B
bpoag
Guest
I figure I should get things started, so here are my favorite tricks. 
1) Lighting
Just having an invisible light somewhere in your map lighting up surfaces kinda sucks. To add ALOT to the realism of a map, just put something simple on the wall nearby it, or spruce up the light into something more real-world, like:
Cheap:
light
infodecal (use one of the light-fixture decals, stamp it on a nearby wall)
infodecal (use glow02_add to put a fake glow around the light)
Slightly expensive:
light
point_spotlight (adds a nice cone shape w/ bloom)
infodecal (w/ glow02_add as the texture)
infodecal (w/ fixture texture)
Very expensive:
Flourescent light prop_static
light_dynamic w/ manually-defined slight flicker (a good brightness string like nnnnnnnnnznnnzznznnnnpznnn)
point_spotlight
infodecal (w/ glow02_add)
Whats nice about the infodecal lighting tricks is that since it's an additive texture, you can make the bloom seem brighter and brighter just by stamping more and more infodecals ontop of eachother.
Make all of your normal "light" entities quadratic. It makes it look much more realistic in the final product.
Stay away from unusual light colors. Big green/blue/purple lights all over your map not only looks tacky, it makes you look like a noob mapper.
Don't light your entire map with one or two giant lightsources. It looks horrible. Just plenty of lights, but don't overdo it. A good map will have upwards of 20-50 lights in it.
---
Textures:
I always scale my textures down to 0.5 x and 0.5 y, or something less than .75 ..It just makes everything look better/less blocky.
Use the Texture Tool to mark all the surfaces in the map that use a particular texture, then click check off "treat as one" (I think thats what it's called, anyway..heh) and click apply. This removes any weird seams you might have on walls, floors, and whatnot. Makes things look really polished.
Don't be afraid to experiment with the texture angles. Some textures look great rotated 45' or 90'.
---
Brush work:
Never, ever, ever, ever scale a carved brush or group of brushes. You'll end up with brushes with fractional sizes, and the compile process hates that. You'll spend an eternity looking around your map trying to snap brush edges to the grid in order to eliminate shadows and show-thrus from nearby lightsources. It also makes adding connecting brushes a pain in the ass. Don't scale brushes that you've manipulated with the vertex tool, either. Same reason as above.
Instead of making all of your walkways from scratch wherever you go, just make a basic "unit" of that structure, and paste it wherever you need it.
For example, if you need to build a bunch of ramps and walkways, make a basic square with two rails on the side, then another almost identical to it, but with a corner shape to it, etc..make sure it's perfect, and then just paste it wherever you need it and connect the parts like legos. Its much faster, and the overall look is preserved thruought the map.
If you have an indoor map, DONT ENCLOSE THE ENTIRE THING IN A SKYBOX. Whoever originally suggested this needs to get punched in the neck. Only use the skybox texture to cover holes that show to the outside world. It takes the engine a fraction of the time to just paint a small skybox brush immediately outside of a doorway than to paint a giant one encompassing half a million cubic feet.
Also, if you have a light leak, don't just go put a big box around your map. That's a noob solution. Go track down the leak by inspecting the edges of your map, using the leak location geometry provided in the error message.
---
Entities:
For larger maps, always set the fade in/fade end's.. Helps improve FPS. Theres no need for you to be rendering things like medpacks inside leaves 5000 units away.
Most maps severely under-utilize HL2's wonderful physics engine. If you can make something breakable/grabbable/shoveable, do it! prop_physics_multiplayer is your friend! Don't be afraid of it! I've got a map with a giant freight train that players can grav-bump like a dozen cars onto the tracks at a time, and watch the train destroy them as it comes barreling through.. It's a riot, and it doesn't slow down things at all, even with tons of players on. Columns, interior walls, platforms, all of these are good candidates to make func_physbox entities out of.
When making breakable objects, always set your Gib Direction to "relative to attack".. The end result looks much more realistic.
---
Mapping in general:
Easter eggs make players happy. Secret rooms, camping spots, dark corners, hidden weapons, all of the above.
Make liberal use of grafitti & trash decals. Adds much to the ambience of the map.
Sounds make a huge difference in how real your map feels. The SDK is loaded with really good looping sounds, and they don't cost much engine-wise.
Funny = Good. I make it a point to put at least one insanely dangerous thing in my maps.. either a tank full of acid, a spinning fan blade, whatever. Someone will always land on it/in it, and die a horrible death
---
Feel free to add your tips and tricks below!
1) Lighting
Just having an invisible light somewhere in your map lighting up surfaces kinda sucks. To add ALOT to the realism of a map, just put something simple on the wall nearby it, or spruce up the light into something more real-world, like:
Cheap:
light
infodecal (use one of the light-fixture decals, stamp it on a nearby wall)
infodecal (use glow02_add to put a fake glow around the light)
Slightly expensive:
light
point_spotlight (adds a nice cone shape w/ bloom)
infodecal (w/ glow02_add as the texture)
infodecal (w/ fixture texture)
Very expensive:
Flourescent light prop_static
light_dynamic w/ manually-defined slight flicker (a good brightness string like nnnnnnnnnznnnzznznnnnpznnn)
point_spotlight
infodecal (w/ glow02_add)
Whats nice about the infodecal lighting tricks is that since it's an additive texture, you can make the bloom seem brighter and brighter just by stamping more and more infodecals ontop of eachother.
Make all of your normal "light" entities quadratic. It makes it look much more realistic in the final product.
Stay away from unusual light colors. Big green/blue/purple lights all over your map not only looks tacky, it makes you look like a noob mapper.
Don't light your entire map with one or two giant lightsources. It looks horrible. Just plenty of lights, but don't overdo it. A good map will have upwards of 20-50 lights in it.
---
Textures:
I always scale my textures down to 0.5 x and 0.5 y, or something less than .75 ..It just makes everything look better/less blocky.
Use the Texture Tool to mark all the surfaces in the map that use a particular texture, then click check off "treat as one" (I think thats what it's called, anyway..heh) and click apply. This removes any weird seams you might have on walls, floors, and whatnot. Makes things look really polished.
Don't be afraid to experiment with the texture angles. Some textures look great rotated 45' or 90'.
---
Brush work:
Never, ever, ever, ever scale a carved brush or group of brushes. You'll end up with brushes with fractional sizes, and the compile process hates that.
You'll spend an eternity looking around your map trying to snap brush edges to the grid in order to eliminate shadows and show-thrus from nearby lightsources. It also makes adding connecting brushes a pain in the ass. Don't scale brushes that you've manipulated with the vertex tool, either. Same reason as above.Instead of making all of your walkways from scratch wherever you go, just make a basic "unit" of that structure, and paste it wherever you need it.
For example, if you need to build a bunch of ramps and walkways, make a basic square with two rails on the side, then another almost identical to it, but with a corner shape to it, etc..make sure it's perfect, and then just paste it wherever you need it and connect the parts like legos. Its much faster, and the overall look is preserved thruought the map.
If you have an indoor map, DONT ENCLOSE THE ENTIRE THING IN A SKYBOX. Whoever originally suggested this needs to get punched in the neck.
Only use the skybox texture to cover holes that show to the outside world. It takes the engine a fraction of the time to just paint a small skybox brush immediately outside of a doorway than to paint a giant one encompassing half a million cubic feet. Also, if you have a light leak, don't just go put a big box around your map. That's a noob solution.
Go track down the leak by inspecting the edges of your map, using the leak location geometry provided in the error message.---
Entities:
For larger maps, always set the fade in/fade end's.. Helps improve FPS. Theres no need for you to be rendering things like medpacks inside leaves 5000 units away.
Most maps severely under-utilize HL2's wonderful physics engine. If you can make something breakable/grabbable/shoveable, do it! prop_physics_multiplayer is your friend! Don't be afraid of it!
I've got a map with a giant freight train that players can grav-bump like a dozen cars onto the tracks at a time, and watch the train destroy them as it comes barreling through.. It's a riot, and it doesn't slow down things at all, even with tons of players on. Columns, interior walls, platforms, all of these are good candidates to make func_physbox entities out of.When making breakable objects, always set your Gib Direction to "relative to attack".. The end result looks much more realistic.
---
Mapping in general:
Easter eggs make players happy.
Secret rooms, camping spots, dark corners, hidden weapons, all of the above.Make liberal use of grafitti & trash decals. Adds much to the ambience of the map.
Sounds make a huge difference in how real your map feels. The SDK is loaded with really good looping sounds, and they don't cost much engine-wise.
Funny = Good. I make it a point to put at least one insanely dangerous thing in my maps.. either a tank full of acid, a spinning fan blade, whatever. Someone will always land on it/in it, and die a horrible death
---
Feel free to add your tips and tricks below!
