SDK single player map source

Do I understand the Steam News correctly? Are there suppose to be
six new single player map sources uploaded with the last SDK
update? I looked all over the directories, but I cannot find them.

Any idea where they are? Or did I misunderstand the meaning of the update completely?

sourcesdk_content\hl2\mapsrc

I've looked at one of those maps.

VALVe sure does like its triggers and hints...

You have to start the SDK Menu at least once before you can see the new maps (until then, they are hidden in the .gcf files).

Hints, area portals, occluders, are what makes the world go round.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Joe-Bob</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>sourcesdk_content\hl2\mapsrc

I've looked at one of those maps.
VALVe sure does like its triggers and hints...
</DIV></DIV>
Yeh man, i cant believe it, i cant see through nothing in C17, check it out, all filled with triggers and and areportals and clips and alot of stuff, i didnt know how do they do that. Man, now i know why it had been delayed :razz: , i dont think becuase it got "hacked" i think because they figured out the some of their maps suck, and need repairing. And the thing i really wonder about is, why did they remove the machine gun that had a scope, its all in their trailers before they launch it, its really wierd, because i really liked that gun

Dangit, I coulda used these as reference on how to optimize and use
portals/hints/occluders a long time back. I did just the most basic
optimizing on my last project (and it shows) because I obviously wasnt
using hints/etc properly, because adding hints often actually slowed my
map down and specifically window_areaportals were behaving
unpredictably :/

ah well.

Listen to me all you f**king idiots who keep saying 'Valve made up the
hacking incident to gain time'. THEY DIDN'T. Shut your god damn mouths.

And yes, the maps roxorz.

Listen to me all you f**king idiots who keep saying 'Valve made up the
hacking incident to gain time'. THEY DIDN'T. Shut your god damn mouths.

And yes, the maps roxorz.

simmer down.

its true that valve didn't make it up, unless they were really able to
get some 19 year old in germany to take the fall and go to prison for
them. The maps didn't suck becuase they have alot of
triggers. The maps are good becuase there is a huge level of
detail. Most of the hint/occ/clip brushes are there to prevent
problems that play testers ran into. Like getting stuck on
objects, etc.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Vash</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Listen to me all you f**king idiots who keep saying 'Valve made up the hacking incident to gain time'. THEY DIDN'T. Shut your god damn mouths.

And yes, the maps roxorz.
</DIV></DIV>
You're not being very nice again.

Awfully confusing if you ask me. In places there seemed to be some
hugely unnecessary uses of clip brushes obviously to simplify the
clipping calculations or lower clipnodes, but it really wasn't worth
the added confusion it adds to the maps. I even found a few brushes
that seemed to be 100% covered in skip - what purpose does that serve?!

you reckon they'll mind if someone rips the HL1 test chamber?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting ReNo</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Awfully confusing if you ask me. In places there seemed to be some hugely unnecessary uses of clip brushes obviously to simplify the clipping calculations or lower clipnodes, but it really wasn't worth the added confusion it adds to the maps. I even found a few brushes that seemed to be 100% covered in skip - what purpose does that serve?!
</DIV></DIV>

I was wondering about the same thing. Why would Valve put player clip brushes virtually everywhere, even in places that simply cannot trap a player's movement? And just for simplifying clip calculation? How much of a difference would that really make? Is it even noticeable in gameplay?

In addition, I noticed that they've got the skybox texture wrapping the entire map. Did they do that as part of the 3D skybox or were they actually lazy?
But I am impressed by the amount of detail they put in, even for the smallest things (like triggering a wind gust). I guess that's why they're professional game designers and I am just an amateur.

I even found a few brushes
that seemed to be 100% covered in skip - what purpose does that serve?!

The material inside the skip brush fade away at a certain distance (Its
how they got those combine shields to fade as you moved away). As for
the clips....I have no idea why there are soo many, probalby to cut
down on the clip nodes like you said :wink:

Clip data is contributing up to 1mb of my map's data, and it's fairly blocky, so I'm guessing it won't hurt at all to do whack in a few brushes when you're done with everything!

Maybe it's for physics purposes? Who knows.

I dont understnad the skip brush thing, can you set the model to fade
away? I didn't know skip was used for anything other than hint

Likewise - where did you find info on this, and what did you mean by "the material inside"?

Has anyone checked out the Ravenholm level yet. I though my maps were
shodily constructed, but this one is a joke. It doesn't even use a 3D
skybox, which I thought was necessary for all maps, as well as boxing
the entire level in sky. It also uses a hell of a lot of decals instead
of overlays. And I can see what everyone is talking about. There are so
many clip brushes around the place it doesn't make any sense, as well
as trigger in places the player cannot even reach. Pretty crazy.

The triggers and clips are probably moreso for NPC's rather than the
player. And I really don't see how you can call these VMF's shoddily
constructed: It didn't use a 3d skybox because it wasn't neccesary, and
there's nothing wrong with using decals. Some of the hint brush
placement seems a little excessive, but I guess you can never be too
careful with VIS blocking! :smile:

Likewise - where did you find info on this, and what did you mean by "the material inside"?

I didnt find info on this anywhere, its more of a guess really, and by
material I meant the brush inside :biggrin: (arent we suppost to be using the
term material now?)