This a tutorial on how to make blast holes in walls using displacements.

See the this DOD:F post for images+text (http://www.dod-federation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=402)

Right let's get to it!

Firstmake a room (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Your_First_Map) with a big box in the middle:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast002.jpg

Chop it up with the clip tool (Shift+x) like so:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast003.jpg

Then agian:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast004.jpg

Now use the vertex manipulation tool (Shift+v) to change one of the side brushes (this is the method used to create holes in displacements..):
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast005.jpg

Then join up the top and bottom:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast006.jpg

And fix up the other side so you have something that looks like this
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast007.jpg

Turn on texture application tool (Shift+a). Select all visible faces.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast008.jpg

Now to the super tricky bit. Due to Valve's weirdness they decided to not allow movement of the camera with the (shift+c) mouse movement. So what we have to do (While still in tex. app. mode) is move the camera around using the wasd keys (like you were playing the game) with the arrow keys to strafe the camera around and turn it rightly. This will take a second to get used to. And select all remaining visible faces.
What this does it select all faces in preperation for displacment...ing. The faces you do not see between the brushes are not selected this way
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast009.jpg

Now create a displacment with those faces selected (power of 2 please, they will be close enough as it is..)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast010.jpg

Result:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast011.jpg

Let's change the middle texture to something more destructive, I used rubble/ava_edge1
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast012.jpg

Here's a little side tip, a good way to quickly and correctly arrange textures is to select the one that is correctly faced (in this case the right side), hold alt and right click on the incorrectly faced one. Viola:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast013.jpg

From now on select the brushes by using the (shift+s) select tool, rather than selecting individual faces. This aviods having to sew more often than is needed. So select all the brushes
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast014.jpg

And onto the fun bit!
Once selected all brushes you can nowopen the tex. app. tool and goto the displacement tab> Paint geometry. For ease, change the distance to 0.5 and the radius to something like 20. You want a radius that pulls about 2-3 verticies at once rather than doing it one-at-a-time. On the 'face normal' axis play around! fun, no?
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast015.jpg

But working the Z-axis gets old quickly, so change it to the x-axis
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast016.jpg

Work it!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast017.jpg

Lookin better!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast018.jpg

For that blasted more destructive effect change to the y-axis and pull it out a little bit.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast019.jpg

Now for the final touch-ups. To use this thing in a context it would be bad for textures of the displacement to overlap neighbouring brushes. So change the mode of raise/lower to raise to with a distance of 0. A small radius is good too, only enough to select one vertice at a time.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast020.jpg

Run it around the outside of edges of all the brushes so that it's nice and square around the edge.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/mrmina/blast021.jpg

Done! You can destroy the outside displacements because if you use them with brushes next to them they won't be visible.
Finishing tips:

Use overlays to add destruction
Put a displacment under it to create rubble
Watch out when doing small ones, it's easy to make it impossible for players to walk though. A new feature of hammer is the option to turn off hull colision. You can turn it off but be sure to clip the sides so the player can't walk though walls :cool:


Tutorial map file (http://files.filefront.com/tut_blastholevmf/;5383514;;/fileinfo.html)
Tell me if it's too hard or you don't understand any part

Originally posted by Ca-Chicken-Soup
Done! You can destroy the outside displacements because if you use them with brushes next to them they won't be visible.


I dont really understand what you mean here by "destroying the outside displacement".

The faces that will be hidden when you put brushes around the displacements (third screenshot), select those and then the destroy option in the displacement settings.

oh i thought he was saying in game. thanks for clearing that up.

Thanks for that, dunno why but i could never make a hole in the wall using Displacements, it didnt really look how i wanted it to.

Anyways thx for that ;)