Some Newbie Questions

Roosevelt

L1: Registered
Jun 28, 2012
16
4
Hello,

Started mapping recently, and I have a few questions.

1. Say I make a wall of some sort. Is there a way to make a hole in the wall? Or is the only way to do this to create 4 separate walls that don't meet in the middle?

2. Is there a way to check the texture of an already created object? Sometimes I don't remember what I used and have to browse all the tf textures to find the one.

I might have some more as I struggle to make my first legit map (all that entity stuff scares me), but this is it for mean time.

:)
 
Jan 20, 2010
1,317
902
Newbie questions indeed.

To make a wall with a hole in it, you just need to make four square brushes that don't meet. Just like you said. There's also another thing called the carve tool THAT YOU'LL NEVER USE EVER SO FORGET I MENTIONED IT.

As for finding a texture for one you've used already. Click the icon that looks like this. :faceedittool:

Go down to mode and click on it. Set it to "Lift" or "Lift + Select." Click on the face you want to find the texture for. Then change the mode back to "Apply (all)." and click on the face you want to retexture.
 
Last edited:
Mar 20, 2012
391
806
I believe Leminnes was referring to the Carve tool and mistakenly wrote "Clipping."

To make things clear: Carve is bad. It creates micro-leaks and distorts geometry in ugly ways when used on non-block shapes.

Clipping, on the other hand, is good. Make it your best friend. With vertex editing and clipping, you can do a lot with geometry. Just make sure to not make invalid shapes.
 

Roosevelt

L1: Registered
Jun 28, 2012
16
4
Hmmm, I see, I see. Alright. Thanks everybody.

I did see a tutorial on that clipping tool...it seems like it can be useful - although the guy said he himself prefers to avoid it because of those invalid shapes. I'll avoid it until I become a Level 2 Mapmaker. :p

One more question.

I'm making a King of the Hill map, and generally those are symmetrical, so I'm hoping to just make one side and the copy it over and rotate it. The question is, is there a way to do a massive selection of objects? I know you can select multiple objects with the Ctrl key and clicking, but that would be a very slow way of selecting one entire side of a map, especially if it has details and whatnot.

Surely there is a faster way, right? D:
 

Spacek531

L4: Comfortable Member
Jan 28, 2012
165
94
I thought the carve tool was only for displacements, and therefore didn't really do anything like that because displacements don't either?

also, select the mouse tool and click+drag in the 2D views (usually topdown) to select stuff. Also, there is using ctrl+a but I'm not sure it actually works.
 
May 2, 2009
320
306
You could watch couple of tutorials in youtube and follow them. They usually explains these kind of things.

@Spacek531 CTRL+A = Auto-size 4 views to center.
 
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Roosevelt

L1: Registered
Jun 28, 2012
16
4
I have checked out a few tutorials that helped me a lot (in a beginner's sense). Most tend to leave out a few things here and there that leave me confused though.

Regarding my last question,

I had been trying that and it wasn't working...but it just dawned on me to hit enter and BAM! It works now.

Thanks again guys. Sorry about my lesser knowledge in the world of mapping. :p
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
:autoselect: If you click this, simply dragging a selection square will auto select. Otherwise you need to hit enter. I suggest keeping this off.

I thought the carve tool was only for displacements, and therefore didn't really do anything like that because displacements don't either?
The "Carve" in the displacement thingo is different than the other one. It's fine. It's the regular one you should never use, which requires at least two brushes and right-clicking.

It's somewhat difficult to make an invalid object with the clipping tool, unless Hammer encounters a bug and somehow doesn't crash. Vertex editing is what makes invalid solid creation easy, but it's not like this is a big deal. Hit Alt+P at any time to check for problems (no player start is something you can ignore) and it will alert you to invalid solids. These will stop your map from compiling, so look before you do that, and probably check after doing any vertex manipulation if you aren't sure.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jan 20, 2010
1,317
902
It's cool, we all start somewhere. Just, when you release your map, prepare yourself to be ripped to shreds. It happens to all of us, and it can be a bit disconcerting. Most of the time, your first map is never finished and just used as a learning tool. So keep that in mind. :]
 

Vincent

&#128296 Grandmaster Lizard Wizard Jedi &#128296
aa
Sep 5, 2009
912
684
A great thing that'll save you time while flipping objects, Ctrl + l and Ctrl + i

'i' is for up and down
'l' is for right and left

Saves me loads of time. Sadly this only really works on geometry though, doesn't work that well for props.

Note: this only works in the 2D views, not the 3D views.
 
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colacan

L5: Dapper Member
Apr 14, 2012
235
85
Ctrl+M is useful to do a full 180 rotation. Put the Z value at 180 and hit OK.
 

Jeremy

L11: Posh Member
Oct 24, 2010
829
299
A great thing that'll save you time while flipping objects, Ctrl + l and Ctrl + i

'i' is for up and down
'l' is for right and left
Wait holy shit I did not know that