Beginners Guidelines?

[Liberator]

Hey guys...

I really feel I learn something in this forum! thanks to u!

Do you have some basic rules/guidelines/notes of what you should and shouldnt do, when building a new map? would it be a benefit to use LOD instead of patches... Is there a limit-rule for creating Brushes, patches, faces and so on?

Every time I try to do a terrain with plenty of hills, it wont work....
I often it tells me that ; LoadPortals couldnt load... so it couldnt load the prt file... ....


Thanks
Lib

[lizardkid]

There's quite a bit to cover, but the basics are easy.

Always make brushes caulked at first, make your geometry out of brushes textured caulk and only texture the sides you need to later, it saves A LOT of editor time and game cycles.

artistically speaking, people like circles over squares, so make cylindrical pillars, rounded corners, domes, and the like. even tapering an edge looks better than a hard corner.

LOD is for terrain only, patches are for things like statues, machines, wall supports and pipes, and the like. patches are for anything you cant easily make with brushes, they're more difficult to use if you're used to a lot of brushes, but they're faster and generally look better.

portals are vis leafs and areaportals, MOH automatically does a few, but most need to be put in by hand. there's a tutorial better describing what they are and do on this site, and how they should be used.

thats all i can think of right now... but there's a lot you just sort of pick up as you go along, think about lines of sight and different angles, players will PLAY your map, so dont just create it, think about how you'd play it. dont make too many places to check at any one time, (CoD's mistake) dont overbalance maps in favor of one area (CS's mistake) and make it look good! (MOH's mistake).

[bdbodger]

If you have a .lin file in your map directory after a compile instead of a .prt file that means it can't create a portal file because you have a leak in your skybox . Open radiant and choose pointfile from the menu and you will see a red line that starts from an entity and eventually goes outside of your skybox through the leak . You have to fix the leak to have it create a .prt file and get good fps .

[Liberator]

lizardkid:
Thanks lizardkid, thats what I needed to hear!
I?ve didnt know the differens between LOD and the Patching... I?ve make a whole hill-terrain with patching....It got a kind a heavy
Well the Patching could be good for small up or downgoing slopes in cities, right? What do u use for small terrains, like a small slope og road?

bdbodger:
Ah ok, Now I better understand why it wont work -why it cant load the prt file.
The red line goes from a door(the func.) and straight up in the sky I?ve made...it doesnt make any sense to me... I cant see any leaks..

Lib

[lizardkid]

Patches are good for roads, but that's all i used them for in the outdoors (besides rocks and such) terrain can't be bent or manipulated for anything but terrain, so it can't be used to make curved roads or anything else. hills bumpy cobblestones and the like are the only thing you should use LOD for.

[bdbodger]

It is easy to remake a skybox . Make sure you didn't accidentally make it a detail brush and maybe caulk the sides you can't see .

[PKM]

add on to mr. bd's.........find the excel worksheet that gives the skybox keys and values (ambient light, farplane, sundirection....) and practice with the keys and values to give your map a good look.

also, miter miter miter miter miter miter.
good steps are 16u high, 24u deep
ladder texture about 16u above your ladder/pole

that myth about moving your entdefs.pk3 from mohaa tools to mohaa/main....pure bullsh**, i fell for that to when i was a new mapper. erased my whole harddrive. if anyone tells you to do the above you tell them you have a bibboot.pk3 for their big/ass folder .

[Liberator]

It is easy to remake a skybox . Make sure you didn't accidentally make it a detail brush and maybe caulk the sides you can't see .

Oh actually I did made it detailed

[Liberator]

It is easy to remake a skybox . Make sure you didn't accidentally make it a detail brush and maybe caulk the sides you can't see .

Oh actually I did made it detailed

AND it helped on my leaking problem thanks!

[Liberator]

add on to mr. bd's.........find the excel worksheet that gives the skybox keys and values (ambient light, farplane, sundirection....) and practice with the keys and values to give your map a good look.

also, miter miter miter miter miter miter.
good steps are 16u high, 24u deep
ladder texture about 16u above your ladder/pole

Ok tanks I?ll remember that

[Liberator]

By the way....what is the easiest way to import own textures?

-and what did I do wrong if it takes 3 hours to compile?
.o(I hope its a very thorough compiling this time then)

[PKM]

By the way....what is the easiest way to import own textures?

-and what did I do wrong if it takes 3 hours to compile?
.o(I hope its a very thorough compiling this time then)

put a 1X1u hole in your skybox , see if that doesn't speed up your compile time. easiest way is the only way to ''import'' a custom texture, make a .pk3 for it.

the custom.pk3 :
yourcustom.shader
yourcustom folder/yourcustomtexture.jpg/.tga

[Liberator]

put a 1X1u hole in your skybox , see if that doesn't speed up your compile time. easiest way is the only way to ''import'' a custom texture, make a .pk3 for it.

Wont it leak then?

[PKM]

put a 1X1u hole in your skybox , see if that doesn't speed up your compile time. easiest way is the only way to ''import'' a custom texture, make a .pk3 for it.

Wont it leak then?

yes but it'll produce the .bsp a lot faster.

doing this is for checking your .bsp in mohaa itself for structure mistakes or whatever. you'd close that hole up again when you do your final compile. doing this doesn't always solve the problem.

then again, i've released maps with that 1X1u in the skybox and they come out fine .

[Liberator]

That really helped on compiling time thanks!

Yes I?ve seen maps with holes in it and didnt understand the meaning...good to know