Editing the level while playing a game is fun

[AttackingHobo]

I was testing a simple map in hammer with a lot of empty space. And a few people joined. I asked them what they wanted. They asked for less open space. So I made more walls and rooms. They asked for a Castle, so I made one.

Its pretty fun to change the level constantly. When I died I would work on the map till the round restarted, and I kept doing that. Sometimes I would just kill myself in the beginning so I could have more time to work on it.

I got it to a point where the map was too fun to play, and I spent the rest of the time just playing.

I had about 20 people on my listen server at one point, and some people came in saying that all the other servers were down due to a Gmod update or something.

Also with the update no one's icon showed up when they talked making a bit interesting.

I think I will run the map again tonight and update it some more. It should be around 6:30 PM pacific time, and the map name is ttt_yeah00X (X is version number, and it is going to change rapidly.


Edited the title, because of my poor word choice.

[Slix]

Haha. That had to be a pretty funny situation.

[Silverstream]

TTT is the only game you can map while you play an active game.

Not necessarily. From the past and now, I was and am currently able to run any source engine game of my choice (ex: HL2, CS:S, Garrys Mod, etc.) in windowed mode with Source Valve Hammer editor open as well.

If you have adequate CPU power and available memory, multi-tasking comes naturally.

I was testing a simple map in hammer with a lot of empty space. And a few people joined. I asked them what they wanted. They asked for less open space. So I made more walls and rooms. They asked for a Castle, so I made one.

Its pretty fun to change the level constantly. When I died I would work on the map till the round restarted, and I kept doing that. Sometimes I would just kill myself in the beginning so I could have more time to work on it.

I got it to a point where the map was too fun to play, and I spent the rest of the time just playing.

I had about 20 people on my listen server at one point, and some people came in saying that all the other servers were down due to a Gmod update or something.

Also with the update no one's icon showed up when they talked making a bit interesting.

I think I will run the map again tonight and update it some more. It should be around 6:30 PM pacific time, and the map name is ttt_yeah00X (X is version number, and it is going to change rapidly.

That must have been quite fun.  :)

[AttackingHobo]

em>TTT is the only game you can map while you play an active game.

Not necessarily. From the past and now, I was and am currently able to run any source engine game of my choice (ex: HL2, CS:S, Garrys Mod, etc.) in windowed mode with Source Valve Hammer editor open as well.

If you have adequate CPU power and available memory, multi-tasking comes naturally.


That must have been quite fun.  :)

I know that you can run source engine games in windowed mode and do that. But being dead in TTT is boring, and I would just start mapping. Most other games you are not dead for that long so there is not enough time to map while dead. Well I guess CSS would also be good, cause you can be dead for a while too. But TTT rounds last a long time usually.

[Dinner]

That's not entirely true, you can in Zombie Master also

[AttackingHobo]

Oh god I made a horrible choice in words. Yes you can do this in other games :0

But this game is especially awesome to do so.

[Silverstream]

I lol'd. Nice job changing the thread title. :D
Definitely more understandable now.

[AttackingHobo]

I just added a lot more stuff and learned about how to use func_detail to make VVIS.exe not take a year to compile with a lot of small objects.

I am running the level now if anyone wants to join. You should be able to look for the map ttt_yeah

I am going to be up for about one hour I believe, so hope on if you are interested, and I will see if I can fulfill any build requests.

[Charles445]

Don't forget nodraw

[Silverstream]

I just added a lot more stuff and learned about how to use func_detail to make VVIS.exe not take a year to compile with a lot of small objects.

I am running the level now if anyone wants to join. You should be able to look for the map ttt_yeah

I am going to be up for about one hour I believe, so hope on if you are interested, and I will see if I can fulfill any build requests.

Just a few Tips:

1. Any curved brushwork (ex: arches, cylinders, etc) that does not seal the world from the void in addition to smaller brushwork that doesn't seal the void should be made into a func_detail.

2. If you want to texture multiple surfaces easily and have them align, do the following:

   a) Texture a surface until satisfied.
   b) Left click the surface and then while holding ctrl, right-click any surface next to the initially selected
       surface. This will automatically align that texture.

3. Increase the lightmaps scale to large brushwork open areas where lighting detail isn't as important. This will reduce compile times with VRAD.
    Ex: Open Fields.

4. Use light_spots in addition to a light entity to create more realistic lighting.
   Have a look at this tutorial: http://www.interlopers.net/tutorials/17779

5. To easily copy brushwork, select all necessary brushwork, then drag it using one of the view-ports while holding shift. After you drag the brushwork, simply release your left-mouse button and release shift after.

6. To easily cut up brushwork, select the vertex tool and draw a line in one of the view ports. On one side of the line, the brushwork selected will appear red. The other will appear white. Select the vertex tool again until both sides appear white. Select Enter and the brushwork selected will split up easily.

I hope this helps! :D

[Ajunk]

I got it to a point where the map was too fun to play

THE HORROR

[Charles445]

When I read too fun to play, I read

OH GOD RAINBOWS EVERYWHERE DODGE THE LIGHTNING I THINK HE'S THE TRAITOR OH GOD I'M FALLING
HE FELL IN THE RAINBOW PIT LOL WHAT A NOOB HEY GUYS IM THE TRAITOR OH REALLY OH GOD AVALANCHE WHY IS IT SNOWING HEY ADD A CAROUSEL THAT WORKS THAT WOULD BE AWESOME LOL GUYS I HEAR C4 NO WAIT THAT'S JUST MICROWAVE MOUNTAIN

[DemiGod]

When I read too fun to play, I read

Tetris inspired games, maps and modifications are illegal and possession or creation of such can be punished by death

Oh yeah and your dog is trained now

[laser2150]

If you map is just being played with while its made, run fast on .bsp, or shit, if your map isn't huge, don't even need to run vvis.

let me clarify, vvis creates visleafs so the engine can use those to determine what needs to be rendered, so if your map isn't like a rp map, or filled to the brim with phyics and props, you can skip vvis. full vvis takes forever, and fast can work on pre-release canidates.

[AttackingHobo]

If you map is just being played with while its made, run fast on .bsp, or shit, if your map isn't huge, don't even need to run vvis.

let me clarify, vvis creates visleafs so the engine can use those to determine what needs to be rendered, so if your map isn't like a rp map, or filled to the brim with phyics and props, you can skip vvis. full vvis takes forever, and fast can work on pre-release canidates.

I got a quad core, so If I optimize with func_detail enought compile times are less than a minute, even though the map is pretty large, and there are a lot of lights.