Modular level design in Half-Life? Created 6 years ago2018-01-05 21:01:38 UTC by ninja defuse

I have started a small project, my test map has not been compiled yet so i can't tell u how that will look like, perhaps there mighty troubles compiling so many brushes (i hope not... )
The idea behind this is to speed up level creation and make it more funny and easier than it was before.
My brushes are 128x128 and all of them are grid snapped to each other. One of the most trouble things are corners where one of the wall is going to have different lenght than the "base" modular wall. I think level creating is going to be a three step process:

1) Creating modular brushes depending on the level theme
i think it would be the most time consuming, because u will create hundreds of modular stuff following a theme u need at the moment (underground theme or maybe laboratories), but it might be also the funny time2) Starting to build a level.
most of that time u will just duplicate modular brushes, and rotate them

3) Placing details, lights, models, prefabs...
detailing the modular level, u should place them wisely, one of the most important thing is "to break modular look and fell" of the map

the article in the link below helped a bit
http://blog.joelburgess.com/2013/04/skyrims-modular-level-design-gdc-2013.htmlWhat do u think about this in goldsrc? Is that engine engine and map editor capable to do such things??

ps. if everything goes fine i will post a finished map

sounds like randmap

There should be no problem with modular level design in GoldSrc. It was possible from the very beginning with use of prefabs, though most of them were used for more detailed objects.

I think that you may check texture alignment to avoid issues, but there should be no problems besides that.

Actually, this sounds pretty interesting. I'm very excited to see what comes out of it. Good luck with your little project!

I've always considered something like this, but there's a lot of moving parts, more than it seems on the surface (especially once you start thinking in three dimensions). It also pretty much defies the entire point of mapping, but hey, that's no reason not to do it
Keep us posted, I'd like to keep an eye on this.

the test map has been compiled well so i am going to detail a bit more the level and i will post a playable map with gameplay and screenshoots as soon as possible

i don't know if that information is important but i think that the compiler has reduces all the modular brushes

"Reduced 3830 planes to 1086"

That's so strange. I was considering doing something along these lines as well. I also believe that it is an approach that Rimrook used to some degree when he was working on 6-D.

I've always wanted to do this with the hopes I could generate a random level in C++ using the prefabs and then immediately compile.

if this is single player id play it

Yeah I was making a tile set of sorts that had textures fitted to them. Looked good for the most part.

hello!! it is a time to post something

i have selected some modules, so u can have a lookin game:i would like to finish the level comepletly and give it a little gameplay, so be patient i will finish this ~_~

@RIM and Ninja Those looks awesome!

I think the only drawback would be the inability to push updates to the individual tiles.

If you created a wall, and then updated it, you'd need to find all the walls that were placed already and replace them.

Modern editors have that power. Like Unreal4's Blueprints

I mean, if you really wanted to make the most of this concept, you'd need to build a whole separate tool, which would be a lot of work.

Go nuts with func_instance

@jessie
u r right, i failed with a module once, and i had to change 10~ walls :]

Your modular system is quite amazing!
I'm hoping to see more of it here. :3

It quite reminds me of Crashday's level editor.
I'm only worried that things will get repetitive a lot.