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Immoral Sniper |
Posted: December 20, 2004 02:40 pm
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The force is strong in me Group: BB Betatesters Posts: 1177 Joined: December 10, 2004 |
I. Starting to Map
First, before you go tearing off to start on your BB map, you need a few things. 1. Valve's Hammer Editor v3.4 or v3.5 beta (v3.5 beta requires v3.4 to be installed first) Note: You can not use the Hammer Editor (v 4.0 I believe) that is packaged with STEAM 2. The brainbread .FGD file 3. It is the recommendation of this mapper to use Zoner's Half Life Tools (ZHLT) Once you have all of that, it is time to start up Hammer! But you can't map yet, we have to configure Hammer's and BB's settings. Here is a link to an already written tutorial for that matter. Just replace the mod directory with BB's. Once you have all that set up, you are ready to map, there are hundreds if not thousands of tutorials and hints, google is a valuable asset in finding them. Also MAKE SURE to READ the "BRAINBREAD FGD AND HOW TO CREATE MAPS TUTORIAL" for specific information on some of BB's entities. II. Important Sizes Ground Obstacle Height This is the maximum height, in units, an object can be while still allowing the player to walk over it. crouched: 18 standing: 18 Overhead Obstacle Height This is the minimum distance, in units, that can be between the ground and an object while still allowing the player to pass underneath. crouched: 37 standing: 73 Minimum Path Width This is the minimum width, in units, that can be between two objects while still allowing the player to pass between them. width: 33 Jump Height This is the maximum height, in units, an object can be while still allowing the player to jump on top of it. crouched: 44 walking: 44 running crouch-jump: 62 Thanks to reinhardt for providing this list. III. Mapping FAQ As I get more questions I will add to this list! Q: What is an .FGD file A: It is a file (readible in notepad) that contains all the information about the entities BB uses. Q: What is a .WAD file A: It is a file that contains textures for use in your maps, I recommend a program called Wally if you want to make/alter .WAD files. - Link to Wally Q: Why is my map dark? A: You need "light" entities in order for there to be light on your level Q: What are light_environments then? A: They are a special type of light that causes sky brushes (brushes with the sky texture on all sides) to emit light. Q: But I have light_environments! A: Unless you are using ZHLT, you need light_enviroments whereever you need light emmited from the sky, however with ZHLT, you need only 1 light_environment. Q: ZHLT? A: Zoner's Half Life Tools Q: How do I get models to show in game A: Use an entity called "cycler" there is a keyvalue, or field, that lets you select the necessary model. Q: My multisource entity didn't work! A: The BB team has yet to fix the multisource entity, make do until they do. Q: How do I make a .bsp file? A: You compile your map (which is an .rmf file) There is a button on Hammer's toolbar and F9 is the shortcut key Q: My zombies don't spawn! A: Make sure: - Monster to Spawn is "monster_zombie" - Number of Monsters is "-1" (if infinite) or greater than 0 (if finite) - Min and Max respawn times are not obscenely high - Max live children is greater than 0 Q: Why don't I spawn? A: Make sure you have bb_spawn_player entities included in your level Q: Why do my textures have that ugly blue/black on them, I want to see through them! A: To Fix: 1. Turn them into - a. func_illusionary (you want people to walk and shots to pass through them) - b. func_wall (you want to block the player and shots) - c. func_illusionary with a clip box covering it (block players, but able to shoot through) 2. Set "Render Mode" to "Texture" 3. Set "FX Amount" to "255" 4. Set "FX Color" to - a. "0 0 255" for textures with blue - b. "0 0 0" for textures with black Q: Why are my map models not solid? I can walk right through them! A: Map models are not solid, you have to clip them with a brush textured with "clip" in order to prevent player movement. Q: What is a "clip box"? A: A clip box is a brush covered entirely in the texture "clip" availble in zhlt.wad. It is invisible in game but block players from entering it, but you can still shoot through it. Q: What is the revolver's weapon name? It isn't listed with the rest of the weapons! A: weapon_44sw Q: How do I set the light and make it darker/brighter for my map? A: Go into the light's properties, (Alt + Enter is the shortcut in Hammer) - Click on "Brightness" - You will see 4 numbers, the last of the four is the brightness value - The first three are the light's color in RGB Value (Red Green Blue) Q: How do I make ladders? A: Put the ladder you want the player to see in, then add another brush (textured with aaatrigger for claritity usually) and turn it into a "func_ladder" - Note that zombies can not use ladders when placing them in your level and as such, should be avoided when possible, unless you want an area COMPLETELY safe from zombies (of course, you can always put zombies on the top end of the ladder, but they tend to teleport on the player and that's never fun...) IV: Compile Errors Chances are that why and/or how to fix your error are listed on this site. V: Immoral's Simple, Personal Tips for Building a Better Map - Don't use the hollow tool... just don't - Use the 'null' texture (from the zhlt.wad that comes with ZHLT) on faces that players will never see - Only use carve when absolutely required - Keep in mind the skill level of an average player when placing weapons / health / zombies -------------------- BB Maps I've made...
bb_stronghold {Beta 9} bb_shootingrange {Beta 1} Threads you should read before posting... Immoral's List of Things Not to Suggest Immoral's Mapping Guide Forum Spammers Name (Number of spamming citations issued) Nikku (3), -KRUX- (2), Mitchell (2), hunter (2), Gneralas (2), CHAY (2), vyvu (2), Rustie1821 (1), w00t (1), dagny (1), Nandu666 (1), The.Raver(1), moecomputer (1), -=Jouni=- (1), santa_kills (1), DarknessGlams (1) |
bloodangel |
Posted: December 22, 2004 09:42 pm
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Rotten Meat Group: Members Posts: 5 Joined: December 22, 2004 |
I added and did every thing it says to and when i go to load my map i get an error that says The system cannot fing the file specified.
How can i fix this -------------------- And when the world finaly comes to and end. He'll simply laugh and smile. For he would take such comfort in knowing. That there would be no tomorrow
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Immoral Sniper |
Posted: December 22, 2004 10:16 pm
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The force is strong in me Group: BB Betatesters Posts: 1177 Joined: December 10, 2004 |
Check the "Don't run the game" box on the compile options menu
Chances are there was an error in compiling the .bsp file, so the .bsp file was never created (which is why bb can't find it). Also check your <mapname>.log file, the error should be listed in there. If this isn't the problem, then I don't know what is because I don't have enough information, does it just say "The system cannot fing the file specified" or does it also give the filename, which, if so, what is the filename? -------------------- BB Maps I've made...
bb_stronghold {Beta 9} bb_shootingrange {Beta 1} Threads you should read before posting... Immoral's List of Things Not to Suggest Immoral's Mapping Guide Forum Spammers Name (Number of spamming citations issued) Nikku (3), -KRUX- (2), Mitchell (2), hunter (2), Gneralas (2), CHAY (2), vyvu (2), Rustie1821 (1), w00t (1), dagny (1), Nandu666 (1), The.Raver(1), moecomputer (1), -=Jouni=- (1), santa_kills (1), DarknessGlams (1) |
reinhardt |
Posted: December 23, 2004 08:19 am
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 130 Joined: December 04, 2004 |
The VERC
VERC This is worth referencing the most. Plus the VERC HL1 Mapping Forum.
Run Bug? I'm not 100% sure about this. It could just be my setup. But when i first setup Hammer i had alot of problems and in the end i fixed one of THE most annoying things like this: This screenshot is of my Run dialog. Notice the selected line and the line below (Make sure you have "Advanced" and not "Normal" selected to get this screen from the run dialog): Your Run dialog by default will have these 2 lines like this: Copy File $path/$file.bsp $bspdir/$file.bsp Copy File $path/$file.pts $bspdir/$file.pts The 2 lines i want you to look at are these: Copy File $path/$file.bsp $path/$file.bsp Copy File $path/$file.pts $path/$file.pts I know it looks weird and in theory the default should work logically. But for some reason because the build files are not together the compile proccess could never compile another bsp straight into ..brainbread/maps/ dir. Anyway this solved it. NOTE: Also worth a mention is when you do a final compile use the command parameters -full and -extra for vis and rad like this: $vis_exe $path\file -full $light_exe $path\file -extra This will create extra bsp vis leaves and divide them up more efficiently. Official BrainBread .wad Another thing i though worth the mention is the Download available of the official Brainbread wad file. Beware when you download this that you download this to your .../brainbread/ dir, and not to another dir only. Because otherwise you may get error messages from BB when it loads. Easily solved by moving the file to .../brainbread/ dir or copying the file there creating 2 instances of it. Useful tib-bits Creating custom sound files to play in your maps. Make sure they adhere to the following requirments: All wav files to be used as ambient_generics in HL must be in the following format: <= 22050 Hz, mono-unsigned. The Revolver bb_equipment entity name to use is: weapon_44sw Thats all for now ill post anything else i see fit here as i remember them hope this helps. -------------------- Projects bb_nighthouse (beta) lms_nighthouse (alpha) |
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Immoral Sniper |
Posted: December 23, 2004 04:50 pm
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The force is strong in me Group: BB Betatesters Posts: 1177 Joined: December 10, 2004 |
I didn't even think of sending him to the Advance compile setup (forgot that some don't use it...)
Anyways, you can have the .wad files where ever you want them IF you use the -nowadtextures command, it saves you from having to put all your custom textures into a seperate .wad and including it. Make sure you check the "Use Long filenames" box for all of them... I had a problem with that for a whiles... As for sounds, with STEAM, I am pretty sure you can also play MP3 files. Have to confirm this though. Regardless of the above, I think you got his problem fixed. -------------------- BB Maps I've made...
bb_stronghold {Beta 9} bb_shootingrange {Beta 1} Threads you should read before posting... Immoral's List of Things Not to Suggest Immoral's Mapping Guide Forum Spammers Name (Number of spamming citations issued) Nikku (3), -KRUX- (2), Mitchell (2), hunter (2), Gneralas (2), CHAY (2), vyvu (2), Rustie1821 (1), w00t (1), dagny (1), Nandu666 (1), The.Raver(1), moecomputer (1), -=Jouni=- (1), santa_kills (1), DarknessGlams (1) |
moecomputer |
Posted: December 23, 2004 06:02 pm
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 120 Joined: December 23, 2004 |
It wont let me download the .FGD file!!! This what it says.
Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested object. It is either read-protected or not readable by the server. If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster. Error 403 -------------------- BB screen name: KillerMoe35
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Immoral Sniper |
Posted: December 23, 2004 06:10 pm
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The force is strong in me Group: BB Betatesters Posts: 1177 Joined: December 10, 2004 |
That means the server is temporally down, try again in an hour or so.
That happened to the forums a day or two ago. -------------------- BB Maps I've made...
bb_stronghold {Beta 9} bb_shootingrange {Beta 1} Threads you should read before posting... Immoral's List of Things Not to Suggest Immoral's Mapping Guide Forum Spammers Name (Number of spamming citations issued) Nikku (3), -KRUX- (2), Mitchell (2), hunter (2), Gneralas (2), CHAY (2), vyvu (2), Rustie1821 (1), w00t (1), dagny (1), Nandu666 (1), The.Raver(1), moecomputer (1), -=Jouni=- (1), santa_kills (1), DarknessGlams (1) |
moecomputer |
Posted: December 23, 2004 10:40 pm
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 120 Joined: December 23, 2004 |
It still doesn't work!!!
-------------------- BB screen name: KillerMoe35
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Zuwahmbi |
Posted: December 24, 2004 12:46 am
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Experienced Killer Group: Members Posts: 60 Joined: December 01, 2004 |
I just had one little question... When I'm setting up the directories, I can only get the game to run if I set the directories to the Half-Life installation folder "C:/SIERRA/Half-Life". This also goes for sound files (I can only get them to play if they're in the "Valve/sounds" directory.) Is there some way to set up the compile so that I can use sounds/textures/maps from the BrainBread directory instead of the Valve directory? Also, is there a special way to test the maps in BrainBread directly instead of through Half-Life?
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Shotgun |
Posted: December 28, 2004 07:51 am
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 196 Joined: December 09, 2004 |
Don't use the standard compiler in VHE it sucks SO much! Use a batch compiler, its MUCH faster and it does so much more.
For example: -------------------- |
reinhardt |
Posted: December 29, 2004 02:18 pm
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 130 Joined: December 04, 2004 |
Actually they are the same speed and u can customize the VHE dialog to do almost anything. The only advantage gained with Nem's is a nicer interface, i do recommend it though because it is easier to setup. -------------------- Projects bb_nighthouse (beta) lms_nighthouse (alpha) |
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Shotgun |
Posted: December 30, 2004 07:15 am
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 196 Joined: December 09, 2004 |
They are NOT the same speed! Here's a quote from Tracer Bullet over at the snark pit:
"So if they all do the same thing why is one way better than another? The answer is resources and neatness. In order to run Hammer/HLCC/ZHLT-GUI, your computer has to allocate memory for the interface that could be better spent speeding up the compile. Compiling in Hammer is particularly bad because it not only uses up a lot of RAM, it also locks up the editor. Compiling from a DOS window is very resource efficient." Link to article Also the only advantage gained with Nem's is not just because it has a nicer interface It allows you to fix a lot of problems with standard compiling with HLfix, you can change entities only without having to ENTIRELY recompile your map, you can run BSP just enough to only find leaks, you can change max node size to make a faster and more accurate VIS, you can change the maximum visable distance size which helps A LOT if you make large open maps, you can change the size of texture and lighting data if you use a lot of high def textures and lights, you can manually set input files to use so you can specify where your files are, it will auto backup your maps, you can specify wadincludes much easier so you don't have to include wads with your distribution, and that's only SOME of the reasons why you should use the batch compiler. -------------------- |
reinhardt |
Posted: December 30, 2004 07:46 pm
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 130 Joined: December 04, 2004 |
Yes, Nem's uses 1 less process, it doesnt have to run VHE, but the speed of the compiler is the same, that was my point before (They both use the same tools to compile by).
My point before was VHE compiler can do all these things, what you gain with the Nems batch compiler is an interface to help you set these things up. -------------------- Projects bb_nighthouse (beta) lms_nighthouse (alpha) |
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Shotgun |
Posted: December 30, 2004 11:28 pm
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 196 Joined: December 09, 2004 |
All the things I posted CANNOT be done with the VHE compiler, they are not coded in. Nem's tools has new code, it is not simply a gui, they are tools you can use to manipulate how your map is compiled. For instance, tell me how you can use HLfix in VHE? Don't say to add the parameter -hlfix because it can not be called by hlbsp.exe, hlcsg.exe, hlvis.exe, or hlrad.exe They also do not use the same tools to compile by, it has additional tools and it uses zoner's half life tools modified by Merl with new coding.
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reinhardt |
Posted: December 31, 2004 01:54 am
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Zombie Hunter Group: Members Posts: 130 Joined: December 04, 2004 |
Everything to compile a map can be done with the VHE, most ppl write it off without looking into this. The extra programs you talk about do not add anything to a map from what i know. They are just used to debug a map. -------------------- Projects bb_nighthouse (beta) lms_nighthouse (alpha) |
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