Mapping newbie will like some help.

Dewd

L1: Registered
Aug 30, 2008
7
0
Hello, I am very new to mapping, and I would like to make a payload map with the new environment VALVe released with the heavy pack.

But I have ran into a few problems and misunderstandings, and I hope you can help.

1. In arena_lumberyard there a loads of grass sprites on the grassy areas of the blend texture, I don't get these in my test map, do I have to do them manually or are they automated? :mellow:

2. When looking at the payload tutorial on the Developer wiki, there is this bit I do not understand.

Create a brush the same size of the payload model, but using the tools/toolsclip texture and make it a func_tracktrain. The train needs to be pointing right on the top view for the engine to automatically orientate the train correctly in game. Name this brush Bomb_Train.

What do they mean by this? :blink:

3. This may be unrelated but, what the hell are the hint and skip textures all about? I looked them up on the wiki and then it says about "VisLeafs" or "Leafs", what are those in simple speak? :huh:

I hope answering these questions are not too much trouble. :blush:
 

bobby1211

L2: Junior Member
Jun 28, 2008
64
11
First, Welcome to the forums!

1 - Someone else will have to help, I haven't dove into the new environment yet.

2 - This means by default your train will go from left to right (top down wire frame view). If you want it to start in a different direction you need to set the orientation.

3 - Read this: http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=867

-Bobby
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
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Welcome to the forum

1. covered here - http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=3319 you need to rename a few things to get them.

2. they mean the train has to be pointing right, select the func_tracktrain and hit alt+enter to bring up its properties, then somewhere in the top right of that window it has its orientation, the little line in the black circle needs to be pointing that-a-way -->

3. Visleaves are how the game knows what you can see. when compiling VVIS it cuts up the empty space inside your world into leaves and then works out which can see which. Whilst you are standing in leaf X the game will know that only leaves Y and Z can be seen from it so it will only render leaves X, Y and Z rather than everything from A, B, C, D....and so on. The hint texture simply tells VVIS where it should cut a leaf, its usefull for optimisation if you find VVIS has made a stupid decision about where to cut a leaf.
All explained in bobby's link

EDIT: damnit bobby! too quick!
 

Dewd

L1: Registered
Aug 30, 2008
7
0
First, Welcome to the forums!

1 - Someone else will have to help, I haven't dove into the new environment yet.

2 - This means by default your train will go from left to right (top down wire frame view). If you want it to start in a different direction you need to set the orientation.

3 - Read this: http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=867

-Bobby

YouMe said:
1. covered here - http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=3319 you need to rename a few things to get them.

2. they mean the train has to be pointing right, select the func_tracktrain and hit alt+enter to bring up its properties, then somewhere in the top right of that window it has its orientation, the little line in the black circle needs to be pointing that-a-way -->

3. Visleaves are how the game knows what you can see. when compiling VVIS it cuts up the empty space inside your world into leaves and then works out which can see which. Whilst you are standing in leaf X the game will know that only leaves Y and Z can be seen from it so it will only render leaves X, Y and Z rather than everything from A, B, C, D....and so on. The hint texture simply tells VVIS where it should cut a leaf, its usefull for optimisation if you find VVIS has made a stupid decision about where to cut a leaf.

Thank you both, this really helps alot.
 

MrStump

L1: Registered
Aug 23, 2008
21
2
I've played with the new Alpine grass. It's quite easy to use. What you need to do is make the surface that you wish to make grass on a displacement. Be warned that if you make a brush a displacement, it will no longer help "seal" a map. Leaks cut right through it.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Displacements for how to make a displacement.

Make sure the displacement you want grass on is textured with nature/blendgroundtograss007 because that's the only texture I have found with green grass. Now go to the displacement window again, and there are two buttons next to Paint Geography

Paint Alpha: Acts like a paintbrush, letting you blend the ground from dirt to grass.
Invert Alpha: The texture starts out as all dirt. Want all grass instead? Click the button.

Hope this helped.
 

Dewd

L1: Registered
Aug 30, 2008
7
0
Now I've run into another problem. D:

Ever since I renamed the stuff for sprites, TF2 crashes when I try to run the map.

And when it finishes compiling, a window pops up saying "vrad.exe has encountered a problem".

What the hell is wrong? :eek:hmy:
 

YM

LVL100 YM
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Dec 5, 2007
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checked you renamed them right?

"detail.vbsp" should be set to "detail_trainyard.vbsp"
"detail material" should be set to "detail/detailsprites_trainyard" (without the "", very important)
 

Dewd

L1: Registered
Aug 30, 2008
7
0
checked you renamed them right?

"detail.vbsp" should be set to "detail_trainyard.vbsp"
"detail material" should be set to "detail/detailsprites_trainyard" (without the "", very important)

problem.jpg


FaTony said:
Ur BSP fails... Run BSP only and check compile log.

Compile Log said:
** Executing...
** Command: "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\*******\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vbsp.exe"
** Parameters: -game "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\*******\team fortress 2\tf" "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\*******\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_lumbertest"

Valve Software - vbsp.exe (Mar 11 2008)
2 threads
materialPath: c:\program files\steam\steamapps\*******\team fortress 2\tf\materials
Loading C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\*******\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_lumbertest.vmf
Patching WVT material: maps/cp_lumbertest/nature/blendgroundtograss007_wvt_patch
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...done (0)
Merging details...done (0)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (0)
writing C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\*******\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_lumbertest.prt...Building visibility clusters...
done (0)
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_trainyard_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_trainyard_01 to build the default cubemap!
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_trainyard_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_trainyard_01 to build the default cubemap!
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (0) (16078 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9..Error! Too many detail props emitted on this map! (64K max!)n

** Executing...
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\*******\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\cp_lumbertest.bsp" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\*******\team fortress 2\tf\maps\cp_lumbertest.bsp"

Anything wrong?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

YM

LVL100 YM
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Dec 5, 2007
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Code:
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9..Error! Too many detail props emitted on this map! (64K max!)n

You've got too many detail sprites being made. Several ways to fix this:
1) reduce the ammount of the detail sprite emitting texture. (either by using other textures or using the texture that has _nodetail after its name)
2) paint more of the other texture.

Unfortunately the engine has a limit to how many blades of grass it will make, and you've gone over it so the only way to fix it is to reduce the ammount of grass.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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http://www.interlopers.net/errors/

For reference, a good place to quickly check for bugs, rather than spending 20 minutes reading through the log yourself. It will also explain the bugs and how to fix them.
 

Dewd

L1: Registered
Aug 30, 2008
7
0
Unfortunately the engine has a limit to how many blades of grass it will make, and you've gone over it so the only way to fix it is to reduce the ammount of grass.

:huh:

That sucks, how am I supposed to make a open area look nice now? :angry:
 

Memento Mori

L2: Junior Member
Mar 25, 2008
61
11
:huh:

That sucks, how am I supposed to make a open area look nice now? :angry:

Remember there shouldn't really be any huge open areas in any map. But try using things like the tree stump with the _nodetail texture underneath it doesn't need the little grass things when theres already something there to catch your eye.