Snarkpit Articles
Climbing a wall ledge
by Wild Card (view all articles)
for Half-Life » Architecture
updated Fri Mar 26th 2004 at 12:02pm


Ok, so by now you probably have played many other games in which you can climb wall ledge. A perfect example of this is Splinter Cell.

Up until now, level designers had to calculate wall height in order for a player to be able to jump over it. Now, the player can climb the wall ledge. This is all fine and dandy. But how do you do it? you ask.

This is incredibly simple. More so than getting up in the morning.

Firstly, lets look at this example:


Make your wall like you want. Now, reduce the grid size to 1 unit and zoom in on the ledge where the player will be made able to "grab on".

Using the clipping tool, clip off a 1 unit triangle as shown in the picture on the right. Fill that missing 1 unit triangle with a func_ladder brush.

Save your work, compile, and enjoy!


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[author]
Posted by Wild Card on Fri Mar 26th 2004 at 6:14pm

Im not sure about the many 1 unit ladders. It depends how the engine works. If the engine makes the noise as soon as the player touches the ladder, then it would make noise, If its the individual ladder brushes which are coded to make the noise, then I dont think so. Im not sure.

But the main reason aswell, that this trick dosent emit any sound, is because the player kinda kicks off the ladder when he reaches the top.
0 starsPosted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Fri Mar 26th 2004 at 6:11pm

Add to the tutorial that it makes no noise, as that's the only reason someone would do it this way. What if you made a few 1 unit ladders at strategic places up a high wall, would you be able to climb it without sound that way? I'd test it but I don't have hl installed.
[author]
Posted by Wild Card on Fri Mar 26th 2004 at 5:18pm

Firstly, the difference between this methode and just having a plain ol ladder is that the 1unit ladder here emits no noise since the player isnt on it long enough. (Good for MP games). And in some cases, a ladder would look silly. Like in the screenshot in the tut.

As for the positionning of the AAA brush, it is best that it remains 1 unit in size. You can have it in front if you want, it still works, but not as well. Having it on top of the wall prevents the player from grabbing ahold to it. The way I have it in the tut is, IMO, the best way, since getting up isnt hard, and your only removing a 1 unit triangle out of you brush. I've played it time and time again, you dont see the difference unless your actively looking for it and you know its there.
0 starsPosted by Crono on Fri Mar 26th 2004 at 5:10pm

A_S has a good point, such as ... you should explain it to such that the AAA_trigger brush can sit on top of the wall as well (incase you don't want a nicked corner on your brush) ... but it gave me an idea ... ~brainstorms on ideas for wall jumping in a map~ smiley
0 starsPosted by matt on Fri Mar 26th 2004 at 5:08pm

Actually I find getting up in the morning rather difficult sometimes.
0 starsPosted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Fri Mar 26th 2004 at 1:28pm

You didn't really explain how this is better than just putting a big func_ladder in front of the wall bud. A clipped edge and a couple more poly's are all I see here...
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