How to Make A Map ( The Basics )

[Tipsy]

If you already know how to start hammer move on to the next section.

 

First you'll need Half-Life 2 and Steam installed to use Hammer. After you've done that you need the SDK. Start Steam then open the "Play Games" menu. Go to the bottom of the list. There should be a "Source SDK" on the list (it will not appear if HL2 is not installed). Right-click on it and click "Launch game" button on the drop-down menu. If this is the first time that you have started the SDK, you'll need to download it (it does this automatically. You won't need to download it off of a site). This will take awhile. Once it finshes, you will have the SDK. Now when you launch, it will open a window (after it finshes loading). Here you have a list of most of the tools. Right-click on Hammer (the one at the top) and click "Launch" on the drop-down menu. Now that you've started Hammer (it may take a second or two to finsh loading)you can start mapping! Please move on to the next section.

 

First things first, click on the "file" tab at the top bar, then click on new.

 

Example:

 

Once you've done that you will have a grid, camera and tools to work with,

Example:

 

Now you're probably wanting to know what those tools on the side do. Here's a description of each one (note: only the basics of mapping is covered in this tutorial, not all of the tools will be covered, but I hope to cover them in later tutorials). If you get confused later about tools, look back here.

 

The Selection Tool:

This is your selection tool. It lets you select brushes and enitiys that are in the map. When something is selected it will have a red-ish tint to verify that you have selected it. You can select multiple things at once by holding Crtl and clicking on the brushes you want.

 

The Zoom Tool:

A simple tool used to zoom in and out of the grid and view. If you have a mouse wheel you can zoom in and out with that as well.

 

Camera Tool:

This is the tool for moving around the "camera" view.

 

Entity Tool:

The Entity Tool is the one of most important tools in Hammer. It can make lights or even place starting points.

 

Brush Tool:

The most important tool in Hammer. This will let you create floors, walls, ceilings , catwalks almost anything can be made by using simple brushes. But for the more compelx shapes, you'll need models (I won't cover placing them in this tutorial, but I hope to in the future).

 

Texture App:

For applying and scaling textures. This is very useful when textures tile badly (see later in this tutorial how it's used).

 

Apply Texture:

Not to be confused with the Texture App. This will apply the texture currently selected in the texture browser (later this will be covered).

 

Apply Decal:

Some textures are "Decals". For example, if you want a bullet hole in a wall, you get the decal selected in the texture browser (using the texture browser will be covered later). Click on the "apply decal" button and click on the place you want it to be in the "camera view".

 

Apply Overlay:

A lot like a Decal. But overlays can be morphed and sized. You can place it the same way as you would a decal.

 

Clipping Tool:

A more complex tool, but it can make amazing results. I will go into this in a later tutorial.

 

Vertex Tool:

This lets you "morph" brushes. I will go into this in a later tutorial.

 

That's it for the main tools. Now let's make something. First, click on the brush tool, drag a box & press enter(the size doesn't matter much. You can change it later if you need). Move the camera so you can see your new brush. It should look something like this:

 

NOTE: To see textured brushes, go to the top bar. Then View>3D textured polygons.

 

That brick texture looks pretty ugly. Lets change it. Over on the right-side of the screen you should see this:

Click on "browse". A new window has appeared, it's the Texture Browser. Since this is a floor, we're gonna add "floor" to the filter. You'll come up with a lot of textures. So instead of just floor we'll add "metal floor" to the filter. This will narrow your search.

Double click on the texture to use it. Now to apply it. Click on the brush you want to have the texture, and press the Apply Texture button. Voila!

Now we need a ceiling. Hold shift and drag your floor brush (in the "side" grid) higher, then let go of shift.

You now have a ceiling! Now you just need some walls. Drag to make brushes like you did before, but in the "side" grid make them tall.

Then press enter. Repeat this until your map is sealed. Now find a good wall texture (doesn't really matter what you're using). Most likely you'll run into this problem:

It tiles horribly! Select the walls and press Shift+A. A new window has appeared! It's the Texture App:

Just play around with the scale and shift settings. It might take a while to get it right, but there's no need to hurry so take your time. When you finsh it should look something like this:

Doesn't that look a lot better? Your map is almost ready. Now you need to place a starting point so the game knows where you start. Click on the Entity Tool. You won't need to select which entity you want right now. It starts out with a info_player_start entity so all you'll need to do is place the entity. On the grid click on where you want it to be. Here's an example:

Press enter and a little green man will appear. Make sure that he's not going through the ground. I recommend making him float a little to be sure. Note that other source games such as Counter-Stirke: Source or Day of Defeat: Source use custom spawn points. Like into_player_terrorist and info_player_counterterrorist.

Now for the last thing, you'll want to add some lighting. Click on the entity tool. Over at the right you'll see this

From the drop-down list choose light. Place a few like you did with starting point. When you've finshed adding the lights it should look like this:

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4542/placedlights2ao.jpg

Notice that I'm not placing the light entitiy on the ground, but i'm making them float just a little bit. This makes it a litte less intensely bright making it look a bit better. Now you need to save and compile the map. Press "file" at the top bar. Then click save

Don't put spaces in the file name use _ or just don't use spaces. Now you're to the last part. Click on the "file" menu again then "Run Map" a new window will appear:

Set everything to "normal" and turn off "don't run the game after compiling" if it's on. Press ok. The compile window will appear:

Once finshed it will automatically run the game. The final product will look something like this:

Congrats! you've made your very first level! it's not that pretty, but this tutorial is not for making the coolest looking map in the world. It's for beginners that want to map but just don't know how.

Go to the next page for some handy keyboard tricks.

 

[page=Keyboard tricks & wrap up]

Here's a list of every keyboard trick out there:

 

Tools:

 

Shift+S - Pointer Tool

Shift+G - Magnify Tool

Shift+C - Camera Tool

Shift+E - Entity Tool

Shift+B - Block Tool

Shift+A - Texture Application Tool

Shift+T - Apply Current Texture

Shift+D - Decal Tool

Shift+O - Overlay Tool

Shift+X - Clipping Tool

Shift+V - Vertex Edit Tool

 

File Operations:

 

Ctrl+N – Create a new file.

Ctrl+O – Open an existing file.

Ctrl+S – Save the current file.

Alt+B – Export again.

F9 – Run/Compile Map.

Ctrl+Shift+S – Open Sound Browser.

 

Undo/Redo:

 

Ctrl+Z – Undo.

Ctrl+Y – Redo.

 

Clipboard/Selection:

 

Ctrl+C – Copy objects to clipboard (also Ctrl+Insert).

Ctrl+V – Paste objects from clipboard (also Shift+Insert).

Ctrl+X – Cut objects to clipboard (also Shift+del).

Shift+Q or Esc – Clear current selections.

PgUp – Previous selection in "hit" list.

PgDn – Next selection in "hit" list .

Alt+Enter – Open up Object Properties for the currently selected objects.

 

Grid:

 

[ – Decrease the size of the grid.

] – Increase the size of the grid.

Shift+R – Toggle grid on/off.

Shift+W – Toggle snap to grid.

P – Toggle 3D grid on and off (with mouse cursor in 3D view).

 

Grouping:

 

Ctrl+G – Group selected objects.

Ctrl+U – Ungroup selected groups.

Ctrl+R – Create prefab with selected objects.

Ctrl+T – Tie to entity. Creates an entity with selected objects, or adds objects to an existing entity if one is also selected.

Ctrl+W – Toggle Ignore Groups mode to bypass entity and group selection.

Ctrl+Shift+W – Move selected solid entities to world.

 

Carving/Hollowing:

 

Ctrl+Shift+C - Carve selected objects.

Ctrl+H - Hollow selected objects.

Viewports

Ctrl+A – Auto-size 4 views to center.

Shift+Z – Maximize/restore current viewport.

Arrow keys – Nudge the current selection in the current 2D or 3D viewport.

Shift+Arrow keys – Clone the current selection and nudge it the current 2D or 3D viewport.

F6 – Cycles to the next active viewport.

F6 – Cycles to the previous active viewport.

 

2D Views:

 

Ctrl+I – Flip selected objects vertically.

Ctrl+L – Flip selected objects horizontally.

Ctrl+B – Snap selected objects to grid (based on bounding box).

Ctrl+Shift+B – Snap selected objects to grid (individually).

Tab – Switch view types (top/side/front).

+/- – Zoom in/out (hold Ctrl to synchronize all 2D views).

Mouse Wheel – Zoom in/out (hold Ctrl to synchronize all 2D views).

1 to 9 – Preset zoom levels.

Space – Hold space and left mouse button to drag view position.

Alt – Disable snap to grid while dragging with the mouse.

Ctrl+E – Center 2D Views on currently selected objects.

Mouse Wheel – Zoom in/out (hold Ctrl to synchronize all 2D views).

 

3D View:

 

Space - While holding the spacebar:

Holding the left mouse button allows you to rotate your angle of view in any direction, while the viewing point remains stationary.

Holding the right mouse button will allow you to move left, right, up, and down while keeping the viewing angle constant.

Space+Shift - While holding the spacebar and Shift:

The left mouse button acts the same as above.

The right mouse button allows you to move forward and backward, as well as from side to side.

Mouse Wheel – Zoom in/out.

W – Move camera forward.

S – Move camera backward.

A – Move camera (strafe) left.

D – Move camera (strafe) right.

z – Toggles 3D view "noclip" navigation mode.

P – Toggle 3D grid on and off (with mouse cursor in 3D view).

O – Display frames per second and yaw/pitch of camera (with mouse cursor in 3D view).

1 – Decrease far clipping plane.

2 – Increase far clipping plane.

Ctrl+Shift+E – Center 3D View on selection.

 

Selection Tool:

 

Ctrl – Hold Ctrl and click to select multiple objects.

Shift – Hold Shift when rotating to constrain rotation to 15 degrees; hold Shift when moving an object to create a copy (clone) of that object.

Left mouse – Click and drag left mouse button to select with a box; press Enter to select objects hitting the box, or press Shift+Enter to select objects only entirely within the box.

Esc – Cancel current selection

 

Camera Tool:

 

Shift or Alt – Hold Shift or Alt and click and drag left mouse button to create a new camera.

PgUp – Cycle to the previous camera position.

PgDn – Cycle to the next camera position.

Delete – Delete the current camera position.

Ctrl – Hold Ctrl and drag a camera or its point of interest to move both together.

 

Block Tool:

 

Left Mouse – Click and drag left mouse to draw a new brush shape.

Enter – Create object drawn with block/entity tool.

Esc – Delete object drawn with block/entity tool without creating it.

Alt+Shift+C – Insert original prefab.

 

Texture Application Tool:

 

Ctrl – Hold Ctrl and click to select multiple faces.

Shift – Hold Shift and click a face to select all faces on the brush.

Shift+Ctrl – Hold Shift and Ctrl, click a face to add all faces on the brush to the current selection.

Right-click – Apply the current material settings to the face that is clicked.

Alt+Right-click – Apply the current material settings to the face that is clicked, with wrapping.

Displacement Editing Tool, Select Mode

Ctrl – Hold Ctrl and click to select multiple faces.

Shift – Hold Shift and click a face to select all faces on the brush.

Shift+Ctrl – Hold Shift and Ctrl, click a face to add all faces on the brush to the current selection.

Displacement Editing Tool, Paint Geometry Mode

Ctrl – Hold Ctrl and click to select multiple faces.

Alt – hold Alt and drag to alter the size of the spatial editing brush.

Shift – hold Shift and drag a vertex to nudge the vertex along the editing axis.

Alt+Right-click – Click any brush or displacement face to make that face’s normal the current painting axis.

Displacement Editing Tool, Paint Alpha mode

Ctrl – Hold Ctrl and click to select multiple faces.

Shift+Ctrl – Hold Shift and Ctrl, click a face to add all faces on the brush to the current selection.

 

Overlay Tool:

 

Shift – Hold Shift and drag a overlay vertex to snap it to another vertex.

Ctrl – hold Ctrl and click to select multiple overlays.

Clipper Tool

Left mouse– Click and drag left mouse to create a new clip plane.

Shift – Hold Shift and drag with the left mouse button to create a new clip plane without performing the previous clip.

Enter – Perform clip

Ctrl – hold Ctrl and drag with the left mouse button to move both handles of the clipping plane.

O – Toggle clip distance display on and off (with mouse cursor in 2D view).

Shift+X – Cycle through clip modes.

Vertex Edit Tool

Ctrl+F – Split faces (vertex manipulation) – must have two edges or vertices selected.

Alt+E – Open Vertex Scaling dialog.

Enter – Close Vertex Scaling dialog and perform scale.

Shift+V – Cycle vertex/edge display modes.

 

Miscellaneous:

 

Shift+L – Toggle Texture lock.

Ctrl+M – Open Transform dialog.

Alt+P – Open Check for Problems dialog.

Esc – Abort current tool/mouse operation (drag/drop) or clear current selection.

Ctrl+Shift+G – Go to Brush Number dialog.

Ctrl+Shift+F – Open Find Entities dialog.

Ctrl+Shift+R – Open Replace Entities dialog.

 

Any Other Questions Contact Me

[Protomega]

This brings me back to the days of mapping... I miss them but they took up so much time.

[Reaper]

Sounds cool. I might look into it on my spare time (which atm does not say much).

[Rick]

wow this is a nice guide. i might give it a try ;p who knows

[Bob the Android Penguin]

Nice work! If you have time would you please please make another tutorial that goes into the more advanced stuff?

[Tipsy]

Yeah sure i can do lighting tutorials and private tutorials if you guys want to learn 1 on 1 well teamviewer it or what not

[msaber]

I think this deserves to be a sticky.

[Cr(+)sshair]

I think this deserves to be a sticky.

 

It also deserves a source.

 

http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/beginners-guide-to-valve-hammer-editor

[Tipsy]

Yeap

[Tommo]

It also deserves a source.

 

http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/beginners-guide-to-valve-hammer-editor

 

You are good at tracking stuff.. no shit.

 

Like with lollipop and stuff. that made me lulz.

Edited January 28, 2011 by Tommo

[-O-P-rime]

after viewing the source given i only have this to say.

 

son, i am disappoint

[Tipsy]

How i never took credit? I not once put my name or changed anything in this tutorial that i have posted here yes i copy and pasted it how am i wrong for giving the knowledge people want to them without them asking?

[-O-P-rime]

How i never took credit? I not once put my name or changed anything in this tutorial that i have posted here yes i copy and pasted it how am i wrong for giving the knowledge people want to them without them asking?

because its also plagiarism if you do not cite where you got the tutorial

[Tipsy]

True i should have done that your right

[SovietWaffles]

coolio tipsy gonna try this out

[Delink]

nice! but i dont have HL2 on my acc and i dont really wanna buy it... *sadface*

[Protomega]

You don't need Half-Life to run it, they only give you the models used in Half-Life, so when I make my maps for TF2 I only really need TF2.

 

Edit: Can you place scripts in your map or does that have to be done by the server?

[Delink]

so if i wanna make maps for css i only need css?

[Protomega]

Correct, the only requirements are that you have some sort of source powered game installed. The reason is because the Source SDK looks at things called game cache files (GCFs) which contain models, textures, sounds, maps, etc. Everything you see in game is mainly in the designated game's GCF. I could be incorrect in my assumptions here but here is what I believe happens when you use a custom background for CS:S.

 

The game checks first for the destination (that is already preset in the games code) of where the custom background should be, if it is not there it will take and go into the GCF and grab the default one, else (If the file really is there) it will load that file instead of the one found in the GCF. Needless to say there are two ways of getting rid of a custom background then:

 

1. Delete the folder/specific file

2. Overwrite the folder/specific file with the one in the GCF

 

This is all assumption though.

[eod]

I also have a lot of experience mapping. I have been doing it since 1998 when half-life 1 was released. I have made maps for many games. I am very comfortable with various editors like Hammer for Source/HL2 engine, radiant/qeradiant/netradiant/gtkradiant for Q2 and Q3 engine games, and the editor for F.E.A.R.

Several of my SoF2 and HL1 maps were made specifically for league or ladder, competitive gaming sites like CAL, TWL, and more. I enjoy making fun maps more than the league maps.

 

examples of my work can be found here and combined efforts can be found here on my buddies page. We have made several maps and together. My mapping name is twitch.

 

I would also be happy to help out those who are interested in making maps and make maps for hallgamers clan servers as well. Doesn't matter if its css, l4d, l4d2, dods, etc. I will post another thread about that.

[Protomega]

I use to play on Crossfire.. Wasn't allowed to play with everyone last year in the LAN party because I never died.

[Tipsy]

Well i asked staff about a mapping team and they said start a forum so proto do you want to start this topic in dev section of course but we try to get a group of mappers that can map let them show there work and what there minds can behold sound good?

[Monkeyman]

I can map but i suck a** so yaaa haha

[l4d2bob]

Great Tut, I never knew how to use Source SDk xD

[eod]

there is definitely more to it... especially optimizing but it is a great start. Once you know your way around the editor, it makes things a lot easier. The interesting part is playing with complex entities and using advanced options during compile to tweak lighting, shadows, etc.