Editing maps

[wantotry]

Hi there,

I don't own a copy of Half life 2, so if I want to get a copy to edit some existing maps available, what would I need? A pre-owned copy of the game or some kind of online purchase?

I believe a editor called Hammer?

I'm running a 32 bit Windows xp system, so should be no problem.

And lastly, for scripting, or more so programming C++? This game isn't like the Quake 3, or Id tech Doom 3 type a script here or theresetup?

Thank you, take care.

I can still edit this game, there are still moders for it.

Is the online version moddable?

 

[Omnomnick]

Hey there. You'll need a legal Steam copy of Half-Life 2 installed alongside the "Source SDK", which features the Hammer level editor. To actually edit levels from Half-Life 2, you'll need to find a third-party tool to decompile them back to an editable state. Otherwise, you can create brand new levels from scratch within the Hammer editor. You won't need any real programming skills to get started working in Hammer, some basic scripting knowledge will do.

By the sound of it, you'll want to check out some tutorials and such before you really get stuck in. The world of game development is a deep and complex space, and the outdated nature of Hammer really doesn't help things.

 

[wantotry]

I was thinking more of trying to edit some existing maps. So basic character movement for example.

This example displays these files that I downloaded from Mod database, so that is a complete mod release.

http://chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/cftools.htm I imagine this is what is needed?

I tried to register an account on steam, so far it isn't working. So it must be a temporary error on their system.

It did work in the end, notsure what that was about. It registered an account.

These existing files were released in September 2009. So with the Source development kit, what is the plan with using older files with that, will a download copy of half life 2 run fine?

I have installed a copy of half life 2, and downloads the Source.

I have tried to get the modification to run as is.

I believe the mods go in the common folder where halflife 2 folder is? They don't load in games, and the console doesn't load in the game to try and load one.

What is the solution to that?

Everything works now, it required SDK 2006.

As for the source files, I'm going to need to decompile them. As for this hammer editor, how do I use it?

I loaded the SDK, it takes me to a console box.

The SDK launches, but no half life 2 listed to try get the editor to run. There was only Team fortress.

What is the solution to that?

Solved that. Okay, I can launch hammer from the bin folder in the steam folder in Half life 2.

The source files released for this modfication contain no maps, so are they the mod files that need to be edited I imagine. The source files seems more like the C++ code, the mechanics of the mod.

The maps are in 'vtf', hammer opens valve maps as vmf?

How many programs does a person need to open all these files? Vtf files can be open using vtf edit, nothing happens.

VTF is a valve texture file.

So what is the map then? A vmf file isn't in either the mod or the source files released.

There are two hammer map files, I still can't get hammer to work since half life isn't listed only Team fortress.. As for the other maps, where they are I don't know. The BSP's contain only textures, some models.

I was able to use hammer as is, I can open two maps. I can't get the textures loaded.

It is proving to be a lot of hassle trying to edit a file. Reminds me a little of GTK radiant 1.40.

Nobody mods much for this anymore then. Just reviewing some of the posts, they are a year or two old.

Somebody must know how I can open some map files for this old mod, Enterprise termporal cold war.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/na7240/downloads/enterprise-tcw-poc-demo

And the source.

http://www.moddb.com/downloads/start/18486?referer=http://www.moddb.com/mods/na7240/downloads

It would appear, after doing a search on this section, modding for Half life 2 dates back at the beginning of the decade, when users were editing or trying to. There isn't anything going on now.

I suspect the files that were released by the Lightspeed studio team only released textures and mode files, and some scripts in C++. I don't think the maps were, with the exception of two. vtf is no vmf file.

I arrived far too late for trying to do something with this old game.

I doubt Crysis 3 would run on a small form factor optiplex 780, integrated graphics, Q45 or something.

 

[kineaesth]

I merged together 11 of your posts.