I tried selecting everything on one of the map, copy it and paste it onto the other map. It works great in Hammer, but I get weird leaks everywhere and the part I copied in doesn't render when in game.

Copy/paste seems a bit primitive. Is there a good way merge these two maps together? I don't wanna remake half the map :/

Advantages: you don't have to rebuild half your map. Each puzzle can be edited independantly. You don't have to worry about entity names colliding, since the instance fixup name takes care of that. Each section is aligned to the grid so you don't have to worry about copy and paste messing up your brushwork. You can hide the whole instance easily without having to worry about maintaining visgroups.

Disadvantages: sending I/O from one instance to another is a little involved, since you have to use proxies.

BEARD! wrote:
Or: Make a new map and import your two existing maps as instances. Then in the third 'top-level' map add your corridor or whatever to connect them.

Advantages: you don't have to rebuild half your map. Each puzzle can be edited independently. You don't have to worry about entity names colliding, since the instance fixup name takes care of that. Each section is aligned to the grid so you don't have to worry about copy and paste messing up your brushwork.

Disadvantages: sending I/O from one instance to another is a little involved, since you have to use proxies.

This is very similar to the format I've been building my map with. Each chamber as a separate instance within a "master" map. It makes editing and bugfixing any small part easier, you just need to remember to rebuild the master map. It works a treat.

Thanks for the different solutions. But "the best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one."

BEARD! wrote:
Or: Make a new map and import your two existing maps as instances. Then in the third 'top-level' map add your corridor or whatever to connect them.

Or you could NOT create a new map and just instance the other map into the original map and construct the corridor.

Logic wrote:
the part I copied in doesn't render when in game

That happened to me when I copy/pasted another map into one, it was very confusing. It seems you've already fixed the problem, but yeah, I'd say to just load your map into the other as an instance.

UsCobra11 wrote:
That happened to me when I copy/pasted another map into one, it was very confusing. It seems you've already fixed the problem, but yeah, I'd say to just load your map into the other as an instance.

I didn't want to make instances since I'm not fully informed on how they work and I still had to change a lot of things in both of the maps.
Merging them together seemed like the better alternative, but I'm starting to have second thoughts

Logic wrote:
I didn't want to make instances since I'm not fully informed on how they work and I still had to change a lot of things in both of the maps.
Merging them together seemed like the better alternative, but I'm starting to have second thoughts

An instance is basically a map inside another map. No big deal. If you still want to change some things, you can just easily click on it and edit the instance. My map, Rust and Dust, is just 2 instances with a few extra props and brushes (since I wanted to combine 2 maps).

or just better about aligning your brushwork

BenVlodgi wrote:
you could have just opened up the vmf in a text editor copied everything over to the other vmf that way... assuming that they wouldn't collide...

or just better about aligning your brushwork

That seems a bit dodgy, however I can see how it can work.
To be able to select each chamber you could assign each map to their own vis group and then you can move them separately from each other.

Remember using the shortcut ctrl+M brings up the transformation menu and you can enter EXACT measurements to move your brushes. Make sure to measure the distance you want to move them first (Using it this way will keep it aligned to the grid and not base the whole chamber off some model's bounds when you are moving it).

chickenmobile wrote:
BenVlodgi wrote:

you could have just opened up the vmf in a text editor copied everything over to the other vmf that way... assuming that they wouldn't collide...

or just better about aligning your brushwork

That seems a bit dodgy, however I can see how it can work.
To be able to select each chamber you could assign each map to their own vis group and then you can move them separately from each other.

Remember using the shortcut ctrl+M brings up the transformation menu and you can enter EXACT measurements to move your brushes. Make sure to measure the distance you want to move them first (Using it this way will keep it aligned to the grid and not base the whole chamber off some model's bounds when you are moving it).

indeed there have only been rare occurances where I've wanted to do that... like when someone on my mod team detailed a map the same day I added new things aswell... copying direct vmf code keeps the entities in the exact same place which is really nice