Uneven ground

[PvtRyan]

Hi,

I'm sort of a mapping n00b, and after making little test maps I was trying to make my first big scale map. The Tunnels recreation in Hammer 1 inspired me to try it too.
Now the floor in Tunnels isn't even, it has height differences. And I was trying to recreate that by making the floor out of 96x96 brushes and editing their vertices. It looks fine in Hammer but compiled ingame it looks completely different than I made it in Hammer. I know it's a pretty complex area with a lot of brushes intersecting, is this the problem?

What am I doing wrong and is there a better way to make terrain than separate brushes?

 

[Ames]

Nope, you just didn't apply textures to the terrain.

You see where it says camera in the view section, well right click on that and choose 3d textured to see what your map would "look" like in-game.

To apply textures, use the Select Tool at the right and click on the brush you want to apply a texture to. Then click on the Texture Application Tool also at the right and the rest is easy to follow.

Hope this helps.

 

[Shinobi]

I'm surprised it compiled at all,, from the looks of the pic you posted, it's full of illeagle geometry,, all faces in a halflife map have to be planar,, to get around this, make all your uneven terrain triangles instead of squares (or should I say prisms as opposed to cubes..)

that's the best possible way in the HL engine

 

[FictiousWill]

He knows that it's not textured. That's not the problem. Look at the geometry. Unfortunately I can't help. This same problem happened to me when I tried to make a hill-type area about a year ago and it put me off organic environments from then on. I don't know how to fix it.

edit: ah! Shinobi - that makes sese.

 

[Dux]

While in Worldcraft, press Alt + P. Will list every error in your map. Terrain creation in Worldcraft is extremely easy once you've grasped the know how basics.

 

[Ames]

I can't read...

Here's something that might help..
http://www.cariad.co.za/twhl/tutorial.php?id=50

You can also also Nem's Terrain Generator if you're lazy: http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Nemesis/index.php?p=9

 

[PvtRyan]

Thank you all very much

So I have to use the clipping tool to make triangular brushes? Isn't that the same as a wedge brush?

Ah well, I think I'll be alright from now on

:thumbs:

 

[Shinobi]

I ususally just make a cube, cut it in half into prisms,, then shift copy the pieces to desired locations

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Not that this will help you, but ive just sectioned off part of a map i made a while back, its in hammer and therefore doesnt ahve nice lighting. I also removed the fancy bits like monsters, lights etc...its just showing what can be done to make land look good. Whan i did have the map compiled, this particular bit ran at about 300 r_speeds, so its not too taxing if you do it right.

Vertex manipulation is the key I love it, its so simple to use...and when you use triangles (Ok, actually prisms but meh) you can make many different thing.


Some of you more advanced mappers will probably turn your noses up at it but...Im putting mistletoe in my back pocket

 

[Chuckstar]

Haha! Good to see someone was inspired by me.

And I suck at terrain(not that I can't do it), so I can't help you much here. The others already said most of the stuff I know.

 

[JohnnyBeverage]

I like your terrain, nice job.

 

[Argyll]

Yep, it's all about the triangles (prisms).

If you have your regular cube, go to the clip tool and drag it across from one corner to the other. Now... don't press enter quite yet because that will slice that cube into just one triangle. Click on the clip tool a couple more times until the shape is entirely white. Then press enter.

What you have done is split the cube into two triangles. Now, you can go to the vertex manipulation tool and select (a white) vertex and move it safely to the desired height. Match it up then with any bordering triangles and you will have some nice and sexy terrain

Hope this helps!

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Just curious...but why did you bother replying to this topic Arg?


Its old and already answered...

 

[Argyll]

Johnny actually revived it, but I just notice now it was exactly explained lol When I posted I didn't notice that.

Sorry, my bad... just trying to help out

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Oh ok...Good good. Better to have too much info than not enough i suppose.

 

[babywax]

Or you can create a cube and then vertex edit one of the corners in the top-down view on to another set of vertices, and tell it you do want to merge.