I am very new to mapping, in fact today is the first day I took a crack at it and I'm really enjoying it. I managed to create entities, lights, flags etc and play a game but one problem. Something is really glitchy. Here's the issue:

I just started a new map to try and problem solve this issue. All I have here is a grassy plane. When the game loads, everything from the top of the grass plane and up is all glitchy/wavey. (as per the screenshot). Any ideas as to why this is happening? I'm not getting any errors in the console except for "no control point" stuff.

Really weird.

it looks like maybe you dont have a skybox or you just have a literal box covering your map area - it needs to be hollow if thats the case.

or you have a hdr sky box and did not compile in hdr?

compiling with an HDR skybox without running HDR doesnt really matter as it will default to a normal skybox

Ok this isn't really all that clear to me regarding applying a skybox:

"Simply texture a regular brush (not a brush entity) with the tools/toolsskybox texture. When in-game, the sky will show wherever the toolsskybox would be seen if it were a normal texture. The brushes with the sky texture do not need to be box-shaped."

Which is found here:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Skybox_%282D%29

I'm not sure exactly what to do here.

Originally posted by 3eamus
Ok this isn't really all that clear to me regarding applying a skybox

This is nice and easy but its not untill I thought about it that I realised how hard it is to explain :D

Anyway, a "brush" is what you make your map up of, i.e. when you made a square for the ground that is a brush, a skybox is a brush that is textured with the "Tools Sky" texture,

This skybox MUST seal the map as failiure to do so will result in errors, at first you can just place a big hollow box round your map for testing but this will not do when releasing your map as it is very inefficient.

have a look here

http://www.student.kun.nl/rvanhoorn/Optimization.htm

1. General Notices explains how to create a proper skybox

Hope this helps

Ok thanks a lot Agent S. I created a box and applied the tools sky to it, ran the map and for some reason my players are starting below the plane now and I can't actually start the map I can only spectate. I think I'm missing a step as it seems to think the sky box is the plane thus the players float in the air. :o

As you mentioned, this is just a quick temporary fix, I'll read your extensive and very informative guide once I learn more about map making and am ready to release it.

*Actually I'm getting an error here as to my prob above:

"Invalid axis spawnpoint at (257.8,-58.7,-58.7)"

It seemed to work before...for some reason my players are now starting below the plane. Grr...

Originally posted by 3eamus
Ok thanks a lot Agent S. I created a box and applied the tools sky to it, ran the map and for some reason my players are starting below the plane now and I can't actually start the map I can only spectate. I think I'm missing a step as it seems to think the sky box is the plane thus the players float in the air. :o

As you mentioned, this is just a quick temporary fix, I'll read your extensive and very informative guide once I learn more about map making and am ready to release it.

If thats the case did you use the Make hollow tool? if you didnt that would explain the inability to spawn.

That tut isnt by me its by Zombie I take no credit but it has helped me out alot in the past

Hey it worked! Oh the little things that amuse me. It was funny because when I first figured out how to compile a map and play it I was so excited. Hahah. I was thinking hey, this is so much fun.

I thought I had made it hollow before but I guess not because that seemed to fix it. Thanks a lot.