MapGyver - Creative Use of Props and Assets

A thread for unique and resourceful uses of props and things that result in new details not possible otherwise.


Here are a few examples to get started with from koth_king

No bench prop with a backrest? No problem lets just stick a copy of the existing prop to make a backrest.


Check out this upside down vent prop and hl2 antennas.


Sometimes it's ok to have props clipping through each other. There's no 45 degree version of the city facade props.


Another example of props clipping. This time it's to make a Y bend. The corner pipe is just goes through the straight pipe like it's no big deal.

 

This is all too good. It's a nice breath of fresh air to see other people repurposing props like this, seeing how it's not necessarily wasted time to fiddle around with this kind of stuff instead of going for custom models.

 

Here's some I found

cp_mountainlab

Fancy reuse of some vent props

This is one of the train buildings from well

These doors don't have backs, but if you flip the left door it can be used for the back of the right

A normal vertical pole end for the security fence used horizontaly

This large laser looking thing is actually the bottom of the point from Nucleus

not only does this point reuse the waste elevator prop, it also reuses more of the nucleus point props

This combination of crane arm and strapped barrels makes it look like the straps are connected to the crane

An upside down gorge tank n pipes prop

hl2 computer texture under this grate. It's all kinds of stretched out and obscured so you don't notice


koth_brazil
This map took the antenna from hydro and recompiled it to be larger to fit within a normal map instead of just the skybox


cp_dustbowl
This projector is made out of brushes and crank props


cp_steel
Even though the blue train engine doesn't have any way to attach train cars behind it, it can still be used like it does and people don't seem to notice.


cp_snowplow
the wheels for this door are actually gauge props


pl_frontier
This platform is one of the rocks used to detail the ground on 2fort. They where originally only meant to be laying on the ground but works fine for something like this too

 

There's this great movie quote from a great movie that perfectly fits here. Now what was it though.... Oh yeah I remember:

"I don't care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do."

 

So i wanted some corner detail here:

Easy:

 

Watergate has a few of these whatever-they-ares, which are made of gas tanks merged into the wall!

 

Spoiler: All of mine are within this spoiler

 

It's also worth noting that the wire is actually a displacement using the barbed wire texture.

 

It isn't super groundbreaking, but pipeline uses lots of 2fort props to act as darkly lit industrial buildings (in place of making more than one new model.) In the editor, you quickly realize that none of it makes sense!






Also: Pipeline uses Nodraw in areas where the map maker doesn't want a light_environment effect. (Or possibly to increase the ambient lighting in certain areas.) It looks the same as a normal skybox in-game, but doesn't cast any light. The nodraw on the ramps? No idea. Probably a decompiling error, but I also find it funny how close some of the silhouette props are to the actual map.

 

Another thing cool about Mountainlab which hasn't been shown in this thread are the supports to the cave structure above the first point.




They use the metal track texture for the beams and the supports are the steel door textures scaled up.

 

Viaduct_event


Using waterfall prop to make a spooky rock. This was before the spikey halloween rocks

 

On badlands last, there isn't a way to get this section of air ducts without either making them clip into each other or having exposed backface culling. So just cover up the backface culling with a brush!

 

For me, the most in-your-face usage of HL2 props in a TF2 map is these barriers in Badwater:

But they still just about work, since they're relatively clean and undetailed enough to fit in. Would definitely be a different story if it was the alternate, far dirtier skin.

 

oml I never would've ever known they were from HL2

 

I needed a wooden door to match this house, so I used gradient overlays, and a bent rail for the handle with a downscaled stain overlay under it

 

Dustbowl: Underneath stage 1 RED spawn/stage 2 BLU spawn, what we assume might be a brushwork tunnel is in fact...

...a huge mousehole decal. (But it's barely visible anyway 'cos of the big grate on the spawnroom floor)

 

Something I never noticed until I decided to have a look around in Hammer, but these chicken wire parts in Badwater are actually displacements to give it a more rough/weighted look!


(The metal sheet that isn't in-game is a func_brush set to not render, presumably to block bullets reliably and give a metal impact)

 

Using the wagon wheel prop and pure brushwork to make an old farming wagon