Questions...

[Fogold]

Ok. This has been on my mind for a while, and I havn't been sure if I should send this or not, in case I was being a bother. However, I decided to take a chance and send questions on how to do some things on hammer. I thought I could do ok without knowing this stuff, but my map is becoming less and less how I imagined it. Also, the official Valve tutorial has done a fat lot of good, not answering any of my questions. Anyway, here are some questions that have been bothering me.

1. The first, big one is how do you make a rounded world brush, i.e a circular platform? So far I have been making a square, copying it, turning it 36 degrees, copying it, turning it 36 degrees etc... There must be a quicker, simpler solution (I suppose there is displacement, but it is a bit too innaccurate)

2. The second question is how do you mirror your map so far, in other words to make a symettrical map? I don't mean copy it and turn it 180 degrees on the z axis, but to make an inverted copy of it, like Aerospace, not like Mach4. I hope you know what I mean.:unsure:

3. How do you put spectator cameras on your map? This isn't too important, but I may as well add it to the list.

4. I was once told to put something called cubemap on my map. I think this may be the most noobish question on the planet, but what is it?

5. Is there any way to get a valve map or an already made community map on to hammer so you can edit it? This would help me greatly find the codes to find certain things.

I just wan't to say that this website has been brilliant for me, I have learned so much from here more than anywhere else. It's full of friendly people, and brilliant mappers. I only wish I could say the same about myself . Anyway, if you answer these questions, I promise I will try my best to make the best map I can:thumbup:.

 

[drp]

I'm not the greatest mapper on here, but ill try and answer some of the questions.

1. You can create a rounded platform using the clipping and vertex tools.
2. Inverted?
3. The spectator cameras are just regular entities.
4. Cubemaps are what the game uses to 'draw' on reflective surfaces. These are just regular entities. If you dont add cubemaps, a lot of your shinier surfaces will have purple checkered squares.

If anyone wants to correct me feel free, but i belive that answers 3/4 of your questions.

 

[Fogold]

Thank you very much for those three questions you answered, I'll try to describe question 2 more. When you see yourself in the mirror, when you move your left arm, you mirrored counterpart moves his right. When you copy your brush and turn it 180 degrees, the right part of your map is also the right part of the other side. What I want is to make the right part of my map the left part of the mirrored part, so those two parts connect.

I probably made that more complicated than it was.

 

[eerieone]

1.select the block-tool, and then you can select in a small window which primitive geometry you want create. you select that in the window with Categories and Objects. under Object you should select arch
2. copy the brushes you want to mirror and invert, right-click them selected brushes in your viewport, select "Flip Objects" ---> vertically/horizontally
5. use vmex to decompile maps you are interested in http://www.geocities.com/cofrdrbob/vmex.html

 

[Fogold]

My sincerest thanks to both of you, you have helped me greatly. This is certainly going to be useful for me .

 

[Vigilante212]

dont rely on decompiled maps to tell you much, when you decompile all the names of objects become hammer id numbers. so its really hard to tell whats going on with them.

and if its a complete circle just do what eirie said but select the cylindar option. you can change the face count up to 32. for some reason you can only place the cylindar in the top view windwo youll need to rotated it afterwords.

 

[A Boojum Snark]

for some reason you can only place the cylindar in the top view windwo youll need to rotated it afterwords.

Change the setting for Primitive reorientation.

On decompiling: It's far more respectful to ask a particular author how he did something before you decompile the map.

 

[Sgt Frag]

1. Instead of using arch tool as suggested select cylinder and number of sides (goes to 22 I think). After you get what you want make hit ctrl_T and tie it to a func_detail. Otherwise it will kill your vis-leafs [well, not kill but make a mess].

2. Hit Edit, select all.

Ctrl_T mirrors /left/right. Ctrl-I mirrors up/down


4. search cube map, there's a tut by Youme I think. Too much to write here.

5. in DL section there are all the oficial maps decompiled.


good luck

 

[A Boojum Snark]

2. Hit Edit, select all.

Ctrl_T mirrors /left/right.

O_O It's ctrl+L! T is tie to entity, which would be.... very, very, very bad to do after a select all. :crying:

 

[Sgt Frag]

Doh!, My bad.

 

[Gadget]

most of the stuff has been covered already but anyway:

1. use cylinder instead of block (can be selected on the right of the screen after selecting the Block Tool)
2. select any brush or displacement then in top view click right mouse button and use "flip objects" (flipping won't work for props)
3. look for the entity "info_observer_point"
4. cubemaps are used for the reflections on reflective surfaces (like windows and certain props) but you better check out some tutorial about it because it's too much to write as Sgt. Frag already said
5. you'll find the stock maps here

 

[ClydeJr]

2. copy the brushes you want to mirror and invert, right-click them selected brushes in your viewport, select "Flip Objects" ---> vertically/horizontally

You can also use the Transform tool to scale the second "copy" by -1 across one of the axis.