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Thothie

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2013 August 19

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2013 Aug 24 at 16:01 UTC

Automap Sauce in Hammer Mapping

Overlapping brushes, with textures on the same planes, sometimes results in a "shimmering" effect when observed in game as both textures try to render. It also sometimes results in compiler issues. When the compiler does discard one face or the other, it tends to do so in random fashion, making the texture consistency a bit odd.

The sides of the map being open tends to result in mobs wandering off the cliff edges, and all winding up outside. Easily resolved with a func_monsterclip of course, just seems a bit odd.

By "boxing", what I mean is the map appears to have the all too common newbie mapper mistake of being placed inside a giant box to prevent leaks. Now, given the way the map is setup, I'm fairly certain it wouldn't require this to avoid leaks (at least if not for the open sides), it's just the thought I had when first seeing it. This is, again, just odd, and not an actual problem, unlike the overlaps.

The original automapper's settings, while not multi-level, were sometimes a bit more interesting and more AI friendly - and the crate thing was kinda cute. I dunno how hard it'd be to make it alternate between the formulas as it goes down levels, and still have them connected via staircases proper.

Still an awesome little program though.

Ah... The story behind all great art, and of about half my dates, no doubt. ;)

2013 Aug 22 at 06:30 UTC

Automap Sauce in Hammer Mapping

While the PHP mapper seems quite a bit more sophisticated than the original Automap, it seems to create a LOT of overlapping brushes (with faces on the same planes), and then does the age old sin of "boxing" the map, though it doesn't appear to need to.

Maybe mah GTK though... Here's the first result I got:
http://www.thothie.com/msc_dev4/freshmap_php_result.rar

It'd test the l4D2 mapper, but bleh, dun wanna reinstall python... :\

Also, I like these KISS forums... You do this shit too? Dyaaam...

2013 Aug 20 at 10:01 UTC

Automap Sauce in Hammer Mapping

Awesome! (shoulda seen that)...

I must say, it's a very well done little tool. I'm hoping to do some evil things with it. Granted, the mod in question already has over 80 maps pre-packaged, but this might add a little something extra that can be done in a jiffy.

2013 Aug 19 at 07:54 UTC

Automap Sauce in Hammer Mapping

So I've been fiddling with your little Automap toy... And I think we could really do something with this. Granted, it'd need a lot of modification to work with the mod I'm thinking of.

Any chance there's a source for this tool laying about?

2013 Aug 19 at 07:50 UTC

Solution for: Exceeded MAX_PATCHES? :: Alot of reading :: in Hammer Mapping

All of this, and no mention of the -sparse flag. Am dissapoint.

Add -sparse to your HLRAD command parameters. Unless it's a really huge map where every light is pulsing, it's very difficult to exceed MAX_PATCHES with -sparse enabled, and it won't have much of an affect on your lighting. Some of the newer ZHLT tool variants (such as VHLT), use this lighting matrix, or one similar to it, by default.