bah compiler gui

ZiGGY

So I was trying to play around with hammer this week, have never done anything like this in a long time and it's all a bit over my head;
anyway I thought I'd configured it right, ghetto patched it to 3.5 etc built a box map with 1 spawn just to see if I could actually get a map to work-

I couldn't manage to run a map using hammer, it keeps using my steam account name (an email addy so it has @ and . in it) and then seems to flop much fail ignoring the directories I set for anything (long paths enabled) I don't understand the $dealies and have even forgotten what they're called :P.

Anyway that being a fail I downloaded Batch Compiler off of nems site, the big one at the top but it didnt seem to have an option to use 1.7 Zoner Tools which I'd downloaded. I guess I couldn't configure this right, Id punch in some buttons and upload the map, then it'd create a .bat and nothing seemed to happen. :/
So I chickened out of that too and downloaded ZHLT Compile GUI X, again I thought I'd configured this right but it complained that it couldn't find either hl.exe or cstrike.exe (seems 2 mod specific :P), so I tried adjusting this so just make it as a normal hl map and got the same error. I'm using XP and aint getting very far with this :P but I'd still like to play around with it and get a little further if anyone can help me.

pSyk0mAn

You can completly ignore steam with the old Hammer editor.
I usually handle all that stuff in the hammer directory, which means the compile tools, the mapname.map, mapname.bat and mapname.rad (for texture lights) is located in that directory.
This is how my mapname.bat looks like:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->hlcsg -hullfile f:\games\half-life\worldcraft\nshulls.txt -wadinclude whatever.wad -chart -texdata 8192 mapname

hlbsp -maxnodesize 2048 -chart -texdata 8192 mapname

hlvis -chart -texdata 8192 -full mapname

hlrad -notexscale -nodiffuse -sparse -extra -chart -texdata 8192 -bounce 1 mapname


pause<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

First of all export your map as .map into the directory with the compile tools and the above mentioned files.
Make you have the nshulls.txt, so the compiler creates the proper collision hulls for crouched marine, marine and onos.
"mapname" doesn't need the .map at the end.
"pause" at the end keeps the window up so you can check the compile. You can check the compile log in the mapname.log aswell, though.

After a succesful compile just copy the mapname.bsp into your ns/maps folder

Seker

Why don't you try compiling out of the editor for now ? it seems that this would be a big enough adventure already xD

GiGaBiTe

In Hammer 3.x, the $variables are just a shortcut for the setting in the game configuration. So if you set the gamedir in the game configuration to like c:\sierra\half-life, then $gamedir would be a shortcut to c:\sierra\half-life.

Hammer 3.x doesn't like deep directory paths (IE. c:\path\path\path\path\path\path\... compared to c:\path\path\..) and it also doesn't like spaces in paths and tends to freak out. So if you have the compile tools in "c:\program files\valve\.." it will probably choke and try to find "c:\program" and of course fail.

I keep a separate WON install of HL1 to avoid having bizarre problems like this. If you still have your old HL1 CD's, I'd recommend installing it and installing the 4.1.1.1 patch and use that for mapping.

Seker

I got lots of spaces in my names, it doesnt give a problem. But all files should be on 1 HDD.
Still short names are better, oh and you should create an extra folder on the root of the HDD so you can use some more wads.

GiGaBiTe

Odd, no matter what version of Windows I've been on, Hammer 3.x has always choked on deep paths and spaces in file names.

Seker

"E:\Programme\Valve Hammer Editor\maps\nsmaps\Goldrush Test"

This is one of mine... and they compile... :O

But I got another funny problem, after compiling often, sometimes I can't compile again, I then have to delete all older files and recompile?

GiGaBiTe

Read the compile output, you probably have a leak or other problem with the map.

Seker

No nothing, sometimes it just seems to be that way but after the old files are deleted it compiles without a problem, don't know why though.