I'm a fairly new mapper and I've tried some things with the terrain in hl2 and such but how do you stop the player from coming in contact with the skybox without making him feel trapped?

also how do you add atmosphere to maps? I'm really confused on these two things but I think that once they are mastered I'll be able to make better maps.

Originally posted by Glimmer man
I'm a fairly new mapper and I've tried some things with the terrain in hl2 and such but how do you stop the player from coming in contact with the skybox without making him feel trapped?

also how do you add atmosphere to maps? I'm really confused on these two things but I think that once they are mastered I'll be able to make better maps.

To stop a player from coming into contact with the skybox you want to use the clip texture, it will stop player movement but lets grenades/bullets through. Also you can create a 3d skybox that you can place things like more terrain ie hills etc into, to make the map seem less 'restricted'

As for adding a good atmosphere into the map you need to make a good combo of things like sounds, light, surroundings and as an example having smoke/steam coming out of shell craters can also add atmosphere.

Its hard to try and get a good atmosphere, this is where the pro mappers show their true talent compared to the rest of us.

thanks for the tips, hopefully I'll be able to get a map with more atmosphere that doesn't feel so restricted.