Valve Maps (Decompiled)

[HT.SFM (Steam)]

Thank you so much

 

[TheGhostThatWas]

Does Thundermountain cause anyone elses hammer to crash while loading? I can't open the file, just wondering if it's on my end or not.

 

[Bunbun]

Does Thundermountain cause anyone elses hammer to crash while loading? I can't open the file, just wondering if it's on my end or not.

It worked fine for me.

 

[Vel0city]

Does Thundermountain cause anyone elses hammer to crash while loading? I can't open the file, just wondering if it's on my end or not.

Did Hammer tell you to resave the vmf with invalid solids removed? Because not only does that delete the invalid solids, it breaks all props and has a high chance of bricking a vmf.

 

[Pocket]

Sadly, even a number of the original SDK maps produce that message nowadays. I'd love to know why.

 

[ics]

Does Thundermountain cause anyone elses hammer to crash while loading? I can't open the file, just wondering if it's on my end or not.

Back when i was using WinXP and had progs on eating memory, it failed to load on me properly. It should load fine if you took the file from the 1st post link and if your machine has memory free. It loads very long for me too as there are so many props and brushes.

Sadly, even a number of the original SDK maps produce that message nowadays. I'd love to know why.

On the top of my head, bsp version changes and engine changes caused the old ones to fail loading properly.

 

[ClockworkSpirit]

Thread is dead again

 

[Davekillerish]

Its a tool, its not dead just not getting constant replies..

 

[Tumby]

Thread is dead again

This statement implies two things:

1. A thread without constant replies, is a useless thread.
2. There is a point in time in which this thread has been useless.

However, threads are usefull as long as the content in the orignal post is still of relevance. This thread has since it's creation been referred to many times as a convenient way of getting decompiled Valve maps without having to do anything yourself.

Therefore, this thread has never been dead, is currently not dead, and will only die after the entire TF2 community has died as well.

 

[RavenStryker]

Going to update these today! We'll make this thread live until TF2 has seen it's last days!

 

[RavenStryker]

+OP Updated

Everything has been updated, however... I got a weird error this time and I'm not sure what it correlates to. So if you notice anything funky missing or out of place, let me know. This was the error:

[warning] BspFile: Negative game lump length -13,435,148 in prpd, assuming 0
  [warning] LzmaBuffer: Difference in LZMA data length: found 39,387 bytes, expected 39,386

I also didn't realize that SO many more maps were added! Luckily since I'm getting back into this whole map making thing I'll be a lot more on top of this now.

 

[henke37]

Those are both due to the new lump compression. Valve didn't do it quite right.

 

[RavenStryker]

Okay good to hear, at least it's not something that is detrimental to the decompiles.

 

[Skittelz]

Thanks for the decompiling.

 

[Birdt]

Thank you. Now I can see how the Masters make skyboxes.

 

[Crowbar]

Thank you. Now I can see how the Masters make skyboxes.

Some maps of Valve are made that way I wouldn't (or would only) say they are engine developers, they don't pity it at all.
Also, there is nothing much hard in making skyboxes.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

Also, there is nothing much hard in making skyboxes.

That depends on what you put in your skybox. As there is still an important key feature most seem to ignore: A skybox should be efficient since they are constantly rendered. For this reason its a good thing when you can use the most cheap way possible. cp_well still has an excelent skybox for that reason. Its dull, but it does its job very well. That its just flat brushes doesnt mean its a bad one. If it fits the theme its a good one. More efficient you cant get other than having no 3d skybox at all.

And the only hard part of skyboxes is connecting it to the map to make the transition smooth. This is a thing many cant do and often just avoid. Or they use the trick to make the skybox start on the safe side. Learning it is worth it, and once you know it then it indeed isnt that hard. But to get one that connects displacement walls smoothly into the skybox can still take some effort.

 

[Crowbar]

And the only hard part of skyboxes is connecting it to the map to make the transition smooth. This is a thing many cant do and often just avoid. Or they use the trick to make the skybox start on the safe side. Learning it is worth it, and once you know it then it indeed isnt that hard. But to get one that connects displacement walls smoothly into the skybox can still take some effort.

In most of cases, it's just building 3d skybox corner (or all of it) around the actual map, sew, then making it 16 times smaller, with a sky_camera in 0, 0, 0, then building the rest of the skybox in its final size, isn't it?

 

[UKCS-Alias]

Yes it is. But still note that lightmaps have to merge, and in some cases the shadows can mismatch (the map doesnt cast shadows in the skybox so the skybox texture could be lighter than the map). But other than that, its indeed just doing that.

 

[Pocket]

Yeah, that's one really goofy thing about VRAD — stuff in the skybox can cast shadows on the real map, but not the other way around, for some reason, so even placing dummy nodraw or blocklight brushes to cast shadows where they ought to me might mess with the real map if you're not careful.

But apparently there's not really a huge reason not to just make the out-of-bounds area in the real map stretch out as far as it takes to make that not a problem. If anything, it might make the map run better because of the whole constantly-rendered thing that Alias said. 3D skyboxes are really only a way to exceed Hammer's coordinate limits.