My Mapping Habits? - Developers

I have, over a few months of mapping, developed a few habits in my mapping techniques, and I'm curious to know which of these I should continue to use, modify, or abandon altogether. Here's my list, in no particular order: - I tend to make my walls 128 in height, 8 in width. - I texture all of my brushes in 'nodraw', and then texture only the visible faces with their proper texture. - I usually try to only use skyboxes at the actual points where you can see the sky, but when I'm feeling lazy, I just wrap it around the whole map and hollow it out. (Is this an accepted method?) - I usually place info_nodes (AI Nodes) all over the place. I mean, I put them EVERYWHERE. I try to place them in a systematic way, but I place a lot of them. How many do I really need?[b]*[/b] [b]*[/b] [img_thumb]http://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr29/WeLikeZombiesProboards/hammer.png[/img_thumb] [i](^ Ignore the random rubble, just placed something in the room for random cover.)[/i] Can't really think of any more at the moment, but after I get some answers, I'll reply back with more! Thanks in advance.

2nd and 4th are unnecessary. The engine automatically doesn't compile or render faces that are invisible. I think it's 1 node per brush. Use a clip ramp for stairs.

1 node per brush is incorrect. [quote=VDC]lay down info_node entities across the map, preferably at each point where the AI would have to choose what to do, or anywhere the AI might want to go - basically, any important place for the AI[/quote] Nodes should go along paths in fewer numbers than you have them, maybe a few for complex paths etc. They should also go next to places where NPC's can take cover.

Got enough info_nodes their.

The 3rd habit you shouldn't do. Hollowing out a skybox is the same thing as carving. Don't do it. Place the skybox brushes manually around the map 1 by 1.

From what I can see you could easily cover that room sufficiently with 10-15 nodes, and even then you're being very thorough. Too many will actually fuck up the AI. [editline]10:21AM[/editline] The skybox method will cause massive fps drop in most cases. And it's a bad idea in all cases, skybox brushes should be where you can see the sky and nowhere else. [url=http://optimization.interlopers.net/index.php?chapter=notices]More information at the start here.[/url] As for #2 it's always good practice even though much of the time vbsp will nullify the face anyway, in some cases it'll save faces that would otherwise be rendered from rendering. And as said above make a flat sloped brush that covers the steps on stairs and give it the tools/playerclip texture to make going up the steps seem more smooth.

I guess mine is... Mapping poorly?

[QUOTE=SnakeFace;22629365]From what I can see you could easily cover that room sufficiently with 10-15 nodes, and even then you're being very thorough. Too many will actually fuck up the AI. [editline]10:21AM[/editline] The skybox method will cause massive fps drop in most cases. And it's a bad idea in all cases, skybox brushes should be where you can see the sky and nowhere else. [url=http://optimization.interlopers.net/index.php?chapter=notices]More information at the start here.[/url] As for #2 it's always good practice even though much of the time vbsp will nullify the face anyway, in some cases it'll save faces that would otherwise be rendered from rendering. And as said above make a flat sloped brush that covers the steps on stairs and give it the tools/playerclip texture to make going up the steps seem more smooth.[/QUOTE] The performance gain from number 2 is so little as to be negligible, since it's likely to only be one or two fairly small faces per map. It's all a matter of taste.

1. Correct, that's generally the scale you should stick to. Unless a wall is a material that should naturally be thick, in which case use 16. 2. I tend to make the map out of nodraw and texture the faces afterwards too. It's more just good practice even if the result of it is [i]very[/i] minor. I find that it keeps things clean and can sometimes save you in instances where VBSP might have missed a face that is partially visible or something (though that doesn't happen often). Also, if you're using EP2 there's a button to stop displaying nodraw faces in the viewports which can come in very handy. 3. If you intend to release the map, make sure you only place skybox brushes at places where you can see the sky. Using the hollowed skybox around the entire thing method can seriously stretch compile times on VVIS and VRAD if it's trying to calculate lighting and VIS on faces where it doesn't have to. It can also lower FPS in-game if VVIS thinks you can see into areas you actually can't. (Plus, it is also very bad practice to hollow anything. If you must compile it for a test, use the cordon tool) 4. You don't need nodes EVERYWHERE. Just place them spread throughout the area where AI will want to be able to move. That means place them behind cover and spread roughly across open areas but you don't have to cramp them together quite as much as you have done in that screenshot.

There's no set dimensions that walls should be and people really should stop saying that there is. It's entirely preferential and situational. For the same of keeping an even texture resolution, a 512x512 texture fits perfectly onto a 128 unit tall wall with a texture scale of 0.25.

[QUOTE=HiddenMyst;22631134]There's no set dimensions that walls should be and people really should stop saying that there is. It's entirely preferential and situational. For the same of keeping an even texture resolution, a 512x512 texture fits perfectly onto a 128 unit tall wall with a texture scale of 0.25.[/QUOTE] Not length-wise, no. But height-wise and width-wise it's just the default and most props and textures that are provided default are designed to fit those sizes. Examples being pillars, debris', windows, doors etc.

[QUOTE=selby3962;22631202]Not length-wise, no. But height-wise and width-wise it's just the default and most props and textures that are provided default are designed to fit those sizes. Examples being pillars, debris', windows, doors etc.[/QUOTE] What if your room is not a standard residential room? Only houses/flats tend to have standardised room heights.

[QUOTE=selby3962;22631202]Not length-wise, no. But height-wise and width-wise it's just the default and most props and textures that are provided default are designed to fit those sizes. Examples being pillars, debris', windows, doors etc.[/QUOTE] Which is why he said situational, when props have to be catered to with sizes then those sizes must be used. But it's good not to have a set idea that wall sizes must all be the same or at certain values because in some situations this is not the case.

Well obviously, if a room has to be taller or smaller to fit a specific feature then I'll do it but surely it's good practice to keep to similar scales because it fits well with the scale of the player, keeps your textures seamless and fitting throughout the level, keeps it tidy and makes sure all your level assets fit properly. I'm not saying ALL walls should be 128 in height, of course not, if you need extra height in a room go for it but keeping rooms (of the same building at least) to a similar scale does seem like good practice to me.

Maps also tend to look like utter shit when every wall is the same height.

[img]http://i50.tinypic.com/23vkeoi.png[/img] Doesn't seem to bother Valve too much? Obviously if I intend to add something to a room that requires me adding extra height then I'll add that extra height to fit in whatever feature I needed to but for a standard wall I'd say keeping to 128h is standard practice because textures will definately fit it well and any strange scale would require you to stretch or reduce the texture to odd values. Anyway, buildings tend to have ceilings of roughly the same height, why wouldn't they? If they had strange unevenly sized walls they'd have strange uneven floors and ceilings and strange dips and rises on floors above. Look, if you're playing a map and all you can notice is the fact the walls seem to have a fairly uniform height then clearly the mapper hasn't put enough visual interest to either fill up the space above or done enough to draw your attention to the important aspects of the scene.

Thanks for all the answers, everyone. :smile: As for the info_node's, about how many units in radius does an info_node cover? Just so I can get somewhat of a better picture for nodes in an open area.