Hi guys,

I am trying to recreate a real-life building in Hammer. I've discerned that 1 map unit is roughly equivalent to 1 inch (based on player height being 72-73 and assuming average player height to be 6 feet) and I've found posts that seem to confirm this. However, after making some measurements IRL and creating rooms in Hammer everything looks... small and cramped. I'm thinking this has something to do with POV in-game. What scale do you guys use to make things look as they do in the real world? I think doubling everything would be too much, but maybe 1.5? Thanks!

not sure about the POV thing, but there is a page at the Valve Wiki about scale etc...

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Dimensions

If you were 6'4" and built like a brick s**t house, the real world would look small too.

I believe there is a static prop that can be used on corners of buildings (what it's called, I have no idea at the moment). However tall that is, is usually a good size to make your buildings.

As a rule of thumb, I use 40 units from the floor as the height of windows (to the bottom of the window prop), and for doors, I use the tools/doormeasure (or whatever) texture to lay it out.

If you were 6'4" and built like a brick s**t house, the real world would look small too.

pmsl LOL

I actually did an experiment... THIS (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Dimensions) says 1 unit is equal to an inch, so I decided to get the precise measurements of my room and map it out. Needless to say, it was severely cramped. Doorways, which are usually 3 feet wide (which should be 36 units), became difficult to pass through since the width of a player model is something around 32 units. You'd fit, but it was a difficult pass.

My walls are about 96 inches high... but I decided I'd just scale everything up by a factor of 1.3333... making the walls the normal 128 units. Once I did that, the room looked very natural in game, and models seem to complement those dimensions as well.

not sure about the POV thing, but there is a page at the Valve Wiki about scale etc...

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Dimensions

That is EXACTLY what i was looking for! Thanks!

1 foot = 16 map units

that seems to come out to *bing* 1.3 units per inch, just as ok comp calculated. (the 1 inch = 1 map unit scale is for human character models... the rest of the "world" uses the 1 inch = 1.3 map units scale)

I'll re-do my building using these new scaling values to see how everything looks. Thanks guys!

Update: I used this new scale (1 foot = 16 map units) and everything looks much better.

You have to remember one thing when you make real-life copies of buildings and objects in games, and that is: you're playing on a computer screen.

Monitors never take your whole spectrum of vision, so it will ALWAYS look cramped if you don't make a few adjustments to your maps. if you'd meet Alyx in real life, she'd be 6 feet tall, that's pretty much impossible considering her proportions! I usually make everything about 20 to 30% bigger than what it really is in real life to compensate, and it usually looks more realistic. (hence the scale of 16 units = 1 foot)

Unless you play with a 50 inch screen 1 foot away from your face, it'll never really feel natural to play in a copy of real life in a game.

hmm another drafter? i normally find a 18/1 mapunit/foot fits better