Trying to keep dimensions consistant in mapping

Recently while I have been happing I have tried to go for 16s, 32s, 64s etc but I feel it is somewhat of a hopeless struggle because there is always something that forces me to go into the tiny units be it a model, a piece of detailing etc. In my first map (City-13) people told me to try and keep things standard to avoid foul ups. I just can't keep to exact units though. What are my fellow comrades at Snarkpit views on this issue?

World vis geometry I try to keep to 16's minimum as much as I can, details a lot of the time I end up at 1 finessing angles and stuff.

It's so much easier to amke mistakes when you run your snap at 1 or 2 doing vis geometry, it's not worth it, plus most props and textures are set up to work with 64-unit increments...

I normally run my grid at 32 but I am forced to go into the very low dimensions for details etc.

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Just Kidding

Just Kidding

My default grid size is 16.

It can be sometimes hard to keep your brush geometry in powers of 2 (2,4,8,16,32,64 etc) but you can benefit from it. Everything is neater and you are less likely to have leaks and messy brush geometry and other errors. It also means that you can "snap" together different parts of your level.

Muhnay said:
I feel it is somewhat of a hopeless struggle because there is always something that forces me to go into the tiny units be it a model, a piece of detailing etc

Oh yes ofcourse, I frequently go into 1 unit grid size to tweak things and align models, point entities and such. But its best to have your "main" geometry in powers of two like floors, hallways, buildings etc.

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Aaron's Stuff

I was going with 16 as my main size. I have kept floors at 16, but moved to 8 for walls, and 4 for doors.. looks more authentic that way. Windows don't look so sunk in nor doors.. and it allows me to give the lip I want on door frames to give the molding look and feel. Even though I have started to use more model doors over bush ones.. its easier and looks nicer over all.

But yeah I have gone into 2 or 1 scale every now and then to do fine detail work and align as stated by Aaron.

As I have become more confident on my modeling skills I have started to use more models in my map ideas, and less brush work. Most my models are simple shapes with a texture applied. As you can see in the ducksoup can, game box.

muhnay said:
and 4 for doors.. looks more authentic that way

You use bsp geometry for doors? Thats fine in some cases, put if you want those simple doors with a handle, use prop_door_rotating and use the "door" model.

Snarkpit tutorial
Interlopers tutorial

I used to use world brushes for doors as well. As long as you can determine what looks right and what not then I find it agreable. Thanks for the replies chaps and chapesses (not that there are any here, but... ). I like to see that I am doing things the standard way

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Just Kidding

Just Kidding

Hold 'Alt' while moving an object to move it freely, ignoring the grid settings. That allows you to keep the grid at 16 or 32 or whatever units, while still tweaking model placements up to the unit (or perhaps even less).

Captain P said:
Hold 'Alt' while moving an object to move it freely, ignoring the grid settings. That allows you to keep the grid at 16 or 32 or whatever units, while still tweaking model placements up to the unit (or perhaps even less).

HUH! Never knew you could do that, nice tip .

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Aaron's Stuff