Can anyone tell me the best way to start of? buildings first? roads? water?
I have map layout done before anyone suggests it
Just looking for tips on how to get started.starting my map
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starting my map
Ok iv done most tutorials now and i think i,m rdy to start my first project
Can anyone tell me the best way to start of? buildings first? roads? water?
I have map layout done before anyone suggests it Just looking for tips on how to get started.
Can anyone tell me the best way to start of? buildings first? roads? water?
I have map layout done before anyone suggests it
Just looking for tips on how to get started.
sky
Everyone has a different idea on what to start with. I like to start with the LOD terrain (keep it small for your first map), and then add a skybox around it. Make the bottom sky brush caulk texture. It should look like this from below the terrain.
This one has tunnels.
Making the terrain look good is not an easy task and almost an artform in itself. Make a simple lake, pond, river, or canal depression in the terrain. Now you can add your water brush to fill it.
Next comes roads which are made from simple patch mesh. Also, add your tree line around the sides of the map--can be solid brushes with nodraw on all sides but one, or patch mesh. Add a few tree and bush models, but don't go crazy with them. Finally make your buildings, walls, and other structures.
Don't forget to add light to worldspawn and player spawn points.
Hope that helps!
BTW, this map was never released because of bad frame rate. It is to big and open.
This one has tunnels.
Making the terrain look good is not an easy task and almost an artform in itself. Make a simple lake, pond, river, or canal depression in the terrain. Now you can add your water brush to fill it.
Next comes roads which are made from simple patch mesh. Also, add your tree line around the sides of the map--can be solid brushes with nodraw on all sides but one, or patch mesh. Add a few tree and bush models, but don't go crazy with them. Finally make your buildings, walls, and other structures.
Don't forget to add light to worldspawn and player spawn points.
Hope that helps!
BTW, this map was never released because of bad frame rate. It is to big and open.
Tom Trude,
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panTera
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How to get started? Hm, good question. I think it's best to start small and expand as you go. Most people make the mistake of starting off with an enormous piece of terrain with a huge skybox around it, only to find out that it's way too big after a first compile. It's good to doodle a layout out on paper but keep in mind that things will probably change during the process or don't quite end up as you had in mind. What I like to do first before building is turn on the View>Show>Show Blocks option, which will show you a big blue grid of blocks of 1024 units. This way you can keep an eye on the view-distance (3x3 blocks already is a pretty wide open area; for example, mohdm6 fits into an area of just 3x2 blocks). Then I also make sure the View>Cubic Clipping option is turned off, so things won't disappear out of view when moving the camera far away.
As for the actual building itself here are some tips I gathered from mapping forums over the years:
"You must have a rough picture of the map in your head. You're trying to imagine how it will look in the game and you should have some pictures of future places in your mind. Roughly sketching those places on paper is a good way to visualize the pictures in your head. At this point it doesn't really matter where you start as long as you think ahead."
"(!) It would be wise to let the textures dictate the size of the brushes, instead of trying to fit textures to brushes, and always remember that the grid works in the same unit-increments as the textures so you can speed up your mapping by aligning the brushes to the texes using the grid. Texture as you go, don't tell yourself you'll come back to it later, there is nothing more frustrating than aligning tons of textures."
"What I like to do first is find a couple of textures I want to use. Let's say one for the floor/ground, one or two for the walls, one for the ceilings and maybe one for stairs or whatever. Now I start building some basic structures according to my sketched layout using these textures. Later on I will use more textures, change them where necessary and add more detail. This works well for me, but all I can say is just do what works best for you."
As for the actual building itself here are some tips I gathered from mapping forums over the years:
"You must have a rough picture of the map in your head. You're trying to imagine how it will look in the game and you should have some pictures of future places in your mind. Roughly sketching those places on paper is a good way to visualize the pictures in your head. At this point it doesn't really matter where you start as long as you think ahead."
"(!) It would be wise to let the textures dictate the size of the brushes, instead of trying to fit textures to brushes, and always remember that the grid works in the same unit-increments as the textures so you can speed up your mapping by aligning the brushes to the texes using the grid. Texture as you go, don't tell yourself you'll come back to it later, there is nothing more frustrating than aligning tons of textures."
"What I like to do first is find a couple of textures I want to use. Let's say one for the floor/ground, one or two for the walls, one for the ceilings and maybe one for stairs or whatever. Now I start building some basic structures according to my sketched layout using these textures. Later on I will use more textures, change them where necessary and add more detail. This works well for me, but all I can say is just do what works best for you."