I don't know if you still look at old comments, but this is extremely helpful and I haven't even installed my half life 1 SDK. This looks like a stupid amount of fun, and I can't wait to get to mapping! I thought surface maps are really hard to do but you proved me wrong! Thanks for the confidence! Great tutorial.
Ah, the Vertex tool! Originally seen as a nightmare to use, at least for me. This tutorial made it more possible to understand, so great job and keep the good work. :) I do wonder about certain prefabs and such, I found myself using an env_render in one of them, but hey, whatever you have planned for the next episode, simply will be looking forward to it.
This is a very nice tutorial, great for anyone just getting into mapping. The part where you used the carve feature though, that's really not a good way to make a hole in the ground. You may have noticed it placed lines shooting in all sorts of directions, the Goldsrc engine is very dated and those lines will likely show up in your map in game as thin bits of split polygon edges. That can also cause leaks, and if you're unaware of this, you could never know why your map won't run. (I've been mapping since 1999) Pro tip: use carve for blocky holes, like doors and windows, and if you need a hole in the ground, carve a square or rectangle out, and use wedges and trapezoids to make the hole's sides. It's in your best interest to keep brush lines as straight as possible, or even have them all converge on a single point in the corners. Practice doesn't include just being good at the mapping part, but understanding the hitches as well. Best advice I've ever gotten was "Make good maps by practicing good mapping practices." Good luck out there, and have fun.
@@Chaos7040 glad to hear that actually. For a moment I thought I had overstepped, this is YOUR tutorial and it's already published, and I certainly don't want to embarrass you in that way. To any merit, even I still learn things about mapping to this day.
@@littlehorn0063 TL;DR the way it works (in Hammer, J.A.C.K. and similar editors) is very destructive, which is perfectly fine for simple box shapes, but pretty bad for anything at weird angles. If you carve a cylinder into a floor, the floor will get cut up into several brushes. That's fine. But if you try to edit them, you're gonna have gaps and inevitably leaks, because the floor has been cut up into the iris pattern, which itself is a consequence of how the carve tool works. It acts like an automatic clipping tool, that clips up the floor by the edges of the brush you carved. Also, most of these will have off-grid vertices, which is another can of worms. In the context of terrain, you'll have many situations where you wanna go back and edit some parts of the terrain, which is why it's much better to do the carving manually using the clipping tool. It takes more time, but in the end, you get much cleaner brushes and you can edit them with no consequence. :) I wrote a guide about how to carve a buncha shapes a long time ago: gamebanana.com/tuts/12645 What was shown in the video is rather reckless usage of the carve tool, which I wouldn't recommend. With all that said, the carve tool still has its uses. If you wanna quickly carve out a box from a box, or cut off a corner in a specific way that can't be done with the clipping tool.
Alright, I checked out your guides on gamebanana and followed the "pizza cut" method to make the water hole. The level works now! :) Thank you for the guides!
@@Chaos7040 yeah if I'm being honest I'm just behaving like the experienced mappers on forums telling me the exact same thing back when I used to map. I guess it's ok as long as your public knows how carving may slice up your geometry real bad 😌
That's a good episode idea! A lot of what you need to create Xen is present in this sixth episode, but I'll see what I can do in the next coming episodes.
@@Chaos7040 Can you also timelapse creating a nice looking level from start to finish? A lot of these tutorials are great for telling you how to do certain things but it also helps to know when to do certain things. Like going "oh I can use the clipper to do that" or "oh that's what I can use that texture for". 3kliksphillip has a few really good videos like this.
That would be helpful, but I am not sure I am going to do this sort of video. Maybe in the future, but given my own creative process this would be a very very long video.
Hello, amazing video but i have a question, when using the Map properties option I cant see any sky's list and my sky appears white on J.A.C.K but in game appears like the one you are using and am not sure how to fix it, am testing it on sven-coop at seems to work so far except that I want to create night levels as well.
Hey there! Thank you so much! I believe the problem is your J.A.C.K may not be configured properly. Use the manual to see if everything is correct, then perhaps use verify the game cache in steam as a last resort. If still not working, I suggest messaging the developers on their website or support pages to see if there is any solution. cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/496450/manuals/VDKManual.pdf?t=1483447684
Hi Chaos! I'm new on creating HL OP4 maps and I really appreciate your effort it helps me a lot! But I'm really struggling with an issue :/ After creating my mini map and put all the essentials on it start lagging for now reason!!! the map is simple and designed for deathmatch party but when I tested on game the fps drops too much. is there an option to make it smooth like original maps? HELP :::
Hello, thank you for your comment! It is difficult to say what exactly the issue is. If you could send me the map files, I can take a look, and try to discover the problem
There is a toggle button, or your J.A.C.K is not configured properly. Here is the manual (page 76 has the toggle button): steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/496450/manuals/VDKManual.pdf?t=1483447684
In the map options, I don't have a list with the skyboxes. Also, if I try to manually type a skybox, (for example: "desert") then it shows white in game and in the editor. (yes I do have the show skybox option enabled)
Hello! I believe your J.A.C.K is not configured properly. Please refer to the manual: cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/496450/manuals/VDKManual.pdf?t=1483447684
I believe I found the problem. J.A.C.K gives me a crap ton of errors about sprites and models. I took a video so you can see for yourself. ruclips.net/video/l44klr-Ig-4/видео.html
need some more words about carving, back in 2002 I switched to carving everything instead of brushing, caves, rocks, corridors... and some say its a bad practice, but I was 12 and didnt care
Hello! Carving simple geometry is completely fine. However, using the carve tool for complex geometry like pool in this episode, should be avoided. The issue is some geometry can’t be replicated in the actual engine, causing performance and compiling problems.
@@Chaos7040 thanks, now that I thought about it some more it can also be bad practice because good maps usually arent created in one pass, and it may be much more difficult to change carved stuff later after as there lots of common walls, floors as well as excessive number of brushes and brain tends to work with what you got rather then what you could have, and if you carve *everything* (what I did - I brushed that would become space and then carved it from one big block) then what you got is almost unworkable mess which can be a dead end for your creative indeavors later on that said thou - I belive it still can be done right
12:52 add water okay i working on underground water tunnel ive did the func_water only issues ive ran into is . the bottom and top walls get all "glitchy" is there a fix for this?
I learn myself all so... Now this is unnecessary, but thanks anyway. I love to do Half-Life Style mapping, but with better textures selection... The only problem is the grid, he decide when he wants to work correctly.
EDIT: Yeah nvm, i just had to texture all sides with the sky texture So for some reason the sky texture doesnt give of light in my maps? It does when making a new map but doesnt when adding it to a map with some stuff in it already? If someone could give a reason for this, that would be highly appreciated
Hello! I do not think tree's are possible in Half-Life, but perhaps in it's other mods that contain the textures necessary. Most if not all props like trees, are created using the block tool, and textures.
I used to design levels back in 1999 with worldcraft 2.0, nice memories
I don't know if you still look at old comments, but this is extremely helpful and I haven't even installed my half life 1 SDK. This looks like a stupid amount of fun, and I can't wait to get to mapping! I thought surface maps are really hard to do but you proved me wrong! Thanks for the confidence! Great tutorial.
Hello there! I am very happy to you enjoyed the video, and are inspired! I appreciate your comment, and wish you a great mapping journey
@@Chaos7040 thank you!
Ah, the Vertex tool! Originally seen as a nightmare to use, at least for me. This tutorial made it more possible to understand, so great job and keep the good work. :) I do wonder about certain prefabs and such, I found myself using an env_render in one of them, but hey, whatever you have planned for the next episode, simply will be looking forward to it.
This video was released 5 years ago but it helped me in 2024!
I’m happy to hear! Time flies!
This is a good tutorial, plus it works amazing in trenchbroom
Very happy to hear!
This is a very nice tutorial, great for anyone just getting into mapping. The part where you used the carve feature though, that's really not a good way to make a hole in the ground. You may have noticed it placed lines shooting in all sorts of directions, the Goldsrc engine is very dated and those lines will likely show up in your map in game as thin bits of split polygon edges. That can also cause leaks, and if you're unaware of this, you could never know why your map won't run. (I've been mapping since 1999) Pro tip: use carve for blocky holes, like doors and windows, and if you need a hole in the ground, carve a square or rectangle out, and use wedges and trapezoids to make the hole's sides. It's in your best interest to keep brush lines as straight as possible, or even have them all converge on a single point in the corners. Practice doesn't include just being good at the mapping part, but understanding the hitches as well. Best advice I've ever gotten was "Make good maps by practicing good mapping practices." Good luck out there, and have fun.
Awesome advice, and thank you!
@@Chaos7040 glad to hear that actually. For a moment I thought I had overstepped, this is YOUR tutorial and it's already published, and I certainly don't want to embarrass you in that way. To any merit, even I still learn things about mapping to this day.
@@Rimrook Hey It's totally cool, and I really appreciate your kindness :)
Dude I loved your video, it's the help I needed
Hello! I am happy to hear!
I wish I had seen this video, I did learn the sky texture in hard way
Oh God, not the Carve tool!
I get that the video is made for beginners, but still. xD
What's wrong with the carve tool?
@@littlehorn0063 TL;DR the way it works (in Hammer, J.A.C.K. and similar editors) is very destructive, which is perfectly fine for simple box shapes, but pretty bad for anything at weird angles.
If you carve a cylinder into a floor, the floor will get cut up into several brushes. That's fine. But if you try to edit them, you're gonna have gaps and inevitably leaks, because the floor has been cut up into the iris pattern, which itself is a consequence of how the carve tool works. It acts like an automatic clipping tool, that clips up the floor by the edges of the brush you carved. Also, most of these will have off-grid vertices, which is another can of worms.
In the context of terrain, you'll have many situations where you wanna go back and edit some parts of the terrain, which is why it's much better to do the carving manually using the clipping tool. It takes more time, but in the end, you get much cleaner brushes and you can edit them with no consequence. :)
I wrote a guide about how to carve a buncha shapes a long time ago: gamebanana.com/tuts/12645
What was shown in the video is rather reckless usage of the carve tool, which I wouldn't recommend.
With all that said, the carve tool still has its uses. If you wanna quickly carve out a box from a box, or cut off a corner in a specific way that can't be done with the clipping tool.
@@Admer456 Ohh, understood. Thank you for writing a response!
Alright, I checked out your guides on gamebanana and followed the "pizza cut" method to make the water hole. The level works now! :)
Thank you for the guides!
Great tutorial! I love it
Thank you so much! I am very pleased to hear!
Did you just... CARVE?
I know I know it's sacrilegious, and can cause problems, BUT it is a beginner guide, and is still valuable to know!
@@Chaos7040 yeah if I'm being honest I'm just behaving like the experienced mappers on forums telling me the exact same thing back when I used to map.
I guess it's ok as long as your public knows how carving may slice up your geometry real bad 😌
@@TastyPurpleGum Hahaha yeah I understand. Your comment did make me laugh though! xD
Any chance you could make a video on stuff necessary for a Xen level?
That's a good episode idea! A lot of what you need to create Xen is present in this sixth episode, but I'll see what I can do in the next coming episodes.
@@Chaos7040 Can you also timelapse creating a nice looking level from start to finish? A lot of these tutorials are great for telling you how to do certain things but it also helps to know when to do certain things. Like going "oh I can use the clipper to do that" or "oh that's what I can use that texture for". 3kliksphillip has a few really good videos like this.
That would be helpful, but I am not sure I am going to do this sort of video. Maybe in the future, but given my own creative process this would be a very very long video.
Hello, amazing video but i have a question, when using the Map properties option I cant see any sky's list and my sky appears white on J.A.C.K but in game appears like the one you are using and am not sure how to fix it, am testing it on sven-coop at seems to work so far except that I want to create night levels as well.
Hey there! Thank you so much! I believe the problem is your J.A.C.K may not be configured properly. Use the manual to see if everything is correct, then perhaps use verify the game cache in steam as a last resort. If still not working, I suggest messaging the developers on their website or support pages to see if there is any solution.
cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/496450/manuals/VDKManual.pdf?t=1483447684
amazing
Is there a special way to rotate the brush (a block for example). When I drag a corner it changes the size instead of rotate.
Hello! You must click the selected block within a non 3D viewport, to change the mode from resize to rotate
@@Chaos7040 Thank you!
Hi Chaos!
I'm new on creating HL OP4 maps and I really appreciate your effort it helps me a lot!
But I'm really struggling with an issue :/ After creating my mini map and put all the essentials on it start lagging for now reason!!! the map is simple and designed for deathmatch party but when I tested on game the fps drops too much. is there an option to make it smooth like original maps? HELP :::
Hello, thank you for your comment! It is difficult to say what exactly the issue is. If you could send me the map files, I can take a look, and try to discover the problem
@@Chaos7040 I really appreciate your help! And I'd look forward to learn new things. You'll find the files in your mail' Thanks ^^
@UCzyDU9ht66k1Om53JZdt05Q will you give me the mail adress because I didn't find it on your channel!
Hey there, I haven't received any email. Use dropbox, and leave a link for me to download from :)
When I choose a skybox from the map properties and toggle on the sky from the 3d view it appears white.
There is a toggle button, or your J.A.C.K is not configured properly. Here is the manual (page 76 has the toggle button):
steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/496450/manuals/VDKManual.pdf?t=1483447684
In the map options, I don't have a list with the skyboxes. Also, if I try to manually type a skybox, (for example: "desert") then it shows white in game and in the editor. (yes I do have the show skybox option enabled)
Hello! I believe your J.A.C.K is not configured properly. Please refer to the manual:
cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/496450/manuals/VDKManual.pdf?t=1483447684
@@Chaos7040 Can you explain further? I don’t really know what couldve gone wrong. I can send some screenshots if you want.
I believe I found the problem. J.A.C.K gives me a crap ton of errors about sprites and models. I took a video so you can see for yourself. ruclips.net/video/l44klr-Ig-4/видео.html
@@vilhola2187 Hello again, page 12-16 will show you how to configure J.A.C.K. This will resolve this issue for you
My Jack wont Show the null Texture in browse…
How do I see the xyz numbers on the blocks like this scene 14:50? mine does not show
Hello! To enable size info go to tools>options>2Dview and enable "draw sizing info."
@@Chaos7040 Thanks!
need some more words about carving, back in 2002 I switched to carving everything instead of brushing, caves, rocks, corridors... and some say its a bad practice, but I was 12 and didnt care
Hello! Carving simple geometry is completely fine. However, using the carve tool for complex geometry like pool in this episode, should be avoided. The issue is some geometry can’t be replicated in the actual engine, causing performance and compiling problems.
@@Chaos7040 thanks, now that I thought about it some more it can also be bad practice because good maps usually arent created in one pass, and it may be much more difficult to change carved stuff later after as there lots of common walls, floors as well as excessive number of brushes
and brain tends to work with what you got rather then what you could have, and if you carve *everything* (what I did - I brushed that would become space and then carved it from one big block) then what you got is almost unworkable mess which can be a dead end for your creative indeavors later on
that said thou - I belive it still can be done right
12:52 add water okay
i working on underground water tunnel
ive did the func_water
only issues ive ran into is . the bottom and top walls get all "glitchy"
is there a fix for this?
"Glitchy"? In what way? Like multiple blocks of water with waves out of sync?
@@alexisBR09 kinda like a strobe light but the water
@@Jacespace23 check the properties. Right click on the brush. Go to Properties. Go to Render FX, Normal. Check that.
NULL texture ?? ok if ive already made a map and would like to texture the back sides of the walls , how do i change it to the NULL texture
Hey again! Episode 2 has all the answers you seek! You must manually apply to he NULL texture
i tried this editor 20 years ago and i could never figure out how to make a sky
I learn myself all so... Now this is unnecessary, but thanks anyway. I love to do Half-Life Style mapping, but with better textures selection... The only problem is the grid, he decide when he wants to work correctly.
how to add props ?
Unfortunately, props are not a feature in the original Half-Life’s engine. Everything from couches to crates are made from the block tool.
EDIT: Yeah nvm, i just had to texture all sides with the sky texture
So for some reason the sky texture doesnt give of light in my maps? It does when making a new map but doesnt when adding it to a map with some stuff in it already? If someone could give a reason for this, that would be highly appreciated
Glad to hear you figured it out!
I absolutely CAN NOT get my rockfaces to work properly. I followed this tutorial, and pieces of them just get culled even without the null texture.
Hey there! I’m sorry to hear it’s giving you troubles. What do you mean by “culled even without the null texture”?
@@Chaos7040 I eventually got it to work by just redoing it over a few times.
@@TheFunniBaconMan okay great!
the env_lighting does not work. any help?
Hello! Does lighting in general work? If not, then it is due to a leak occurring within your level.
@@Chaos7040 the light works before and i have no light leaks but then when i make the outdoors environment (no leaks there) it goes fullbright
fuck it ill download jack again
hello there, do you know how to add trees??
Hello! I do not think tree's are possible in Half-Life, but perhaps in it's other mods that contain the textures necessary. Most if not all props like trees, are created using the block tool, and textures.
@@Chaos7040 what about sven co-op?
@@mohammadarafat3647 I have no idea about sven co op, but maybe!
how can i make a fire effect?
Hello! To make a fire effect you must use the env_sprite entity.
@@Chaos7040 i already figured it out, thanks anyway tho
Ок
Блендер на минималках.
I can't change my skybox, i don't have that list :c
Hey there! That's really strange, as long as you are using J.A.C.K, I am not sure what could be the problem