Hammer and 3dmax

[Daikrisis]

Just wondering if its possible to do a whole map in 3d max and port it over to hammer for final touch ups/scaling?

Thanks.

 

[Ti133700N]

Yes but I don't suggest it cuz you'll have to follow a bunch of rules in order to make a working bsp. I know you might be more comfortable with MAX than Hammer but I really suggest you to learn how to use Hammer, it's a very powerfull tool. Start with basics tutorials (don't start by making ropes or water or props). Ichi has made a prety good vid tuto for beginners. You'll see that it'll take less time to achieve the same result by using only Hammer.

Good luck

 

[Daikrisis]

Thanks, guess i'll have to put some effort into learning it then eh? I just found that even with basic map layouts I would have done it in 10 mins rather than an hour or so with hammer.

 

[Ti133700N]

If you want a tuto I could make a vid similar to Ichi's. My english is bad though.

Edit: I'm also a MAX user so I know the pain of having to learn a complete different soft but like I said, after a while you`ll see that Hammer is very good, plus it has been done for the purpose of doing maps, so it`s good at it.

 

[Daikrisis]

Nah it should be fine, i'll just constantly poke at my mod's mapper for help .

By the way, does half life render unseen faces aswell? I was trying to figure out how to put some stairs in and came up with multiple blocks stacked ontop of each other. I tried to do it via clipping tool but its didn't work out.

 

[Ti133700N]

Not sure what you mean about the stair thing... But for your first question, no, brushes that are not visible are not drawn. This is something very important to keep in mind. Try to limit the number of stuff the player can see by using brushes (basicaly we call them VIS blocker). The only things that can block VIS are world brushes. Entities do not block VIS so if you make a big wall a func_detail, it won't block VIS. Also, use the nodraw texture on the faces that will never be seen.