Guys, instead of comitting suicide right now or stay here alone crying like a baby because of what just happened to me, I decided to share it with you: I recently decided to add a 3D skybox to map upcoming map but the center of origin was in a weird place to show my skybox properly, so I decided to move the whole map WITHOUT the texture lock little button being enabled >.< ...I didn't notice about the texture shifting, I kept on moving (along 2 axis/viewports) until OBVIOUSLY, in a given moment hammer crashed... and continued and it crashed after a while again: so when I noticed the texture shifting I couldn't "undo" anything, and furthermore, when I went to the .vmx file it was too late... because there was a too recent version of it!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO CHECK THE TEXTURE LOCK LITTLE BUTTON IF YOU EVER THINK OF DOING ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I feel like the most stupid mapper ever.

I wouldn't have cared much if this wasn't a destroyed/overgrown map where there are like ONE DAMN MILLION BRUSHES TILTED, TORN, DISPLACED, ... that's to say: NOT paralell to any of the axis

This is for you:

I'm going to sleep... It's going to be a LOOOOOOOG weekend....

PS: thanks Fluppy for the cheer up and for the suggestion of moving the map back to AT LEAST aligned the textures on brushes placed at 90? on the XYZ axes

I know THAT Feel!
When i was a Beginner of Hammer mapping, i Turned all (I dont know why) Brushes in the map in only one Func_brush. I didnt know why my map was corrupted, i was really frustrated for weeks and doesnt wanted to map again, and i didnt know about the "move to world" button.

Aaaaand in my current (little big) project, that happened to me too. I moved a whole map, without texture lock -> Saved.
When i realized that, and my last autosave was hours ago!

(We could start a thread like, that have you done for mapping mistakes? or so ;D )

josepezdj wrote:
PLEASE REMEMBER TO CHECK THE TEXTURE LOCK LITTLE BUTTON IF YOU EVER THINK OF DOING ANYTHING LIKE THAT.

Would never happen to me because I never move the whole map. I always start my maps by putting the origin at ground level near the center of my map.

But thanks for sharing - I feel for you buddy.

You have to persevere, I know what its like to have a lot of work lost due to crashes, even the autosaves and vmx somehow got corrupted, I was able to decompile the map cause it hadnt been that long since I had done a quick compile, do you have any versions you compiled recently? Did you not post screenshots a few days ago of that map, might be better to redo the work you have done since then, rather than try to fix off grid texture alignment >_<

Well, I guess you could always move your map around until the textures line up again or something. Sounds easier than redoing each alignment one by one. :/

Wait, that's what texture lock does? I thought it just made overlays stretch instead of tiling, so I needed to disable it before placing indicator lights.

FelixGriffin wrote:
Wait, that's what texture lock does? I thought it just made overlays stretch instead of tiling, so I needed to disable it before placing indicator lights.

Texture lock makes sure that the textures stay aligned to a brush when moving and re-sizing them. This is particularly important when you have objects with specifically aligned textures on them.
And yes, it will stretch textures therefore it is a good idea to turn it off if you want to resize any blocks.

When you are re-sizing walls that have tiling textures, it doesn't usually matter that Texture lock is disabled as this is a way to keep textures aligned to its original position.

With Portal mapping, everything is pretty much aligned to a grid or has tiled textures so I usually have texture lock turned off. Mapping for other source games like Half-Life: 2, it is always turned on and turned off when I need it to be because of how complex some areas could become.

TheTobbell wrote:
I know THAT Feel! .....

Woah man, I'm sorry about that. Thanks for sharing

ChickenMobile wrote:
Would never happen to me because I never move the whole map. I always start my maps by putting the origin at ground level near the center of my map.

But thanks for sharing - I feel for you buddy.

Mel, I never ever did such a similar stupid thing. I't a very complex thing and there are many chances that you get it not snapped to the grid (luckily, I made it correctly, little by little and with the grid set to 1 unit). I just thought recently of adding the 3D skybox and I realized the center of origin was displaced as a result of the further construction of the map... It was a stupid lapse that will never happen. Thanks for the support

LoneWolf2056 wrote:
You have to persevere, I know what its like to have a lot of work lost due to crashes, even the autosaves and vmx somehow got corrupted, I was able to decompile the map cause it hadnt been that long since I had done a quick compile, do you have any versions you compiled recently? Did you not post screenshots a few days ago of that map, might be better to redo the work you have done since then, rather than try to fix off grid texture alignment >_<

Thanks for those words, my friend I still remember your fatal problem with the latest maps for Dilapidation. Man, I wish I'd have a complete version of the map. I posted the pics after a full compile of the full map, but unfortunately, since I'm focussing in certain areas to go improving each part with the usage of cordons, it's long since I don't have a compile of the whole map, but just reduced areas

Another Bad Pun wrote:
Well, I guess you could always move your map around until the textures line up again or something. Sounds easier than redoing each alignment one by one. :/

Yeah dude, as I told Fluppy already suggested that (I was too shocked to think clearly in that moment) and luckily I already have all 90? brushes with the textures properly aligned Lol, but that could be only a 50%? of the total brushes >.< (damn destruction!)

FelixGriffin wrote:
Wait, that's what texture lock does? I thought it just made overlays stretch instead of tiling, so I needed to disable it before placing indicator lights.

Yeah, as Chicken said this does exactly what its name says, it locks the textures fixing them to the brushes and avoiding their movement in the case you move the brushes from position. Do a test: create a brush alone, texture it, disable the Texture Lock button and move it around... you'll feel pity for me after doing so

OK, let's be constructive! No more worries, what's done it's done. I'll fix it all on this weekend and by Monday this might never happen So I suggest that we turn this thread into a list of general advices and preventive measures for mappers in order to avoid this kind of fatal unexpected accidents and others....

Here you have mine:

1. Try to keep periodically a backup of the map/s your currently working on. Save a copy of the map in a different drive if possible (and not only in a pendrive!). If possible the .BSP and the .VMF.

2. In the case you have a full compiled complete map, keep it! Do not smash it by compiling a cordonned area under the same name Simply save it under a different before compile (something like [map_name]_cordon).

3. Try to control the state of the Texture Lock button. If you need to place the indicator lights (antlines) and you disable it, remember to enable it back again Take special care of its state before doing a whole map re-positioning >.< Or just don't move the whole map ever

4. We all know this already, but just in cases: hit *Ctrl+S* every 30-40 seconds or so. Also, everytime:

5. before you open your texture browser

6. before you open your model browser
7. before you need to open another map while you already have one opened
8. before placing an instance (moreover if it is big, like the elevators)
9. before placing any entity
10. before moving/copying a bunch of selected things in your map
    .......

I guess this is pretty much all I can say from my disaster of yesterday... Those are only very basic and general measures when mapping that we all might forget every once in a while for keeping a safe copy of your work. If you feel like adding useful stuff, please go ahead

Lol, I just suddenly reminded about this old thread that said "Dos and Dont's in mapping" and searched for it ... Very useful to take a look to it any time

How to move the entire map without texture lock: Turn off texture lock, create a brush and move it. So it's obviously talking about a lot of brushes, but, I always keep texture lock on, and the textures do change if I resize them. Also, that doesn't disturb my indicators. I know how to edit U ends without calculations but whoever doesn't know: length of indicator divided by 16, times 0.25.

yishbarr wrote:
How to move the entire map without texture lock: Turn off texture lock, create a brush and move it. So it's obviously talking about a lot of brushes, but, I always keep texture lock on, and the textures do change if I resize them. Also, that doesn't disturb my indicators. I know how to edit U ends without calculations but whoever doesn't know: length of indicator divided by 16, times 0.25.

yeah; whilst that works with indicators; I prefer to have the scaling lock on for 'em

Over the past 10-20 year, I'm not even aware that I keep hitting Ctrls+S multiple times a minute in hammer or any other program. Its just a reflex now, so I do it pretty often. But I guess in this case its a bad thing, if you sont have a previous good save to revert back to.
I once did something similar, and moving everything back then hand-fixing the few still misaligned texture was the solution.
For indicators, I always turn scaling lock off.

yishbarr wrote:
...Also, that doesn't disturb my indicators. I know how to edit U ends without calculations but whoever doesn't know: length of indicator divided by 16, times 0.25.

You could also just take the length of the indicator lights and divide that by 64. Just a bit simpler to do and this is how I've always done it.

Guys, I always did as yishbarr described. That's the way we all learnt I guess, but:

1. From the moment you start using the texture lock button to place and resize your indicators and you are aware of the advantages and the comfort of doing this way, you simply get hooked up and quickly used to it

2. Don't dismiss the usage of an useful tool just because "you are afraid" of something bad could happen, come on! that's totally opossite to evolution! I always bet for learning of every single tool that a program has, its advantages and disavantages, combination with other tools, possible risks etc. and I try to practise with them all.

Mine was just a simple mishap, that will never happen again (hopefully)... Oh, and btw, I spent 4 hours realigning textures, that's all... but the map is in perfect conditions again

Four hours realigning the textures? Well, I guess it's better then remaking the entire map...