Valve Level Design Setup

Ever since I first looked at a Valve level that I converted with winBSP I always wondered a couple things:
1) Why is it that for every level they design, when you place the camera outside of it, it is always in the shape of a cube?

2) When you fly through their levels with the camera why do they use seamingly random textures within the cube? (Parts that are not actually part of the main level) Sometimes these seamingly random textures have even been sky, which is especially strange

3) How come when I open a map file, sometimes it says that some solids cannot be loaded? (I assume something to do with conversion, but does anyone know why?)

Thanks for your ideas!

Short answers...

The camera just sits where it was last used. Hell, with the new 3d view, the camera became obsolete.

Sometimes when you decompile a level the program just assigns textures. The random ones mean nothing. In fact they would actually increase the bsp size if you recompiled it.. Ignore them.

Invalid solids will not load. Decompiling is an inaccurate procedure. It was only meant as a teaching tool.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Yeah as Orph said decompiling isn't accurate.

The .map/.rmf's files that you open in hammer store your level geometry as brushes and when you compile a map it converts it to bsp and basically there isn't enough information to convert your level back to brushes. The decompile program interprets the level and tries to replicate it using brushes and quite often it creates invalid solids, random textures and just really messy geometry that might have leaks and have bad performance in game.

And about the camera it's been so long since I've done mapping, maybe it's outside the level in a separate box to achieve a black screen effect and ofcourse it has to be enclosed by brushes otherwise there will be a leak.

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Aaron's Stuff

There are two different cameras. One is for editing purposes. The other is for sky boxes.
Which are you inquiring about?

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I actually don't know anything about there being more than one camera type.

There are two different cameras. One is for editing purposes. The other is for sky boxes.

I'm not sure about the camera for sky boxes. So the camera that I'm refering to would be for editing purposes. Maybe to clarify: when I say camera I just mean where you are looking in the level using Hammer. I think everything is mostly answered except for one thing:
Why would the level be in the shape of a large cube?
There doesn't seem to be any point in this. It seems like that would increase compile times significantly.

Thanks.

I found out the answer to why the level is in the shape of a cube--- It is just the way it decompiles it.

He's talking about Goldsource Orph which doesn't have a sky camera.

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Aaron's Stuff

Le Chief said:
He's talking about Goldsource Orph which doesn't have a sky camera.

Where did it say that?
Anywhos, most of it applies.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

The thread is in "Half-Life Editing" forum, not "Source Engine Editing" forum. That's where he said it

I'm thinking the site needs something more explicit ... like selecting the games you're asking about when you make a thread in a editing forum.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
The thread is in "Half-Life Editing" forum, not "Source Engine Editing" forum. That's where he said it

So let me reiterate. Where does it say GOLD.
You guys should be aware by now that 99% of my editing knowledge is HL1. Hence, why I answer most questions in this forum topic.

HL1 had sky cameras.

I admit, I might be missing something. What is the relevance of the word GOLD in relation to HL1?

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Valve renamed HL1-level game engine related things to "goldsource" ... this was done in like 2003.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Wow, either I slept real hard or something.
I honestly do not recall anything of the sort. I wish I could remember my last map release date.
anyway...

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I don't remember there being sky cameras in half-life 1, but I do remember there was a camera entity for creating basic cut scenes.

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Aaron's Stuff

Yeah well,I could be wrong but I am still weirded out on this gold thing.

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The best things in life, aren't things.