[Tutorial] Creating Maps: Part 1 - Editor Setup

watch · Posted: Sun 07 Mar, 2010 7:17 pm, 7 months ago

Valve Hammer Editor

Installation

Download and install Valve Hammer Editor 3.4

Download the Valve Hammer Editor 3.5 Patch and extract the hammer.exe contained into the directory you installed Valve Hammer Editor, overwriting the original e.g. C:\Program Files\Valve Hammer Editor\. Note: Valve Hammer Editor must be closed for this to work

Configuration

Load Valve Hammer Editor, you should be greeted with this message if this is the first time you've run it:

The help file contains some good information on the tools and general map editing, but read it after you have read this tutorial since we are using a different method to compile. You can bring this help up again in the future by clicking on Help Topics in the Help menu.

Once you close the popup above, the Options dialog should appear. Else click Tools and select Options.

Switch to the Game Configurations tab and click Edit to add a new game configuration

Click Add and give your new game configuration a name

Since I am setting hammer up for team fortress classic, I'm going to call mine TFC.

Next I am going to add a .fgd file. This is simply a plaintext file that defines the entities and the keys availiable in the game. Click Add

The fgd for TFC is included in the hammer installer, simply browse to the directory you installed Valve Hammer Editor and then select the tf15f.fgd inside the fgd folder i.e. C:\Program Files\Valve Hammer Editor\fgd\team fortress classic\tf15f.fgd

This is personal preference, but I set Default PointEntity class to info_tfdetect since this is an entity every TFC map should contain and is usually one of the first entities placed. Default PSolidEntity class I set to func_wall as it is commonly used when optimizing maps.

The rest of the settings on this and the Build Programs tab can be ignored as they relate to compiling within the editor and we are going to use a Nem's Batch Compiler.

The Textures tab must contain at least 1 entry before you can begin mapping. Textures are stored in WAD files, a good start is to extract some of the offical textures from the Steam GCF files. Read this tutorial for more information

To add a texture simply click Add WAD and select the WAD file you wish to add

Note: Adding a lot of textures will result in hammer just closing itself with no warning.

The General, 2D Views and 3D Views tab can be left with default settings, although I personally prefer to change the 3D background colour to bright green to make leaks more visible.

Done! Click New under the File menu and begin mapping

Tip: You may want to enable Texture Lock to begin with by clicking the button shown below on the main toolbar. If enabled, textures will move with the brush and you will not have to re-align them every time

Tip: Save often, hammer can be pretty shaky

watch · Posted: Sun 07 Mar, 2010 7:17 pm, 7 months ago

I am ~80% through the Part 2 tutorial on compiling, will post it in the next couple of days

There will be tutorials on TFC mapping soon. A good starter tutorial for now is http://twhl.co.za/tutorial.php?id=23 or the hammer help file

Hopeapullaaaa · Posted: Thu 11 Mar, 2010 4:21 pm, 7 months ago

Awesome. But

craterboy · Posted: Thu 11 Mar, 2010 11:06 pm, 7 months ago

[crater's experience]
Well with Nem's Batch Compiler, I could easily select those options in a nice
interface. If I only used ZLHT and hammer built in compiler, I need to write those parameters down in compile options and I have no clue what those parameters does.

watch · Posted: Fri 12 Mar, 2010 12:11 pm, 7 months ago

First day I've actually been free since monday, will finish off part 2 and post it today. The compiling tutorial uses both ZHLT with Nem's to compile, as a starter mapper it's better because you can change change compile options with ease

The compile tools are command line tools, to run them on their own you would open the command line and type the switches and arguments for each compile stage manually. http://zhlt.info/command-reference.html

Nem's Batch Compiler simply provides an interface to generate and run a bat file to compile you map automatically. Compiling with hammer works in a similar way, but the compile output window freezes and becomes unreadable until it next updates if you minimize it, which is fraustrating on long compiles.

ZHLT simply replace the offical compile tools and provide many improvements, such as better error output, skybox clipping, special textures to help optimize your map and more.

Bolleh · Posted: Fri 16 Jul, 2010 11:38 am, 3 months ago

Download links are broken Crying or Very sad

pizzahut · Posted: Wed 11 Aug, 2010 2:44 pm, 4 weeks ago

leandros · Posted: Wed 11 Aug, 2010 2:59 pm, 4 weeks ago

Download links are fixed because the wait was just getting RIGODDAMNDICULOUS!