Building larger maps

[swiss_cheese9797]

I remember hearing something about Ep2 changing the way outdoor maps will be built/rendered so they will be massive. Does anyone know if there will be a change to hl2 upon the Ep2 release that will allow us to build larger maps? I would love to work with a larger area. Also, spacebuild would rock if the planets didnt need to be so close to eachother.

Is there any hack to make maps larger now or am I out of luck? Thanks.

 

[Rapstah]

The game engine can't be "hacked".

And since we can't spawn Zombines in original HL2, i suppose it's gonna be local to Ep2.

 

[Shinobi]

are you talking about being larger than the grid?


you can always chagne the unit size in the code... but that is rife with bugs

 

[Unarmed]

Naw...

there are ways that you can get the engine to render quite large enviroments right now although, yes, it is said that EP2 will make this a lot easier. Since this will be an engine upgrade then I think it will also be apllied to all other Source games unlike the Zombine which is a game-specific entity.

If you want big maps then you just have to optimize, optimize and then optimize again. Plan your map ever so carefully to make sure that VIS will make the best job possible and keep textures as they are or slightly stretched and lightmaps quite high where wicked light is not needed. After all it is more or less a matter of polygons being rendered per frame and you need to keep that one down if you want a lot of space.

 

[swiss_cheese9797]

Good point, unarmed. I have been playing a map called gm_solarsystem_v2 for gmod lately. if you havnt played, it is our solar system, you can land on planets, and if you have the LUA "life support", then to travel to other planets you need to build ships with life support systems so you dont freeze or suffocate to death. the planets are pretty large but they are practically ontop of eachother. If the grid were larger this map would be even cooler. check it out on the gmod forums. hopefully what you said about the ep2 engine update is true. Thanks.

 

[Shinobi]

holy crap that solar system amp is awesome, I may have to finally download gmod!

 

[swiss_cheese9797]

That map and game mode are 2 tons of fun. I highly recommend it.