First Plans for this shed - using squared paper was helpful. I didn't realise at the time that I had missed out the garage in the first version of this one so have now redrawn it. I liked the first working model of this shed best of all so have really just added the garage and the "bairn's nest" can go in now too! We recently went up into this loft shed and found tupperware boxes with jelly wrappers in, comics, a chair, etc, etc.
This shed will also have a roof area. In real life the second floor is only at the mill end, but for the game I have made the roof full size
The scale of this map is one square = one unit of 64. Our walls are all 3 feet thick so that is near enough. In some places I have double the wall thicknesses, this is because secrets will be incorporated into this map.
I have started the map now and have created the first two rooms on the left. The picture below shows the byre with stairs going up to second level.
As you can see, I have already changed my mind from the drawing. The drawing above shows a ladder but in the first incarnation of these sheds it was actually steps like this.
Another thing to do every time after you compile your map is to select Map, Load Pointfile. This will show you where you have any leaks. See Leaks Explained
I have created a secret door (no longer a secret!) under the stairs. These will house one of the entrances to the tunnels.
1. When I created the secret door in the wall which is blocking-in the stairs, I used the Clipping Tool to cut the wall in half. See Clipping Tutorial for using this tool. I then selected the wall part which I was going to turn into a door and pressed Ctrl + T, this opens the Objects Properties Box and you can select func_door from the Class list. Apply this setting so that the Flags are available, click the Flags tab and tick Non Solid to Player and Passable, I removed any other ticks. When I run the map now, I will be able to walk through that wall.
One of the things that causes "degenerate faces" is when the clipping tool is not used properly - I know, I have used it improperly many, many times! Degenerate faces can prove to be hard to find and it is better if you can sort them out immediately. If one of your edges does not follow a straight line then fix it right away using the Vertex Tool. See Vertex tutorial.
To know if you have degenerate faces, you have to compile your map. You will see a line in the compile log which says something like: 2 degenerate faces
Don't let the number get as big as two!! Always check to see if you have any and fix them right away.
Doing the stairs is very easy - draw the shape of one step (use
no-draw), select it by clicking on it in the 3D view, in the window
where you see it end on (2D Y/Z), hold down your shift key and drag the
new shape so that they are corner to corner, keep doing this until you
have the right amount of stairs. In this instance I used 16 * 16 *
92 for the size of my steps. Once you have created your steps you
need to think about optimising. When you are playing the game, the
Source Engine draws what you "need" to see, if it didn't your computer
would probably shut down. As a map maker you can help this process
along by using the no-draw texture in places that no-one would ever see
anyway, such as the back of stairs. This helps even more because
stairs are quite complicated for the engine to draw and so NOT having to
draw the back of them is good. So to sort this, I drew stairs in
no-draw, (see
Tool Textures and ) then drew a thin brush of no-draw to fit the back of the
stairs. Clicking twice on the shape allowed me to rotate it.
I found it very useful to have the Tools, Options, 2D Views tab, "default to 15 degree rotations" ticked for rotating.
I used the Face Edit Dialogue Box to colour/pattern the faces of the the stairs and the backing board. When I first started mapping I didn't realise that you could only paint the faces that you wanted painted, if you wanted to you could paint every face different.
Before getting too carried away it is good to read about Optimisation, it might not make a good deal of sense yet, but it is important and you will start to recognise things. See Optimization (Non-Geometry) and Optimising Page by Zombie also Hint Brushes. I haven't yet read the hint brushes, but I know they are an important part of the optimisation procedure.
I am also starting to think about using the Vis Groups. Read up on these and use them, they are invaluable. You can use them to hide whole buildings or whatever you want.
Reasons for using Vis Groups
- helps a lot in fault finding
- when you run your map you can turn off the bits you are not using to make it run faster
- it makes it much less cluttered for drawing the map as you just turn off what you don't want showing
- you can name your folders to make it easy
- add any HINT brushes to their own group
- I can add more
reasons as I find them
Bad Things About Vis Groups
- you have to remember to add to them
- you have to be careful to add to the right places
I really believe that my map will be so much better for using these Vis Groups properly.
I now have to add the rest of the building, I have created a second story for the first two rooms and added the garage area and the bairn's nest.
I have done some more work and the outline of the Big Sheds is complete. I have even started to create some of the shed furnishing such as the walkways and stairs (which are all func_detail). I still have to create the Mill Wheel area.
This is the easy bit done! I am dreading the roof and I have decided to be more realistic again, I am going to do an open roof in the long, thin part of the L shape. The slightly taller shed will have a closed in roof. I hate doing the roof, I never feel it's quite right.
I have created the first roof and I actually think it has gone right! I seem to have a nice neat top to it as well!
See Reshaping Solids and Clipping Tutorial
Still not quite lined up properly but I think this is probably enough? Am I right? Or should it be better? I used the vertex tool to pick up the edges and join them properly so that they formed a peak. I am quite wary of using this tool because I know that I sometimes get degenerate faces from using it. I am going to run the map now, before going further and see if I have any problems. The grid shown to the right is 1.
Since doing this I have deleted and re-drawn the roof. Hubby was very good and took the time to watch what I was doing and see the problems I was having, he was able to help a great deal with that. He uses CAD every day and is very good at it. Basically, when I created a solid block for the roof, and used the clipping tool to slice it, I would then hollow the brush and tell it that I wanted the thickness to be 2. Now, what we did was to make the slope of the roof an accurate 45º, then select Hollow, then in the box enter 2^.5 which is the equivalent to the Thickness = Width²+ Height², the answer is 1.4142136....... and on, so to put that in the computer we use 2^.5, this left me with roof sides where both edges of each section followed the grid.
Am I a happy bunny or what?!!
