Some ppl asked me how can I make maps so fast with so much detail.

So I decided to make a small map in 15 min to show how I use hammer and how I optimize/test maps.
Its not a tutorial, but I've aded some annotation to explain things... enjoy:

youtube vid #1 (15 min)
youtube vid #2 (15 min)

The source VMF and the BSP: gepy_template.zip (159K)

Excellent job! I really liked how you keep a template of you favorite textures/entities so that you don't have to go searching for them... Thanks a lot!

Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

Wow, you have so good Hammer control! I learned quite a few things from this.

I'm usin hammer since 1997
First I mapped for wolf3d and made a map editor for that, then I made a map editor for dune2 (the reaso why I bought my first PC, or actually my dad bought it), then I made some texture editor for doom, and lots lots map for doom1 and 2. Then When quake came out, I found this program called Worldcraft and immediately became my favorite. I checked unrealed too, but was too hard compared to that. And when I found out that halflife can be edited with that as well.... heaven
Then I havent used it till halflife 2, then after some break, Portal came out and I polished it again. And now again, and I must get used to it again, since I still need to remember things

I have poo microphone and bad english and accent, but if u want to know something, I can show how I do it in a short tutorial with annotations. maybe how to button + gel or how to open a door, etc...
or I just record how I finish the last room in my map...

Hey thanks for the awesome tutorial. Definitely saved me time and frustration (especially with aligning textures). I just have one question. In the first room, where you textured the ceiling with 'toolsskybox,' how did you get it to work in your map? Simply texturing the bottom face of the ceiling gives me nothing. I get the weird 'void' effect, not the white, natural lighting like you. What did you do to apply the skybox to the ceiling? Thank you!

Shaprepenr wrote:
Hey thanks for the awesome tutorial. Definitely saved me time and frustration (especially with aligning textures). I just have one question. In the first room, where you textured the ceiling with 'toolsskybox,' how did you get it to work in your map? Simply texturing the bottom face of the ceiling gives me nothing. I get the weird 'void' effect, not the white, natural lighting like you. What did you do to apply the skybox to the ceiling? Thank you!

there were an entity named light_environment that I copied along with the other props. That controls the skybox (environment) lighting. The properties that changed (different) from the default are:
Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) 0 280 0
Pitch -80
Brightness 255 247 217 100
Ambient 255 247 217 250
(these are a little yellowish colors to simulate the sun)
All skybox emit this kind of light (first 3 are the RGB colors, 4th number is the strength)

I've added the download link to the map's source.
If u need help with anything, I can make other vids too.

damagepyportal wrote:
there were an entity named light_environment that I copied along with the other props. That controls the skybox (environment) lighting. The properties that changed (different) from the default are:
Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) 0 280 0
Pitch -80
Brightness 255 247 217 100
Ambient 255 247 217 250
(these are a little yellowish colors to simulate the sun)
All skybox emit this kind of light (first 3 are the RGB colors, 4th number is the strength)

I've added the download link to the map's source.
If u need help with anything, I can make other vids too.

Thanks. But for some reason my ceiling still doesn't work. I now have the lighting, but I don't actually get a texture. It's as if the ceiling is textured with nodraw.

check the vmf source, at map properties u must set the skybox texture name too (sky_white for example)
also need to add paintinmap property, value 1 (so u can use gels)

Upload the file to the Download Database, please.

thas just a file that only "works" with the youtube vid. But I can include the vmf of my other map next time I update that (testmap whatever)

Hey there damagepy. i'd like to thank you for uploading this tuts as they're going to help me a lot in the future. I enjoy playing portal games and yesterday i just suddenly decided I want to create my own maps. It was a challenge to create my 1st map. well more of a test map. and I had quite some problems as I've watched other tutorials to get started before i stumbled upon yours. but I've managed to "finish" it and let my friends test it. Well then i watched yours videos from start and fell in love with the way you work with objects.

I also have few question(I'll try not to be too noisy, as i like to Google before I ask).
1st of I'm curious if you're going to make more tutorials for hammer?
2nd thing I'm interested about is, do you use "stock objects" or do you create them from scratch. what i mean by that is if you do what you did in the video. get your favourite "objects" in one place and then you just copy them, or do you let's say make aerial faith plate from scratch.

well that is kinda all

So thanks again for sharing this, as I'm pretty sure it's going to help every newbie here.

Best regards,
Stylus

I do my own prefabs with my own triggers/logics. Usually I dont put out a prop_static galery but object browser not working my pre-sdk hammer so I need to copy the good things from the official maps.

First I didnt ment the vid as a tutorial since I doing things fast and not explaining the basics of hammer, but of course I can do some if others want it too.
with some door/trigger, button etc tutorial.