[Info] The Ten Commandments of TF2 Level Design.

[Zwiffle]

I disagree with the TF2 texture thing - there are plenty of cases where it is appropriate to use a texture from another Source game so that it doesn't break the TF2 feel. Like others have mentioned for carving (I just use clipping and vertex manipulation, but that's mainly because of my experience with Radiant-based editors) it's something you need to do responsibly, but you can do it.

 

[strangemodule]

Should be stickied.

Also, as a side note, I have yet to see a map where something was carved.

 

[Terr]

Not really, game engines are licensed and baught.

Yeah, like with Natural Selection, Action Half-Life, Counterstrike, Day of Defeat, TFC... oh, wait, no, they didn't

Carving is only bad if you don't know you are doing. It's like saying, "Don't drive a car! You might crash!".

I used to think so too, but I realized most of the times I really wanted to make a square hole in a flat surface, it was often less work to slice it manually.

More like "Don't play with that arc-welder, you might burn or blind yourself". The average person will find various glues, tapes, staples, nails, etc. far safer and effective.

 

[XFunc_CaRteR]

I hate to admit it, but I have carved before. There were two instances in my current map when I had to carve. And guess what? It worked like a charm. (Of course, I was carving in a certain way...)

 

[SPHinx]

Curious if people feel the same way about "make hollow" as they do about carving.

I used to do both and have since stopped using either. I find I am happier with the results, even if it takes a bit longer.

 

[Psy]

The only time I use hollow is for 3D skyboxes.

 

[Terr]

"Make Hollow" is OK, but I always end up having to tune the way it has chosen to make the walls and ceiling match anyway... I think of it as a shortcut for making a bunch of brushes of roughly the right size that I will need to fine-tune.

Once you discover the 'x' and 'z' shortcuts, it's a lot faster to make you view twirl around and to size things just-right in the 3D view.

 

[Radaka]

Hollow= Initial Blocking Map-in-a-Box

 

[Psy]

No. You use the cordon tool for that.

 

[A Boojum Snark]

or if you are like me, you leave the map unsealed, put in a Void Saftey Bubble to protect your eyes from the Hall of Mirrors, then just run around your awesome ultraleaking map and sticky jump unhindered from one end of the map to the other clearing thousands of units of deadly void.

 

[grazr]

Yeah, like with Natural Selection, Action Half-Life, Counterstrike, Day of Defeat, TFC... oh, wait, no, they didn't

You can't license your own Game Engine to yourself. They own the engine already.

FYI, dod was baught. But most of the others like NS are free mods. You don't breach copyright laws if you don't profit from it. Dark Messiah is a prime example. Source was licensed to the mod team and they were able to sell the mod; it is now available on Steam.

 

[Nutomic]

Dark Messiah isnt actually a mod, its a full game

 

[Freyja]

I disagree with the TF2 texture thing - there are plenty of cases where it is appropriate to use a texture from another Source game so that it doesn't break the TF2 feel.

This is true, and I did mention you can use them. Heck, even 2fort uses a half life texture.
Besides, these arn't laws. If you know what you're doing you can stray from them slightly.

 

[Blue552]

All are good except 10. Carving isn't as scary as people would like to believe.

 

[Terr]

All are good except 10. Carving isn't as scary as people would like to believe.

Part of it is this: In complex carves, how do you know it didn't mess something up? The time spent checking may outweigh the time spent by just slicing it up manually.

 

[YM]

Part of it is this: In complex carves, how do you know it didn't mess something up? The time spent checking may outweigh the time spent by just slicing it up manually.

One day I'm going to make an entire map in negative form and simply carve it into a giant block.

:lol:

 

[Radaka]

One day I'm going to make an entire map in negative form and simply carve it into a giant block.

:lol:

Oh shit I accidentally all over my computer screen.

That would certainly be a sight to behold.

 

[Rizz]

I'm not using TF2 textures on my current map, although I'm not combining TF2 textures with custom ones either. I'm using a completely different them than the TF2 default theme.
I carved some of my map, it doesn't lag or run bad at all. In the video below, you'll see the jump pad which was a carve.

This is the map I'm working on, I don't see why carving is so bad.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DetIbQU3_p4"]YouTube- TF2 Map: TFDM7[/ame]

 

[Freyja]

Carving is bad. There's no situation where you NEED to carve, and if you do, you're not thinking right.
You could have made that from an arch, it would have been easier to optimize and work with.

 

[absurdistof]

*continues with the above*

Carving is the lazy way out of figuring out how you should clip it. Unfortunately, algorithms still haven't caught up with subtle tricks, so chances are that if you stick to your own skills and intelligence, you should fare much better off. By that I mean the pieces will be better aligned with the grid, and you will have less bits of brush in general.