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Chips' Fun House Forum Index  ~  Mapping & Modeling  ~  Source Mapping Tutorial #1 - Setting up the SDK
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Anshinritsumai
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:45 pm  Reply with quote
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Ok, here's my first ever mapping tutorial and it's for Source; so with that being said you NEED a copy of Half-Life 2 to do this. STEAM will NOT let you download the Source SDK without HL2 in your Steam account.


*Note* - All work in tutorial will be under HL2DM (Half-Life 2 Deathmatch).


Downloading the SDK:
Ok, so the first thing you should notice (besides my obscenely inappropriate FFX-2 wallpaper) is the Source SDK being fully downloaded and updated. What you'll want to do is install the Source SDK from the "Tools" tab on your main steam window, see screenshot below.

http://members.cox.net/xxkenjiyamaguchi/source_mapping/Downloading.jpg

The Next Step:
Once the SDK is fully downloaded and updated, you'll come across a window that looks fairly easy to understand; but it can be very confusing among those with weak IQs, no offense.

http://members.cox.net/xxkenjiyamaguchi/source_mapping/sourcesdk-firstuse.jpg

One thing you should not get confused by is the "current game" on the bottom of the window. All it does is automatically load files required to map for that specific game or mod. If you're wanting to make a Half-Life 2 single player map, then leave it as Half-Life 2. If you want a Half-Life 2 deathmatch map, change it to Half-Life 2 Deathmatch. Same with Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, or any other mod you like. However, I will get into mapping for Third Party mods later (such as Fortress Forever, NeoTokyo, Dystopia, etc).

Hammer, the mappers canvas of art.
Hammer editor is the program we will be focusing in on for HL2-based mapping, so we won't pay any attention to the other utilities for now.

But before we proceed any further, we MUST (or Hammer won't work properly) run the game/mod that we wish to map for at least once. So close out your SDK and load up HL2 (assuming you're mapping for HL2).

After you've ran the game (no need to play the game or join a server, just run it); close it out and fire up the SDK again. Sorry, it's a painful process isn't it?

Once the game is all fired up, you'll want to make game configurations and such, but Hammer probably already warned you about this didn't it? Well, let's set them up.

Setting up Game Configurations:
Now; being that my configurations are already set up, it might be a bit confusing, but bare with me!!

I'm not sure if Valve made it so that game configurations are already set up for official Valve games; so if it's already set up, DONT WORRY ABOUT IT!! If not, then follow these steps VERY carefully...

Take a look at this screenshot, and know it well. It will become your friend.

http://members.cox.net/xxkenjiyamaguchi/source_mapping/game-configs.jpg

Now that you and the screenshot are best buddies, it's time to know what it means...

You will notice that their are dialog boxes all around the the Game Configurations tab; that's alright.

The first box we will look at is "Configuration," which should be the first box. If there is nothing there, then press Edit. When the new box appears, choose a game name, or click Add. Type in the name (in our case, "Half-Life 2: Deathmatch") of the game. Click on Ok, then click the name in the list and click close. The name should now appear in the dialog just under "Configuration." Refer to the screenshot if you don't know what the hell your doing.

The next box is "Game Data Files." If nothing is in there, you'll want to add in the game data file (.fgd) to the list. So, being HL2DM, we'll want the HL2mp.fgd file loaded. Click "Add" and find your way to hl2mp.fgd and click open. Congrats, another section completed, moving on.

"Texture Format" & "Map Type" are now on the list. Being that this is a tutorial for HL2 based mapping, we want the "Texture Format" to be set as "Materials (Half-Life 2)" and NOT "WAD3 (Half-Life / TFC)." Make sure that "Map Type" is set for "Half-Life 2" and NOT "Half-Life / TFC." Sorry, but this is for HL2 mapping, not HL1/TFC; Fortress Forever is on it's way so you'll want to get some experience for it.

Next down the menu is "Default PointEntity Class" and "Default SolidEntity Class." Well, these can be whatever the hell you want them to be. They are the entites that are "default" when you make an entity using the entity tool or convert geometric brush work (walls, etc) into entities, such as doors. Leaving these as default is the recommended course of action for beginner mappers.

Further down the tab is "Default Texture Scale" and "Default Lightmap Scale;" both of which are highly recommended as default values (0.25 for Texture Scale, and 16 for Lightmap Scale) as they are very "picky" things to deal with if you don't know what your doing.

And finally, we come across the last 4 objects on this "Game Configurations" tab; "Cordon Texture, Game Executable Directory, Game Directory," and "Hammer Map Directory." Being that this is for HL2DM (as always in my tutorials), we'll be making these set for HL2DM folders and executables. Follow these next few things very carefully as this is one of the most important parts of the game configuration setup...

Cordon Texture:
Leave as default. tools\toolsskybox

Game Executable Directory:
You will be looking for the game executable, ie: hl2.exe; so you'll want to look for the following ($SteamUserDir = your STEAM account name):

$SteamUserDir\half-life 2 deathmatch

What this does is that Hammer looks for hl2.exe inside that folder, once it does, it moves onto the next step, "Game Directory" and loads any files needed. Being that HL2DM is a mod of HL2, it will look for "hl2mp" instead of the base HL2 folder. think of it like "valve\hl\tfc" back in the WON network days...

Game Directory:
This is the folder in which everything you do in Hammer, gets sent to when you compile a map for play. All textures are sent to the correct folders, all maps are sent to correct folders, models, etc. All in here. You know what they look like. Look inside your steam account folder ("SteamApps\$SteamUserDir\") and you'll see things like Team Fortress Classic, Half-Life, maybe even Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, so on and so forth. Now, go inside one of those folders and you'll see hl.exe or hl2.exe, and a sub folder. If you're inside your HL2 folder, you'll see hl2.exe and a hl2 folder as well. For HL2DM you'll see hl2.exe and a hl2mp folder.

What you're looking for here is the folder in which your map will be loaded into. In this case it's HL2DM, so we look for the following:

$SteamUserDir\half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp

And finally at the end of this painful operation comes the "Hammer Map Directory," now don't let the small little example that VALVe provided for you confuse you, that's made for the HL1-based version of Hammer editor and is not to be taken seriously. Since STEAM runs HL and HL2 completely, you'll be looking for something like this...

$SteamUserDir\sourcesdk_content\hl2mp\mapsrc

Don't be confused by this directory I've linked here, it's very straight forward and you'll understand it soon enough. Here's a rough example of them.

$SteamUserDir = Your Steam Account
\sourcesdk_content = Source SDK maps, textures, models, etc
\hl2mp = HL2 Mod that you're currently making maps for
\mapsrc = map directory, where all maps are saved when mapping


Ok, now we're done with "Game Configurations;" time to move onto "Build Programs"


Build Programs:
In that same window, you should see a tab labeled "Build Programs," so go ahead and click on it. Here we will setup all the programs that hammer will run in order to compile your map for playing.

Note, you NEED to have a game configuration set up before doing this section.

First on our list of executions is "Game Executable." Here you're looking for the hl2.exe file that we've been reading about. So, click browse, and make your way to:

$SteamUserDir\half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2.exe

Next on the list is "BSP Executable," click browse and you should come up in the "bin" folder of your SDK folder, which is fine, stay there; you'll want to look for vbsp.exe in here, with an end result of:

$SteamUserDir\sourcesdk\bin\vbsp.exe

Continuing down the list is "VIS Executable," it's the exact same as looking for your BSP Executable, just a different file in the same folder, so look for this...

$SteamUserDir\sourcesdk\bin\vvis.exe

"RAD Executable" is still the same, find vrad.exe in the bin folder, looking abit like this...

$SteamUserDir\sourcesdk\bin\vrad.exe

And finally, at the end you'll want to find the folder in which your map will be copied to after it has been compiled into a working map. Note; all maps will be compiled, but whether they run well or not is a different story; so find your HL2DM maps directory that looks like this...

$SteamUserDir\half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\maps



CONGRATULATIONS!!
You've successfully setup Hammer editor for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.

In the next tutorial, we'll start up with the basic stuff, such as two rooms, a hallway, & player starting points; With no real purpose other than getting to know what to do. After that, over the course of a few more tutorials; we'll get into lighting, water, inputs and outputs, more entities, props, scripted sequences, etc.





Helpful Sites:
The Snarkpit - Half-Life 2 Map Tutorials
HL2World.com's Wiki
Valve Developer Community
VERC - Valve Editor Resource Collective *!!HL1 Mapping!!*


Last edited by Anshinritsumai on Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:33 pm; edited 8 times in total

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Demasu
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:31 pm  Reply with quote
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dopwater please!

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Anshinritsumai
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:06 pm  Reply with quote
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Demasu wrote:
dopwater please!


??

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Demasu
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:10 pm  Reply with quote
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sorry, can't type
that translates to 'do water please' as in show me how to make it work, because mine just screws up

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Anshinritsumai
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:11 pm  Reply with quote
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Demasu wrote:
sorry, can't type
that translates to 'do water please' as in show me how to make it work, because mine just screws up


Will do. I'll make seperate tutorials for each major thing.

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Demasu
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:12 pm  Reply with quote
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cool, thanks

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Audhumla
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:43 pm  Reply with quote
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Teach us how make make a big hollowed out room first :O

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Anshinritsumai
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:29 pm  Reply with quote
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I'll be doing that soon enough as well. I'll teach ya how to do it out of seperate brushes and how to use one brush and make it hollow...

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Anshinritsumai
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:18 pm  Reply with quote
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Ok, setting up the SDK is completed. In the next tutorial (seperate topic), we'll go into making two rooms and a hallway connecting them with a few player spawns and that's about it. It has no real purpose other than letting you learn how to get around in the program and what tools are the most used.

In the tutorial(s) following; we'll move into making water, adding lights, adding props, weapons, scripted sequences, etc.

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Demasu
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:27 pm  Reply with quote
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here's my problem with the water

it's there but it's not looking like water

edit: oh, and if anyone has experience with gtk radiant or similar mapping program but can't get the hang of hammer, I made a video tutorial to help you along with it, it could also be used to help people who are new to mapping too, I'd just have to spend a few hours rendering it into a better compressed format than what it is now, so if anyone is really interested in it then tell me and I'll spend the time rendering it and hosting it.


Last edited by Demasu on Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

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Anshinritsumai
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:28 pm  Reply with quote
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Alright, I'll cover that soon. Over my winter break (starting tonight), I'll write a series of tutorials (as you can see from this section), and Water will be a prime section as well. I'll help you on that.

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Demasu
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:34 pm  Reply with quote
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ok cool, I can get water to work in the q3 engine(except for that time where I forgot that caulk wasn't solid and you fell through into the void) but not in source

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Anshinritsumai
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:37 pm  Reply with quote
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It's all relatively the same.

HL1 is using a heavily modified quake engine, and HL2 is a new engine built from scratch, but takes ALOT from the modified quake engine that HL1 uses; so their all close together, but mapping is different.

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Audhumla
PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:50 pm  Reply with quote
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Woah, this is gonna be cool :O

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