Begun mapping for Source

Ive started mapping for source, and so far im not terribly impressed. But anyway, Im making a SP mod, and ive done the whole create your mod thing and ive done 1 map so far. Everything looking fine. But 3 questions:

a: How do I make chapters? Like in HL2 (Where you select 'em)
b: There is a folder called 'soundcache' being created in my maps folder, and it is 20 megs big! What is this! I cant have it, makes the download WAY to large.
c: Why does it create a source folder thingy in my c drive, where it is about 40 megs big? And has all the source code and stuff. WHat is it for.

More questions coming up, and so far (Even though im very familier with HL1 mapping) im quite intimidated. Please make me not feel alone

I never did the "create a mod thing" so I don't know if it creates some of the folders and files you described.

The soundcache, to my knowledge, doesn't have to be sent with the map files. It's created more or less automatically. At least you don't have to send it with your bsp file when distributing a map. Again this could have something to do with the "create mod" feature that probably works a bit different then normal mapping. So... forget what I said? That's probably my best tip :biggrin:

Editing questions should be kept in the editing forum please, and don't post them all in one thread as the system is designed to allow for one topic per thread.

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I'm with ReNo: just ask questions in the appropriate place next time.

Anyway:
A. In your mods cfg folder, place a chapterNNN.cfg file for each chapter, where NNN ranges from 1 to the amount of chapters your mod has. Each file should contain the console command to load the associated map (e.g. 'map mapname'). Then, in your materials\Vgui\chapters folder, place chapterNNN.vmt and .vtf files for the images. These should be 256x128 as far as I can tell, but only a part of it will be used. Check the Valve ones for reference.

B. Just delete it, you probably don't need it (and if you do, you'll notice soon enough after letting someone playtest). Backing it up could be handy though, just in case.

C. Creating a mod assumes you're actually creating a mod. Not a mappack only. But if your mod doesn't need custom code, feel free to clean up the folders containing source-code.

I would strongly advise you to download some Source mods and check their folders. There's just a few essentials required to make a mod visible to Steam and you can find it all out by simply looking at how others did it and occasionally the Valve wiki contains some usefull info.

---

Create-ivity - a game development blog

I think Toast King is trying to get a more general and open approach
for this topic than the editing questions forum allows. Personally I'm
very intimidated with HL2 editing also. I did a small map, but couldn't
get the skybox working so I scrapped it all and stopped mapping for a
while. I felt like a newborn thrown out of a boat in a snarkpool...

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Personally, I'm loosing touch with mapping, might be because of HL2 (mainly the demand for custom stuff, which is taking more time than expected and finally, keeps me from what I feel is actually mapping), might be because I'm getting older and I'm loosing interest in certain types of games, might be because I'm getting more and more interested in creating games by myself...

Technically, Source doesn't really intimidate me. Using other peoples work as examples, it's often not too hard to find out about stuff. It's mostly the high cost of custom stuff (which I really want to use...) that's starting to put me off, I think.

Which is one of the reasons I'm creating a 2D game rather than a 3D game - it's simpler to set up the rendering and several aspects of the game-code, which leaves me more room to focus on actual game-code, game-design and all. :smile:

---

Create-ivity - a game development blog

Personally, I'm loosing touch with mapping, might be because of HL2 (mainly the demand for custom stuff, which is taking more time than expected and finally, keeps me from what I feel is actually mapping)[/img]

I know what you mean. Mapping is getting more and more an interdisciplinary effort which requires custom models, textures with complex shaders ect. I don't really see the mapping scene slowing down but I feel much more like playing the same all over again with many maps because the props, which make a big part of the architecture and feel of the map, are always the same.

I am so hoping that this competition sparks some new ideas. Snarkpit needs more map discussions. Its gotten to where the homo's get more attention than mapping does.

I have made a decision that even if I fail to make the map I desire, I am still going to enter it. If for no other reason than to show people what not to do.

Since all of my maps are borderline s**t anyway, damned few will even notice another one.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

I was always very exicted when doing HL1 mapping, but with Source I just seem to have lost all my euthusiasm and exictment :sad: If only there werent props, because I do not like props AT ALL, if I get rid of the props in maps you end up with a few walls =[

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

I like the props, personally I think whilst they are seen as quite lazy, they're better than anything a brush can make.

I like props greatly, too. Those aren't really the problem for me (though after 10 or so, it does start to detract from mapping, but that put aside), it's the high quality textures I just can't keep up with without investing a great deal of time...

Well, perhaps for the competition, a bare-boned, gameplay-focussed map? That's something that doesn't demand time as much as art does...

---

Create-ivity - a game development blog

I like props but dislike their most common use.

An author should build his maps, and add the props to finish it off but most mappers today make the map, fit the props. No one wants to invest the time it takes to produce a map that could stand on its own without the props.

I also got really tired of the tossable objects. I had DSL and a massive PC and still got slide shows on occasion from the things being hurled about.

Anyway, I am tired of boxes with props inside them.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

I find the props a good tool for making architechture that would
otherwise be extremely slow or impossible to make by normal means. This
of course brings out the problem of getting the kind of props you need.
Modeling skills could help, but not everyone is willing to venture that
path. Perhaps I'll give it another try once the summer holidays start.

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

I dont think I will ever get into modeling, simply because mapping is my art and skill.

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

Toast King said:
I dont think I will ever get into modeling, simply because mapping is my art and skill.

We've seen your mapping. You aren't so far ahead that modeling is out of the question. :biggrin:

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Toast King - They are very similiar. Modeling is just a bit harder and slower.

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Yeah, I might attemp modeling anyway, because it seems usefull, but is the editor free?

Btw, I have become used to source mapping now, pretty much the same as the old HL1 mapping. But the question lies: What should I map? SP maps, Or HL2DM or CSS? I dont really wanna map HL2DM cause I dont have bots and noone joins my server =[

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

Toast King said:
I dont really wanna map HL2DM cause I dont have bots and noone joins my server =[

Yeah, that would do it for me.. :rolleyes:

Dude, just map. The rest will take care of itself. 90% of the best we have here, couldn't give a rats ass if their maps ever got played. Well, its always a concern, but not one sufficient to warrant losing sleep over.

The other 10% who care what the players think? They create s**t maps... I can point you to some examples. Now ask yourself, do you want to be happy and make maps, or do you want us to include you with those 10%?

Just map... We'll let you know how you're doing.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Yeah, maps that are meant to be played are crap aim and fy maps, and boy, I NEVER want to EVER be known to have created a map of such crap genre. I think I will map HL2DM, even if I just admire it myself, still enjoyable.

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

If you want to try modelling, there are several free or cheap options available to you. Softimage XSI Mod Tool is a free version of Softimage XSI, and you can use it to create Source engine content like props and characters. It is however a fairly complex program and might be a bit daunting. Milkshape is a shareware program that costs $20 or something after the first 30 days, which are free to test it out. It's not as powerful as XSI, and I wouldn't recommend trying to make anything hugely complex in it, but its easy to pick up and play around with and can be used to make props for Source. The other common option is to use Blender, which is a free modelling program. I've no experience with Blender so can't really comment on it, but I know some people use it to create Source engine content so it must be doable :smile:

Softimage XSI Mod Tool - http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=6024
Milkshape - http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Blender has some great UV mapping tools. It can be found here: http://www.blender.org

There is a python export script for .smd files:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Modeling_props_with_Blender

And something to get started with Blender, if anyone wants to try it:

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Manual

Generally people say that Blender is hard to learn, but extremely fast
and easy to use. After a couple of months I must agree. It's probably
the best completely free 3D modeling program out there.

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Yeah I've been hanging around 3D Buzz for the past little while and found it to be a really great site for learning modeling for all different sorts of applications ( But it is more geared towards Film CGI Production) but I still learned lots in the ways of polyigon modeling through the free video tutorials it provides and I can now apply those skills for making props for Source :smile:

CLs

---

CLs

Yeah, I have blender, came with the Ubuntu CD ( A corporation here in SA that makes Linux software and stuff - funder by Mark SHuttleworth)

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

http://www.snarkpit.net/forums.php?forum=6&topic=6794&0 Here is a thread I made with regard to water and fog, PLEASE help, this is driving me to depression :sad:

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

Please don't "advertise" your editing problem posts like this in future man - you only posted it a few minutes before this, somebody will get to it when they get the chance.

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Hmm, quite weird, when I run my fps counter it says it is running at 150 (And sometimes 200) frames per second! Isnt that impossible?

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

It's definedly not impossible, but isn't there somekind of an build in limit of 100 fps in HL2(or was it HL)?

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

HL1 I think, but seriusly, my FPS counter at most times is on 170fps, which is what one could consider as 'smooth' :wink:

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

I think the default limit for HL2 is 300. I set it higher once and have had a max of over 600 :smile:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Hmm, quite weird, when I run my fps counter it says it is running at 150 (And sometimes 200) frames per second! Isnt that impossible?

I get 250 when I look at a wall, too (but only then :wink: ). It doesn't make much sense, though. Most monitors run at 100 Hz (85, actually). So you could consider turning on Vertical Synch. I'm not sure but I think that's what it's made for (?)

Heh. If the fps rate would stay steady 24 fps is minimum where your
eyes no longer see it as stills, but as in fluid motion(film was very
expensive in the early times of movie making thus every frame counted
so they searched for the minimum speed). The Hz rate on CRT monitors is
the times in second the electron ray sweeps the surface of the screen.
The reason why CRT monitors "blink" is that on lower refresh rates the
part that has been unhit by the ray(it draws one line at a time) has
enough time to fade. You can actually see this effect on TV, if there
are any CRT screens around...

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

V-Sync is indeed there to ensure frames are rendered at the same rate as the monitor refresh rate. It stops the rendered scene tearing in the middle, where the top half of the screen is rendered using one frame, but the frame changes mid-way through rendering and the bottom half of the screen is rendered using the next one. It isn't just a problem with high framerates though, it can happen regardless of framerate. Its all to do with the frame changing during the monitor displaying the scene.

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Obviously I have vertical sinc on, because it makes everything look ALOT smoother, otherwise I actualy see lines shooting down my moniter, as if the moniter was not refreshing enough.

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!