What's the best way to go about scaling down a map?

[Blizzmaster]

First of all, I'll link over to my map "koth_warhead" over in the Map Workshop, in case anyone wants a visual of what I'm working with.

http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=18712

Now, since submitting it, I've realized (with the help of some great feedback) that my map is overscale, and I need to make it a little smaller. I've got a pretty good idea of how large areas should be now, but I'm having doubts about how to go about doing it.

Initially, I was just going to hit "Select All" and then use the transform tool to scale it down by about 25%. After doing this, I liked the scale of the map a lot more, however, I've come across a few issues, such as some doors looking too small, and brushes starting to have decimal point dimensions (like x.y width). I definitely want to keep everything snapped on the grid (for my sanity) and I don't want to try and spend days trying to snap every single brush on the map back to the grid.

My question, then, is what's the best way to approach the task of downsizing a map like this? Should I just forget the transform tool since it causes other problems and try to just move and resize walls appropriately? Maybe if some of you have also had to deal with a similar situation, would you care to share some insight? I really want to get this right the first time and use my time effectively.

Thanks!

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Yea, about 90% of the time, you don't want to use that tool for what you're doing.

The best thing to do is to downsize it by hand, make hall-ways narrower, yards smaller, move things together. Sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't.

If you place a prop_static and set it's model to heavy.mdl, you can use this to judge scale of your map compared to players.

 

[Blizzmaster]

Cool. This is pretty much the alternative I had in mind, just thought I would check and see if maybe there's a better way of doing things, since I am still relatively new to Hammer.

This is probably what I'll do, but other comments are still welcome if anyone feels like chiming in!

 

[tyler]

So what I did one time is I scaled the entire thing down, then put it all in a visgroup and brushed over it in a new visgroup so it was on the grid and I was sure everything was correct and lined up. Then I hid the new stuff, selected the old stuff, and deleted it. Voila.

 

[What Is Schwa]

You might not have to scale everything down. Rather, use this opportunity to do a detail pass and add "off limits" areas. For example, a long hallway could have a fence along the side with pipes behind it. Ceilings that are too high can now have rafters. Outside areas can have distant objects.

 

[Blizzmaster]

You might not have to scale everything down. Rather, use this opportunity to do a detail pass and add "off limits" areas. For example, a long hallway could have a fence along the side with pipes behind it. Ceilings that are too high can now have rafters. Outside areas can have distant objects.

This is also a pretty good idea. I'm still going to scale some stuff down, but this could also be effective at helping to limit how massive the map feels. Thanks!