Prefered stair angles?

Prefered angle of incline for stairs.


  • Total voters
    56

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
I've found this interesting when observing Valve and community maps. Stairs always differ and generally recieve not enough attention than i believe they should. Especially by the new comers to mapping.

I've personally been partial to a 2:1 grid for the incline of stairs. It looks neater on the grid and allows for a smoother transition between floors. How ever this does have the tendancy to take up a lot of space, and is problematic when spiralling a staircase along the walls of a room.

Valve tends to use a 3:2. I've recently been picking this up for the space issue, although the texture rotation angle annoys me. The damage fall off of weapons in TF2 is atleast 3 times worse than TFC and so mid range combat ranges a lot smaller distance and requires smaller combat areas within maps. So there will be less room for stairs and ramps due to the exclusion of ladders.

In a lot of ammatuer maps i've seen 1:1 grid inclines, which personally just looks horrific (Although can sometimes look ok with the wood texture for some reason). It also makes climbing said stairs quite dangerous when assaulting defencive positions.

I suppose i might as well make a poll of this.

edit:

Those scales are ratio based, not size based. Some people got confused in chat about this.
 
Last edited:

wiseguy149

Emperor of Entities and Amateur of Aesthetics
May 12, 2009
103
220
Yeah, 45 degree angle stairs is just terrible.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
I fixed your poll answers to be in ratio notation :p

I use 3:2 (actually I say 2:3, stairs are usually described in rise:run) just because it's valves primary choice, and so it will keep the feel and look consistent from map to map.
 

HojoTheGreat

L5: Dapper Member
Nov 11, 2008
206
34
12x8 (default, unless I'm misremembering my dimensions) is the only step size I use, short of unique staircases designed to need bigger stairs. It's VALVe's default in their Source maps and provides the smoothest walk for TF2 models at a running pace (though stairs should always be playerclipped regardless). Anything else just seems off to me.
 

StoneFrog

L6: Sharp Member
May 28, 2008
395
81
I tend to make each step 16 units in width with an elevation of 8 units per step. I guess that's 2:1.

Of course, ideally, whenever it doesn't mean I have to sacrifice art style or major geometry changes, I try to take advantage of Valve's stair props. :D
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
sadly i have no idea whats these ratios are.. i just make stairs *shrug*
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
sadly i have no idea whats these ratios are.. i just make stairs *shrug*
stairs.png

1 to 1, 1 to 2, 2 to 3.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
ima 2:1 guy then =)
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
I fixed your poll answers to be in ratio notation :p

I use 3:2 (actually I say 2:3, stairs are usually described in rise:run) just because it's valves primary choice, and so it will keep the feel and look consistent from map to map.

Thanks. :p

I voted the wrong thing but i guess it evens out with Nova's miss vote ;o
 
Last edited:

Schmoe

L2: Junior Member
May 18, 2008
60
1
although the texture rotation angle annoys me

Typically I hold the Alt key and right click (in the Face Edit Sheet) while a face is selected to get the textures to get the right alignment.

For stairwells, I highlight the face on the top or bottom of the supporting rail and Alt-right click on the sides to apply the texture. If the side textures are to be different, I select them after alignment and change the texture w/o applying a new alignment.

I never rotate textures using numeric values (unless its 90/180 depending on the situation).
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
710
I use a 4:3 ratio, that's real world stairs, plus I am used to it from an old engine that used that for the ai's stair climb anim.

Must work 'cause I've never had anyone complian that I need to clip my stairs, it gives a good smooth ride. 12 units high, 16 deep.

But I have also made them by using a valve stair model as a guide.
 
Last edited:

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
I use a 4:3 ratio, that's real world stairs, plus I am used to it from an old engine that used that for the ai's stair climb anim.

Must work 'cause I've never had anyone complian that I need to clip my stairs, it gives a good smooth ride. 12 units high, 16 deep.

But I have also made them by using a valve stair model as a guide.
That's rather large... 6x8 maybe...
and you really should clip them! do a side-by-side comparison sometime.
 
Apr 13, 2009
728
309
I'm using 2:1 too for the reasons you mentioned : 1:1 looks terribad, and 3:2 is not obvious. It looks like I should give the later a try though because 2:1 stairs indeed take a lot of room...
 

zornor

L4: Comfortable Member
Jan 14, 2009
195
23
I use a 4:3 ratio, that's real world stairs, plus I am used to it from an old engine that used that for the ai's stair climb anim.

Must work 'cause I've never had anyone complian that I need to clip my stairs, it gives a good smooth ride. 12 units high, 16 deep.

But I have also made them by using a valve stair model as a guide.

Same here, except I generally clip my stairs before I release them, and like Boojum said, in 8:6.

Although that's my most common ratio I'm never consistent. I used 1:1 very occassionally.
 

TotalMark

L6: Sharp Member
Feb 13, 2008
331
78
I use a 4:3 ratio, that's real world stairs, plus I am used to it from an old engine that used that for the ai's stair climb anim.

Must work 'cause I've never had anyone complian that I need to clip my stairs, it gives a good smooth ride. 12 units high, 16 deep.

But I have also made them by using a valve stair model as a guide.

I just made a couple stairs in Hammer and here's something I found:

A 4:3 staircase with 8x6 unit steps that contains 16 steps, measures 128x96 units and conforms with the 32x32 unit grid. An excellent prefab!
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
3:2 for everything

But sometimes I get creative and use very 'interesting' ratios, but that's like once or twice in a whole map. And they are always just a few steps long.
 

Ida

deer
aa
Jan 6, 2008
2,289
1,372
I use 2:1 all the time, because I prefer to stick to the grid as much as possible. 3:2 stairs can get a little messy, not to mention the steps often end up looking tiny.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
I use 2:1 all the time, because I prefer to stick to the grid as much as possible. 3:2 stairs can get a little messy, not to mention the steps often end up looking tiny.

how can they end up looking tiny?? if they do it's because you've picked a bad multiple to work with. 2:3 fits nicely into 8:12 which is probably the biggest you wan't steps to be.