garthbartin

I'm trying to learn how to model. Here is my WIP of the helicopter from Zero Dark Thirty I'm making for my CS:GO map based off of Osama's compound ( still working on it, just slowly and haven't updated my progress). If anyone wants to make a better version of the helicopter I'd love you because this one I don't think will be up to my standards on the mapping end. Also there's an edged faces version so you can get an idea of my shit geometry. I'd love any suggestions on how to clean up my geometry as I basically have no clue what I am doing.

Thanks a lot I'll check it out. Sorry for the confusion, I only uploaded that purple grid image because I couldn't find the picture with the finished product, that was simply a misplaced of a file that I fixed as you had guessed. The final result was a very ugly texture that was oddly stretched and wasn't bumpmapped etc. As to be expected. I also understand that flattening and stitching is an inefficient way to handle this, but those are the only tuts I could find. I'm asking if there are tuts out there that will run me through properly and efficiently skinning an object more complex than a cube as well as ones for texturing UV unwraps properly. EDIT: here's my end result, super shitty texturing and skinning and all.

So I've been trying to get into modelling using 3ds Max for CS:GO. The models I am trying to make for my maps are relatively simple and are super easy to make in Max, however, I am struggling with skinning and texturing. So far all the skinning and texturing tutorials I've found online are frankly shit. The skinning deals with ultra simple cases that can't really help you in real modelling where you're not dealing with a couple simple cubes. And the texturing doesn't go past creating a bitmap (may not be using the right word here). So do any of you know of some good tutorials/advice for someone getting into skinning and texturing? Here's what I've been working with so far: The last shot is in game. After some work I got a bitmap I stole from CS:GO and tiled it over the UV above and was able to get it to display but it doesn't look like I kept that screenshot.

Thanks. What could I fill the open area with? I've got a lot of space and I'm not sure what to do with it. Any ideas?

Was away from my main computer and without internet for a while, so I started this project in CS:GO just for fun, idk if I'll finish it or not and I can't really see how I'd make the gameplay work, so I think it'll remain as a just for fun expirement. The roof was a real bitch to make in hammer. It's very loosely inspired by the shrine scene from the anime Nisemonogatari, if I do continue the project I'll try to surround the area with bamboo like in Nise.

Welp after some absence here is my work on the exterior of the compound. I'm going to add some buildings walls and trees near the horizon to break it up. And of course it's super wip, I'm probably gonna change the fields texture. Any recommendations or tips on how to get it to blend better with the mountains int he distance? Also here's my reference image:

Once upon a time I made an asymmetrical castle. I decided it should have been bigger, so I painstakingly copied the different pieces of the castle and rotated them over the course of an hour such that the castle had been reflected horizontally into twice its size. Later that day I discovered the "flip horizontal" feature.

Because I have adhd and can't focus on any one part of the map I'm jumping about, right now I'm working on the fields surrounding the compound. I've never really been good at the outsides of a map, so I'm not really sure what to do here. I have to make that, and right now I'm just laying down a gigantic displacement for the fields and then doing the roads with brushwork. At the end of it I'll 1/16th scale it and throw it in a 3d skybox. How far out fromt he compound do you think I should go? Also do you think that's a good approach?

The size of my stairs is usually determined by the height distance I need to cover, so it doesn't come out so simply. And the addition of landings and corners and such confuse me further, I unfortunately am not sure how to describe my problems as my very problem is I don't entirely understand what's going on with stairs.

So I have a question whose answer would fit perfectly with this topic: howtostairs? But seriously, the basic concept is rather simple and way back when I looked up the good ol' stairs tutorials on youtube, but what about the theory and methodology when stairs get more complex? I'm not quite sure how to describe my gripe with stairs, but hopefully other mappers will associate. What are your guys' methods for dealing with stairs? http://puu.sh/34SIX.png There's an example at my latest attempt at a stairway, I ended up just making it an odd off-grid slant. I'm not sure if I'm being clear, but whenever I go to make stairs that are even moderately complex, all sorts of difficulties come up.

I prefer to use spacebar for hold instead of z for toggle. Another tip, if your 3d view fps plummets, it's probably because you accidentally hit c which enables radius culling. Just hit c again to get your frames back to normal. What do you mean by split verts?

Throughout the course of mapping I've slowly discovered incredibly useful hotkeys/strategies that I feel embarrassed for having taken so long to find. Many of these small things can be the difference between hours of work or the click of a button. I'm not sure this is the right spot to put this, but here's a list of a few useful tools/tricks that usually aren't covered in tutorials. I hope other people will add to the list (and refine my additions) as I'm sure I've barely scratched the surface hardly being better than a beginner myself. Some of them might be obvious, but they were things I missed starting out and had to learn over time. Right click on selected objects and click flip horizontal/vertical to, well, flip horizontal/vertical With a face selected in the face edit tool, alt+right click on a second face to apply the previous face's settings and align the second face perfectly with the first (especially useful for aligning textures on slanted/rotated brushes) Keep everything to as large of grid units as possible, it makes things easier to deal with and improves vis compile times Don't bother running vis for most compiles Put rad in fastmode for non light-related compiles Turn small detail brushes into func_details to lower vis compile times, do this early in production, not late or it all builds up In tools>options>2d views set "default to 15 degree rotations" and hold down alt whenever you want to rotate by less than 15 degrees Consistency is key; if you make a corner using one method, keep using that method, if you make a wall one width, keep using that width, etc. etc. (excluding of course variations for aesthetics) This is one I see needed A LOT when I look at beginner's maps, when you're mapping you should have OCD Completely finish a detail's settings (visgroup, playerclipping etc.) BEFORE copying it all across your map (or use a func_instance) Try to keep vertices on the grid even if it means you won't get a perfect cylinder/slant/whatever If you have to clip/rotate something off the grid use a func_instance or group it with an on-the-grid skip brush (you can use the skip brush to move around the group without losing the proper off-grid alignment) I hope these will be helpful for any beginners stumbling across this, they've been very helpful for me.

Well I've been working on the interior recently, I'll get back to the light_environment later. Here's some screenshots of my progress:

I'm working on lighting all the shadowed areas with artificial lights, do you think the environmentally lit places are too dim as well?

Yeah I was thinking about that, nvgs would be really nice as the seal team had them (at least according to Zero Dark 30) and I toyed around with the idea of making the map much darker and the layout stacked in the terrorist's favor and then giving the cts nvgs on spawn to put them on even footing but it sounded too ambitious and tricky to pull off. If I could pull it off though it'd make for a really interesting mechanic. Anyway, more screenies: I've been tweaking the lighting a lot and I think it's slowly coming together. I'm definitely going to dump in a lot more artificial lights. The exterior details of the main house are more or less finished, and I've done some work on the other buildings. The interiors to all the sheds are more or less done, so it'll mostly just be the main house and guest house. In Zero Dark 30 the Seal team whispers the terrorists' names as they move through the buildings. I'm thinking of doing some voice recording (I could just rip the movie's audio, but for authenticity I want to do it myself) of whipsering the terrorist's name and then setting the audio clip to trigger randomly as cts enter the houses. Also, this is a long ways off but is there an effective way to manage the minimap with the multiple levels of the house? Can I use triggers to change between different minimaps corresponding to each floor?

SoSo here's some more work on the map with a bonus comparison shot. All the architecture is more or less finished and I'm on to the details stage. Please! Detailed feedback! What's working? What isn't? What ideas do you have? Compliments are great, but criticism's even better. Really any input other than flaming is welcome and appreciated.

For me, not really. I mostly do my projects for my own sake, and the part I enjoy the most is the aesthetic and architectural end of things, not the gameplay end, so gameplay is for me secondary. I know that's not the way to make good maps that people want to play, that's just the way I like to do it. That doesn't mean gameplay has to be bad though, if I can make great gameplay without sacrificing authenticity I'll do it.

http://steamcommunit...s/?id=126384189 Worked on this map on and off over the last 5 years, finally have it in a relative state of completion. It's a recreation of The Globe, a Shakespearean amphitheater in England. The bots can't seem to figure out the doors, so it's not very good with ai. I've never played it on a server so if anyone wants to run it on their server please tell me and I'd love to join in. It's in desperate need of custom assets. I've learned modelling for the sake of this map, but I'm struggling with skinning in texturing. If anyone wants to help me either by making custom assets for the map, or helping me learn how to make custom assets (preferably the former, as I've already moved on to a new project), say so here and I'll be eternally grateful. Hope this doesn't sound to wip for this part of the forum, it is complete and ready to run, custom assets would just make it a lot prettier.

To be honest, I'm relatively new to the cs community and especially it's modding community. I've been struggling with what game mode to try to make this map, what is the escape game mode? I've been thinking about a vip mode. Also I plan to have the terrorist team be spawning in different locations where the real life terrorists were when Seal Team Six performed the raid. Also do you guys think I should keep the lighting? I did it because that's closer to the time that Seal Team Six hit, but it's bad for gameplay imo and doesn't look as nice. The other option would be a bright day map.

I'm working on a map to recreate Osama Bin Laden's compound from Abbottabad. Someone else did this before me, but his map wasn't a very accurate recreation and wasn't very recognizable. I am going for as much accuracy to the real thing as I can manage. The compound walls are mostly estimated, however I had some dimensions which I was able to match exactly. The exterior of the guesthouse is esitmated, the interior, which I had almost no info on, was completely a guess. The first and second stories of the house are EXACT to the blueprints (if I did everything right) even to the width of the walls. The third story is estimated. And with that, here's my latest screenie: