My Advanced Hammer YouTube Tutorial Series (Episode 8 RELEASED: Packing Textures/Models into the BSP)

[NihiL]

Hey all, I make YouTube videos and have been asked to talk about advanced concepts when it comes to mapping in Hammer, so I started a little series. I don't go over the basics (making brushes, applying textures, putting down entities like player spawns, props etc.) because there's already more than enough high-quality video tutorial content out there on these topics, but instead I talk about more advanced topics; how to make the most of Hammer, how to work efficiently with it and who knows what else haha.

 

This first episode briefly goes over unit scale and then focuses in on how to get textures to look good and trims. I expect a lot of you experienced Hammer users to know all this already but maybe this is still of some interest to some of you that are not quite total beginner but also aren't experts yet?

Do let me know if this helped you out and if you want to see more. Cheers!

(I also hope a shameless self-promotion post is okay here on Mapcore, it DOES have the goal of helping others and is relevant at least? )

Edited February 10, 2016 by NihiL

[Aries.z]

I really love the style of this!  I hope you keep doing this

[2d-chris]

 

[NihiL]

Haha thanks everybody. I was very nervous to post this here with all you experts. And naming the series 'advanced' was... risky... I thought. Because as an expert, it's all too easy to look down on this and scream "THAT'S SO EZ LOL I KNOW HOW TO THAT" hehe.

 

Aaanyways, it's very motivating to hear this this of value to some and I can only get better at these kinds of videos. I'll produce the next one tomorrow and focus on arches probably.

Edited June 18, 2015 by NihiL

[onebit]

You could do a runthrough of displacements.

[NihiL]

@onebit: Cool, will do that next!

Today I released Episode 2 in which I briefly recap texture alignment and nodraw, then show a method to get 'perfect' arches and finally talk a bit about func_details.

As always, I hope this helps, let me know if it did, if you have topic suggestions for the future or if you've got any other feedback on my videos. Cheers!

 

Edited June 23, 2015 by NihiL

[NihiL]

 Episode 3 is out which talks about displacements and how to surround them so you don't get leaks. Also how to alpha blend textures and sew properly.

Thanks for watching, as always, and let me know if you have any suggestions for future topics. And, if this is too spammy to keep posting new episodes here, please also let me know and I will stop, don't want to step on any toes!

[NihiL]

If anybody is still following the series, I just released a short 2-part video that aims to explain the bsp->vis process, leafs, portals and how to optimize with hint and skip brushes:

The first video explains the theory (how the source engine 'works' in regards to visibility checks):

And the seconid video shows how to make hint and skip brushes in hammer and how to check what's being rendered (and if you actually optimized well) in CSGO:

Hope this helps out, even though I'm sure most people here are aware of this stuff.

Cheers!

[KID A]

Very helpful! Coming from the old hl engine that's the stuff i got stuck with when trying to build a cs:go map. I mean i kind of was familiar with all of it but you present it very clean and clear

Edited July 10, 2015 by KID A

[NihiL]

Thank you very much, @KID A, great to hear that it's helpful to you! I'm planning on recording more but I'm running out of ideas as to what to cover. Any ideas anyone?

[biXen]

Good stuff, thanks. 

[NihiL]

I'm back baby! Here's the fifth installment in my Advanced Hammer Tutorial series:

 

This time I talk about instancing in Hammer, how it can be very useful for keeping everything nice and tidy but how it also adds overhead when used for an entire map. I show how to use func_instances in a little tutorial map setting and even show that you can put instances in instances. Instanception, yay!

Let me know if this is of use to you and cheers! 

[Tomato]

Nice tutorial, as you mention most of the people here know alot about hammer and there is alot of content out there to teach you the basics of hammer. But you fill a spot i just needed, being quite a newbie in mapping and knowing the basics of Hammer, this videos give me some more details of how to work better with Hammer.

Maybe a little hint, but i've been long searching for a tutorial wich explains in easy steps how to make a custom model for Hammer, what are the necessary files and the correct steps to make it from nothing to a model in hammer.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Tomato

[NihiL]

Hey @Tomato, thanks. That little 'niche' is exactly what I'm trying to fill so that's awesome to hear.

Yeah, how to make models for Hammer/Source is often requested. And I CAN do it (have done it in the past in de_spice) but it's a very lengthy and difficult process. Plus it requires 3DS MAX which is very expensive and I don't think a lot of people have access to it... Hmmm, not sure. Other opinions? Would it be worth it to make an episode on that anyways? Other ideas?

[El_Exodus]

Yeah, how to make models for Hammer/Source is often requested. And I CAN do it (have done it in the past in de_spice) but it's a very lengthy and difficult process. Plus it requires 3DS MAX which is very expensive and I don't think a lot of people have access to it... Hmmm, not sure. Other opinions? Would it be worth it to make an episode on that anyways? Other ideas?

DO IT!