[Share][Guide]Making Your First Map in Counter-Strike: Source

[Morian]

1.  Introduction

 

First of all, I want to inform you why I am writing another sets of tutorials for CS:S. There are already countless tutorials on the internet on the same subject, but what makes these tutorials stand out is that I am going to make you into a good (or even great) mapper. I am going to teach good mapping techniques from the start, so you don't develop bad habits. I am going to infuse you with practical knowledge from the perspective of an experienced mapper. It's not just about the technical aspects of mapping--you can get that from any other counter-strike website. Follow my advice, and I'll save you from regret and massive mistakes in your mapping career.

 

In addition, I am going to cover the aesthetics aspects of mapping as well as the technical skills. Mapping really should be considered an art form. Simply getting a map to compile and load without error is not sufficient. A serious mapper should set his sights on something more. Not only are we going to discuss gameplay, but we're also going to cover performance optimization and how to make your maps realistic and beautiful. These will be covered in the advanced topics later, but once you mastered them, you're going to impress your friends and clan members to no ends.

 

So, without further delay, let's get right to it. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to make a simple room in CS:S. But before we get started, you should already be familiar with the Steam directory structure and know how to work with the CS:S console. If not, I strongly recommend you reading up on the tutorial Configuring Hammer and Working with CS:S Console first.

 

 

2. A Quick Tour of Hammer

 

 

When Hammer first loads, there is no map open. Go ahead and start a new map by picking "New" under the "File" menu. Once the new file is created, there are two toolbars on the screen--one horizontally on top and one vertically down the left side. You will be using the tools on the left most frequently. The section on the right hand side is mostly for texture and entity selection. We'll cover them one by one in detail later.

 

Let's tidy up the various tool bars on the screen first. Drag the "VisGroups:" bar all the way to the right side (sometimes it starts out cluttering the screen, depending on the resolution of your monitor), so you'll have more screen real estate for viewing your map. The VIS groups is an organizational tool for map editing. I don't find it particularly useful, and many experienced mappers don't really bother themselves with it either. So let's ignore it for now.

 

After you've cleaned up your screen a bit, it should look like this:

 

The central part of the screen consists of four different views of your map. The camera view is the most difficult to understand, but it's also the most powerful. Imagine you are actually inside the map, getting a preview of what your map is going to look like once it's done. You can "fly around" in the map using different camera controls, but we won't get into that right now.

 

The 3D camera view has several options, and you can select them by clicking on the word "camera" in the upper left corner of the grid. I find the "3D Flat" option most practical, but I occasionally use the "3D Textured" view as well. The other options are for specialized mapping tasks. Set it to "3D Flat" for now.

 

The top (x/y) view is the view of your map from a birds-eye perspective. It's the easiest to work with. Whenever you become disoriented, it's the best place to get you back on track. The side and front views are self-explanatory. They are important because they give you the position of objects along the vertical axis (or the z-axis). The z-axis determines how tall or how high the objects are in your map.

 

 

3. Constructing the Basic Room

 

After the tedious technical process of configuring Hammer and setting up your editor, this is the moment you have been waiting for. We're going to make your first map. It will not be considered a masterpiece, but it will be your very significant personal milestone.

 

The first thing you need to do is select the brush constructing tool, also known as the Block Tool. A brush is the term mappers use for a block of solid geometry. It could be a wall, a ceiling, part of a window, or even glass. For now, you can just think of a brush as something solid that the player cannot walk through in the map. The Block Tool is on the left side of the screen, as shown below:

 

 

 

With the Block Tool, drag a square-shaped block in the top (x/y) view. Drag out a 256x256 block. Don't make it too big. The dimensions in Hammer is generally bigger than you expect. After you're done, it should look like the screen below:

 

 

 

In the side (y/z) view, drag the rectangular shape until the block is 192 unit tall. When the block is 256 unit wide, 256 unit deep, and 192 unit tall, hit Enter to create the block.

 

 

 

You're not done yet. The block you just created is completely solid. It's just like the wooden block kids play with. Players and entities cannot exist inside a solid block. So now you need to hollow out the inside of the block to make it into a room.

 

With your box still selected (the edges of the box in 2D view should be red), press Ctrl-H. A small dialogue box pops up, asking you for the thickness of the wall. As prompted in the dialogue, a negative number will extend the thickness of the wall outward, allowing more space inside the hollowed box itself. I tend to always hollow outward, so type in -32 for the thickness, and press Enter.

 

 

 

4. Placing a Simple Light Entity

 

As you'll learn later, light entities are crucial in making a map look good. Without proper lighting, even a map with great architecture and texturing would appear badly. Even the simplest map needs at least one light entity. Otherwise, the map would be compiled into a full-bright map (because the compiler would rather have brightness everywhere rather than complete darkness). Full-bright is a four-lettered word in the mapping community. Don't make the mistake of making a full-bright map!

 

So, let's select the Entity Tool on the left side (just above the Block Tool).

 

Then, choose the light entity from the entity selection list on the right side of the screen. We'll leave the default setting for simplicity sake.

 

 

Click somewhere inside your box on the top (x/y) view of your map. Then adjust the position of the light entity along the z-axis until it falls inside the box you've created. Make sure that the light is actually inside the three-dimensional box. This is very important. Otherwise, you'll turn out a full-bright map.

 

 

 

After the light entity is positioned as above, press Enter to finalize its position. A small red dot with an X in it should appear inside your box.

 

 

5. Placing a Spawn Point

 

Now, we still need to place a spawn point inside the map. Otherwise, the map simply won't know where to put the player when the map loads from the console. We won't worry about buyzones and teams for now. For goodness sake, we'll spawn a counter-terrorist.

 

Make sure that you're still using the Entity Tool. On the right side of the screen, type info_player_counterterrorist from the entity selection box. As you probably notice by now, the list automatically zooms in on your entity as you type, so you don't actually have to type in the whole entity name. Press Enter to select it.

 

Click inside your box on the top (x/y) view again, and then adjust the vertical placement of your green player entity. It's very important that you place the entity at least eight units above the floor. Otherwise when the map loads, your player is going to get stuck in the ground, unable to move.

 

 

 

6. Compiling Your First Map

 

 

We're almost there, and it's so close we can taste victory already. But first, we have to go through this painfully slow compiling process. Depending on the complexity of your map and the power of your hardware, a compilation could take anywhere between a few seconds to days. I've heard people spending more than three days compiling a single map. But it's a necessary evil to overcome before the game can load your map.

 

Now, here is a very important thing to remember. Have you saved all your hardwork yet? If not, go ahead and press Ctrl-S right now. Since it takes so long to compile, there is no telling what will happen during the process. The electricity could go out, a terrorist might bomb your apartment, your cat might pee on your keyboard...who knows. It's always a good idea to save your map source before compiling. This will save you immeasurable grief later, I promise.

 

For testing purposes, name your map firstmap.

 

Press F9, and a dialogue box will pop up. It's important to read carefully what each option says, especially during your first few times compiling.

 

 

Make sure you check "Normal" for Run BSP, Run VIS, and Run RAD. And check the option "Don't run the game after compiling". Leave the additional parameters blank, and press Enter.

 

For this small map, it should take just a few seconds for the map to compile. You can see the compiler generating a long list of messages during the process. Just ignore them for now.

 

When the compiler is finished, the last few lines from the compiler message should read:

 

Total triangle count: 32
Writing c:\games\hl2\steamapps\<your steam id>\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\firstmap.bsp
1 second elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "C:\Games\HL2\SteamApps\<your steam id>\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\mapsrc\firstmap.bsp" "c:\games\hl2\steamapps\<your steam id>\counter-strike source\cstrike\maps\firstmap.bsp"

 

 

And there should be an elongated button at the bottom of the message box that reads "Copy to Clipboard". You don't need to click the button.

 

 

7. Loading Your Map in the Game

 

It's the moment we've been waiting for, and there's no description for the pure w00tness that you'll experience when you run around in your own virtual world for the first time. It's something you'll never forget...like your first kiss.

 

Anyways, quit Hammer first. That's right, close the sucker. I don't care whether you have a monster computer with fourteen processors all linked together, Hammer uses a lot of resources, and Counter-Strike:Source isn't very stable when both Hammer and the engine are loaded at the same time. Running them both is a good way to crash your computer.

 

Fire up CS:S, and after you bring up the console, type map firstmap and Enter. Wait for a few tantalizing seconds, and watch your creation spawn. If you encounter an error message when attempting to load the map, read this FAQ.

 

Did you hear the angels sing? Congratulations, you made your first map! I know it's not an incredible looking map, but we all got to start somewhere.

 

Have fun feeling claustrophobic and shooting at the brick walls around you.

 

 

By the way, your screenshots are located in the directory:

SteamApps\<your steam id>\counter-strike source\cstrike\screenshots.

 

 

Source www.cstrike-planet.com

 

 

 

[RєVєnGeR^]

I Find this kinda usefull , dunno if you can post sthing similar to this for CS

 

 

I Loved it , and the result is better than fine!

[Hax0r]

I Find this kinda usefull , dunno if you can post sthing similar to this for CS

 

 

I Loved it , and the result is better than fine!

There are guides for cs already.

 

 

 

Nice one.

[K4rmaArr0ws]

Nice guide , i think it rulles  ;) . Too many guides <3 it , because they make our lifes better than before ^^

[tiranous]

to me when i open the hammer and press ''new'' it show me this :

 

and then this :

http://i28.tinypic.com/34xf1g0.jpg[/img]

 

 

what should i do???

[KnightOfH3ll]

Tiranous. U must configure the programm to work. This is from superjer.com

 

1)  Click the Game Configurations tab

2)  Click the Edit button

3)  Click the Add button in the dialog that pops up

4)  Type "cstrike" in the textbox

5)  Click the OK button

6)  Click Close

7)  Now click the Add button on the big Configure window

8 )  Add the file called "halflife-cs.fgd"

9)  Click the Textures tab

10)  Click the Add WAD button

11)  Add the file called "halflife.wad"

12)  All done -- click OK to close the big Configure window

 

You can get back to the Configure window by selecting Tools->Options from the menu bar. You should go there and look around once you are familiar with map design.

 

If you completed everything on this page, you're now ready to start building!

 

Now if you do this correctly when u press to create a new one no problems will occur.  

 

BTW if anyone ever needs help about mapping plz tell me and i will make the simplest guide about the subject. :)

 

Hope i helped.

 

[tiranous]

where i am going to find this file -->''halflife-cs.fgd''??  i searched and i didn't find it

 

and halflife.wad ,too

[KnightOfH3ll]

where i am going to find this file -->''halflife-cs.fgd''??  i searched and i didn't find it

 

and halflife.wad ,too

 

Superjer.com again

 

About the halflife-cs.fgd

 

Need to find halflife-cs.fgd?

 

It is in a sub-folder of the folder where Hammer is installed. It should be something like this:

 

C:\Program Files\Valve Hammer Editor\fgd\Counter-Strike\

 

Unless you told it to install somewhere else.

 

 

If you still dont find it download this

 

http://www.superjer.com/files/cs-fgd-xp_8u.zip

 

Unzip everything to your Hammer/fgd/counter-strike folder. Then tell Hammer to use the new FGD (Tools->Options->Game Configurations->Game Data Files box).

 

Now about the halflife.wad

 

 

WAD files can be found in your valve and cstrike folders which should be something like one of these:

 

C:\Games\Half-Life\valve\

C:\Games\Half-Life\cstrike\

 

But it depends on where you installed it.

 

 

Also if you still cant find it just download it here and use it

 

http://www.superjer.com/lies/wads.zip

 

Well thats it. I hope you find what you need. :)

[tiranous]

well i didn't made it i think that someone must make a greek guide (no c/p and no just translate this) and it will achive karma ... ... ...

 

beter explanation :

 

plz someone make a good greek guide and if it realy good and no c/p and no just translate he maybe take +1 karma ...

[KnightOfH3ll]

Well i am gonna try and make one in greek. I will help you configure it and make the map as well. With photos ofcourse.

[19920307a]

Ty. But maiby can make video?

[~GeFriDo~]

Thank you for your share/guide....!!! its really usefull for me