Hello, I'm kinda a newb when it comes to mapping, and I've searched everywhere on this topic but to no dice. I was wondering how people, in their custom maps, make the floor textures look good? For instance: One part of the floor is a metal texture that has small box-shapes in them, and the textures next to it have the same texture file, but have bigger boxes in them? I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense.

There are multiple textures of different sizes that look similar. Whatever you do, do NOT ever resize textures on a brush. Textures are created to be a specific resolution and stretching them will instantly make them look super shitty.

Also, check out lpfreaky90's clean mapping guide http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/mapping-help/clean-mapping-guide-t5819.html. That should get you started in the right direction.

Back to square one again -_- But thanks for that though I would've never thought to do it like that!

The two textures you're talking about is actually different textures. They show the same kind of square but in different sizes.

It's easy to add textures for Portal 2, since everything is kinda square anyways. I don't mess with the textures that much, I just divide the wall into sections and add fitting textures to them. Don't take my word for it though. There are way more talented mappers out there

Yeah I did see some textures that looked the same but different sizes. Like there are 5 different sizes for the "black_metal_wall_002."

Kaleido wrote:
Whatever you do, do NOT ever resize textures on a brush. Textures are created to be a specific resolution and stretching them will instantly make them look super shitty.

While this is a good rule of thumb, it isn't the case that you should never stretch a texture. It depends on the texture being used, how large the surface is, and how far away the player will view it. The goo surface is a good example of a texture that should usually be stretched.

Effect textures should usually be stretched to fit, since the position/scale of it doesn't stretch the effect's "texture," but rather its edges.

Mevious wrote:
Kaleido wrote:

Whatever you do, do NOT ever resize textures on a brush. Textures are created to be a specific resolution and stretching them will instantly make them look super shitty.

While this is a good rule of thumb, it isn't the case that you should never stretch a texture. It depends on the texture being used, how large the surface is, and how far away the player will view it. The goo surface is a good example of a texture that should usually be stretched.

Right, but he was asking about detailing wall textures, not effects. If I start throwing ou a whole bunch of conditionals, it'll just be really confusing... plus there's value in stretching certain normal textures to achieve a certain 'look', but that's very far advanced compared to simply breaking up textures on a wall properly.

edit: I guess, to your point, I should not have used the word "ever".