Author Topic: How to make: Successful/Interesting map  (Read 614 times)

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Offline Mehis

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How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« on: February 26, 2011, 04:53:11 AM »
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How to make interesting map

Firstly: I am NOT saying I'm expert at mapping. Feel free to ask question and the tutorial might contain bad English. I tried my best. Thank you.

There is many ways to make interesting map. It has to be unique. Instead of copying from someone else.

For Newbies

Lightning

Instead of making boring fullbright map, use light_environment

How to:

1. Click this at the side bar.


2. Now you should see something like this at the right side.

Type light_environment and click somewhere in your map.

3.Now you should see something like this

Diabolical on it and this should pop up.



Pitch Yaw Roll: Where does to light go FROM the entity. (so place it where you want the light come.)
Brightness: Name says it all.
Ambient: Name says it all.
SunSpreadAngle: How blurry are the shadows. (ex. 5 is good starting value.)

OTHER OPTIONS YOU SHOULD LEAVE LIKE THEY ARE!

4. Now you should just try out these things and find perfect lightning for your map.

If you didn't get something go here: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Light_environment

Sky

Now you might think: I want dark map, but the sky texture isn't working!

How to:

1. At the top tool bar click Map. Then you should see something like this.

Click Map Properties... and this should pop up.

Now, click SkyBox Texture Name

2. Now you should find sky texture, but where? Here: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Sky_List (DO NOT COPY THE NAME FROM THE PICTURE!) Lets take sky_borealis01, because we wanted darkish map. Paste it there and click Ok.

OPTIONAL!

3. Now you should open your light_environment again and copy the Ideal Sun Angle, Ideal Sun Pitch, Ideal Brightness and Ideal Ambiance from
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Sky_List To light_environment. Sun Angle to Pitch Yaw Roll, Sun Pitch to Pitch, Brightness to Brightness and Ambiance to Ambient.
IF you want make it proper lightning for the sky.

Rain/Snowfall

But what about Rain? Or Snow?

How to:

1. Take trigger texture from the texture application by searching "trigger"

2. Now click this at the side bar.


3. Make block where you want to the rain/snowfall be and click Enter.

4. Now select the brush and press Ctrl + T and name it as func_precipitation.
And it should something like this.


Density: (0 to 100) How hard does the rain/snowfall rain.
Precipitation Type: Use only Rain or Snowfall!

THEORY PART!


For Advanced

Details!

One of the important things to make perfect map.

Decals

Decals are perfect for making maps look old-ish.
I recommend to use trash decals much as possible. It makes the illusion of detail.
Spray textures are another way to tell the area/map is more used. Use them much as possible (PLEASE! DON'T SPAM THEM!)

Brush work

If your map has nothing else but squares it loses the interest.
(Ex. instead of making flat roof, make it like this.)


Or make support structures like these


The way to make good map is to add little things.

Lightning

Instead of using regular light entity try out some others, like light_spot, light_dynamic, env_projectedtexture.
AND CHANGE THE GOD DAMN BRIGHTNESS ALREADY!
(Bad ex. add's light entity and does nothing for it.)
(Good ex. add's light entity, changes the brightness and color of it.)
(Bad ex. add's light entity to attic and makes it eye rape.)
(Good ex. add's light entity to attic and changes the brightness to 50, which makes it look darker, which makes it look cooler, which makes your map popular!)

Props

Another way to make your map look life like.
Without them your map will suck, no matter what.

Optimizing

If, you don't optimize your map and it has fps problems, nobody will play your map and complains that its laggy and it will get removed from the server.
WARNING! If you are making map for Zombie Survival the fps will drop by half or more. So be prepared.

Gameplay
THE most important part. This will still rule all.
Without fun, good gameplay your map will suck.

Ok, that was my rant... now feel free to ask questions :D
« Last Edit: February 26, 2011, 12:02:32 PM by » Magic « »

Offline jimonions

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Re: How to make: Successful map
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2011, 04:58:09 AM »
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stickied for helpfulness

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Offline Hitman

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Re: How to make: Successful map
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2011, 05:25:45 AM »
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 :thumbsup: this will come in handy cuz I suck alot at mapping

Offline memo3300

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2011, 09:43:02 AM »
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WHYYY GOD WHYYY... i just see frogs inside an ice-cube... fucking imagenshack.

anyways, this will be very helpfull for me when i start doing my first map.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2011, 08:58:44 PM by memo3300 »







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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2011, 12:02:55 PM »
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Fixed spelling & grammar errors

On another note, :thumbsup:

Offline Xrain

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2011, 03:00:53 AM »
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If you really want to make your lighting more detailed, instead of having a light floating at random, have logical sources for the light present.

ex: if you want to light a attic, have a hanging light-bulb prop, and position your dim light to emit from there.


Most players wont notice specifically that your lights come from logical sources, but it's one step towards making your maps look more professional.
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Offline Alkaline

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2011, 03:43:33 PM »
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Never been able to get my light_dynamic to work properly.
Simply placing the entity in my map lights the props but not the world.

Love tut, gud for dem nubs :yes:
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Offline Mehis

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2011, 06:34:26 AM »
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Never been able to get my light_dynamic to work properly.
Simply placing the entity in my map lights the props but not the world.

Love tut, gud for dem nubs :yes:

You need to set Light Brightness to 6-8, Pitch and Entity to point at would be nice.

Offline Travelsonic

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2011, 09:59:56 AM »
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Speaking of sky textures, how hard is it to make custom skybox textures for HL2/GMod maps?
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Offline Mehis

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2011, 11:39:32 AM »
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Speaking of sky textures, how hard is it to make custom skybox textures for HL2/GMod maps?

There isn't really 'skybox' textures. Sky textures.*     *nerd laugh*

Well, you need some kind of 'cubemap editor' or painter which has cubemap tool. Cubemap aka picture from left, right, front, behind, bottom, top. The only problem is to 'blend' them, so you can't see the edges of the textures.

Hard? Well, if you are making realistic skies, hell yea.

See tutorials...

Side note: Making sky textures is same for all Source games. Expect if the engine version is different...

I like how i keep editing this post. Now i'll stfu and leave this like it is.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2011, 11:45:33 AM by Mehis »

Offline Goat

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2011, 09:33:21 PM »
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startign a WS map this week, could use some tips, i have a few questions:
do the items used in WS spawn themselves?
is there anything i need to do to make it a WS map?

Offline Sabb

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2011, 11:02:31 PM »
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startign a WS map this week, could use some tips, i have a few questions:
do the items used in WS spawn themselves?
is there anything i need to do to make it a WS map?
I don't believe it's automatic.
You have to put some entity down or something.


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Offline Mehis

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #12 on: July 31, 2011, 04:01:41 AM »
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startign a WS map this week, could use some tips, i have a few questions:
do the items used in WS spawn themselves?
is there anything i need to do to make it a WS map?

I don't know. I haven't mapped for WS.
You should try to download the gamemode by SVN, then use the fgd if it has one.

Offline ursus

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2011, 10:04:22 AM »
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Why does it say "Lightning" instead of lighting?

Offline Astropilot

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Re: How to make: Successful/Interesting map
« Reply #14 on: December 02, 2011, 06:48:38 PM »
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Oohh. Sky names.

       
                                                

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