Ambex presents (mapping tips&tricks)

[o_ambex]

Hello to all. This is a small helpful thread with text to help you with mapping and some tips & tricks. I may be wrong in some parts, but this is for the help only.

Dedicated to the FF community.

1. Lighting

Oh well, it's the most important thing ever in the mapping technology. Without the lighting there is no maps.
To help you out understanding why it is so important and vital I will give you some tips how to do the map looking awsome.
First off all I want to say that day-maps are on some way better then dark maps. It's easy, because most night levels makes the players feel tired, it's hard to see eachother and they becomes unpopular on servers. To make a good map you need to remember that the lighting have to be balanced and good. I recommend not to use more then 3 - 4 lights in a level of random colours, example is when you see a wall with yellow lights it gives a warm feeling to the atmoshpere, (de_dust) mostly sun maps are more flexible to the players and feels better instead of dark maps with cold atmosphere with blue, white or gray lights. To make a good day map you have to make the shadows simply looking as in the real world (the colour of blue-grayish tones) it gives the map a more real look.
The sun colours may be varied all from orange (have to match the sky colour , dawn) to daylight (yellow-white) with a blue-white sky. If you takes the time to design a nightmap you have to be careful. I can recommend for the sun colour some sort of white-light blue colour and for the ambient some green-blue dark colour. It looks like a real moonlight effect and
makes a more real atmoshphere. And remember, if you are working on a serius map don't make it look like 50'cent's disco-inferno with blue, red, green, yellow colours and flickering lights. The look of the map will be as a rave room.
Allways try to balance the lighting to the textures, don't forget that the lighting is the source of the mapping. It is that what gives the map life. So be careful with what you do.

2. Architecture

Oh well, this is not as hard as the lighting part if you got the fantasy and creativity. To make curves, boxes or rooms full of them is not hard. The architecture is a part of the mapping that takes the most of the time. And unless you have architecture done you can start to tweak the lighting. So well from my point of view that architecture depends on the theme of the map. If you take for example some medieval theme with a village you are goin to make houses, windmills, castles and et.c. If you take the opportunity to go for a sci-fiction level full of corridors and labs or more you will work harder since the sci-fiction theme needs more pipes, crates, doors and other things that we see in sci-fiction movies. About the architecture thing, try to make it symmetric, large halls, big corridors with high ceilings, that will make the player feel comfortable with the environment. Cramped, small, or just tiny corridors wont make you happy. Another thing is that outside areas is also a good thing to do. The half-life 1 levels was mostly indoor fights and vent-crounching. After some time you feel bored of that all and wants to see wider in scale and open up areas.
So just to say, bigger maps are better.

3. Sounds

The sounds, is important as the other parts.
In a map without sounds you will be bored, in a map with tons of sounds and (soundscapes, sounds enteties) will do a big effect on you. I played once they hunger mod for hl1, it's a zombie mod full of creepy stuff, but also creepy sounds. If honestly, the makes of the game never included any sounds it would be useless mod. What did you expect? You know a ghost-house in a tivoly? Think about if there was noone sounds in that house, you wouldn't get scared asmuch as there was sounds! Sounds are important, whatever it may be. If you know you made a village then you can add some village sounds, if you made water, well add sea sounds, you are in a town? Do town ambient sounds. Use them, it's a big plus.

I think it's all so far, I may update this thread but this is all I know so far as I said before. I am glad if someone learned something new today.

[o_own3r]

Clipping: The player must never ever get snaged on detail, your level should be made so you can literally run along every wall. This and wide corridors, high ceilings as Ambex mentioned, will improve the gameplay of your level.

[o_bokko]

[o_kam]

ROFL

[o_sh4x]

It's nice of you and all but I don't think it's very useful. Someone who has never mapped can pretty much guess all the stuff you said by himself using comon sense.

And the fact that you didn't know about snap to grid doesn't really help your credibility for writting mapping tips and tricks if you know what I mean.

[o_tennovan]

Well, the fact that you guys don't find it interesting doesn't mean its not useful. There are many people who wouldn't know this kind of stuff. I wish we had an extensive mapping tutorial section here because hitting site to site to find what I'm looking for sucks sometimes. Not that big of a deal though.

For the average player like myself, we have no idea what hint brushes are, how to use models, how to properly build a room with interesting architecture without screwing up frame rates, how not to screw up vis, the difference between final compiles and whatever else there is, etc. I could probably learn if I searched around but this is pretty much the only forum I frequent.

Again, not a big deal but at least he's trying to help. I'd love it if one of the more experienced mappers went through and showed how to make a large room, with interesting architecture, show which textures will fit best, how to scale them, throw in some models, curves, domes, displacements whatever I don't know the terms but I think it'd be awesome.

Its a lot better than "Make your first room tutorial LoLZ!!1!11" type websites. Simple rooms are easy to make, large rooms with crazy brush work is another thing all together.

[o_sidd42]

Crazy brushwork is bad. It just isn't dealt with very well by the compiler, and makes lots of nasty polygons. I think there are 3 important ways to avoid overcomplicated brushwork:

1. Use lots of models. Take a look at the maps by http://www.turtlerockstudios.com. All the details on those screenshots are models. If you look at some of their maps with mat_wireframe turned on, you can see just how sparingly they use brushes. Brushes are for big flat floors, walls, and roofs, and only occasionally arches or medium scale features. Models are used for everything from tiny details to huge features. Of course, if you want to take this approach, you need to spend a lot of time making your own models.

2. Use displacements. They can be used to make practically any curved shape.

3. Use overlays for 2d features. Everything from false windows to floor tiles. If what you want can just be a new texture applied to part of a surface that's already there, overlays are great. Look at the excellent tutorial by trepid_jesse for more info http://www.snarkpit.net/editing.php?...ame=HL2&id=180

[o_own3r]

Originally Posted by Sidd42

Crazy brushwork is bad. It just isn't dealt with very well by the compiler, and makes lots of nasty polygons. I think there are 3 important ways to avoid overcomplicated brushwork:
...
2. Use displacements. They can be used to make practically any curved shape.

If you do use brushwork for detail, you can make it as complex as you want, just make the brush func_detail (select the brush/s then press ctrl T then select func_detail) make structural brushwork simple ie anything which isnt func_detail or displacements.

Displacements can be useful for making 'cheap' detail. Im not talking rocks or anything, im on about just making things like aches into displacements when you have resiszed it to the desired size will save on the engine rendering. Providing of course you get rid of all the displacement surfaces yo u wont see.

[o_sh4x]

Originally Posted by Own3r

If you do use brushwork for detail, you can make it as complex as you want, just make the brush func_detail (select the brush/s then press ctrl T then select func_detail) make structural brushwork simple ie anything which isnt func_detail or displacements.

Displacements can be useful for making 'cheap' detail. Im not talking rocks or anything, im on about just making things like aches into displacements when you have resiszed it to the desired size will save on the engine rendering. Providing of course you get rid of all the displacement surfaces yo u wont see.

The problem I've had with func_detail is on the lighting level. I have a hole that's made with 16 triangles which I selected and turned into func_detail. As func_detail, the shadows on some of the brushes are fucked up, when I turn back to normal brushes the shadows are fine.

There must be a way to fix the func_detail shadows... or I'll have to turn it into displacements.

[o_nezumi]

Anyone can PM me if they want help with something. I'm way too lazy to write some sort of uber-tutorial but I like the ego-boost I get from being knowledgeable .

So, yea.

[o_alligator]

lol bokko :[

[Circuitous]

I'll be honest... I saw this thread title and had to stop myself from laughing.

I mean, Ambex, you're a decent mapper, but there are a few problems:

- you've been known to fuck things up
- you don't respond well to criticism
- your English isn't very good

Why you're writing a catch-all tutorial is beyond me, but thanks for trying.

[o_ambex]

Originally Posted by Circuitous

I'll be honest... I saw this thread title and had to stop myself from laughing.

I mean, Ambex, you're a decent mapper, but there are a few problems:

- you've been known to fuck things up
- you don't respond well to criticism
- your English isn't very good

Why you're writing a catch-all tutorial is beyond me, but thanks for trying.

yeah, maybye it's true.

- I respond both with negative and positive responses to criticism.
Don't get me wrong.

- What my english? So what and? AND? English, I can more then English i speak other languages..

Edit: Don't get me wrong. People here, needs help!

[o_own3r]

Originally Posted by Circuitous

I'll be honest... I saw this thread title and had to stop myself from laughing.

I mean, Ambex, you're a decent mapper, but there are a few problems:

- you've been known to fuck things up
- you don't respond well to criticism
- your English isn't very good

Why you're writing a catch-all tutorial is beyond me, but thanks for trying.

Be nice, hes only trying to help, either contribute or go.

[o_qui]

First off all I want to say that day-maps are on some way better then dark maps. It's easy, because most night levels makes the players feel tired

So thats why i always fell asleep on another boring 0-0 draw on rock 2

[mervaka]

yeah, the texturing bores me, too. the FF textures look a step up, though

[o_alligator]

very true indeed mervaka

[Circuitous]

Originally Posted by Own3r

Be nice, hes only trying to help, either contribute or go.

I contributed my opinion that he's not someone who ought to be writing a catch-all mapping tutorial?

I said thanks!