Where Did You Learn To Map?

Haze · March 2004

<div class="IPBDescription">I'm trying my best..</div> I've always been intrested in mapping. I've drawen more layouts than I can count inches around the world, and I'm itching to get some down to 3d. The only problem is that I can only do brushwork, which is (I believe?) a majority of the mapping process, I dont understand yet how to do entitys, lighting, actually anything besides brushwork!

Where did you guys learn to map?

ShenTraX · March 2004

umm... I started to map for HL about '99 for TFC and then did some mappin' for CS, before it went retail (it was so much better back then).

I recently start back up, due to NS inspiring me. Most of what i learned I learned from tutorials and playing around, and if i couldn't make it work, i hung out at vlatitude.com ( i think i still have an account there, lol)

Of course i never released any work from those days, it was more of seeing what i could do. I constantly ran into Mappers-block a lot (currently there now on my new map). But at least i released 2 (if you can call it 2) maps for NS.

After all that trial and error, i try to help newcommers, like yourself. So if you need something, or can think of it, but can't get hammer to do it... ask in this forum (usually a new post per problem).

Happy mapping.

Haze · March 2004

Thanks, could you post the sites or where you got the tutorials from?

Night_Eagle · March 2004

Hmm...I just experimented with the brushes and looked at The Whole Half-Life for help along the way...you can't be stupid and map at the same time... <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

<a href='http://cariad.co.za/twhl/tutorialbrowse.php?tuttype=1' target='_blank'>http://cariad.co.za/twhl/tutorialbrowse.php?tuttype=1</a>

It'll take you a day or two to get the hang of it...and about a month to really know what to do. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

MasterMike · March 2004

Just screwin' with hammer, trying to get it to do stuff. Looking at other NS maps inspired me and I felt compelled to make NS maps. Whenever I just couldn't get something to work the way I wanted it to, I'd find a random tutorial somewhere. Just play around with it, best way.

Sops · March 2004

I'm still learning but <a href='http://www.geocities.com/adam_tebbutt_mckern/ns.html#CSG' target='_blank'>this</a> seems to be a really good site

Thaldarin · March 2004

I started off mapping for probably the easiest game in the world, Duke Nukem 3D. Brushwork was essentially 2D textures which were walls, it was like a drag and drop DOS editor. I don't remember much as I was extremely young at the time.

For Half-Life I started on WC3.3, and could never get my head round any of the tutorials I saw, after I did "learn how to map" I found that most if not all tutorials I had read on beginning to map took the long, difficult and worst ways.

I just started putting blocks (brushes) together, trying to align the textures (which at first was very fiddly) then I looked up how to create lighting, what an entity was, the types (brush + point) then compiling. After I had compiled a small blocky DM map I went on to see some simple tutorials on how to shape things, vertexing and clip. By this time I had learned the essentials to mapping, over the past 6-8 months I've learn't about rotations, flipping, skies, what makes a map, what the entities do, how some things are created etc.

The best way I find is to fiddle around in an editor, its helping me with Radiant. Although Radiant has some bloody brilliant tutorials which are easy to follow, unlike the native HL editor.

<span style='color:gray'>
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I'm still learning but this seems to be a really good site</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
You are joking? I hope you are, if you need any tutorials try VERC or Snarkpit. Not the 'block square' mapping technique from that site.</span>

Avitar · March 2004

Actually I am a noob too (almost done with my first map ns_postpile)

however if you are a turtorial **** like me you can fine 99% of what you will need to do from these sites (in order by importance to NS IMO):

<a href='http://nsworld.ns-central.co.uk/mappingguide/MappingGuide.php' target='_blank'>http://nsworld.ns-central.co.uk/mappinggui...appingGuide.php</a>

<a href='http://www.slackiller.com/tommy14/cs_maplinks.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.slackiller.com/tommy14/cs_maplinks.htm</a>

<a href='http://cariad.co.za/twhl/tutorialbrowse.php?tuttype=1&subtype=1' target='_blank'>http://cariad.co.za/twhl/tutorialbrowse.ph...ype=1&subtype=1</a>

<a href='http://snarkpit.com/editing.php?page=tutorials&game=HL&type=scenery' target='_blank'>http://snarkpit.com/editing.php?page=tutor...HL&type=scenery</a>

<a href='http://www.planethalflife.com/hlsdk2/sdk/MS3d_to_HL.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.planethalflife.com/hlsdk2/sdk/MS3d_to_HL.htm</a>

Good luck... Read the forums it will help quite a bit!

Kouji_San · March 2004

mapping for a long time now <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

doom1 and 2 (deu2 map editor)
Duke Nukem 3d (build 3d)
HL mapping since 1998-ish (worldcraft and now hammer)
Unreal, Quake meh even some 2d mapping thingies for dungeon keeper 2 and starcraft type games...

tutorials? hmm lets see now, meh<b> Avitar</b> already put down one of the best and my personal favourat...

<a href='http://cariad.co.za/twhl/tutorialbrowse.php?tuttype=1' target='_blank'>http://cariad.co.za/twhl/tutorialbrowse.php?tuttype=1</a>

it has all the basic mapping tuts you need to start your basic architechture, lighting and how to use entities etc...

Jezpuh · March 2004

Just messing with Hammer, if I say I learned everything by myself, I mean it.
But yeah, I have a mappers-block all the time.. so. :\

Cagey · March 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Maverick102 @ Mar 19 2004, 10:05 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I'm still learning but <a href='http://www.geocities.com/adam_tebbutt_mckern/ns.html#CSG' target='_blank'>this</a> seems to be a really good site</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
It'd be more impressive if large chunks of it weren't plagiarized.

Caboose · March 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (XP-Cagey @ Mar 20 2004, 10:29 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Maverick102 @ Mar 19 2004, 10:05 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I'm still learning but <a href='http://www.geocities.com/adam_tebbutt_mckern/ns.html#CSG' target='_blank'>this</a> seems to be a really good site</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
It'd be more impressive if large chunks of it weren't plagiarized.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
A lot.

And me, I learned how to map with just playing around with WC (shortly before it changed to VHE)

It took me a week to figure out how to make more than one brush <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

Now, I know how to use VHE, QuArK and GTK Radiant (Radiant pwns j00)

DEADscott · March 2004

I learned to map here, on these forums.

Insane · March 2004

After going through the Wavelength tutorials (I can't find a link for these, sorry), I basically learned everything I now know just by mapping and trial and error. Of course, these forums and <a href='http://collective.valve-erc.com' target='_blank'>The Collective</a> have proved invalulable for picking up bits of information and so on.

Where Did You Learn To Map?

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