Structure rotation problem

Jesmonda

L1: Registered
Jan 30, 2010
20
8
so i've once again started mapping on my swamp KOTH map, however i encountered a problem while i was refining my desired layout

here's the layout i want for my map

Banjolayout.jpg


this is a quick rough building design, as you can see i have my buildings at a certain angle facing the point, however when i attempted this, i selected the entirety of the building on the far right and clicked again for the rotation tool and simply rotated, this brought upon many disastrous results, although it looked the same building as before, when i attempted to alter the geometry, the brushes for the building decided that it would be best to work on the angle i had set the entire building on, thus they couldn't be properly moved or edited.

does mean that i would have to build the entirety of these structures on desired angle in order to achieve accurate editing functions? i do not hope this is the case. :eek:hmy:

another thing i noticed recently while using hammer again for the first time in a while is that when i move my buildings i've made in some section of the gird, once i've moved it to the location i want it be on the map layout, all the gird snapping i did to make the building tidy and right suddenly goes, on reflection i guess this was always going to happen, any suggestions on how i could do something about this?

thanks for your time
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Look into instancing. It's a new feature and should make it easier for you to build on an angle.

When moving complex structures around it may be a good idea to create a big brush around the entire thing on a larger grid size, and use that to move it around to be sure to not have it slide off grid. when you're done moving it just delete to big brush.
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
Look into instancing. It's a new feature and should make it easier for you to build on an angle.

When moving complex structures around it may be a good idea to create a big brush around the entire thing on a larger grid size, and use that to move it around to be sure to not have it slide off grid. when you're done moving it just delete to big brush.

it's also useful for making sure your rotation pivot point is where you need it to be.


just a word of warning though: rotated buildings sometimes can cause vrad to behave a lil oddly. (i.e. areas of a surface receiving no light regardless of "-final" tag or on number/position of lights nearby, or a barcode-like pattern appearing, where some parts of the face are lit whilst some parts receive no light at all).
i try to just clip/vertex edit if i want to build to an angle these days. it's extra work to initially build, but it makes editting later a lot simpler because all vertices remain on the grid, as do model origin points.
 

Jesmonda

L1: Registered
Jan 30, 2010
20
8
well i've tired to look into instancing, but it looks like no one's made any sort of tutorial or any understandable information that i could use, even the VDC doesn't provide enough info on how to use this entity effectively, i guess i might somehow tried out your suggestions Ezekel, i'll re-make everything on the angle i wanted using vertex

Edit: picked up the SDK again, i can't find the func_instance anywhere!
 
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Seba

DR. BIG FUCKER, PHD
aa
Jun 9, 2009
2,364
2,728
AFAIK, instancing is a Hammer tool, not an entity; if I had access to SDK right now I could tell you more, sorry :/

Protip: instead of making everything at an angle, start at normal grid, then select the entire building and rotate the whole thing. This should give you a nicer outcome.
 

Jesmonda

L1: Registered
Jan 30, 2010
20
8
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Func_instance

according to this it is an entity of some kind, very complicated by the looks of it, and vertex is so far coming out alright, and your suggestion is the one i tired, but as in the original post, i found this to be difficult to edit after i had rotated the building, everything when off the gird and would force me to vertex edit everything onto the gird again as i am currently doing anyway
 

Timberjaw

L2: Junior Member
Nov 6, 2009
71
19
The instance entity is very simple.

  1. Create a new VMF
  2. Construct your building on the grid (not rotated)
  3. Save as myinstance.vmf (or whatever)
  4. Back in your map, place a func_instance where you want your building to go
  5. In the properties for the func_instance, set 'VMF Filename' to the name you specified in step 3
  6. Click 'Apply'...your building should show up
  7. Rotate the entity as desired. Done!

  • By opening the instance VMF directly or going into the func_instance's entity properties and clicking 'Edit Instance', you can modify your building
  • The building always remains on-grid in the instance VMF, for easy editing. When you're done editing your instance, save and switch back to your map. Your changes will show up immediately (magic!)
  • Rotation appears to be around the map origin within the instance VMF

There are more advanced capabilities of the Instances feature, mostly relating to entity names/hookups, but this should get you started.
 
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