I was sitting here playing with the new Hammer program (which is great BTW, thank you Valve :D), and I came to think..

...can i start mapping for DoD:source now? I mean.. i have seen some of the stuff that the drunk mapper has done, (and it is very nice :D) but if I f.ex. make all the walls, ground, sky and other stuff now, can i then continue on the work when the sdk files for DoD:source comes out?

Its not really a question of whether or not I can make the walls (I know the answer to that one :D), but the map I then make, lets say in the deathmatch configuration i the SDK. Can i then open the map in the DoD:source conf. (when that comes), and then run it? .... wont it be missing the textures? (or wmt files, or whatever its called now). I belive the real question is: Dont I need the conf. for DoD:source before I start any mapping?

... I would appreaciate an answer for this, since my mapping finger is starting to scrath :D. And it would be great if we could start the work on custom maps now.

You can easily start mapping now, just put it as a CS:S map for now and then when the proper DoD:S files become available just put those materials, models and entities in.

map in hl2 if you dont wanna have to find what materials you used from cs:s

hmm ill try explain better, if you map in cs:s you have cs specific materials aswell as the HL2 materials which can be used freely but if you map cs:s you will have issues later in figuring out and getting/including the cs:s textures and models you used.

MAN IM BAD AT EXPLAINING.

use hl2 if you dont want issues with materials later

I got it random.

nin, random is recommending you to map for HL2DM and only use HL2 materials, because they can be shared and used by all HL2 mods, while the CS:S material can only be used by CS:S and then when you would convert your map to DoD:S you would have a hard time finding all the mateiral from CS:S, messing up your work.

Am I right?

Sounds like it as that is the case for mapping with HL at the moment.

You can share DoD and HL content in your DoD map but not CS Content.

Dunno what rules Valve are placing on using CS content in other mods?

If you can then you will have to copy it over if you want to use it.

Originally posted by nin
I mean.. i have seen some of the stuff that the drunk mapper has done, (and it is very nice :D)

Roofles. I have a name :p

Anyway, do it in HL2DM or HL2 then convert it later.

I think even HLDM uses custom materials that arent used as part of the HL2 SP materials. The reason i say this is that i am mapping for HL2DM atm and i was mapping for cs:s - i opened my HL2DM map with hammer configured to cs:s and a couple of textures werent found.

Sounds weird i know but i would just use HL2, +console +map dod_mymap

no real inconvenience.

And yer haircut im sure they did that with CZ, they said that no one else could use CZ content - pretty sure :P

As far as Im aware, anything inside the source-xxxxx.GCF files is shared by all source based games so in theory you can use anything you find in them in DoD:S mapping and all users will have it.

Any game/mod specific content is in their own GCF, hence the maps for HL2 are in the Half Life 2 content GCF and CS:S specific stuff is in the CS:S GCFs.

i'm using a lot of custom stuff in the maps i've made so far. i use textures a lot instead of models or detail, lining everything up to the textures etc. so i've got a lot of custom textures in my hl2mp/materials folder, aswell as a lot of models. depending on the game you choose to load hammer with in the SDK menu, it checks the folder for that game, so if you choose HL2:DM from the list, it checks your hl2dm folder. so, when dod:s is released, if you move the materials folder across to the dod:s folder, you should just be able to load up hammer and have all your custom stuff working fine. i think this is what i did when i moved one of my maps into the hl2dm instead of cs:s. so if you are using custom textures and models, you wont have a problem with having to retexture or reload everything when you convert it to dod:s.


but as for the CS:S and HL2 content, source is different from HL1. with HL1, you had to own the original game, before you could dl (for free) DoD or CS, both separate from the original game. so if you had dod or cs, you had the original HL so there wouldn't be a problem with distruting content from it with dod maps.
with HL2, everyone who bought the game owns CS:S; there was no package that didn't ship them together. dod:s could have been bought with them, which means you own all the HL2 and CS:S content, but you can also buy it separately. so basically, a lot of people will already own the CS:S and HL2 textures from buying silver or gold, and a lot won't have any from either game. which means it's a lot more complex than before, unless Valve has said something about this.