Radix

Question: Is there a way to make separate shortcuts for CS2 Tools and CS2?

Answer:

Question: prop_dynamic vs prop_physics / prop_physics_multiplayer (performance difference?)

Answer:

Question: Is there a way to copy texture state to other faces?

Answer: Alt+right click

Thanks for your questions.

I've added shortened versions to the questions collection and added links to your original post. (In the end there will be more hyperlinks in this post than there are synapses in a human brain )

17 hours ago, Serialmapper said:

I also prefer the forum format, the discord it´s an unholy mess, oy maybe i am too old for this sh.t

Yeah, maybe we are just too old.  I understand that the kids want to do their own thing. Often it makes sense. I mean you don't want to meet your parents on particular dating apps for example.

Discord seems to work better on smartphones while classic forums are better on the big screen. I think it's a good idea to use the new stuff when it's superior and keep the old stuff as long as it's needed.

Question: Displacement tool: Is there a way to "sew" displacements like in CSGO Hammer?

Answer:

Not exactly the same as in S1 Hammer, but result is the same if faces are separated again afterwards (e.g. via "Alt+N").

Also on "vertices", "edges", "meshes" and "object" tabs, depending on what you need

Question: 3d skyboxes in S2?

Answer1: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Half-Life:_Alyx_Workshop_Tools/Level_Design/3D_Skybox_Creation

Answer2: Maps ported from S1:

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_2/Docs/Level_Design/Post_Import_Fixup_steps

Answer3:

Question: Is there a cable/rope entity in S2?

Answer1:

• How to add additional nodes later?

Answer2: A different way to create straight pipes etc.: Cable Tile Meshes

Question: Is a GPU capable of raytracing now required?

Answer: "The level editor (Hammer) now leverages GPU accelerated raytracing to both preview and bake lighting for CS2 maps. This significantly speeds up compile times, but as a result a GPU capable of raytracing is required for Hammer to be fully functional.

• Hammer GPU Minimum Specs:

• Nvidia 2060Ti 6gb (2080Ti+ recommended)

• AMD 6600XT (6800XT+ recommended)"

But it is possible to compile your map with an old GPU, but with restrictions

Question: How to change grid size? (keyboard shortcuts)

Answer:

Click here (bottom right in Hammer):

Shortcuts:

• QWERTY keyboard: "]" and "[" (?)
• QWERTZ keyboard?
• Other keyboard layouts?

Question: Custom Vis groups?

Answer: Custom Vis groups are now called selection sets. Per default you will find the selection sets tab beneath the Vis groups tab on the right side of the screen in Hammer.

Question: Why are special clip textures like "toolsclip_wood" missing?

Answer: The old material specific clip textures like "toolsclip_wood" are not needed anymore. The engine now automatically finds out the correct material type. Just use "toolsclip" now.

Question: I can't open the old CS:GO tools anymore since CS2 was released. How to fix this?

Answer: Open your Steam Library, got to Counter-Strike2 -> right click -> Properties -> Betas -> select csgo_legacy

The old SDK should work again now...

Question: How to port a CS:GO map to CS2?

Answer1: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_2/Docs/Level_Design/Import_Tool_Documentation

Answer2:

CS2 Workshop Q&A

Porting content from CS:GO to CS2

• Maps (+used assets)
  • How to port a CS:GO map to CS2? ->(Answer1)
  • I can't open the old CS:GO tools anymore since CS2 was released. How to fix this? ->(Answer1)
  • Post import fixup -> (Link1)
  • All the instances that I had in my CS:GO map don't exist in the ported map (as a prefab). How to fix this? -> (Answer1)
  • Why are special clip textures like toolsclip_wood missing? ->(Answer1)
  • How to quickly remove the triangulation of the meshes after porting a map? -> (Answer1)
  • Many entities have unused keyvalues after porting. Can I just delete these? -> (Answer1)
  • Some entities have an 'obsolete' icon after porting. What's up with that? -> (Answer1)
  • Why are my custom sprites missing?
  • The script creates three vmap files of my map (*map_name*.vmap, *map_name*_environment_prefab.vmap and *map_name*_prefab.vmap). Why?
• Materials
  • How to port legacy materials to S2? -> (Link1)
• Models
  • How to port legacy models to S2? -> (Link1)

Questions about the Workshop Tools

• (Q Discord) Is there a way to make separate shortcuts for CS2 Tools and CS2? -> (Answer1)

Questions about the new Hammer

• How to set up the new Hammer properly? (Which toolbars do I need? etc.)
• The fonts and buttons in Hammer are too small because I'm using a high screen resolution. How to fix this?
• How to change grid size? (keyboard shortcuts) -> (Answer1)
• Custom Vis groups? -> (Answer1)
• Instances vs. Prefabs? -> (Link1)
• Is there an equivalent to "shift+drag" duplicate of the old Hammer? -> (Answer1)
• Meshes
  • Tutorial: Mesh Editing -> (Link1)
  • (Q Discord) Where is the lightmap bias for meshes located? -> (Answer1)
• Texture Tool
  • Tutorial: UV Operations -> (Link1)
  • (Q Discord) Is there a way to copy texture state to other faces? -> (Answer1)
• Displacement Tool
  • Is there a way to "sew" displacements like in CSGO Hammer? -> (Answer1)
  • How can I raise a displacement to a specific level ("Raise To" function in CSGO Hammer)?
• Props
  • Smart Props? -> (Link1)
• Entities
  • Cubemaps
    • How to use Cubemaps in S2? -> (Link1)
    • (Q) Recommended cubemap settings for the 3d skybox to achieve a proper water effect (like in de_anubis)?
  • func_water
    • How to create water in S2? -> (Answer1)
  • Misc
    • Is there a cable/rope entity in S2? -> (Answer1)
• Overlay Tool
  • Tutorial: Overlays -> (Link1)
  • Some features of the Overlay Tool -> (Answer1)
• ...

Questions about Source2/CS2

• Documentation
  • Source2 documentation? -> (Link1)
  • CS2 Workshop Tools documentation? -> (Link1)
• Files and directories
  • Which file formats do materials, models etc. have? -> (Answer1)
  • Where are all the files stored (textures, models, maps, ...)? And how to open/edit them? -> (Answer1)
  • Where are Workshop maps and their files stored? -> (Answer1)
• Developer Console
  • CS2 console command list? -> (Link1)
  • Console command to directly load a Workshop map? -> (Answer1)
  • "mat_wireframe" console command doesn't work for me...
  • Is there a console command to show clipping (something like CSGO's "r_drawclipbrushes")?
• Props
  • (Q Discord) prop_dynamic vs prop_physics / prop_physics_multiplayer (performance difference?) -> (Answer1)
  • Is there a way to disable self shadowing of props? (For example useful for very simple skybox trees)
• Misc
  • Tool textures in Source2? -> (Link1)
  • How to load your custom map in CS2 without uploading to the Workshop?
  • Does S2 support detail sprites (as used in CS:GO Dangerzone maps) or detail props?
  • Weather effects (rain/snow) in S2?
  • 3d skybox? -> (Answer1)
  • How to achieve a seamless transition between the water in your map an the water in the skybox? (like in de_anubis)

Asset creation in Source2

• Materials
  • How to create a custom material?
    • (Q) 2way blend materials: How to determine the material type (e.g. "grass" or "dirt") for the two materials? -> (Answer1)
    • (Q) How to create a refracting material (e.g. refracting stained glass)? The shader does not seem to work...
    • (Q) Blending multiple (>2) materials in S2 (like 4wayblend in S1)?
  • How do I decompile a stock material? -> (Answer1)
  • How to open a stock material in the Material Editor?
• Models
  • How to create a custom model? -> (Link1)
  • How to export a model from Blender to S2? -> (Link1) (Answer1)
  • Turning Hammer geometry into a model -> (Link1)
  • Tutorial: Import a model and its material -> (Link1)
  • Tutorial: Breakable inflatable toys -> (Link1)
• Particles
  • How to create particles? -> (Link1) (Link2)

Compiling a map

• Is a GPU capable of raytracing now required? -> (Answer1)
• Where are the compile logs saved?

Decompiling a map

• Is it possible to decompile maps and assets? -> (Link1)
• After decompiling a map with Source2Viewer...
  • ...all geometry is turned into models. Did I do something wrong? How to fix this quickly?
  • ...nearly all geometry using tool textures (clip, nodraw, sky, ...) is missing. Did I do something wrong?

Publishing a map

• How to upload a map to the Workshop? -> (Answer1)
• Map overview/radar? -> (Answer1)
• Bots?

Bugs (and workarounds/fixes)

• (Q) When I start CS2, the launch option "Counter-Strike 2 Workshop Tools" is gone. How to fix this? -> (Answer1)

Misc

• Are there any example map files (from Valve) to learn from? -> (Answer1)
• Tutorial: Cloth simulation in S2 -> (Link1)

The CS2 Workshop Tools are out for a while now, but there are still many questions (at least I have a lot).
Unfortunately there is no proper documentation yet as it used to be for Source1.
Yes, there are some Youtube tutorials, but mostly about very basic things, not so much about specific questions.
Also this forum is dead atm, so I'm having trouble to get the answers I need.
Yeah, Mapcore is on Discord now, but imo it sucks. It's nice for those who want some daily conversation about mapping. But interesting questions and answers get lost quickly between trash talk, people posting their show off screenshots and whatever in one infinite topic.
So I decided to collect some Q&A here and add links to the answers.
Feel free to ask questions or give answers if you want to... (I will add all of your questions and links to answers to the following post!)

green: proper answer
orange: partial answer or idea
red: not answered yet

(Q): Original question

Made a couple of changes to the layout... Switched back to the original interconnection, hope it works better now.

Only did a quick sloppy art pass so far.

Still not sure if we will see this in S2.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3007645188

So... got my hands on the new Hammer and had to realize that it will take plenty of time to learn this. Had some hope that I could have ported the map easily without having to spend too much time on the new tools, but that won't work.

So I will probably not get back to this map / Source2 in general. I know it's a shame after burning way more than 5k hours to build this map, but I don't have enough time for things like this anymore.

So if anyone wants the map files, just let me know.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the playtest today. Feedback was pretty helpful.

On 4/6/2023 at 9:36 PM, melc311 said:

Feels silly to mention this considering CS2 is right around the corner, have you tried playing around with using info_lighting on those beams? Anyway, great job on the visuals.

I'm pretty sure I already tried this, but didn't help. Afaik info_lighting doesn't work anymore (since de_nuke remake?).

I will just wait for S2 magic to fix these issues I guess.

1 hour ago, JorisCeoen said:

As soon as I have time to run into the map I will give it a try, but about those indoor lighting issues on props, I have those too on Zen. I don’t know exactly why, but most of my wooden beams fail to cast light brightness from nearby light entities at all. I’ve tried everything to fix it (changing settings back and forth etc), but no light gets cast. It’s really purely random as well because on some spots it works perfectly (good examples are at the large indoor area in the castle with the lanterns), and the next one at the other beam next to it is as if it’s not there at all.

That's exactly the problem I was talking about. Also the wooden beams in my map. I think these props don't receive the correct amount of indirect/bounced lighting. So some of them are okay, others are way too dark. But as you said, it feels pretty random.

Your Zen map is pretty awesome btw.!

Thanks, guys!

Yeah, I will try to port it to S2 when the tools are there. I'm sure it won't look worse then.

There is still some work to do anyways. The indoor areas are not much more than walls and doors atm, but I thought it would be a good idea to publish the map already. My former testing group doesn't exist anymore so I didn't test it for a long time...

Also the indoor areas suffer a lot from some prop lighting issues I could not fix yet. I hope it will look better with S2 lighting, so I decided to leave it like it is for the moment.

Plants on Ancient go crazy if you have played Basalt before.

@Yanzl@MagnarJ

1 hour ago, RaVaGe said:

Well i'm all for taking precautions, but look at the statistics, 15-44 years deaths are only 1-2% from the people who died from covid.

I just don't see what's the point of blocking the people who are working while the only people who should be extremely carefull are the one retired already.

The problem is, that the virus does irreparable damage to your body even if symptoms are mild. In general every disease does damage to your body. Even if it's just a cold or the flu or whatever. Sometimes the damage can mostly be regenerated, but often by scar tissue. Also the regeneration potential of the human body is limited. That's why old people die (for example of SARS-Cov-2).

The problem with the "Coronavirus" is that the prevalence of severe symptoms and the damage done to your body is significantly higher than it's the case for Influenza or other common diseases. It's not all good if you just survive the infection. So the amount of infections should be kept as low as possible. We don't know if there will ever be a vaccine or effective treatment.

In my opinion they should have done a super strict lock down Wuhan style for a month in every region with infected people all over the world. Then this Covid thing would not be a problem anymore. But that's probably impossible because short-sighted people insist on their freedom. So we will still talk about Corona in 2021 and probably 2022.

CS:GO and TF2 Source code leak lately...