What do you dislike about Hammer?

[eerieone]

oh, oh, a function that detects overlapping brushes
it´s not that important, but it would be easier to hunt those down

and maybe make the viewdistance-sphere tighter, to see more precisely where it starts/ends

and maybe sth like an entity-counter

 

[A Boojum Snark]

not being able to create arches / cylinders based on the view you're using and having to rotate / translate them after creation

This has been in since Worldcraft 2.0 on the HL1 CD

and maybe sth like an entity-counter

This too. Map > Show Information

 

[StoneFrog]

I dislike how much it crashes.

On a more serious note, I wish Hammer had the ability to display a brush's texture in the 2D views when selected (kind of like how models in the 2D view are normally wireframe but become textured when selected). It'd be quite useful for clipping out window frames and archways, especially on all those HL2 textures where all of the above are just pasted on with black space inside them.

 

[Gameslave]

I dislike the fact that Valve didn't put a working "func_ladder" into the Team Fortress 2 SDK. I do know how to make a ladder, but it would be a lot simpler, easier, and faster to have a "func_ladder"

 

[A Boojum Snark]

It's not that they didn't add one, it's that they removed it on purpose because they decided they didn't like what ladders did to the gameflow in their game.

 

[BagOfChips]

I'd like some built in TF2 shortcut, so I don't have to open up the steam games window or alt tab to launch TF2

 

[zpqrei]

Also, not for us awesome mappers [/bee'sknees] but can we have a simple GUI mode? Like, a 'create a static prop' button? It took me 3 maps to learn how to do that. THREE! Also, something to scale models. I hate making a model, compiling it, then realising that it is twice as big as my map.

 

[iQue]

Not being like Sketchup

I mean seriously, it's so easy to use it's silly

 

[Brandished]

having to press the camera button tool in order to change what camera you are viewing? Call me lazy if you want but would it not make sense to just let you change camera at anytime?

I almost never use the camera tool for this reason, I've been short-cutting by hitting ALT > V > 3 to center the 3D view on the selected object as a work around. Another nice option would be able to cycle through the cameras placed in the map by pressing a button, like you can change through the options with the clipping tool.

This has been in since Worldcraft 2.0 on the HL1 CD

Seriously, thanks for this info. Since checking that out I started messing around with the options and discovered 10 or 15 more features I never new even existed in Hammer. I never really took a close look at that part of the VDC as I used video tutorials when I was (re)learning how to use Hammer. A lot of the Hotkey and reference stuff on the VDC very out of date, though. It be nice if Hammer had key config's files and bindings like the Source games do so you could see all the keyboard shortcuts.

 

[Earl]

I hate having to load Steam, then load the SDK, then load hammer. My taskbar is clogged!

As currently envisioned, it will be standalone, and not require steam to be running, but it will require you to have the game/sdk installed for certain files.

Heh, I fully support this endeavor. After having messed around with Blender and DarkRadiant, I just don't have much motivation to work with Hammer anymore. Hammer is a nice tool, but I could easily list several hundred, possibly even several thousand, imporvements.

Anyways, to narrow things down, I'll just list my main problems with it:

1. the enormous amount of instability using the texture browser causes, especially if search filters are used
2. accidentally clicking another object or somewhere outside the selection when creating new brushes, trying to perform a translation on a brush / model, setting the cordon tool, or when in vertex editing mode
3. not being able to create arches / cylinders based on the view you're using and having to rotate / translate them after creation
4. having to leave clipping mode to change which brushes are being clipped

There's also this thread that's been sitting on the Steam forums for several years now: What do you not like about level designing in hammer?

If you don't mind me asking, what are you developing this with? C? ++? .Net? Delphi? I was considering something like this myself before, but I just don't have anywhere near enough code knowledge to do so.

Also, if you haven't yet seen it, there's a bunch of nice resources on the VDC's programming site list as well.

The texture browser uses huge amounts of memory due to the sheer volume of data the textures take up, and that's probably what makes it unstable. I'll see what I can think up when i get there.

I am coding this in Python, using PyGTK and OpenGL. If some parts of the program become slow on large maps, I'll probably port them to pure C or C++. I'm probably going to make it open source (eventually, once it actually has some success in doing something). I'm a programmer by trade, so I hope I have the skills required to do this.

oh, oh, a function that detects overlapping brushes
it´s not that important, but it would be easier to hunt those down

and maybe make the viewdistance-sphere tighter, to see more precisely where it starts/ends

and maybe sth like an entity-counter

An overlapping brush detector is a great idea, and not too hard to implement.

I dislike how much it crashes.

On a more serious note, I wish Hammer had the ability to display a brush's texture in the 2D views when selected (kind of like how models in the 2D view are normally wireframe but become textured when selected). It'd be quite useful for clipping out window frames and archways, especially on all those HL2 textures where all of the above are just pasted on with black space inside them.

A textured 2D mode is kind of ambiguous in what it should show -- even if it only showed it for the selected brush. Should it show the front or back? I think you should still use the 3D view for texturing.

I dislike the fact that Valve didn't put a working "func_ladder" into the Team Fortress 2 SDK. I do know how to make a ladder, but it would be a lot simpler, easier, and faster to have a "func_ladder"

This is a game limitation, not a hammer one.

Also, not for us awesome mappers [/bee'sknees] but can we have a simple GUI mode? Like, a 'create a static prop' button? It took me 3 maps to learn how to do that. THREE! Also, something to scale models. I hate making a model, compiling it, then realising that it is twice as big as my map.

Good idea! I should include a "static prop" tool that automatically plops down a prop_static entity. Maybe an env_cubemap tool too. Or maybe i should just make it so you can set the default entity when using the entity tool without having to restart.

No model scaling annoys me too, but realize that scaling models involves decompiling and recompiling the model, and then remembering to include the new .mdl in your BSP. Not something really easy to integrate....

Not being like Sketchup

I mean seriously, it's so easy to use it's silly

Sketchup IS awesome, but unfortunately, vbsp wants a bunch of blocks making up your level, which isn't really compatible with the crazy stuff you can do in sketchup. I also want to make how you select and manipulate things as close as possible to Hammer (except where I make improvements), so using my program is easy to pick up if you already know your way around hammer.

 

[Bonafide]

if I make a solid I would like to be able to easily add more vertexes to it. It annoys me that I make a solid cube and thats all it is, 8 vertexes. (I started using 3dsmax and this option is so easy) . Is this possible now in hammer?

 

[Xenodamus]

What I don't like about Hammer? Quite a few things, such as the lack of User Interface organization and customization:

• Background for the panels are locked in width
• Lack of shortcut-keys customization
• Awful materials browser: skewed aspect ratios instead of zooming out. Lack of material folders browsing.
• Visual artifacts

I'm sure there's more. Glad they added a surface displacement tool, although don't the rules on concave brushes still apply?

 

[Brandished]

The texture browser uses huge amounts of memory due to the sheer volume of data the textures take up, and that's probably what makes it unstable. I'll see what I can think up when i get there.

I understand that, it just still seems like it would be fixable to me. I've seen photo viewing apps that can easily browse libraries containing 3 to 5 times (or more) as many images as Hammer can without coming anywhere close to crashing.

I am coding this in Python, using PyGTK and OpenGL. If some parts of the program become slow on large maps, I'll probably port them to pure C or C++. I'm probably going to make it open source (eventually, once it actually has some success in doing something). I'm a programmer by trade, so I hope I have the skills required to do this.

Ah Python, it's probably been one of the nicer languages I've run accross. I tried reading through Think Python not to long ago, but never was able to get very far. I did learn a lot about Lumberjacks and unladen swallows though. It might be worthwhile checking out the QuArK Editor if your coding it in Python. It's also open source, and although the core editor is delphi based, a lot of it's functionality is tied into Python extensions.

if I make a solid I would like to be able to easily add more vertexes to it. It annoys me that I make a solid cube and thats all it is, 8 vertexes. (I started using 3dsmax and this option is so easy) . Is this possible now in hammer?

It's possible, been possible since the Worldcraft days, but not likely anywhere near as easy to do as it in a 3D package like Max due to how Hammer deals with solids. Hammer stores solids as a series of intersecting planes rather then connected verteces, so you have to either use the clipping tool or the vertex tool's face split command to add vertices. You can't do anything really complex either, if the shape gets too complex you also run the risk of creating an invalid structure that Hammer won't be able to be reload after saving the map.

 

[Radenska]

I feel like the entity menu is so much less digestible than the rest of the main functions. Most every actions on the main menu has one primary function relative to the situation. Entity Tool, however, is humongous in scope. Perhaps it could be a secondary menu beside the current one ?(One menu meant for constructing brushwork and editing it, another for entities)

Could be broken down into something like this? :

Environment/Lighting
Props/Objects
Logic/Math
Physics/Pathing

Also, I really wish integrating custom textures/models had a bit more support within the SDK.

 

[zornor]

Something useful in terms of displacements could be something like brush vertex editing but for the displaced vertexes. Ie click a vertex with the tool, it's shown as selected in 2D and 3D grid, move it around like you would a normal vertex, except constrained to an axis?

Reposting this cause I want to see your response to it.

 

[The Political Gamer]

I am the kind of person who likes things that are intuitve and easy to pick up... AND HAMMER IS NOT ONE OF THEM! :cursing: I could go on for hours about how frustrating it is to pickup! However, I will not because I figure that as I learn how to make maps Hammer will become 2nd nature. Untill then:O

 

[red_flame586]

It needs to tell me what all the buttons do and what they are. Hammer needs much more user friendliness. And a good learning curve is needed to

 

[Earl]

Reposting this cause I want to see your response to it.

Something like this wouldnt be too hard to implement, but I'm hoping you'll like my take on displacement editing more...

I am the kind of person who likes things that are intuitve and easy to pick up... AND HAMMER IS NOT ONE OF THEM! :cursing: I could go on for hours about how frustrating it is to pickup! However, I will not because I figure that as I learn how to make maps Hammer will become 2nd nature. Untill then:O

Interfacing with 3D on a 2D screen is inherently hard. There's no perfect way to do it, but some apps do it well. It also seems that every app has its own way of doing it too, that takes time to learn. Like I've said, I hope to emulate hammer for the most part, but improve where I can.


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As far as progress goes, I have polygon loading figured out, and can provide a "shaded polygon" view of a map now:

I can load maps pretty fast. arena_ravine_d loads in 13 seconds, and I haven't done any heavy optimizing yet.

 

[Forthex]

Sweet! You're making a lot of progress very quickly, and I'm pleasantly surprised! Great job!

 

[eerieone]

what i completely dislike is when i have to compare settings for two entities that are on different ends of my map
i´d like to be able to have two properties-windows open at the same time for better and faster comparison