[Request] How to make a staircase/ramp

[navyseal2004]

Please help, I'm trying to make a multi story building with a stairyway but I can't seem to make a ramp, or a staircase. Please help.

 

[Stigmata]

Depends what kind of stairs you want. If it's just the standard block stairs that you find in houses and whatnot, here's what I would do:

First, create a small stair brush. 16 units high, 16-24 units front-to-back, and 64-128 units wide.

If you're going to texture the stair first, It might be good to turn Texture Lock on, which keeps the textures aligned to the brush if you move the brush around. If you want it on, click the button labelled tl at the top.

Now, select the brush you just made. In the "Top" window, hold Shift, and click-and-drag the brush to a new area. This clones the brush, and you'll see you now have two "stair" brushes. Align the new brush next to your original brush. Now move your second brush up 16 units, to make a two-stair staircase.

Next, select both stair brushes. Again in the "Top" window, shift-drag the two brushes to a new position. You now have four stair brushes. Move the two new ones to align them with the original two. You should now have four stairs. Repeat as necessary.

And just FYI, I probably have the first two dimensions wrong. Mess around with the height and depth of your stairs until they look right.

[edit] And to make a ramp, there's two ways.

1, the simpler but more tedious way:

Click the "Create Brush" button. I assume you know which one this is Then, along the right-hand side of the Hammer window there should be a drop-down box that says "Block" inside it. Click the box, and select Wedge. Now, create a big brush that would be the size of your ramp.

** Right about now, you should go into Options, and in one of the tabls (I believe it's the General tab) there should be a number of options, one of which should be Rotate by 15-degree Intervals, or something similar to that. Make sure to check this box, it will make your rotations mathematically accurate.

Create the brush. The wedge you created might have the incline on the wrong side. In this case, select your brush. Now, click on the brush in one of the 2D windows until the corners of the brush display small white circles. You can now rotate your brush in any of the three 2D windows. To do this, click and hold on one of the circles, and move your mouse around the object. You'll see it rotate around. Let go to finalize your rotation. Rotate your wedge in the three 2D windows until the incline goes from the bottom to the top. You should now have a ramp.

2, the easier but more advanced way:

Create a basic Block brush. Make it the correct size for your ramp. Now, select your new brush. On the left side of your Hammer window, there will be a button showing a wireframe brush. The mouseover label should be similar to "Vertex Editor". Click this. If your brush is still selected, all the corners will be displayed with white boxes, and the midpoints of the edges will be displayed with yellow boxes. If you don't see this, select the brush that you want to turn into a ramp.

Now, and I find it's good to do this in the 3D view, select the edge you want to shift down to create your incline. Either click the two white-box corners that you'd want to move down, or just the one yellow-box edge. Once it's selected, drag that edge, or corner pair, down to meet the lower edge. If you let go, you should get a dialog that ask you if you want to merge the vertices. Click Yes. Your brush should now have five sides, and an incline to it as well.

Hope this helped. I'm not on my computer ATM, so when I get home I'll try to get some pics to help you.

 

[rkef]

And just FYI, I probably have the first two dimensions wrong. Mess around with the height and depth of your stairs until they look right.

There's a texture called "dev_measurestairs01a" which has dimensions of "8 rise, 12 run", which seems good. That's what was used in de_cbble too. The "run" can vary, depending on location, but 8 seems perfect for height. Max vertical obstacle is 18 units btw, which gives another clue.

 

[navyseal2004]

Thanks!