Absurd Minds

Status Bar

The status bar contains a number of important pieces of information. Each bit of information has it's own little area on the bar. The areas are as follows:

Selection Information - The first bit of information on the status bar is about what is currently selected. If you've got a non-entity brush selected, you will see something like "solid with 6 faces". If you've got an entity selected, you will see something like "func_breakable" or "name1 - func_breakable". (The second example "name1 - func_breakable" - will be shown if you've selected an entity that has a name).


Coordinates - Follow the selection information, you'll see something like "@32, 144". These are the coordinates of the mouse cursor in whichever 2D view it's currently in.

Selection Size Information - When you select a brush or entity, it's size will be listed here. You'll see the width, length, and height values listed as something like "32w 128l 64h".

Zoom Size - If a 2D view is currently in focus, it's zoom value will be shown next.

Grid Information - The last box displays something like "Snap: On Grid: 16". This means that Snap To Grid is enabled (Shift+W to toggle it) and the current grid is in 16 unit increments (Use [ and ] to decrease and increase the size).

Textures Toolbar (more of a dialog >.<)

The Textures toolbar is used to select the current texture.

Texture group - The texture group pull-down menu lets you choose either All Textures, or individual texture WADs. This affects which textures will be displayed when you Browse.

Current Texture - This lists the name of the current texture and below that, a small picture of the texture. The pull-down menu lists the most recent texture choices.

Browse - This brings up the Texture Browser, pictured below.

Replace - This will bring up the Replace Textures dialog.

Texture Browser
Texture Browser properties
The texture browser has a number of properties that make texture handling easier.

Size - This lets you set the display size of textures - 1:1 (actual size), 32x32, 64x64, or 128x128.


Filter - You can enter substrings in this text box. Only textures whose names contain the substring will be listed.

Only Used Textures - if you enable this, only previously used (in the current map) textures will be displayed. You can combine this with the filter substrings.

Mark - click on this to mark faces that have the selected texture on them.

Replace - this brings up the Replace Textures dialog

Map Tools Toolbar: part 1/5
The Map Tools toolbar lets you switch between the different editing modes. This toolbar can safely be closed as each button also links to a hotkey.



Selection Tool
Selection - (Shift+S) The selection tool allows you to accomplish a number of things. To simply select an object, click once. Continue clicking on the selected area to cycle through the three basic transformation modes (resize, rotate, and shear).

Resize mode allows you to grab any corner or edge of the selected object and resize it by pulling it to the desired size.


In Rotate mode, you can grab any corner of a selected object and pull it around to rotate the object into any position you wish. If you have the rotations set to 15 degrees by default (this is set in the 2D Views options), this can be overridden by holding shift while you rotate the object.

Shear mode lets drag the edges of an object parallel to its surface. For example, if you grab the top edge of a selected object while in shear mode, you would be able to drag that edge right or left.

Tip: You can clone a selected object by holding down the shift button and click-dragging the object. This can be done regardless of what selection mode the object is in (resize, rotate, or shear). See Creating Solids for more information.

Note: While in selection mode, you can select multiple objects by dragging a selection box around them and pressing Enter. If Auto-Selection is toggled on, pressing Enter is not necessary.

Map Tools Toolbar: part 2/5

Magnify
Magnify - (Shift+G) This tool allows you to increase the magnification factor of the 2D views. Zoom back out again by clicking the right mouse button. You can also zoom in and out by pressing the number keys while the mouse cursor is in a 2D view, or by using the + and - keys.

Camera
Camera - (Shift+C) This tool allows you to place and modify cameras within your level. While in camera mode, hold shift and left-click-drag a line to create the camera. A line with a dot (the view point) will be drawn in the 2D views, where you can adjust it until it is pointing in the direction you'd like. To place more than one camera in a level, just repeat the above steps.

Cameras are good for helping you visualize the creation of your level. They are especially useful when using the Vertex Manipulation tool as they allow you to see exactly what you are doing to a brush. You will find multiple cameras especially useful if you are working on several areas of a level at once. Placing a new camera in an area negates the need to search for that area when you want to work on it again.

When you're in camera mode, you can cycle through all available cameras by pressing the PageUp/PageDn keys. To delete the current camera, press Delete. More information can be found in The 3D and 2D Views.



Entity

Entity - (Shift+E) This tool allows you to place point-based entities in a map. (Point-based entities are those entities which exist only at a point, and do not rely on a brush for their effect) Once selected, the New Objects dialog will contain a list of entities from which to choose. Click on one of the 2D views and press Enter to place the entity. If Snap To Grid is enabled, the new entities will be snapped to the grid.

Note: In order to place a brush-based entity (a func_door for example) you must first create the brush with the Block Tool (see below), then select it, and press Ctrl+T. You will be given a list of entities to choose from which will be different than those shown with the Entity Tool.

Map Tools Toolbar part 3/5

Block
Block - (Shift+B) his is the basic creation tool available to you. It allows you to create any of the different types of primitive shapes. For more information, see Creating Solids.

Texture Application
Texture Application - (Shift+A) This toggles the Face Properties dialog on and off. This dialog allows you to edit the texture properties of individual brush faces. For more information, see Texturing Solids.


Apply Current Texture

Apply Current Texture - (Shift+T) When pressed, the current texture is applied to every face of the selected brushes. For more information, see Texturing Solids

Map Tools toolbar part 4/5

Apply Decal
Apply Decal - (Shift+D) A decal is a texture that can be placed on top of another texture. Common examples include scorch marks or bullet holes. Use the Apply Decal button to place a decal in the 3D window. Decal textures can be viewed and selected in the Textures window. Half-Life's decal textures are designated by the use of a { as the first character in the texture name.

Clip
Clip - (Shift+X) Clipping allows you to slice the currently selected brush. You have the option of only splitting the brush, or actually slicing a piece right off. For more info, see Reshaping Solids.

Vertex Manipulation
Vertex Manipulation - (Shift+V) Vertex manipulation gives you complete control over the shape of a brush. You can reshape the brush by manipulating individual vertices and brush edges. For more information, see Reshaping Solids.

Map Tools Toolbar part 5/5

Path Tool
Path - (Shift+P) This tool greatly simplifies the creation of paths for trains and monsters. It allows you to create dynamic paths that you can add and delete nodes to.

With the Path Tool selected...

Hold Shift and the left mouse button, and drag a line in a 2D view. This creates the first two path points.


A dialog box will pop up where you can set the name of the path, the path direction (one way, circular, or ping-pong), and the entity type (typically path_corner or path_track).

To add new points to the path, click on one of the existing path points, hold Ctrl and drag with the left mouse button. Do this as needed until you have your path complete.

Note: The start of the path is denoted by the point with the green circle around it.

Very good breaking down the dialog, tools, and brushes, etc... i was thinking maybe we should work on condensing these threads into more of encyclopedia of the details of hammer... im just getting back into the forums true.... but im impressed with the knowledge you've gained but lets work together and focus our energy cause its primarily me and you that have this gig, so lets modify and make it less menacing to others maybe once they realized like we do what Hammer is about and how it works, we'll attract some more inspiration.

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Tyler was going to take his first post and make direct links to the relevant posts once he was done. I can also quickly do that if you would like.

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