Lesson 5 - displacements - the entity report - player clip

In this lesson we will learn displacements, the entity report, player clip

If this is your first visit to this sight you should start at the beginning.



First, I copied and pasted the doorway. (See p1) then I double-clicked on it, and on the properties dialog box, Select "World Model", select browse, then type "sandbag".



I used
"models/props_fortifications/sandbags_line1_tall.mdl". Click OK. Then click on "collisions", change the pull down menu from "not solid" to "use vPhysics" Click apply. (See p2)


Use select /copy method, and drag/copy them all the way across like in the example. (See p3)

Use your texture tool, and select the nodraw texture. Click the block tool, and draw a brush all the way across the top of the sandbags, just like in my example. (See p4)

Make the brush as long as it needs to be, so that it touches the wall and the house. Make it about six units thick and at least 89 units high from the top of the sandbags. (See p5)

Select the new brush, and from the top view viewport we are going to cut the middle section, about the length of one sandbag. (See p7)
Use two slices to slice the brush into three sections, keeping all sections. (see p6)

Click the texture tool, type fence look for the texture called wood/woodfence001. Apply the texture to the brush. See how the texture did not lineup? (See p8)


Sometimes you can get away with hitting the fit button, to line things up quickly. This doesn't always work. You have to use your judgment. Click on it. (See p9) if it looks OK then texture the rest the fence. If it doesn't look OK, use ctrl-z to undo. And line it up the old-fashioned way.

Be sure and texture both sides. (see p10) select the middle part of the fence and hit Ctrl-m to bring up the transform dialog box. We are going to rotate this brush on the Y-axis.

In the Transform dialog box type 110 in the Y-axis box, press OK. (See p11)

Move the brush, line up the lip of the brush to the top of the sandbag. And paint the newly exposed nodraw textures (See p12)
don't worry if that brush doesn't touch the ground. Trust me.

Displacements

Draw a huge brush like in my example. Notice how high it is. It comes up to the windowsill. (See p13)
I want to show you a method of selecting a new texture without having to go through the texture dialog box. This speeds up texturing your map, because you can use textures that are already in your map. Also if you need things to match, there is no easier way.
Here it is.
Select the texture tool.
Left click on the texture you want. (we want the grass for this example)
Then right click where you want to apply the selected texture. (see p14 & p15).
Simple as that.
To turn this brush into a Displacement, click on the displacement tab. (see p16)

Under tools it says select. That's for you to select the brush face that you wish to turn into a displacement.
So select the top face of our new brush.


On the displacement tab, press create, press OK. (see p17)



You just created your first displacement. (see p18)

You just want to make sure you select the top face and not the rest of the sides. Hammer will create a displacement out of the sides selected, and will delete the rest of the sides.

Displacements are used in Hammer to create natural looking terrain. It can be used to create hills, Grasslands, cliffs, and caves. Displacements cannot be used to seal your map. Displacements also allow grass to grow with some textures.

To edit displacements, you use the texture tool/displacement tab (see p19)
Paint geometry:
This button allows you to move the displacement up-and-down or back and forth.
(I will explain in detail what all this stuff does later on in the blog. Right now I want to teach you what you need to know so that we can finish this map.)
set your settings like i did below my example in p20. (See p20)

Distance = 9
radius = 116

This means that it will move our displacement up-and-down nine units and the radius, is the amount of space that it will grab and move.



One mouse button moves the displacement down. The other mouse button moves the displacement up. Push the displacement down, in a manner that clears a path from the door to the ramp. Leave the displacements high where they touch the wall, the house, and the sandbags. But push it down where the spawn exit is. Until it looks something like my example. (see p21)



See how I cleared the displacement out from in front of the doorway. You have to at least do that. And notice how bumpy and pointy everything is? We can smooth out those peaks, by selecting smooth in the effects field. (see p22) it is also a good idea to increase the radius when smoothing.

Close that dialog box. Click the "invert alpha."(see p23) Alpha channels allow you to control the look of the textures on a displacement. You can use the alpha tool to create a road or path. Textures with "Blend" in their name have alpha channels in them. And they only work on displacements.

Select the paint alpha button.(see p24) use your mouse buttons to paint the alpha channels the way you want to. I made a path from the door to the sandbag exit.


It looks more natural now.(see p25)



Copy and paste one of the sandbags into the opening in the fence, (See p26) double-click the sandbag, goto properties, go to world model, click browse, type hedge look for "models/props_foliage/hedge_256_128high" select that one, click ok, click apply goto collisions, set the pull down menu to "Not Solid" and click apply. Move it around and line it up until it looks like the example. (see p27)


I want to show you how easy it is to add rooms to existing houses. So let's add a room to the bigger house.



We are going to add a room to the house circled in red in my example.(see p28)



From the inside, facing the window that exits toward spawn. We are going to create a dividing wall. Select the texture tool, click browse, type tools, select the nodraw texture. From the center of the back wall, create a brush out to about half the rooms length. (See p29 )

Texture the wall using the quick select method.(select the texture tool, left click to select the texture you want to use, right click to apply that texture.) Make a copy of the wall we just created, using the drag shift method(select the wall from the TopView viewport, hold down the shift key drag the wall to the position you want, released a mouse button before you released the shift key.) rotate the wall 90 degrees using the transform dialog box, press Ctrl-m to activate the transform dialog box.



Type 90 in the Z: text field, click OK. (see p30)



From the TopView viewport, move the brush to line it up, and use the grips to shrink it to fit. Copy the front door and paste it where we want to cut the door. Cut the door. And double-click on the doorway model, select "world model", click "browse", type "door" in the filter, look for models/props_doors/doorway16_wood.mdl. Select it, click OK, click apply. (See p31)

This room needs a ceiling. You can put a ceiling across the whole room if you want. But in this case I am just going to put a roof over this little room. Select the wall that does not have the doorway cut in it. Slice that wall near the top. About the same thickness of the wall, or if you are using the same texture as I am, slice it just under where the wood at the top ends. This time just select the top part and slice it the same thickness as the wall with the doorway in it. Select the longer piece and drag it across the top part to create our ceiling. (see p32)


Check it out. Listen to Free Music Music room Download mp3s


Apply a texture to the top, and apply a texture to the inside.(see p33). Then copy and paste the light and the light model into the new room.


Now we are going to learn about the clip and the player clip. These are special brushes that are used to prevent a player from getting into areas of the map that you do not want them to. We want to keep these players from getting on the outside roof of this building. Fly to the outside in the camera view.



Select the texture tool, click browse, type tools, select player clip.(the clip texture, and the player clip texture do the same thing. They both block player movement and are invisible in the game.) with the player clip texture selected we are going to draw a brush on top of the roof. Slice that brush in half using the centerline of the roof as a guide. Select one side of the brush, and trim it along the roofline. Then do the same thing to the other side. Now nobody will be able to get on this roof. (See p34)



The clip and player clip can also be used to help a players movement in the game. Let's do an example. Let's go into the house that does not have the clip on the roof. Say for instance you want the players to be able to run out through this window without having to jump. We can use the player clip and create an invisible step to give the player a boost. This time select the clip texture. And draw a little step about 8 units high for the first step and 16 units high for the second step, and place it in front of the window. And that's how that works. (See p35)



They don't have to be the same length as normal stairs, I squished mine down to 12 units. (See p36)



Final for this lesson, I would like to teach you about the entity report. The entity report lists everything in your map. It can be useful to find things. To access the entity report, click on the Map pull down menu. Select entity report. In the dialog box you can see all the entities that you placed in your map. (see p37) let's say you wanted to find your spawn, all you would have to do is look on the list. And if you double-click on what you're looking for (info_player_allies) you can zoom to that object in the map. You can also delete entities through this dialog box by selecting them and clicking the delete button. This dialog box will come in handy later.

That is all for now.

Goto Lesson 6

Lesson 4

"prop_physics" "copy and paste" "Make a House"

Welcome back, glad to see you are still interested.
I like the way the top of that wall came out. So I sliced the bottom also. I made the bottom and the top of the wall match.



A prop_physics is very similar to a prop_static. The difference is a prop_physics can be moved and or broken. A prop_static cannot be moved or broken. Examples of prop_physics are, wooden crates, wooden barrels, tables and chairs, pots and pans etc. etc.

To place a new prop_physics into your map, We use the Entity Tool. ( see p1 ) So we're going to select the Entity Tool, Then Select Prop_Physics from the Objects Pulldown Menu. ( see p2)

Now click in the camera view, ( see p3 ) use the top viewport so you can place it right where I placed mine. Notice how I lined it up with the spawn (see p4).



(the white dotted line I drew, for demonstration, it's not in hammer).


Zoom into the prop_physics in your Camera View viewport. (see p5)



Double-click on the prop_physics. In the objects properties dialog box select world model, then click browse. (see p6)

On the model browser, type "crate" in the filter. Then click on one of the names. Then you can use the up and down arrows on your keyboard. Scroll down to props_junk\wood_crate001a.mdl, select it then click OK. (see p7)

Then on the remaining dialog box, click apply (see p8).



See how our model is stuck half-way in the ground. (see p9). All we have to do is hit ctrl-x, place the mouse about where we want the crate. Press ctrl-v. That places our model right on the ground. The cool thing about cut and paste is that once we have one model, all we have to do is paste. Place another box right next to that one. Just hit ctrl-v. (see p10)



You can take a break it right now if you want, and compile the map to check it out. If not, let's continue.



Select the texture tool. Click browse. Type tools in the filter. Double-click on the nodraw texture. Click the block tool. Go to the top viewport and Draw a brush 252x296. Then go to the side view viewport. And make it 175 high. (see p11)



Using the shift and drag method. Make a copy and place it on the other side. (see p12)

Select the objects that you want to copy.
Hold down the shift key, drag it to where you want it. Let go of the mouse button before you let go of the shift button.
Stretch the new brush out to 430 (see p13)



Now go create a brush that we are going to use as a measure. So drag a third brush as I did in the example (see p14). Then use the grips and make it smaller about the same size as the crates.(see p14b) Go to the side view viewport, and drag it down to 24. We're going to make houses out of these two brushes and we're going to use the little brush so that we can carve the big brushes at 24 units high.



In the front view zoom in. (see p15). From the camera view, use the select tool and select the two large brushes. Select the Carve Tool. From the front view, draw your carve line across the top of the 24 unit high box. It enter to carve. (keep both sides)



Now move that box next to the large brush, like in the sample. (see p16) zoom in and make sure it's lined up.

Then shrink it down to 12x 72 from the top viewport. (see p17).



Select the large brush on the right. We need to make this brush hollow.(see p18) Click ctrl-h. This time are going to make the walls 16 units thick. Type 16 into the dialog box. Click OK.



Go inside the new brush, (see p19) click the "ignore groups" button, select the floor, hit delete, go back outside.



That piece that we deleted was an extra piece. We didn't need it. So we deleted it, and that gives us more room on the inside. Now I'm going to put textures on the outside, DOD style. Go to the texture tool, click browse, type brick. Select the white brick texture, called brick/brickwall002. (see p20)



Apply that texture to the bottom part,( see p21 ) all the way around. While we have that texture active we might as well go ahead and do the other one also. You don't have to put the a texture on the side that is right up against the wall on the larger block.

Select the texture tool again. Click browse. Type wood. Scroll down and look for the texture called wood/wood_halftimber003. Double-click on it. And apply that texture to all the sides.(see p22) notice this texture needs to be adjusted. It is not lined up in a way that makes it look realistic.



Open the texture dialog box up. Select the texture you want to adjust. Remember you have to hold ctrl to select more than 1. Select the entire front face.(see p23) we will use the X and Y textfield, under Texture Shift. Do not touch those buttons under texture scale. The X button slides the texture forward and backward.



The Y button slides the textures up and down. Slide that texture over until it looks similar to mine. (see p24) after getting them centered on the x-axis.
We need to select all the sides and them up on the "y axis" (see p25)



Now we are going to do the roof. Select the roof. Change the height from 16 to 6. (see p26) Select the Carve Tool.




Carve the roof right down the center. Keep both sides. Select one side of the roof.


Go to the front view viewport, and click on it again until we get to the grips that allow us to slide. (see p27) Slide the roof up, from the middle, pay attention to the camera view.(see p28)




Do the other side of the roof. (see p29) Go to the camera view, select the two walls that have the opening above them.(see p30)




Drag them up flush with the peak of the roof.(see p31) then go to the front view in carve off the extra pieces. This time no need to keep both sides. You can let the top part be deleted.(see p32) cut the other side also. Remember you have to hit the select tool after your first cut, before you can make your second cut. Now that the roof is cut, go to the texture tool, click browse type roof. Select model/props_exteriors/roof, and apply to all the nodraw surfaces on the roof. (see p33) Do not worry about the inside yet.




Now select and zoom in on a little block that we put next to this house. (see p34) we are going to turn this block into stairs. To do this will work from the top viewport, and we will keep track of what we're doing in the camera viewport.

We want to drag/copy the block. Steps in DOD are usually about 8 units high. Remember this block is 24 units high. A divided by 24 = 3. So we are to going need three steps. The first block is already there. Copy 2 more. (see p35).



Now all we have to do is drag the steps down. Quite simple, drag the first one to 8, drag the second one to 16. And the last one you do not have to do anything because it's already at 24. (see p36)

To Texture the stairs we're going to try something different. Select all three steps with the select tool. Then click the texture tool. Click browse. Type conc. That is short for concrete. Then select a concrete texture. You can take anyone. I use the smooth one without much lines on it. Once you pick your texture , then click apply, on the texture dialog box. It paints all the sides at once. You can only do that when the textures we are applying, do not have to be lined up.



Now I copied one of the doorways from spawn.(I selected it, then I pressed ctrl-c, to copy) and I pasted it on the top step.(ctrl-v) But the spawn doorway is not facing the same way as our doorway. So we have to rotate the model. So here is one of those shortcuts that you need to remember. Hit ctrl-m. It brings up to transform dialog box. In this box you can rotate, scale, and move brushes. At this time we want to rotate. So we make sure that the button for rotate his pressed. And then we type how far we want to rotate on the z-axis. And we want to rotate 90 degrees. Type 90 next to the Z. Click OK (see p37)

Line up the doorway from the Top View viewport. Like we did when we created the spawn exit. Let just a tiny bit stick out of the wall. Select the wall and the doorway. Slice it from the TopView viewport, close to the edge of the model.(see p38)(Don't slice all the walls just the one we need to.) after you make the vertical slices, back to the select tool, select the doorway and the wall blocking the doorway. (see p39)

Then make your horizontal slice, close to the top of the doorway model just like in the example. After that, all we have to do is click on the part of the wall that is blocking the doorway, and use the grips to drag it down all the way.(see p40)

Now select a wood texture. And texture the floor of the house use "wood/woodfloor007a"


then select another wood texture, for the ceiling use wood/woodwall004b, texture the ceiling. (see p41)

For the inside walls use wood/wood_halftimber005 (apply it to the inside, you may need to line them up.)



Copy the light and the light model from spawn. And paste it in your house.(see p42) now we have light we need to add Windows.



I copied the doorway and pasted it to the back wall. Double-click on it, go to "world model", go to browse, type "window" in filter.
Look for "props_windows\inset_windowframe_large2_broken.mdl" Select it, click OK, click apply. (see p43) move the model into the wall. Make room for two of them, so put it to one side. Copy the model and slide it over.



Cut the opening for the window the same way that you cut the opening for the door. Cut the vertical cuts first then select the new piece that was cut, because you dont want to cut everything, this time there will be two horizontal cuts.(see p44) and instead of dragging the middle piece down, we just delete it. You can do the same thing for the second window. But I just changed the model to "props_windows\inset_windowframe_large2_shuttered.mdl" to make it look like that window was closed (if you choose to do that also, do not forget to put one inside or it will look weird) add windows on the sides, and you are finished with that house.

Do the same thing with the other house. Make it hollow. Delete the extra floor piece. Squeeze the roof part down from 16 to 6.
All right here is the different part.



After you drag the roof piece down to 6, You need to expand the roof in the "top viewport", to give your house a more realistic roof overhang.(see p45) Now you are ready to cut the roof.

Cut this one at a 90 degree angle from your last roof (see p46) this would give your map a more realistic look. Finish making the roof the same way you did the first one.



Put your windows and doors like I did in my example (see p47) and in this view I removed the roof, so you can see where the door and the windows are.(see p48) dont forget to copy and paste stairs and don't forget to put a light inside.



You did great! After you finish your map, run it and check it out.

Save this map for the next lesson.

GOTO Next Lesson