[TIP] Things I Wish I'd been Told When Making my First Map

Jan 8, 2011
397
393
This is going to be a list of basic mapping/Hammer guidelines that I think everyone should know about. Hopefully it'll be a good resource for new mappers. If anybody else has tips or corrections, let me know.

- Don't start a map without a sketch of (at least) the key sections of the layout.
If you try to make your map layout entirely on the fly, you will almost certainly run into issues with scale and balancing, and you'll probably also get very, very mixed up. Without a proper plan, it's hard to keep track of your routes, and your map can get very cluttered as a result. That being said, sometimes room to improvise can be a good thing, so don't take this to mean that everything should be totally planned out with perfect precision.

- Start by blocking out your map in dev textures.
When I first started to map, I had this notion that maps were made in full detail from the very beginning. That's not the case; instead, maps go through 3 building phases: alpha, beta, and RC. As you first build your map, you're working on the alpha phase. This means that you should not be making details! Instead, you should "block out" the map by building everything with dev textures. This makes it easier to change sections of the map later, when testing reveals flaws in the layout.

- Optimize your map as you build it.
For a new mapper, optimization can be confusing. For now, it's best to just know the basics. First, build every new brush with the nodraw texture. Then, apply textures to the faces of the brush that will be visible. This helps reduce your compile times, as it makes sure that the lighting engine doesn't have to render a bunch of pure black faces, which aren't being hit by any light. Second, use func_details to keep your visleafs under control. Also keep hint brushes in mind. They allow you to manually split visleafs.

- There's an efficient way to seal your map!
To compile a map correctly, it has to be entirely sealed off from the outside void. The more complex your map gets, the more difficult this becomes. Fortunately, you have a few tools at your hands to help out. If you have a compile that fails because of a leak, the compiler will generate a pointfile that shows you where the leak is. You can then load this file in Hammer and seal the leak up with a nodraw brush. Remember that func_details cannot seal a map! You do not have to do a full compile to get pointfiles. It is much quicker to compile using these settings (no VVIS, no VRAD, don't start the game on completion). It will still generate a pointfile, but without all the other useless compiling.

- Don't use the carve tool!
Carving is never recommended, for a variety of reasons. It cuts brushes inefficiently, and has a nasty habit of creating microbrushes. It's best to just use the clip tool instead.

- Don't use the 1-unit grid; use at least the 8-unit grid.
In Hammer, you can change the size of the 2D grid with the [ and ] keys. I made the mistake of mapping at the 1-unit grid, because I thought the greater accuracy would be a help. However, it is much faster and easier to map at a larger grid size, such as 8 or 16. Only use the 1-unit grid for things like aligning props, or very fine details.

- Wooden walls should be 16 units thick, concrete should be 32.
This is more of a general guideline than a rule set in stone, but it's still a good thing to keep in mind. 16 units should generally be the thinnest any wall can get (though you can make thinner ones if you use a playerclip to make them act like they're 16 thick).

- Wall corners should look like this (unless you don't want them to).
When two walls intersect at any angle, you should clip them at half that angle and put the clipped ends together. For example, the walls in the screenshot above join at a 90 degree angle, so I cut them at a 45 degree angle and push those cut ends together. This helps with texture alignment and map sealing. You don't have to, though. There's a discussion in the comments of this thread as to whether or not this is really an important thing.

- Download the ABS resource pack!
It's really helpful, just read the thread and download it.
 
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henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
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I have never had any issues with copy pasting spawn points.
 

GPuzzle

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 27, 2012
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414
Nor did I.
 

Trotim

aa
Jul 14, 2009
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- Never start a map without a detailed sketch of the layout.
If you try to make your map layout on the fly, you will almost certainly run into issues with scale and balancing, and you'll probably also get very, very mixed up. Without a proper plan, it's hard to keep track of your routes, and your map can get very cluttered as a result.

I don't agree with this. Sure you should have a few key places in mind. But some of the best level designs in my experience had those, then almost naturally evolved as the designer considered what parts need to be added to the existing ones to be fun/interesting
 

YM

LVL100 YM
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Dec 5, 2007
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I'm with Trotim, that's definitely a personal style thing. I find getting scale and form right hard in 2D, then the additional translation from 2D into 3D distorts things further.

Since it's so fast to block out rough shapes in hammer if you use a 32 or 64 grid scale, 3D sketching is a really useful method for getting your initial thoughts down.

But of course, not everyone can or likes working this way.

Regarding walls:
Wood : 8-16
Metal : 4-16 (depending on how you can view it)
Brick : 16 (unless they're super chunky bricks)
Concrete : 16+ (ideally 32+)
 
Jan 8, 2011
397
393
Edited it a bit, removed the thing about spawnpoints and reworded the "have a sketch" section to reflect Trotim and YM's points. Also changed the word "rules" to "guidelines" because that's a way better word.
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
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I see no reason why corners should be miltered. It just makes it more painful to resize things - which should be happening a lot in alphas.
 

RaVaGe

aa
Jun 23, 2010
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It's just usefull when vvis cut your map, it draw one 'visleaf' instead two.
 
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Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
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It's good for making buildings whose outer corners are inside the playable area and visible, so you have two faces that go all the way to the corner instead of three. For stuff on the "outside" of the map like floors and skyboxes it's fine to just have the corners touch.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
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Mitered corners is irrelevant.

Drawing extra faces isn't something to worry about because face merging is performed, and there are lots of unavoidable face splits as well.

Portals will split leaves in ways you don't want them to, regardless. You can only guide portal creation so far with the right technique and tools but you will never fully command them. Having an un-mitered corner may result in a portal appearing at the face "joint", but I have also experienced the portal appearing sticking off from the "solid" face as a result of the inside face of the adjoining wall. On top of that, mitered corners can also, in some situations, cause a 45 degree portal along the miter plane.

And as was mentioned, resizing angle cut brushes can be more tedious (even for someone like me who heavily uses VM for brush adjustments).
 

Fish 2.0

L6: Sharp Member
Nov 22, 2012
324
262
It's only neat if that's the way you view it :p I'm more of the opinion that keeping things square is neat.

I tried to make a map using the whole corner thing - it ended up taking more time and was a burden whenever I wanted to rescale anything.

All in all not pleasant experience and lining up textures is easy enough, select all and set offset to 0.
 

WASD

L1: Registered
Apr 12, 2013
2
0
Your posts seems very interesting but unfortunately it looks like a part is missing.... What I can read is :

This is going to be a list of basic mapping/Hammer guidelines that I think everyone should know about. Hopefully it'll be a good resource for new mappers. If anybody else has tips or corrections, let me know.

- Don't start a map without a sketch of (at least) the key sections of the layout.
If you try to make your map layout entirely on the fly, you will almost certainly run into issues with scale and balancing, and you'll probably also get very, very mixed up. Without a proper plan, it's hard to keep track of your routes, and your map can get very cluttered as a result. That being said, sometimes room to improvise can be a good thing, so don't take this to mean that everything should be totally planned out with perfect precision.

- Start by blocking out your map in dev textures.
When I first started to map, I had this notion that maps were made in full detail from the very beginning. That's not the case; in
 
Jan 8, 2011
397
393
EDIT: Oh... I see what you mean. Something like 70% of the post has been deleted, probably by my mistake. There used to be a rather nice list there, I'm not sure what happened to it. Sorry!

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, perhaps you could clarify? The first point that you quoted means that you should get your idea down on paper first and get a general sense of the shapes of the areas before you get into Hammer, and the second one says that you shouldn't go straight into building a fully-detailed map in Hammer, but instead block out the layout first.
 
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