HL1 mapper, new to source. Need some guidance.

    I've been lurking these forums for quite a while now, but finally decided to register. I didnt want my first post to be one that looks so nub asking for assistance, but Source is starting to frustrate me. So here we go.

    I'm really used to the HL1 engine and decided its time to move on to source. So first actual thing I want to do in Source is convert over my Penthouse map from TS. After screwing up a bunch of times with xwad and other what nots, I finally got my textures to show in hammer and added my texture lights text to lights.rad. So I compile and it seems a few problems occur in the final result. My ent's like Func_wall and Func_illusionary dont render any light on them, My texture lightsources give off light, but dont illuminate themselves, And my Func_breakable for glass works and all, but does not display the texture that I used on them. Heres some Before and afters from HL1 - Source.

    Before - [email protected]

    thanks.

    shut up nexus. if you dont have anything to contribute, then just gtfo.

    hi carlos!

    it seems you dont understand the principles of the "new" engine. you cant just convert a map. i strongly recommend to start new maps from scratch. the best resource for beginners is:

    http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Docs

    there you can find beginner guides to the source engine. you can find lots of examples in the sdkcontent folder in your steam folder. for example opening some cs:s or dod:s maps can clear out many questions.

    regarding the lights: a material (i am not talking of textures!) uses a certain shading mode. for example Unlit or lightmapgeneric or vertexlit. either type has a different effect on how the textures linked into the material get rendered. so if you want a certain material to be fullbright it needs to be unlit. so now you probably see why converting tools fail so badly: they dont know if a certain texture is ment to be fullbright or lightmapped.

    Regarding starting from scratch, Is not a brush a brush whether it is in HL1 or Source. What I want to do here is update my current ent's and light sources or simply recreate those parts in Source. Such as glass, is there another entity specific for HL2 glass?(the glass that chizzels away in fragments, not just blows up and shatters into pieces) What should I use instead of func_wall to get lighting to render properly on it, not fullbright?(as you can see, the painting on the wall were func_illusionary and would look silly in fullbright) And how can I recreate the projected world map properly, to gain the same effect or better than it was in HL1?

    I realised that the conversion wasn't going to work 100% before I even did it, thats why I am inquiring about alternate methods in Source of the same desired effect. When I read tutorials for source, they never have the answers I'm looking for, answers that someone can give.

    Ive been on that SDK site many times, and it was never very helpful for me. I don't learn like that, thats why I'm here asking for a bit of help, especially in form of a medium such as an instant messenger, so I'm not spamming some forum for answers.

    Thanks again.

    You're better off starting from scratch and just making a few test maps to get the hang of things. Source is different in some significant enough ways from GoldSRC that you'll have to change your approach. Last I checked there are a number of example maps included in the SDK that should give you most of what you need. Once you're more comfortable with source, go back to your HL1 version, delete everything but the essential geometry then go from from there.

    A few things to help ease the transition would be to read about and fully understand things like:

    -shaders and materials

    -the entire list of entities

    -displacements

    -prop types

    -areaportals and occluders

    Look around on the VDC: http://developer.valvesoftware.com

    The func_wall has now been replaced with func_detail, which is basically the same, but is often used more more liberally.

    func_illusionary should still be functional, but has been replaced with func_brush (set solidity to never solid or toggle)

    Simply converting your textures has two issues,

    1. They aren't going to be as high resolution as people expect and source can handle.

    2. The VMT's (material scripts) generated probably aren't going to be very good. For example, I believe even texture lights defined in your rad file need the UnlitGeneric shader to glow.

    And texture lights are generally used alot less these days btw (though not really for any good reason imo)

    There's alot of little things like these where it would probably be better for you to make some brand new source maps, experiment with different stuff, ease into adn learn the materials system, get comfortable with source. Then, once you are comfortable with source go and convert your map.

    And remake the textures at 4x size

    I'm also working on my first Source map (on and off for 14months now) and I'd have to aggree with most of the advice you've been given. Just about everything but the world brushes isn't worth importing. I'd even suggest creating the world geometry from scratch to fully utilise the level of detail attainable in Source.

    The most time consuming part for me has been making the custom content (higher resolution textures and props) and learning as I go. In Source you have a heap more stuff to play with and it's worth learning to utilise everything the engine can offer. It can seem overwhelming at first but just focus on learning one thing at a time as you need it.

    As people have mentioned the SDK provides examples of most stuff though I too prefer to discuss issues on a forum or over chat when I'm stuck.

    If you're interested in making custom props I'd highly recommend General Vivi's 3ds Max tutorials as an introduction.

    http://%7boption%7d

    In conclusion I'd suggest you continue on your current map, simply learn and impliment features of the engine as you need to. Having a background in hl1 is certainly a big advantage and the learning curve shouldn't be too high if you're prepared to put in some effort. Good luck!

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