fast switching between hammer & hl2

[Mr Neutron]

It may puzzle some people how to quickly use hammer and hl2 at the same time. Some things to know:

1. When running hl2 from hammer (via the run command), you are starting an instance of hl2 with its own settings. Myself, I run windows at 1280 and have the hammer instance of hl2 run at 1024 in a window.

2. When your map is loaded in hl2, you can copy, move, delete, overwrite, or otherwise molest the .bsp file! This means you can have your map loaded in game, use alt-tab to switch out of hl2, recompile in hammer*, switch back, then 'restart' from console to see the map with the changes. It sure beats quiting HL2 and waiting for it to start again.

*WHEN HL2 IS ALREADY RUNNING, make sure to check 'do not run the game after compiling'. Otherwise you'll get an error.

This works so well, I set up some binds. From the console, type:

bind h "restart"
bind j "impulse 101"
bind k "god"
bind l "noclip"

Now, when you switch back from hammer, you'll be able to restart a map just by tapping 'h', then get your weapons (or refill them) by tapping 'j'.

3. Also remember the emminently useful options to limit the compile that hammer does. In particular, turning off everything but 'only entities' makes adjusting (non-light) entities much faster when your maps start getting complex.

 

[Ennui]

thank you.

 

[The Dark Elf]

It may puzzle some people how to quickly use hammer and hl2 at the same time. Some things to know:

1. When running hl2 from hammer (via the run command), you are starting an instance of hl2 with its own settings. Myself, I run windows at 1280 and have the hammer instance of hl2 run at 1024 in a window.

2. When your map is loaded in hl2, you can copy, move, delete, overwrite, or otherwise molest the .bsp file! This means you can have your map loaded in game, use alt-tab to switch out of hl2, recompile in hammer*, switch back, then 'restart' from console to see the map with the changes. It sure beats quiting HL2 and waiting for it to start again.

*WHEN HL2 IS ALREADY RUNNING, make sure to check 'do not run the game after compiling'. Otherwise you'll get an error.

This works so well, I set up some binds. From the console, type:

bind h "restart"
bind j "impulse 101"
bind k "god"
bind l "noclip"

Now, when you switch back from hammer, you'll be able to restart a map just by tapping 'h', then get your weapons (or refill them) by tapping 'j'.

3. Also remember the emminently useful options to limit the compile that hammer does. In particular, turning off everything but 'only entities' makes adjusting (non-light) entities much faster when your maps start getting complex.

Heh thats basically what I do to, constant switching to fullscreen HL2 would do my head in. Windows work much nicer. Though eventually it starts to screw up after a lot of messing (losing weapon model displays, water etc.) But generally works fine.

 

[Mr Neutron]

i haven't done anything complex in hammer yet, so I haven't seen any errors. The other consideration here is your pc performance, especially your ammount of ram. I have an x800xt and a 1 gig, so things have been smooth so far for me.

 

[Shady]

what does impulse 101 do... is that dev commands enabled? I cant remember now.. :/

 

[Hazar]

I did that a whole bunch with cs:s.

I haven't got to try it yet for hl2, but I'm sure it's the same.

If you tried to restart hl2 as many times as I need, you grow up and die before you could fix all the bugs in a map

 

[The Dark Elf]

i haven't done anything complex in hammer yet, so I haven't seen any errors. The other consideration here is your pc performance, especially your ammount of ram. I have an x800xt and a 1 gig, so things have been smooth so far for me.

Not really anything to do with the hardware, its just the constant screwing the engine about and eventually it doesn't like it, not to mention all the apps are memory hogs that don't want to free up memory when they've been closed, but its not that thats the cause, its some weird yet harmless bug.

 

[SubKamran]

Also works with CS:S. I just to Disconnest and Create Game, but "restart" is faster, thanks.

 

[Bilko]

What an interesting thread!

Thanks for the ideas lads, altough I can't seem to get any cheats working. I type

bind j "impulse 101"
bind k "god"
bind l "noclip"

into the console and still when I press those buttons nothing happens. Although the H button does restart the map.

Amazing stuff, keep up the good work!

 

[Hazar]

you have to put +bind

 

[Mr Neutron]

Not really anything to do with the hardware, its just the constant screwing the engine about and eventually it doesn't like it, not to mention all the apps are memory hogs that don't want to free up memory when they've been closed, but its not that thats the cause, its some weird yet harmless bug.

Yes, i figured it was a memory management problem, but wouldn't these glithces be less frequent with more RAM (less shuffling to do)?

 

[Mr Neutron]

you have to put +bind

you do? I don't. Are you talking about in the target field? I'm talking about at the console. Binds done in the console will still be in effect when you exit and restart later.