The Official Facepunch Mapping WiP Thread v18: Source Engine and Friends - Developers

In which view do you do this exactly? Right clicking or dragging the visgroups anywhere to categorize them doesnt seem to be doing much for me

How many people here map in WallWorm?

Is it worth it?

Whats your steam?

It only works in the User tab of the VisGroups panel in the main Hammer window. I use it a lot currently, but only for modifying and adding onto things that I've made in Hammer. For instance, I import my VMF and apply a Displace modifier with a mask to the displacements, so that I can easily lower the terrain where all the roads go. To be honest, I like 3ds Max for modeling but I always dread using it for this mapping-related stuff. It just completely takes me out of the flow and I always find myself having to muster up a lot of energy and motivation to get any work done. That's not a knock on WallWorm, though; it's a great toolset (judging by the parts I've used so far) that clearly had a lot of work put into it.

HOLY SH-I am gonna try that right now!

I use wallworm for converting models to brushwork, and vice versa. It also has a lot of great auxiliary tools like the normals plugin.

This is beautiful

https://steamcommunity.com/id/Jakobi_OBrien

I haven't touched the map in over a year, but it's publicly available here: http://hg.glitchvid.com/hg/maps/2016/rp_veracious/archive/tip.zip

Has anybody thought about doing any new competitions lately? I know they were very prevalent back in ~2010. I would love to see what people are able to come up with.

Berlin map coming along nicely, just gotta add more detail, furnish the apartment, fix the lighting, and add a front street https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/113201/d6d577b0-4a38-40d5-a83b-84352f7c0e1f/20180718213307_1.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/113201/64b68a04-bdc5-40d3-ade4-e3bb41826c3c/20180718213305_1.jpg

Because I were bored, I made this and I need your feedback:) gm_facility_5_d.vmf -- gm_facility_5.bsp And trust me, its ok to pack a FEW props/textures into the map (Non-Hl2 content I used: dirt overlay, one more dirt overlay and power box prop - this would increase map size just by 5 mb)

Nice work my man! You actually inspired me to add a couple things to my map, including pipes on all my power boxes and steam in my hydroelectric generator rooms. You will see that in a preview I will release on here. I will probably release the preview once I think my first building is done... It will only be for the one interior though, which is why my map is not getting it's own thread just yet. Here is my new additions: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/293415/6e02c2e7-a13d-487b-a3fb-00f44219ca76/20180719215404_1.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/293415/0ac8b415-0608-4871-b01b-9300d0a63ee5/20180719215437_1.jpg

You've come a really long way in a short time frame. I'm impressed; keep it up!

Well, to be fair I have been making maps for a long time... Here is an example of something I was once making for Skyrim: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/293415/79de734a-d65f-47b8-a637-6f0a129f5e0d/20180102012723_1.jpg It was a huge player owned dwemer factory! Anyways, back to hammer. I actually never intended the map to go as far as it did. I was aiming to just play around with it's custom geometry system, something that typical editors like the CK don't have. You guys though made me realize something, I have been away from hammer for so long, I forgot how to use the geometry system to my advantage... It's like a whole demension of map editing that had become alien to me. So I am absolutely grateful that this community is helping me take advantage of this unique tool.

The fact you can actually design and iterate on your level geometry is what keeps me coming back, I honestly can't stand the mesh-based crap most other engines use. If only UE had the same polygonal editing tools as Source 2. Then I would mind the "polygon soup" style of engine.

Yeah, these days its expected that you would just use a modeling program to make the geometry... It makes since, most AAA game engines expect you to have a team or for you to know game development. Problem is, if you are like me, you would say modeling in blender is a pain. Also I don't have the money for full on programs like 3DS Max, so it kind of alienates me to using the resources that are already available. This is what hammer is good at, you can make virtually anything with a handful of textures and some base entities. This makes the learning curb short too, since scripting isn't required.

Just what do you guys do with all the levels you create - do they ever get published? It's kinda holding me back finishing my TTT map, knowing it might never really get played, and just disappear in the vastful pit of gmod maps.

Ue4 has csg which is a bit like hammer. There’s also plugins for shape and mesh creation for ue4/unity. Cry-Engine has tools by default

Me personally, I have tossed out about 90% of all the maps I made, I almost never publish them. This is not something to fear though, as long as you had fun making the map, you will always take experience from it. Since I developed on tons of garbage maps, it's become quick for me to pick up mapping habits, not just in hammer either. Maps will always get a good handful of subscribers, so never be shy to finish a map you intend to publish. This way you can also garner feedback which is another excellent way to improve yourself.

Anyone know any good sites where I can download overlays with transparent backgrounds? Like paint peeling and cracks that I can put over textures. Not as decals, but to add them into the actual texture when I make it in photoshop.

One way to find some: https://i.imgur.com/URbylMw.png

The decal section in CGTextures may be useful. Alpha Masked Decals

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/113201/6ad46f3a-1d35-4754-bee8-8ac7e594b92f/20180720174839_1.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/113201/09975519-a9d2-43f1-bf7c-9d938284f63e/20180720174847_1.jpg How do these storefronts and signs look? I feel like it's missing something.

I think it needs to have more literal depth and have the structure of either an illuminated sign or one with a supporting frame.

This balcony section into and above the street looks a lil odd. Maybe make it something more Berlin style. Haven't been there alot yet. Google maps helps. I'm certain you won't find a pub with such an old ringing german name tho. There's more international pub culture then german in the capitol.

Well I live in Berlin and the balcony section usually looks like that here, as seen here on google maps: Google Maps As for the pub name, that depends. If you're looking for a modern pub, that's true, but if you're looking for a "Kneipe", well then they usually have old names. The only problem is that "faß" is the old german grammar and the "ß" got replaced with "ss", so it's Zum Bierfass. But to be honest: I guess no one cares and you could even argue the ß is from times where the old grammar was right and they just were too lazy to change the shield?

Okay. Sure looks there are balconies like that. depends on the neighbourhood. I just googled for some pubs anyway and threw the lil man on the street somewhere. Hence my knowledge is limited.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/312346895408431105/470135627405459457/Shark.jpg My evil lair is coming together nicely.