Maya or Hammer?

[AH_Viper]

I know the title must be a bit confusing but that really is my question

Whats better... If I was going to do an advanced cs_assualt, would I be better to make the building in Maya and import.. or build it in Hammer?

Also, is it the norm to make all your brushes in Hammer func_wall? I notticed it and didn't have a clue what it did.

 

[Ocyris]

I wouldn't say all your brushes because you need to block Vis. As for Maya vs. hammer I can't really say cause I’ve never used Maya but from what I’ve heard importing can cause extra headaches.

 

[pur3r4ge]

Use Hammer to do all the main geometry, and Maya to make the props to add detail. Importing primary geometry will be far too much trouble.

 

[AH_Viper]

How about the func_wall entitys? Anyone want to elaborate?

 

[PvtRyan]

How about the func_wall entitys? Anyone want to elaborate?

Func_wall was an entity primarily used in HL editing to prevent splicing of brushes when another brush intersects with it. Because when you place a complicated brush like a pillar on a floor, it would splice the floor into many different faces. Func_wall makes it an entity and prevents this. Disadvantages are that it doesn't block VIS (when you for example make an entire room out of func_wall brushes, the world outside it is still rendered, with a room of normal brushes this wouldn't happen because they block VIS during compilation) and it isn't taken into account when generating the lightmaps so it doesn't have a shadow.
HL2 has a better replacement: func_detail, for stuff that doesn't need to block VIS (ie stuff like pillars that don't seal off areas) but does cast lightmap shadows.

 

[The Dark Elf]

I know the title must be a bit confusing but that really is my question

Whats better... If I was going to do an advanced cs_assualt, would I be better to make the building in Maya and import.. or build it in Hammer?

Also, is it the norm to make all your brushes in Hammer func_wall? I notticed it and didn't have a clue what it did.

Even though its entirely possible to convert polygon models to brush based geometry for use in Hammer.. It's not really recommended because of the limitations Brushes themselves have, making it much harder to model with those in mind every step of the way.

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You can't model your entire map in polygons neither. You could try, but it'll crawl.. The way to do it is to build the basics with brushes, then add the model details on top of those.

Also you can't make all brushes func_ anything or any type of entity, only some, doing them all will mess up your map as the compiler requires world based brushes to compile correctly, anything that is an entity of any type will not block vis. So you can use them here and there but your best sticking to world brushes for the majority of brush work you do. Also brush based entities don't seal a map, and it needs to be sealed for it to compile correctly too.

Use Maya for your props, Hammer for your brush/mapping. Atleast that way your sure of getting advice. Doing it all in a 3D app using customised scripts and plugins is for advanced users only, because there's few out there willing or able to offer advice in such things (and in many cases they'll be using their own scripts and plugins)

 

[AH_Viper]

Cheers guys, that cleared some stuff up for little old me