Silly things you did as a beginner

Jeremy

L11: Posh Member
Oct 24, 2010
829
299
What silly things did you do in Hammer when you started mapping?

I'll start:
I used the Invisible tool to clip off areas (as opposed to playerclip).
And I always used prop_detail.
And I nodraw'd displacements.


Your turn.
 

Vincent

&#128296 Grandmaster Lizard Wizard Jedi &#128296
aa
Sep 5, 2009
912
684
When I was really new to mapping..

I once endlessly carved a piece of world geometry, on compiling Hammer endlessly cried in shear pain as it tore the very soul from its source code. VVIS then took my map and for the hours it took to finish, the result was that of a Quakeman map.

http://img62.xooimage.com/files/0/0/b/tank-253c60c.png
Oh god the horror.
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
aa
Aug 8, 2010
4,102
6,597
I used the "Make everything func_detail and have a large box of skybox" theory of optimisation.

I couldnt scale. i made a spawnroom too small for players to spawn in.

I carved prolifically. Like, not only did i carve a cylinder in a cyleinder, i then turned that sideways at an angle and carved it into another brush. And i wondered why my compiles lasted forever.

I based a maps layout on junction.

I spammed props instead of using displacements.

Leaks.
 

Mr.Late

L7: Fancy Member
Nov 27, 2009
408
157
I did not know how to resize grid. Minecraft?
I made skybox from single skybox texture.
No lights.
No entities except spawns.

These happened when I just started mapping when HL2 and CS:S were released. Then I finally found some tutorials.
 

Ida

deer
aa
Jan 6, 2008
2,289
1,372
Ah, my first map... ctf_boats. For starters, a silly thing I did as a beginner was to plan the map's entire gameplay to revolve around getting on a boat to get to the enemy base. I even made the water poisonous below the surface (roughly) so you couldn't cheat the system.

Beyond that, I made the entire map using a grid of 1 unit, and I had no idea how compiling worked, so I paid no attention to leaks and such. When it came to detailing, I never got too far, but I did try to make some stairs, which went horrible due to my lack of a grid. Plus, I didn't know what func_detail was. Oh yeah, let's not forget how I used only prop_dynamics for some reason.

For my next map, I got a lot better, I just sucked at layout, scale, detailing, etc., but fortunately I learned from all those many, horrible mistakes.
 
Apr 13, 2009
728
309
Thinking I had the kind of productivity it takes to make a single player campaign on my own before I change my mind ad start doing something else.

EDIT: reading the other replies makes me realize, when I started mapping there were no such things as props, func_detail, nodraw nor displacements, the learning curve was somewhat smoother back then... :p
 
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Jeremy

L11: Posh Member
Oct 24, 2010
829
299
Didn't use any displacements for those were the tools of evil
Oh god. Once I tried making a bumpy surface by carving.
Horrid mistakes. Millions of microbrushes.

aaaaaaaaaaaaa
 

Trotim

aa
Jul 14, 2009
1,195
1,045
The one silly thing I did was I thought displacements always needed to be exactly quadratic so I had lots of little displacements

Apart from that I dunno, I think I didn't do many too dumb things
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
Tried to make a payload map where red pushes. Started at blu spawn and fully detailed everything as I went, and I was also making it up as I went.
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
First Hammer project.

tried to make this from brushes instead of modelling. Hard shape to make from convex brushes, had a few split verts/cracks I didn't want. Worked alright though.

The cap point is inside the skull.

skelly.jpg
 
Jan 20, 2010
1,317
902
TIL that I was not that bad at mapping when I first started.
mock.gif


Worst things I did: Had no idea how to put together and sew displacements. Seams EVERYWHERE! Also built everything in a 1 Unit grid. Other than that, not much. Just tended to underscale things. I was always aware how terrible carving is, though.
 

sniprpenguin

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 14, 2008
266
258
I didn't know about displacements, so I made cliff walls from angled brushes.

Also, ~2000 unit sightlines ON PURPOSE. GAH.