ok, after looking at how good all the source stuff looks, and seeing as fuzzdad and other experienced mappers are offering help :D, I've decided to scrap my current map (dod_heavywater) in 1.3 and start over building it for source.

I'm sure that I can find tutorials out there to get me set up to map for CS:source (until dod comes out), but I was wondering if you guys had any specific tutorials, or hints to recommend. are you using standard compiler tools? anything else custom? I picked up hammer 3.5 pretty fast, so I'm sure this will go fairly well too, but I'd like to start off on the right foot.

thanks.

The layout is all the same so u will be fine in terms of construction. But just read through here anyways :D
http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/Category:MappingTutorials

Custom tools for Source: http://www.zhlt.tk/

I've not tried them yet.

Hammer seems to set it self up for me. No messing about needed.

I Just keep you maps in another folder, away from Steam, as an early update to the SDK deleted my test maps :(

Read the offical documentaion and check the test maps out .. loads of really good stuff in them.

ok, I'm set up to map in CS:source. it was actually quite easy :D next question: I've got a fair amount of brushwork done on my map in hammer 3.5. can I convert the .rmf to .vmf? I looked around, but all I've found is lots of people asking the same question with no answers.

yea ... I'm sure it's just an option when you load a map, just try loading the rmf.

I've not done it recently but I don't remember doing anything fancy apart from load the rmf and then save it as vmf after.

Mapfool (http://www.peppyfool.com) is a handy program for converting hlmaps to hl2maps. :)

What MAPFool will do is let you pre-process your map file before bringing it into Hammer 4.0 to perform several upgrade tasks, to make the amount of rework you have to do in Hammer a lot less.

www.peppyfool.com

I've been using custom tools for a while now, since beta 2, and I have yet to find any significant changes compared to the standard compilers when looking at the wireframe. Compile time is the same, and well the only difference I find quite useful when a newbie at mapping is CST will give you hints and more detailed explanations for your errors and warnings. Can be good to have in some cases.

Originally posted by josh_u[RR]
can I convert the .rmf to .vmf?

in case anyone else was wondering, I wasn't able to load the .rmf, but the .map file loaded right up. I just saved it as a .vmf and was good to go.