hey guys, i had typed up a nic long detailed tutorial on creating your first mpa yesterday, but little to my knowledge steam has a character limit on there anouncemenets... so not only did it cut about 3/4 of what i typed off, it deleted it as well. i have been looking into recording both my voice and my desktop into a video and putting them on youtube. i have just been looking for a good program to do so. i have a busy day today, i will be at college untill 5PM (est) and then i have work till 9PM (est). feel free to email me at as_evo_ace@yahoo.com, and i will try to figure somethng out tonight or tomorrow. thanx guys
-Evo

again guys, we know how to run source SDK and select the game we want to map for and then run hammer.


ok i have opened hammer and for me i have a greyish screen, with a white box that fills up about 1/2 the screen. you dont need the white box. ok, that frist thing i would ask everyone to do is open a new map template. just like you would for microsoft word or another program, got to file (top left) and new (or Ctrl + N).

ok, there should be 4 black screens that popped up and now all the icons and buttons are lit up (left, top and right). now to get the screen how you want them. for me, i like to have my top left black sceen set to 3D TEXTURED. you can do this by clicking on camera (in white at top left of first screen) and selecting 3D textured. then i like to have the screen at the top right to be my top veiw (it might already be there but you can select the white word on the top left of this screen to change it to what ever you like.) then i also like my bottom left screen to be the front view, and my bottom right screen to be my side view.

by having hammer set up like this, you can see all sides of your map, making mapping itself easier.

now you sould be ready to map!!!

a few things to know when looking at hammer...

your tools (located on the left hand side),

these have a red arrow, red magnifying glass, grey pawn thing, a grey box...etc.

these are what you are going to use to make shapes, spawn points, triggers, props...etc. and also manipulate them

on the right there are a few buttons and boxes. the only things to really have to pay attention to are, the TEXTURE GROUP: box (this has a picture of a texture in it, and a button that says brouse, and one that says replace)and MOVE SELECTED: box (this has 2 grey buttons that say toWORLD and toENTITY, also there is a catagories drop down and an objects drop down). this is how you select the texture to want (what you want your shapes to look like) and also select which entity or shape to creat.

then there are a bunch of buttons and icons all over the top that you will only ever use about 5 of. thos are...

the grid + and the grid - (located at the top left). if you notice and the very bottom right there is kind of a box that says Snap: on(or off) Grid: 64.
right now you boxes on your grid are 64 units by 64 units. to increase or decrease this you hit thos 2 buttons at the top (the grid+ and grid-). and for now thats about it.



so now you can open hammer, and set it up so it will be easier to use. my next post will be on that common tools and makin a basic map...

have fun guys!!

-evo

hey guys, the first step to mapping would be to get the program. the steam program you need is source SDK. it is located in the tools tab, if you have bought the game in stores i belive it comes standard, if you bought you game (hl2, hl2dm, portal, CS:S) from the steam store you might have to dig around to find it...


you only need to DL (download) source SDK, not base or anyother version. source will also AUTO DETECT your already installed games.

when you DL source SDK and open it the first time, you must open hammer. hammer is what you will be using to map. when you open source there it is a greenish box, at the bottom select the game you want to map for, then go back to the top and double click hammer. when you open hammer the first time, it will ask you to configure it. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS!!! hit ok, or cancel, or exit out. eventually it will let you open it.



when a full screen window open, and has 4 black boxes in it, you are ready to go. you have sucessfully opened hammer. feel free to msg me if you have any troubles. i will be more than happy to help. talk to you guys later


-Evo

hey everyone evo here, i know im not the best mapper in the world, but i would love to share what i know and even learn a few things myself. this is a laid back group with laid back guys who want to learn how to map, or get mapping questions answered. feel free to invite anyone who is interested in mapping or knows how to map, i will be doing my best to post a new topic a day, we will be starting from square 1, for the guys who have never even installed source SDK. feel free to ask question and meet everyone in the group, this will not be one of thos groups with 5,000,000 members. just kool dudes that wanna map. feel free to msg me anytime, and start chatrooms. i will try and post the instalation steps and how to start source SDK later tonight. talk to you guys later

-Evo