I thought it would be nice to have all mapping tips and tutorials reside in one thread. For things to make sense in a larger perspective as well as be easier to find.
here goes...
Mapping Layout design - Optimization and Philosophy
Foreword
- This article deals with geometry, architecture and design. Not strategy planning or balancing the map’s choke points. Not weapon layout or any concepts in the gameplay sense. For this, read Cynips learned article here
http://www.hl2dm-university.com/forum/p ... f=5&t=1397
In any instance a phrase like “successful map” appear herein – it refers to the geometry design and optimization aspects only and not the complete product.
- The use of the term “Choke” and “Choke point” does not refer to the net related Choke value showing in net_graph but to a busy spot or area in a map. In game.
- The views brought herein are personal. The facts brought herein are unquestionable. Make up your own philosophy as you will but learn the facts.
-- Architecture Philosophy --
I’m starting with that because I think philosophy, or the lack of, is the one thing that follows through every stage and is revealed in every aspect down to the finish map. Philosophy, in general, is the “Sweet spot” and the most powerful aspect in any art form or creative work.
Mapping is first and foremost architecture. Before adding any weapons, elevators, explosions you obviously start with at least some brushwork = Mapping is first and foremost architecture.
Successful architecture makes sense, is functional and makes you feel / sense something.
Some successful maps out there many find ugly or boring, however still you’ll find in those maps elements that meets these three points: they make sense, the design follows a function and they evoke feelings. And it’s irrelevant which feelings.
Looking at real life architecture (on the internet or in reality) helps a lot in understanding how architecture works. Looking at actual buildings, wrecked buildings or under construction …etc. it priceless. To name a few elements:
Floor thickness, wall thickness, the use of supporting pillars in buildings, architectural ornamentation, scale in general.
A misunderstood epigram says: “Even though something looks good on paper it doesn’t mean it will work in reality”. True! But anything that looks good in reality also looks good on paper. So it leaves us with the same equation –
It has to look good on paper! LOL. Paper in our case is Hammer.
Look at your work from a real life standing point and think – could this work in real life? Could this be a real building / corridor / hall / room / courtyard / basement / younameit…?
What is mapping?
Mapping is creating a virtual, 3D instrumentation of images and commands to attempt and represented “Real Life”. It is part of a “Universe” and this “Universe” has “Rules”.
Those “rules” range from Gravity to Friction to Magnetism and through lighting and numerous rules and properties from the computer graphics world. That is to mention the basics. One of those basic rules we will be talking about here is Mathematic based on the Power Of Two. Read about it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_two
Source is built, as are computers in general, on calculations of Power Of Two. This is if you would, how computers “Think”. And so…out the windows goes ..well basically…all True geometry. You will find that true geometrical shapes like Diamond, Pentangle, Octagon or Hexagram are impossible to produce in Hammer and can only be faked.
There are many aspects of these restrictions that you will come across and one of the concern of this article is how to marry the Power Of Two unavoidable restrictions with Real Life Architecture.
-- Hammer Applications --
Let’s learn a bit about the different programs used to build your map. While reading the following articles you may notice how level design and Optimization go hand in hand and cannot be separated.
VBSP (From:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VBSP)
A compiling tool that creates the BSP (Binary Space Partition) file that will be your map. Can be run by itself to create a (test) map, but the additional use of the other two tools (vvis and vrad) is recommended for release maps.
Vbsp also places Detail Props on appropriate surfaces in a map.
There are various command-line options that can be used in combination with expert compile mode, a batch file, or directly at a Windows command prompt. For a complete list, envoke %sourcesdk%\bin\vbsp.exe at the command prompt, with no other parameters.
VVIS (From:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vvis)
A compiling tool that sets the portals on your map. It determines what must be rendered in a certain area (the PVS), allowing the game to ignore parts of the map, speeding up rendering.
Read:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Visleafs
Even large maps can have Vis times reduced to a minute or two depending on your optimizations.
Read :
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... pile_Times
VRAD (From:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VRAD)
VRAD is the compile tool that generates a map's lightmaps and per-leaf ambient lighting. It gives parts of the map, called patches, a certain amount of brightness depending on how much light it calculates it should receive.
VRAD is the generally the slowest of the three compilers due to the many, many calculations it must perform. Map optimization can reduce the speed of this tool somewhat; especially reducing the number of unique names given to lights (which reduces the number of dynamic light combinations for which radiosity must be calculated).
If you are watching the compile dialog and it looks like it has hung at 9... this is usually because Vrad takes longer with each light bounce calculation. Be patient.
-- Design and Optimization –
Design
There are arguably two types of mappers: The Visionary and the Blind Jazz man.
The Visionary gets a pen and paper and throws a few lines and gets a basic layout of his map. Or, simply has a strong mental picture of his map. The Blind Jazz man is free flying: playing with brushes. Moving, stretching, cutting, copy-pastin and basically “lets the pen go where it may”. Either method you map by you might want to keep a few philosophy driven notes in mind:
1) Most importantly - THINK ! THINK ! THINK ! Think BEFORE you start working. Think WHILE you're mapping and THINK HARD when you THINK you're done with the map: what is the gameplay like? What is the movement flow? DOES it have a gameplay? DOES it have flow of movement at all?
2) Realism - Even Killbox which are not "real" venues can and should LOOK realistic. this is very important as we may find that even if it has nothing to do with gameplay the LOOK of think makes one FEEL something. you either FEEL you're in a room, hall, corridor, hangar, warehouse that makes sense or you don't. The scales of things are a factor or RELATION. e.g. the relation of a catwalk to the walls and floor...the distance from them. a longer catwalk can be wider than a shorter one and so on...things can be made to make sense to one eyes. Many times the use of textures are a map's bane...or a map's highlight. Depends...how much THOUGHT went into the process.
3) Thinking - many times beginners and advanced mappers a like fall in the deep pit of their Thinking process. Many times one would be so involved into the process or in love with the design of him map that he may lose sight of the OVERALL point of view.
So - Thinking - means, looking at things in a broader sense. sometimes, looking too close at something makes you over focused on pettiness, or feel something is out of place when in the broader sense it isn't. so always see things of a broader / or higher standpoint.
4) Design should always follow a Function - what is this item doing here? Is it a design (detail) item? Is it a gameplay related item (weapon, ammo, catwalk, piece of floor, door, hole in a wall etc..) ? What does it do and how easy it is to use it? How fast can you take advantage of a lift if it's crammed behind two thousands props or walls...
5) All maps have choke points - better decide where YOU want your choke points and not let Chance call the shot. a Choke point can be a door connection to an important part of the map. a spot that holds a powerful weapon like a MAG or RPG, a combine ball spawner is a known choke point in killboxes for example. an RPG spot is usually a choke point in ALL maps. Think about the construction of those areas. How fast and how easy it is to get in and out of.
6) Lighting - Good lighting makes a map playable and easy on the eyes and it doesn't matter if the lighting scheme is rather dark, heavily lit or mildly lit.
Two most important things you need to keep in mind about lighting: A. Lighting exist to enable people to SEE. And B. Lighting makes people FEEL.
Lighting that is laid out too evenly throughout a map or a certain area might feel a bit pale and not interesting. On the other hand, patches of lighting many times feel and behave more realistic.
7) Spawn points - spawning a player in the middle of a heavily battled area is not too clever as ppl will die as soon as they spawn, making your map less cool for people to play. always better to find a shaded, protected or semi protected spot for a spawn point. Also mind where you player is facing. Don’t want to have them spawn facing a wall or window.
9) Cubemaps -learn about them and use this wisely. Cubemaps imitate real life in the sense of light transition and reflections to and on the player. a good placement of Cubemaps determines how realistic that aspect of your map is. Also, many textures have specular features and reflect light, many models do also...a map without Cubemaps will show all those as ugly silver-grey. Unattractive, boring, not professional. Use cubemaps.
10) Inspiration - if you run our of ideas: LEAVE. Don’t rape the map. Look for inspiration on the net, in other maps...in dreams and in movies...Creativity is an elusive power. Be nice to it and it will be nice to you. You cannot command it or foretell it. Doing so will only render self-beating and thoughts like: "ah crap, I’m no good at this. I better stop".
Optimization
By now we know, from reading the above linked articles that we must mind visleafs when mapping and preferably – even as early as in the planning stage.
It would be so cool to simply design the most amazing Tower planted in the center of a large yard and have players attacking it on all fronts. Cool? Yes. Is it a good idea for a map? No. it is the worse idea ever. From each corner of your map players will be able to see each and every area and every detail in those areas and your frames will feed the fish. What you want to do is to actually plan out your layout to be made out of a few main sections that have no view of eachother, connected by low in details, smaller sections. (e.g. two heavily detailed halls connected with a small / short corridor or small room. You will be able to draw out the room’s leaf from each of the big halls
But not eachother. The idea is the same as you expand more and more halls. We do keep in mind that a good layout would not include too much “main” areas but rather work on a fewer number of Main areas and simply work its way through them.
Example map - see dm_lockdown.
An example for a bad layout (FPS wise) is dm_powerhouse. The map is laggy at best. Yes, it was very successful back in the day but proving my point is Lockdown is still played and Powerhouse isn’t.
Another good example of a good layout is dm_lostvillage. The gameplay progresses through different areas limiting view of other areas of the map by the way it’s put together.
...To Be Continued....
but i might start get into mapping i have ideas but im not the best or even considred bad with hammer 
