Mapping 101 - Adding Breakable Windows - Tutorial 7
Time for some windows now I think, again we will use CSG Subtract, but before we do I will just say a few words about it. We've already used edge manipulation and brush clipping, these are the preferred method for changing the shape and size of your brushes. Sometimes, however, we find ourselves in a situation where dragging vertexes around or clipping isn't going to accomplish our goal. Enter the carving tools. Carving or cutting is another hotly debated topic among mappers. Some never use it, claiming the operation causes leaks and other problems. Others use it indiscriminately, abandoning caution (and technique) to the wind. Enough can't be said about planning your map. But the best-laid plans can go awry. Situations where you may find carving useful is when you've reached a point in your map where tearing out a lot of construction just to put in that elevator shaft isn't worth the effort. It's easier to punch a quick hole in the floor than to re-build and re-texture a few rooms. As long as you are careful with it, and use it sensibly you wont go far wrong, I myself rarely use it, and prefer where possible to make all brushes from scratch. Just remember to ALWAYS save your work before using it. Time for some work...
First punch a hole in the right, courtyard/passageway wall 96 x 64, using CSG Subtract. See Figure 1.
Figure 1. Now make a brush 4 x 96 x 64, to fill the hole (Figure 2), and center it in the window. You will have to change your grid to 2 and zoom in a bit.
Figure 2.
While it is still selected apply the "armory/window2" texture. If your texture scale starts at 1, then you will notice that the texture is not aligned properly. Press S to open the surface inspector window. We will now use the "Horizontal shift" & "Vertical shift", type 16 in both boxes and click on "Ok". The texture should now be aligned. See the texture tutorial for an in depth discussion on textures.
If you have "Hi Color Textures" turned on, in the preferences then your texture scaling will start at .5, if it is turned off scaling will start at 1.
If you compile and run the map, and try and shoot the windows, you will see that you can't break them. We want breakable windows so we need to make some changes. Select the window brush and then Right-Click on the map to drop down the entity menu, select func>func_breakable. Press N to bring up the entity properties and type "material" in the "Key" box and "37" in the "Value" box. Now do exactly the same for the left passageway wall, so you end up with 2 windows, one each side of the courtyard.
Figure 3.
Hopefully yours looks like Figure 3, if it does and the windows break when you shoot them a few times, move on to tutorial 8. |
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