Tips on how to make your map look nice

Bslashingu

L2: Junior Member
Jan 29, 2009
53
11
Detailing: lay some props down, put some decorative brushes in
Displacements: Put some effort into them
Gameplay: make sure your map looks like it makes sense gameplay-wise before you start detailing (The gameplay stuff should be taken care of in the alpha stages.)
Textures: Put some work into picking and aligning your textures.

EDIT: Also, find a good reference picture to base your details off of.
 
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Tapp

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 26, 2009
776
215
Windows/out-of reach areas
support columns/beams
Props. LOTS OF PROPS
Contrasting lighting.
Study, NOT edit valve maps
 

strangemodule

L5: Dapper Member
Sep 10, 2009
223
59
Most importantly, make sure your prop placement and details make sense. If they're thrown around randomly, people will get confused.
 

XFunc_CaRteR

L5: Dapper Member
May 14, 2009
248
17
When you put in props and other decorations think of why they got there. For example, boxes and stuff. They are basic props. But think of who put them there and why. How would they stack them? Would they fall over? Etc. It doesn't have to be totally logical, just a little bit logical.

Little scenes that you find tell a story. For example, my map pl_Industry (shameless plug) is a big factory space. There are little places where you find props and overlays that are set up to give the impression that something was going on here. On the roof, there is a nice view of the skybox near a scaffold. So I put a helmet, thermos and a lunch bag, as if that was a spot where a factory worker was having lunch when suddenly Red decided to attack.

That kind of thing.
 
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Urser

L1: Registered
Nov 6, 2009
14
1
One of the most common things I find people doing to add extra detail to their map is cutting out an area that would normally just be an empty wall, adding a displacement with a chickenwire texture applied to it, and then adding props like barrels and crates in the area behind the wire. It makes the map look bigger without increasing the playable area.
 

Tapp

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 26, 2009
776
215
One of the most common things I find people doing to add extra detail to their map is cutting out an area that would normally just be an empty wall, adding a displacement with a chickenwire texture applied to it, and then adding props like barrels and crates in the area behind the wire. It makes the map look bigger without increasing the playable area.

I'm pretty sure that's a prop, under props_gameplay/security_fence. Generally detail goes where a wall is bland or it's seen very often, the more frequently a wall is seen the more effort you need to put into it. Also, if you're stuck for ideas, try to work out an explanation for the playing space. not meaning to plug my own map, but in regret (link in sig) I dressed up the buildings to look like wooden cabins, which allowed me to give an explanation for the building opposite (the reception) as well as an explanation for why something was built here, then abandoned (tourists didn't like it as much once they'd cut down all the trees). It's a good idea to make your base look like it could be a farm or an ordinary lumber-mill, to explain why nobody noticed the rockets.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Most importantly, make sure your prop placement and details make sense. If they're thrown around randomly, people will get confused.

Quoting this because it's damn important. Rather have fewer fitting props than masses of random crap that makes no sense.

It's something I need to get better at too.