CS:GO mapping phases - and some questions :)

[Aerium]

Hello! I've always been interested in mapping and I thought that I should give it a shot. I'm a sort of a perfectionist and I want everything to look, well atleast decent.

 

I want to create a competative, balanced and nice looking map for CS:GO.

 

* I've learned that it's a good idea to first draw a layout on a piece of paper, which I've done.

* Then I draw out the layout in hammer and I've tested all choke points timings which are now good. It's a bomb defusal map so CT's arrive at the choke point about 1 sec earlier than the terrorists. They both arrive at 9-12 seconds.

* I don't know if this step is correct (I need help here). I've then thought of a theme for the map and I started creating houses, texturing and importing prop_static's to the level.

* ???

 

Questions:

1. Am I doing this in the correct order?

2. What's the next phase / What needs to be done before the final release?

3. When you're creating your walls, is it a good idea to make them 128 units tall, then make a floor/ceiling 16 units tall, then another wall that's 128 units tall to make texturing easier?

4. When you're creating an enterance into a house and you want one texture outside the house and another texture inside the house, is it a good idea to create 2 brush layers of the walls so you can make the transition in the door frame look good?

5. Can I go crazy with brushes to make my map look nice or should I worry about the performance of the map?

6. I'm trying to find a tutorial on how to make a night map, but I'm not finding anything good? What settings in "light_enviroment" is a good amount? And what skybox texture should I use? Is there more textures to download somewhere?

7. When I'm browsing props, some of them are totally black in the preview. What's causing this?

8. Any more tips or suggestions you can give me?

 

Thanks

[Vinneri]

First of all, give it a playtest in mapcore. After that make changes in layout from feedback. You can detail pretty much by brushes, but you must use nodraw on them as much as possible. Start reading about optimization, so it won't become a problem in the end. Most important thing about detailing is referencephotos. Use them! Be sure you don't just put any props that looks nice to your map. Gameplaywise, make as much cover as possible from brushes. Also rotation from a to b shouldn't be over 15 sec. Hopefully other people add what I forgot. Playtest is your first to-do

[moyyst]

1 second earlier isn't good enough. I though so too but on an actual play test you want something like 2 or 3 seconds unless its a rush site.

other then that. I've got the same problems. I'd say go for it rather then think about optimazation already / lightning. Such things come rather late in the progress. And the general theme can change many times on a map. 

 

oh and welcome!!

Edited October 18, 2014 by moyyst

[Vinneri]

1 second earlier isn't good enough. I though so too but on an actual play test you want something like 2 or 3 seconds unless its a rush site.

other then that. I've got the same problems. I'd say go for it rather then think about optimazation already / lightning. Such things come rather late in the progress. And the general theme can change many times on a map. 

 

oh and welcome!!

 

Agree, but I still think you must know optimization now, because if you start doing it now, you save so much work in the end.

[moyyst]

 

1 second earlier isn't good enough. I though so too but on an actual play test you want something like 2 or 3 seconds unless its a rush site.

other then that. I've got the same problems. I'd say go for it rather then think about optimazation already / lightning. Such things come rather late in the progress. And the general theme can change many times on a map. 

 

oh and welcome!!

 

Agree, but I still think you must know optimization now, because if you start doing it now, you save so much work in the end.

 

Too true! 

[jackophant]

Hi there,

 

A lot of people here seem to build brushwork layouts and detail all at the same time. Personally (as a perfectionist myself) have found this to be my downfall. I waste far too much time on an area detailing the bollocks off it and then look at the incomplete remainder of my map and despair.

 

I find it much easier to focus purely on the gameplay first. I've been far too aware of the complaints made by people during the operations about how maps play. While I do think a large part of it is that the csgo community find change threatening, it's usually down to just not knowing the map well enough and get mad because someone less skilled is smashing them on a map purely based on knowledge of surroundings rather than skill (a topic for another discussion entirely).

 

Some people recommend that you start with a theme in mind, will2k has a very good article about level design. This for me is mainly because certain themes require a certain feel which you must map towards. In the interest of making the environment feel real: you simply can't take a tibetan theme with snow and large monasteries and slap it in a Caribbean island setting.

 

The course I've taken, and you may find helpful is this:

• daydream decides: *this theme would be cool to use*
• draw out scribbles for map layout (if real perfectionist, use ruler/length of string to work out quickest paths to each flashpoint)
• block out in hammer and time routes.
• when happy with routes flesh out the map (build in nodraw and texture only visible surfaces starting with dev textures preferably not orange, use areaportals and hint/skip)
• playtest on mapcore
• make changes and optimise (include clipping to prevent silly boosts and annoying lips and ledges)
• (repeat last 2 steps as many times as you need)

I'm currently at this point, unfortunately unless your map looks pretty, feedback is pretty limited and a lot of feedback you get pertains to the visuals or cover.

• DETAIL!

I released my map while in development on the workshop, I'd suggest not bothering as again, unless it's pretty don't expect much and a lot of comments are "COOL MAP LOOK AT MY SKIN"

 

I also regularly "save as... version+1" just in case anything goes wrong and no amount of "ctrl+z" will help you.

 

also, this will help: 

 

good luck!

 

ps. anyone else who wishes to criticise my process please do as it will also help me

[tomm]

...

 

this is pretty much how I do my map, although I haven't touched the hint/skip and arealportals at all.. but will probably do so very soon as my map is still mostly dev textures.

 

another thing I find useful: don't get too carried away with props, only use them if you really need them. They need to serve a purpose.

Edited October 20, 2014 by tomm

[Vaya]

How the hell do you do proper version control using hammer? When I rename a .vmf hammer has a spaz out and gets confused.

 

there's a version control option in the SDK but I can't see how it's used.

[jackophant]

How the hell do you do proper version control using hammer? When I rename a .vmf hammer has a spaz out and gets confused.

 

there's a version control option in the SDK but I can't see how it's used.

 

There's probably a smarter, integrated way to control versions, but i literally do "save as..." and change it from de_stupa_v1/v2/v3/v4 etc, whatever im up to.

 

I also create a different folder for each version which contains all the screenshots and radar / map files I need for that version and a "public" folder that I share which has the bsp, nav and kv files in for map testing. i host everything on google drive so i can map from the cloud at any of my computers

[Vaya]

Cool sounds like a plan. I'll set up a spideroak account for it.

 

https://spideroak.com/features/

[Squad]

Here's another interesting artilcle from will2k: Planning to win sketching your level. You should definately read it!

[KernalPanic]

How the hell do you do proper version control using hammer?

Personally I name each save with the map name followed by the date in yymmdd format followed by a-z signifying the save. This works for me as I usually don't have more than 26 saves in a working day on a single project.

So for instance. de_example141112a would be the first save today. My next save would be de_example141112b and so on until tomorrow.

The only drawback is that you have to archive files at some point as this method will eat up space. I just rar up a bunch after each week and update my cloud backup.