Yeah so, I want to start mapping for Source. Portal takes up 5 fucking gig of hd space. That's stupid and ridiculous. I'm not installing a 5 gig game on my comp. I'm not going to even play the damn game. I just want to map for Source. Is there a simple way to do this?

Source is a engine, nothing more.

The 5 gigs is shared game files which you WILL need if you want to map, unless you feel like making each and every single resource for the map, and coding a whole new game from scratch, and then coding out the bridge between hammer and your game.

You can't 'map' for source.

I meant that I want to map using Source technology. And the only reason is because I'm trying to get a job and I need to pick up something newer than Goldsource. But would you recommend another route? Prolly not, as this is TWHL.

That 5 gigs isn't just entity code and whatnot. I'm willing to bet most of it is level files. Is there a smaller game that uses Source with a basic set of entities? I'm unsure what you mean by "shared game files". I'm not sure if I'm really looking for an answer here, because I already know what the answer is. I'm just complaining. I have more important things than some pop culture hype with shamelessly blocky level design to fill 5 gigs with. Cheers.

The 5 gigs is both Portal and the common files that are shared across ALL Source games. This includes a large array of scripts, sounds, textures, and models. The vast majority of these common files are really just the game files for HL2, but they're still shared across all games nonetheless.
Portal, alone, is really only just over 1 gig.

If you want to map using Source technology, you will have to map for a Source game. If Portal is the only Source game you have, then you will have to map for Portal.

If you want to map something that will look good on your resume or profile, Portal might not be the best way to go, since it's quite restricting as far as environments go. You might be better mapping for plain ol' Half Life 2.

Why is 5GB such a big deal? These days you can pick up hard drives that could have 250 copies of Portal installed for less than 100 bucks. If you think 5GB is a lot of space, it's time to upgrade your computer.

If you don't mind what game you map for, you could download Alien Swarm, which is a free Source game that includes the SDK (and is smaller than Portal), but to map for another game, you need to download the whole thing. Steam doesn't let you play partially-downloaded games.

Also, why wouldn't you want to play Portal? It's a fantastic game.

Uh...most modern games are at LEAST 8 gb or so? Off the top of my head, Dead Space is 9GB, Modern Warfare 2 is 20GB, Dragon Age is pretty close to MW2, Hell, my downloads folder is more than 5 GB. What's stupid and ridiculous is accusing a 5GB game of being stupid and ridiculous.

Sorry for the inflammatory tone, but...this is stupid and ridiculous.

AT: My downloads folder is more like 300GB...but that's because I never clean the thing

Sounds like an aspiring level designer who doesn't like any of the aspects of level design or the game he's chosen to map for, and has some odd hangups about HD space allocation.

Why don't you just pick another engine if you're going to get all worked over over dedicating 5GB to so-called "pop-culture hype"?

Map for Wolfenstein 3D. It takes up 7MB including map editor.

Discostu wins.

Diplomacy considered, thats probably the best suggestion so far.

The only gcf that contains more then the shared files is the game content, half life 2 has only 800 mbs, so either way you have to download 3 gigs of content, plus the content size of whatever game you are mapping for.

You can't map for source, you map for the game.

Yeah, just get HL2 and map for that. And the majority of portal isn't maps, it's models and skins.

Thanks for the replies. As for my problem with a 5 gig game... I just really like the aesthetic of the games of the early to late 90s and find it far superior to the realism-obsessed technology of today; so I've kind of kept out of the loop for a while and 5 gig sounds (to me) like far more than should be required to make an absolutely astounding video game (which it is, as System Shock 2 and Descent 1 & 2 are proof.) Call me old-fashioned. I work on a dual-core laptop with a Quadro NVS 100m and a beautifully-sufficient 40gb hd. I love my hard drive and am very conscious of what I put on it. Much of my problem, I'm sure, is that I have no passion for games like Portal, or HL2 for that matter.

If a game is a work of art, games of the 90s are to contemporary games what avant-garde was to socialist realism: experimentation, misdirection, and spontanuity versus reality, glorification, and propagandization (and BFGs.) Sadly, I don't share the gaming industry's enthusiasm for the latter.

Sounds like an aspiring level designer who doesn't like any of the aspects of level design or the game he's chosen to map for, and has some odd hangups about HD space allocation.

Why don't you just pick another engine if you're going to get all worked over over dedicating 5GB to so-called "pop-culture hype"?

Fair point. Thing is, I can't name another contemporary engine which doesn't also fall under this category. Nonetheless, I've decided I'm going to try picking up the UE3 enigne to see if it's any less of an annoyance. Yeah, I'll be sacrificing more hard drive space than I had hoped; but at least it wasn't made by a company I have a serious grudge for.

In before people flame you saying you only dislike current gen games because you can't run them.

No seriously though, you may want to try picking up a copy of a good unreal engine 2 game, those generally are small and unrealed is great, stuff such as the original unreal tournament, rainbow six 3 raven shield, and any of the other unreal tournament games should do fine really.

you can get the DOOM Ultimate Editor, which will fit on just one of your 1.44MB diskettes.

)

Levity aside, it WOULD be nice to be able to map with a more portable-minded editor, something you could load on a netbook and roll with.

least it wasn't made by a company I have a serious grudge for.

What has Valve done that gave you a grudge against them? Besides being part of the huge 'realism' crowd (and what FPS company isn't?) what is there that bothers you?

o_O This is one weird thread, hehe. Don't like realism? Then go back to Wolfenstein 3D.

That's simple-minded, Saavik256. Realism and technological capacity aren't synonymous. Realism is the style that has dominated the gaming market, presumably because people want to "immerse" themselves. But why can't people immerse themselves in something abstract, surreal, or at the very least DIFFERENT? Contemporary technological capacity equips developers to pursue those goals with every bit as much next-gen graphic complexity as the realistic goals they're instead pursuing. Unfortunately, the normal consumer's mindset seems to be that the more realistic it looks, the more amazing it is.

Wolfenstein 3D was as realistic as it got at the time, and was commercial garbage all the same. But I do enjoy working with a few older engines, from the Doom to Half-Life time period.

JeffMOD: Well, for one, I think it would do justice to say Valve STARTED the realism plague. They basically created the stardard model for a next-gen FPS with HL2. And speaking of standardization, Steam. I don't like standardized platforms for game distribution or anything else involving the creative process. Valve is the Super Wal-Mart of the game industry.

Interestingly enough, the local super wal-mart has the shittiest game selection I've ever seen.

Not similar to steam at all.

Edit: and another thing, I wouldn't call distribution a part of the "creative process" and I definitely wouldn't say the whole idea of steam suppresses creativity. Its possible for game developers to distribute their own content digitally, without whoring themselves out to a publisher. Doesn't that encourage more thought on the game itself? =/

Steam isn't needed to distribute content digitally, nor is any standardized platform.

And you completely missed the point of my Super Wal-Mart analogy. What does "of the game industry" mean to you?

You're full of shit. That is all.

Well, I talk a lot of shit. But there's always room for me to change my mind.

If you can find the room underneath all that shit.

Valve is the Super Wal-Mart of the game industry.

I don't get your analogy. It would be more appropriate to say that Valve is to digital distribution as Microsoft is to operating systems. Wal-Mart has plenty of viable competitors.

Steam isn't needed to distribute content digitally, nor is any standardized platform.

But it's more convenient for both the consumer and the seller. Besides, for years Steam was exclusively for Valve games. Then they branched out and let other companies sell their games through Steam. During that time, other companies had plenty of opportunities to build their own digital distribution platform, but they didn't. They flocked to Steam. That was their choice, and they chose to make a standard out of Steam. Stop using Windows all together if you're against this sort of thing, because it's exactly the same story.

Well, for one, I think it would do justice to say Valve STARTED the realism plague. They basically created the stardard model for a next-gen FPS with HL2.

That's about as sound as blaming ID Software for the mere existence of the FPS genre. For a while after the first Doom came out, all first-person shooters were called "Doom clones".
If Valve didn't do it, someone else would have had the ingenuity to do it eventually, anyway. You can't blame the creative people who did it first. Companies observe a product's success and think, "Well if I do that too, then I could be just as successful as they are!" You see this all the time in television, film, toys -- you name it. But you don't blame who did it first. Ever. Because that's just promoting a total lack of ingenuity.

Edit: Ugh it's late/early and I'm tired. That argument probably isn't even on the right topic.

OR you can get Unity3D so you can model/map in a 3D program of your choice and learn Javascript. 'tis free.

Other than that, the Alien Swarm idea is best.