I've just started mapping earlier this week. I'm not looking for a "how to map." I went through the FAQ, I read tutorials, I have the basics down, entities (kind of) and displacement mapping, for the most part and am already working on a map.

What I'm asking is are there any pitfalls that I should be aware of? Any common mistakes that new mappers often make?

Something along the lines of putting the skybox on the border of the map instead of actually having a box around the map. Things such as this.

Any help is greatly appreciated. If there is a thread with this information, please link me to it, lock this one, and I'll be on my way.

:dog:

Do. Not. Use. The. Carve. Tool. Never.

Adding entities before your brushwork is done. I'm no expert mapper, but I've dabbled with hammer a lot over the years. If you're a novice, you can get yourself into trouble with entities and compiling errors, fast.

Originally posted by Maxey
Do. Not. Use. The. Carve. Tool. Never.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Also, take your time to learn the correct uses for all of hammers tools and just in general the correct way to do things. Most people when they start will make 50 different threads in this forum asking really random stuff because they didnt bother to learn one thing or another. Good luck man, there is a whole world of tutorials out there. btw i think this thread is wrong, your asking for someones experience so you should really get some yourself - you will soon learn.

Also stop by mardymouse.co.uk (http://mardymouse.co.uk) signup give a bit of a donation ;) ;) ;) download some of Haircuts .rmf's and have a little look around.

the vertex tool is the greatest tool ever invented period.

...and then sometimes you have invalid so you have to use the clipping tool to cut them into triangles.



hold shift and drag brushes to clone....this is like the most time saving feature I have come across. i probably create about 20 brushes a map. i just clone them and reshape them however i want. 2nd greatest tool ever.

save different versions of your map. i've heard far too many stories about "oh noes! my map has been corrupted and i don't have a backup". i would suggest everytime you make some major changes save as a different name.

I would also get in the habit of closing Hammer after you save any changes you made to your map. Ive found out the hard way that even if you save your map under a different name to create a backup and then re-open the map your working on they both still can be lost if Hammer crashes. Any work you did from the time you started Hammer will be lost. I usually save a backup of whatever ive done then close Hammer and move that backup to a folder far far away from any steam folders.

Other than that I would suggest what has already been said above. Never use the carve tool, anything you can make using the carve tool can usually be made "by hand" and will be better on compile/map performance. Also dont try to start out too ambitious, I would take as much time as you need to learn all the tools before you start any map that you plan on releasing to the public.

Good luck.

1. always be open to feedback/criticism.

2. trial and error is not exactly the most efficient way to map, but you do learn a lot of things in the process.

3. try to draw out on paper what you're trying to do before you do it. the better your plan, generally the easier it is to map.

4. the most critical technical aspect of mapping is proper visblocking. it would be great to model huge wide open spaces with lots of details, but game engines, even Source, can only hand so much in a scene at a time. Vis blocking is both an art and a science. it takes a while to master, so practice. always view both the physical polys and rspeeds ('gl_wireframe 2' and 'r_speeds 1' at console in current engine).

5. don't mess with hint brushes until you are very very familiar with proper vis blocking. if someone tells you that you can start using hint brushes right away without understanding vis blocking, they obviously don't understand either. hint brushes are used when the engine doesn't vis block what it theoretically should be blocking based on design.

6. in general, don't cop an attitude on these or any other mapping forums.

no carving indeed! <-- we kill you for that ;)

keep in mind that your layout is more important then your features.

a map is good when:
- it's balanced
- it has enough posibilities
- is not to big and not to small
- gives room for any weapon type
- makes people once to play it again

a map is beter if:
- it has nice lighting
- textures are perfect
- has some advanced features (triggers etc)

don't try to put to many stuff into your map, and especialy when your starting:

K.I.S (keep it simple)

_____________

about the mapping stuff itself:
starting mappers mostly forget this:
- make sure your brushes are not overleaping (one brush half inside an other)
- try the texture tools features (you can really do lots of stuff with nice textures)
- use all of your windows (all 4 views)
- if ever having trouble selecting a brush, press pagedown/pageup to select the brush beneath the one you selected
- try the vertex tool, it's the best brush editing tool in hammer
- BUT don't make to compicated brushes (engines don't like compications)
- try keeping the viewable stuff small, half-life 1 engine doesn't support big open area's, hl2 does.

and euh.. post screenshots so we can give feedback

this one got me:

things look smaller in hammer than they do in-game. you may think you are making something small when in fact it is huge and vice versa. compile and play test often. personally, I think bots are useless for actual gameplay testing, but it is useful to have something runing around with you to give you distance perspective in-game.

Originally posted by josh_u[RR]
this one got me:

things look smaller in hammer than they do in-game. you may think you are making something small when in fact it is huge and vice versa. compile and play test often. personally, I think bots are useless for actual gameplay testing, but it is useful to have something runing around with you to give you distance perspective in-game.

I think thats more a personal thing relative to you. I personally have never had issues, knowing from day1 that your standard wall was 128 high. It depends how you personally look at it.

90% of maps are unfinished..

not really helpful but...

travis: I meant overall distance not room height. for instance I started out trying to make a quick flash type map, but ended up making a rather large caen sized map. but like you said, could have just been me, but figured I'd pass it along.

Originally posted by BasieP

- if ever having trouble selecting a brush, press pagedown/pageup to select the brush beneath the one you selected


well i learned something new..i'm always frustrated not being able to choose certain brushes on the grid and then having to go find them in 3d view.

soz josh ;)


Another thing i thought of, never use the transform tool with a negative because say you want to "move" and object -90 degrees STOP and dont do it! move it 270 instead :P

The best shape ever is the spike with the faces set to 3. The only way you can screw up this shape is to put it inside out.

Also learn the shortcut keys, they save your life.
Some good ones

ctrl + e = all windows (except 3d) centre on selected object
Shift + s = select
shift + q = unselect
shift + v = vertex
shift + x = clip
ctrl + s = save


And one more thing I think that would be a good idea ( though I've yet to do it ) is even on your basic box and spawn maps make sure you get them completly finished, or close enough. I've gone through several maps only have made the brush part. I'm expert on vertex manipulation but novice in entity creation.

i use

shift+z to turn the camera view larger, it tages over the other views then you can use it to get back to normal and yer shift+x to change clip modes :P Thats one thing i have to say people get tripped up on - not realising you can change clip types to suit which side of the brush you want to go away or if you wanna keep the lot but cut a slice.

Originally posted by travis
i use

shift+z to turn the camera view larger, it tages over the other views then you can use it to get back to normal and yer shift+x to change clip modes :P Thats one thing i have to say people get tripped up on - not realising you can change clip types to suit which side of the brush you want to go away or if you wanna keep the lot but cut a slice.
mm try adding some dots in your text. It's very hard to read this way.

How about:

I use shift-Z to turn the camera view larger. It tages over the other views.
Then you can use it again to get back to normal view.

I use shift-X to go to the clip mode.
People get tripped up on, not realising you can change clip types to suit which side of the brush you want to go away, and which to keep.
press shift-x to toggle

btw: the shift-Z thing was new to me, but except for just enlarging the 3d view, it also :crown::crown::crown::crown:s up my mouse.. that's really frustrating.
(upwars movement go fast, while downwards go extreem slow)

Since so many mappers lost their source files, make backups of your RMFs regularly.

And save different versions of your map, like adding a timestamp to the filename.

Originally posted by BasieP
mm try adding some dots in your text. It's very hard to read this way.

How about:



btw: the shift-Z thing was new to me, but except for just enlarging the 3d view, it also :crown::crown::crown::crown:s up my mouse.. that's really frustrating.
(upwars movement go fast, while downwards go extreem slow)

i dont like punctuation

Hi. Just dousing some flame retardant on this thread.

Keep on posting. :D

Hey izuno, are you converting Switch to Source?

If yes, are you going to add some more cover or alternate routes so it turns to be less of a bottleneck map while keeping its essence?

Originally posted by travis
i use

shift+x to change clip modes :P Thats one thing i have to say people get tripped up on - not realising you can change clip types to suit which side of the brush you want to go away or if you wanna keep the lot but cut a slice.

also just clikin the clip icon again changes it :/

i know BLU, its just easier for me to use the key shortcut D:

Maxey you can check out my interview with izuno on the ausdod community site rats gaming (http://www.ratsgaming.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=40)

that question answered :P

Originally posted by travis
Maxey you can check out my interview with izuno on the ausdod community site rats gaming (http://www.ratsgaming.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=40)

that question answered :P
Damn... I read that interview some time ago travis, how I could forget it?

However, it still doesn't answer my second question.

ahhh yup, thats a good question tho. Any gameplay changes for switch...

One more thing to think about when mapping is, don't use every WAD File you can find. This can create problems if you use more than on texture on the same brush.

Try to carry through on your levels, (cause I could never finish).

ALWAYS BACKUP, as said before.

.RES Files, are very important for map downloads.

USE GOOGLE if you can't find something out.
or the Collective: http://collective.valve-erc.com/

If you want me to host something, like your map for download, just contact me, at davidov0009@hotmail.com

WWW.UNITED-CLANS.NET

Originally posted by Ca-Chicken-Soup
The best shape ever is the spike with the faces set to 3. The only way you can screw up this shape is to put it inside out.

this is the best tip I've gotten in a long time, THANKS!!

I have cleaned up my map significantly since learning how to use this.