Timeframe?

Toughsox

L1: Registered
Oct 31, 2008
14
1
Hi everyone. This might sound like a stupid question, but if I wanted to learn how to map....it DOES seem like alot of fun, how long does it really take to learn to do something decent.
Im not talking about you long time mappers.....although, that would be a help too....to know how much time is involved in making maps. But, from the basics to a finished product, assuming I have NEVER tried my hand at it, what do you think it would seriously take.
Thanks for any input you can shed on this.
Ant
 
Aug 19, 2008
1,011
1,158
i started mapping with hammer 3 months ago, until this moment i got a beta out which i´m quite confident with. but getting the hang of the full potential is a long process.
i´m still trying to understand the optimization issue etc.

if you stick to tf2maps and use the search-function wisely and first try to solve the problems youself or through google, getting your first map up shouldn´t take long

dig yourself in and stick to your map at any free minute :D
 

Psyphil

L3: Member
Nov 6, 2007
125
60
It alla depends on yourself rly, I've been mapping about 9 months I think but never got any real project out :) and I still find new options to use pretty often.
 

Icarus

aa
Sep 10, 2008
2,245
1,210
Depends how many hours you put into it.

I think it took me roughly 200-300 hours, just to get a beta out

Then again, this is to both LEARN and MAP at the same time

Even then my map is a miserable mess from hammer's perspective
 

Spike

L10: Glamorous Member
Feb 13, 2008
716
82
You can learn everything about Source mapping in 7 months
 

TheDarkerSideofYourShadow

L10: Glamorous Member
Apr 12, 2008
792
286
Hmm, I would say you can get a basic feel for hammer rather quickly, but to learn the tricks to get that nicely detailed map might take a while. Working on small scenes, not full maps would help with that. On my second go with hammer (I mapped a little back for tfc) it took me abou 4 months before I was doing something I felt was pretty good. But even after more than 2 total years in hammer, I'm still learning things about the editor that I didn't know.
 

3DRyan

L2: Junior Member
Aug 29, 2008
57
6
Lets put it this way. I'm working on a fully to almost fully-ish custom map right now. No to very little amounts of pre made stuff. It'll be about a year after I started learning hammer that I have my map done. This excludes the couple years i've spent learning maya and photoshop, though.
 

.4ngryToasters

L1: Registered
Oct 27, 2008
7
1
I've been mapping on and off for 2 or so years now and I'm still learning things about hammer. The best advice I can give a beginner is learn the tools on the left side of the window. Learn em, love em, live em.
Another important thing is to get a sense of scale. A room can feel right in hammer, but be totally disproportioned after a compile, the best thing to do is keep a spawn entity nearby at all times.

As for the fun. There really is nothing like releasing a map after months building and debugging. Then seeing it being played and enjoyed by total strangers on other servers.
 

Toughsox

L1: Registered
Oct 31, 2008
14
1
Thanks for all the input everyone, I really appreciate it. I guess I can spare some time and see how it goes for me. Once again, thanks for the info. :thumbup:
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
Fatony, that depends on the map's size, hoodoo has taken well over 900 hours, but its a heck of a lot bigger than most CTF maps or any arena maps, I'd say that something more like 500 hours would surfice for a good CTF map and maybe even as little as 300 hours for an arena map.