CSS: Hammer Editor Help

massahwahl

massahwahl

VIP Member
Im trying to design my first CSS map. Ive got it drawn out with the rooms and what I want in each room. Ive been reading the guides online, but they all show you how to make a single room map which is helpful for learning basics, but im a little confused by some parts. Am I supposed to make one huge room with th actual game rooms inside the one room? Or do I make several rooms and connect them? If you do the later though, how do you tell where the map boundaries are? If theres an easier guide somewhere you can link me to that would be great! Ive read two or three now and dont really get it yet.
 
Could you, later, help me.

Lol.

I either want to make my own map, or edit a texture map by adding some stuff.


Thanks.
 
Absolutely! Maybe we could even tackle some of it together? I figured out how to make rooms and place objects, but Im stumped as to how you make multimple rooms and connecting them. Add me to Steam and I can show you what I know so far: Steam ID: Ukulele_Ninja (MSN: [email protected])
 
Ive made several maps in hammer! You can make a bunch of small rooms and connect them, just make sure there isnt a "leak" in any of them. One solution to the leak problem is to just put all the small rooms inside of a giant room, but thats REALLY bad map making and its a thousand times better to just fix that leak. If you give me a day I can find my old guide resource that had a couple hundred guides/maps/how-to's and thats how I learned.

I would be really interested to see your map, perhaps all three can get together some time and work on a map.

If you want to see my most recent/published map, de_ship, it can be found on filefront. (Speaking of that old map, I need to finish version 2, a thousand times better).

If you need any help just ask :D.

Kobaj
 
I put a box around everything when i make a map. It's good to be sure the get the map sealed, but sometimes you will make a small mistake. One sqaure isnt going to noticably increase your compile time either
 
Motoxrdude said:
I put a box around everything when i make a map. It's good to be sure the get the map sealed, but sometimes you will make a small mistake. One sqaure isnt going to noticably increase your compile time either
Click to expand...

A square wont, and Im not necessarily talking your compile time, I could care less how long that takes (besides, the good maps take a long time ;)). Im saying its a hollowed out cube, nearly the size of your map! Why have say an old amd 3700 strain rendering an extra cube and texture when you wont even see it and you could have just been not lazy and fixed the leak (hammer even has a debug tool!). Thats one of the main factors why everyone likes the original (and most) CSS maps, they run so well because the map designers werent lazy :D!
 
Well I really dont want to be lazy, I want to make it good! Like I said I drew it all out on paper and started playing with room and such. Heres what I dont get though, how do I make a door to connect a room? And this particular board has a building and an outside section, how do I set what the boundaries of the map are? Also, what size is a decent size CSS map? As in grid space on the editor?
 
to make a door you have to basicly use a few cubes. You cant just cut out a section, you have to create a cube for above the door, and both sides to make the gap.
 
ukulele_ninja said:
Well I really dont want to be lazy, I want to make it good! Like I said I drew it all out on paper and started playing with room and such. Heres what I dont get though, how do I make a door to connect a room? And this particular board has a building and an outside section, how do I set what the boundaries of the map are? Also, what size is a decent size CSS map? As in grid space on the editor?
Click to expand...

In that case yes, you DO have to make a giant skybox cube around your map. If the two rooms are inside your skybox, and just hollowed out cubes, and they are touching, you can simple cut a whole in both. If you want a physical door that needs to be opened, Ill need to dig up some of my old tutorials. If its a hollway, just think of it as a loooong room and use another hollowed out cube. With the appropriate cuts in the two rooms being connected. As for how big your map is, generally I put a static model (like alyx :D) to make judgments on how big I want it and such compared to the player. (You of course delete alyx before releasing).
 
Open up steam, go to tools and right click source sdk, and skd base, and click download. Yes its free, however, I would get a guide on how to set it up before trying to load hammer, you can screw up some of your critical game files.
 
Hammer always seems glitchy for me. And I feel like it has a couple of memory leaks. Its probably just me. I'm going to start mapping again when I get a better screen . Mines too small to make maps. Hope it turns out well for ya!
 
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yeah its pretty cool. it kinda sucks compiling it though because im stuck with a tk-53 processor and compiling my maps takes a good 15-20 minutes.
 
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