not from films . This makes your map more original . Example : Make some looped music ( there is a free program , called "magix music maker " and I guarantee it's good) . Find some Cd-player textures . Make a Cd-player and then add triggers , lights , the looped music , and a small sprite and you're done !

5. More ideas will come from my brain ......

I agree with some points there.

1. To make killing monsters more fun, don't put them in the same situation over and over. Example, dont have the player fighting grunts down a corridor with no cover and then keep doing it. Have grunts in side rooms, give grunts and advantage like grenades to make the player change tactics. That's what it's about, making the player evolve, adapt or whatever you want to call it.

2. Don't overuse this feature. Players will simply use this to hardly fight at all and avoid conflict.

Ok here are some of my other ideas :

6. Use models to give your map a more detailed feel ! Models can substitute world brushes . Just make some clip brushes over them to be "solid" . Example : some skeletons and big momma gibs in a scarry place would be fun and could also alert you about something that is going to happen soon .
There are animated models . For example : the "breather.mdl" model looks like a pump machine . Why not use it ? If you even want to make it feel "solid" you can add some transparent func_trains to it !

7. For many people "detail" means putting tens of crates in a map . Putting crates isn't a bad idea , I do this too , but I try to find ways of detailing with other objects . The problem is that putting crates is overused sometimes ( especially in counter-strike) . What the heck ? In the real world i don't see only crates as blocking objects . A rock can block my way , a pile of wood can block my way, some damaged cars can block my way etc ...... ( damaged cars are hard to reproduce from world brushes . Here's where the models save us from a lot of hassle : a model car and some clip brushes and you're done)

8. IF you're making a relatively small or medium map , you shouldn't worry about placing lots of entities . You make a house . You make some rooms . You make lights . Why not put some switches ?

9. More to come ....

clever use of the NULL texture can make models cast shadows. but remember that the lighting for a model is sampled from what directly beneath their origin.

say, that's an idea.

Don't ask such questions in this thread, please.

This is not the thread for for asking about models! start a thread or search forum or google or all of the above.

; )

i cant even remember what i asked now anyway... so nevermind. lolz

Compile tip:

I now take a brightly-textlighted arrow and move it to the most recent spot i changed, right before a compile. I do this to make sure the compile actually went through. If you compile, go in-game and don't see the arrow where it should be, you know some stupid error stopped your compile from completing normally.

I dunno how many times i've edited a map repeatedly, and can't figure out why a problem area is still screwed up, only to find out the map wasn't actually compiling. If you're changing something drastic of course, using a marker would not be necessary, but i'm amazed at how many times a dumb brushing error borked my compile and i didn't even know.

Hopefully this will save some time and unneeded problems = )

edit: here's a pic:

Mass-Selection tip for visgroups using the entity guide.

I was just editing someones map to add to the rooms coop project <cough> rimrook's riverpool<cough cough> and found the map so completely full of big cycler and sprite entity boxes, it was impossible to see or do anything.

At first i started manually ctrl-selecting each one and hitting the "hide" visgroup button, but then a much better way dawned on me. The method involves the entity report and applies to any entity, normal or brush-based:1. Open the entity report under the "map" menu in hammer.
2. Ctrl or Shift + select all the entities you want (in my case all the cyclers and sprites).
3. Click "Go to" button. Now everything you selected is also selected in the Hammer editing space. (close the entity when you're done selecting)
4. Click the "Hide" button and Voila! You can visgroup an immense number of entities in this manner in a few seconds.

That is my tip i hope it's useful to you! = )

This one has been brought up numerous times before, but this time it comes with some visual stimulation:(The right one is how a correct sky should be created.)

I think this is even better:

I think this is even better:

Depends on the situation/map, too low sky will give troubles when the players want to throw grenades high in the air. The middle sky-brush could be a good idea as long as players can't get up there.

If you want to throw bombs then the first picture is better.
You would always hit sky if the wall is short.

raise the ceiling?

Compile your map with Entities only!
This is a well-known method for advanced mappers, but i'm guessing there are a lot of goldsource mappers out there that don't know about this highly useful practice.

If you'd like to change some entity properties of ANY entity in your map, or even ADD a new point-based entity to your map, and DON'T feel like recompiling your whole damn map for one ambient_generic or func_door properties/flags, then you're in luck! Use the -onlyents command paramater for CSG portion of compile!

Step 1: make sure there is a copy of the the latest BSP of the map you're trying to edit is in your "Valve Hammer Editor\maps" directory. (for most people, this will be the case by default.

Step2: Disable the VIS and RAD portions of your compile. Under the CSG portion, add the command parameter: -onlyents

(If you're using a batch compiler like Compilator(which you should for many reasons), then you can do steps 1 & 2 all with checkboxes.

Step3: Compile. Now when you test your map, you will find your entity values have been changed, or your new ambient_generic will be there, but None of your VIS or lighting data will have been altered! This is amazingly helpful to make quick entity changes, especially for huge maps that take hours to compile...

I hope this is useful to someone1 = )

What about when I make a new solid entity ? Will it compile and show in-game ( I'm expecting it not te be rendered after vis, but at least will it appear ?)

I don't think it would be rendered, but you could try it. You could however edit any brush-based entity without a problem...

-onlyents only apply to point entities.

Ah thanks I was looking for something like this.

This might also be a no-brainer, but to keep things organized I put entities close to the button/door/whatever that triggers them. For example: If a trigger_once fires a multi_manager, I place the multi_manager on one of the edges of the trigger_once brush. And let's say that multi_manager triggers a bunch of trigger_changetargets, then I place those entities in a neat row next to the multi_manager.

I remember, in my early mapping days I would place trigger entities anywhere in the center of a room or in a corner, and if the room contained a lot of triggers, this would result in quite a mess.

Yeah, grouping the images can also be helpful. Once they're grouped you can also hide them to reduce the visual clutter in your map while you're developing it...

I found this recently, and it's pretty useful ( I don't know if these tips work for hammer 3.5 but they do for source).

Press SHIFT+Z when you cursor is over a view to maximize the view in the hammer window. Press SHIFT+Z again to go back to normal mode.

When you want to move anything in the 2D views, select the object, press and hold ALT+Z . Now you can move the object as the grid wouldn't even exist ! And the position is saved as it is after the compilation. I find this useful for placing little objects and small props.

[EDIT] Also press and hold Space while pressing the left-click and moving the mouse in a view to move it freely.

MAPPING TIP:

Unless for personal gain, try to avoid doing things like this.
The comments show why.

I'm new to source mapping, but i just found Hammer 4 remembers selections! (as in, if you spend a bunch of time ctrl-selecting brushes and accidentally cancel it, simply ctrl-z should return your selecion group!!)

AWESOME

Yeah, that and remembering the proportions of your last selected brush are pretty awesome features.