How do I make it so I will die when I fall in the water, and also how do I make it flow like water like it is in the game.

lastly, I was wondering how to do one more thing. I have a section in the map where you have to fling yourself through rings and land on a platform. I got the rings all set up and it works fine, but I was thinking I could make them flaming rings. I dont want the fire to hurt the player, though, just a visual thing. how would I do that?

as this is my first map ever, any help would be appreciated, especially any click-by-click walkthroughs

First off, welcome to ThinkingWithPortals.com! You'll love this place, great info and tutorials and tons of nice helpful folks on some very active forums, all run by a very involved staff (msleeper: pm me and tell ya where to send my free TWP hat).

A little tip for you, don't just look in the "Wiki/Tutorials" section, search the forums as well. You will find some tutorials in the forums that just haven't made their way onto the official Tutorial section. Here's some links you'll definitely want to bookmark:

http://www.halfwit-2.com/

http://www.interlopers.net/

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... vel_Design

I'm pretty new at mapping with Hammer myself but I can help some with the hazard water. Here goes:

Make a brush where you want your water to be. Make the top texture nature/hazard_liquid.
Press ctrl+T to tie the brush to an entity. Set the Class Name to func_water_analog.
Now create a brush with the tool/trigger texture. Make this brush the same width and depth as your func_water_analog brush. Some people make it half the height as the water, others the same height-what ever floats your boat.
Press ctrl+T to tie the brush to a trigger_hurt entity. Set Damage Type to CHEMICAL.
The Damage property will determine how much damage is done each half of a second. I set mine to 100. The player will die after about 2 seconds, not too slow, not too fast.
On the Flags tab, make sure only Clients is checked.
You can set the speed and distance properties as well, although I can't seem to get my water flowing as well as I'd like.

Hope this helps.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Trains

Simply create a small func_tracktrain, create a piece of debris, make the func it's parent, and let the func follow the path_track at the desired speed. A little bit more advanced is to make the debris teleport when it's on the last path (out of sight) so it will reappear at the first path (also out of sight) and move in a loop.

How to make the texture look like moving water? I really don't know, but moving debris should make it look like moving water more than enough.

Ricotez wrote:
Hmm, probably the best way to create the illusion of moving water is by having debris and gibs move through it. Use a func_tracktrain and path_tracks for that.

Hmm, no, that's definitly wrong.
Simply use real debris (prop_physics with junk models like bottles or papers and with the "debris" flag checked) and use a trigger_push to push them in the right direction. Because they're floating in the water, there's no need for a huge pushing force as there is no friction. It will also affect the player if you check the "client" flag of the entity.

Ricotez wrote:
How to make the texture look like moving water?

Make your own version of the water material's VMT file and add a proxy to it.

"Proxies"
{
   "TextureScroll"
   {
      "texturescrollvar" "$basetexturetransform"
      "texturescrollrate" .5
      "texturescrollangle" 90
   }
}

...

sorry, my fault. I'm still a noob with Hammer...

for the code, you have to create a whole new material, that's kinda tricky.
Maybe you should check this out:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Creating_a_Material

// envmaptint_fix
"LightmappedGeneric"
{

   "$basetexture" "nature/hazard_liquid"

   "$selfillum" 1
   "$surfaceprop" "slime"
   "$envmap" "env_cubemap"
   "$envmaptint" "[ .50 .45 .45 ]"
   "$envmapcontrast" "1"

   "%keywords" "portal"
   "%compileSlime" 1
   
   "$bottommaterial" "nature/hazard_liquid_beneath"
   
   "$fogenable" 1
   "$fogcolor" "{72 70 10}"
   "$fogstart" 1.00
   "$fogend" 100.00

   // Use scrolling animated textures on DX9 hardware
   ">=DX90"
   {
      "$bumpmap"  "dev/waterA_normal"      // These two slide...
      "$bumpmap2" "dev/waterB_normal"      // ...against each other
      "$bumpmask" "dev/flat_normal"      // This holds still and alpha masks to get final normal
   }

   "<DX90"
   {
      "$bumpmap" "Nature/slime_normal"
   }
   
   "LightmappedGeneric_NoBump_DX8"
   {
      "$basetexture" "Nature/hazard_liquid"
      "$basealphaenvmapmask" 1
      "$envmaptint" "[ 0.1 0.08 0.08 ]"
   }

   "Proxies"
   {
       
      "TextureScroll"
      {
         "texturescrollvar" "$bumptransform"
         "texturescrollrate" .025
         "texturescrollangle" -35.00
      }
      "TextureScroll"
      {
         "texturescrollvar" "$basetexturetransform"
         "texturescrollrate" .010
         "texturescrollangle" -35.00
      }
   }
}

So... actually, there's little to do :

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
   "$basetexture" "nature/hazard_liquid"
   "$selfillum" 1
   "$surfaceprop" "slime"
   "$envmap" "env_cubemap"
   "$envmaptint" "[ .50 .45 .45 ]"
   "$envmapcontrast" "1"

   "%keywords" "portal"
   "%compileSlime" 1
   
   "$bottommaterial" "nature/hazard_liquid_beneath"
   
   "$fogenable" 1
   "$fogcolor" "{72 70 10}"
   "$fogstart" 1.00
   "$fogend" 100.00

   ">=DX90"
   {
      "$bumpmap"  "dev/waterA_normal"
      "$bumpmap2" "dev/waterB_normal"
      "$bumpmask" "dev/flat_normal"
   }
   
   "<DX90"
   {
      "$bumpmap" "nature/slime_normal"
   }
   
   "LightmappedGeneric_NoBump_DX8"
   {
      "$basetexture" "nature/hazard_liquid"
      "$basealphaenvmapmask" 1
      "$envmaptint" "[ 0.1 0.08 0.08 ]"
   }

   "Proxies"
   {
      "TextureScroll"
      {
        "texturescrollvar" "$basetexturetransform"
        "texturescrollrate" .5
        "texturescrollangle" 90
      } 
   }
}

You put that in your own VMT file, in a folder, in the materials'folder of portal, and that's all. You have a modified version of the slime texture that scrolls at a speed of .5 in the given angle (90?).

anyways, any1 know how to make the tubes clear and the fire rings?

cornontheCoD wrote:
yeah....that's way too complicated. Surely there's an easier way?

What's complicated in copying/pasting the exact code I wrote in a new .vmt file ?
There is no other way of making visually "moving" water in the Source Engine.

cornontheCoD wrote:
yeah....that's way too complicated. Surely there's an easier way?

Mapping isn't easy, sorry. This is the way you add a new material into the game.

cornontheCoD wrote:
ok, so now its in the materials folder as a text file. can I just find it in hammer now as a new texture?

Theoretically, yes.
If you named your file with a .vmt extension, it should be available in the texture browser.