I just have one last question: When working in hammer, is there a way to make it so props and the likes will be visible from a higher distance? Some props become difficult to work around when they turn into a giant yellow/purple/red box.
Yes.
Tools -> Options… -> 3D views -> Model render distance
Thanks a bunch.
HAY. Necro-ing my own thread out of the olden-pages, cuz it’s along the same lines. Except the map I’m in is now a L4D2 map (same map, just ported over to the l4d2 authoring tools version of Hammer.
So I was fooling around, filling out the above-ground portion of the level, making it look like some woods, not just a flat bunch of dirt in the middle of the sky, figured out that Player Clip brushes are what you use to block survivors and not infected, did that all around the woods, played through for continuity, discovered how to properly use the farz thingamajig, and now have a 3/4 complete map (not even touching nav-mapping yet), half of which is decorated.
Anywho. I attempted to put fog in, and the result is pretty… chilling.
How do I do this properly so a wall of fog shows up once the “fog” effect on the entities has reached 100%. Right now, I’m only using an env_fog_controller, I take it I’m missing something. Or am I thinking fog works in a way it doesn’t really work, and I should really just be choosing a fog color closer to the sky-color?
You need to have the fog set up the same for the 3D skybox
And it will what? Fade into the skybox? Blarg, now I have to go play with 3d-skyboxery.
Or make a custom skybox set to the fog colour
But that would make the sky a solid wall of fog… Which might be good for some other levels, but I think for this one, I’m going to cut the fog and do my best to keep it looking good.
Keep in mind that you can reduce the fog density and make the end distance farther back to avoid completely fogging over transparent cards like those trees there, and to avoid the obvious ‘fog’ effect, while still providing some ambience. Of course this is not compatible with the far Z clipping plane, unless you can never see that far without fog (and in that case, far z clip seems unnecessary anyway)
There is no 2D sky fog in Source, so if you want an overcast effect, you have to create a custom skybox of flat color with the exact same hue as the fog.
Necro-ing again. I’m back to work, and have seriously optimized this map. Five minute compiles, the forests props are removed (I was using ALL real trees, stupidly), set up the barriers, have the underground section completed, and 90% of the rest of the map finished. Now with zero FPS drops. My next step is finishing the forest, setting the stage for the second panic event, and then populating the forest with a few trees near the edges and 2d tree-cards. Then it’s a matter of figuring out panic events a little better, and navmapping. I’ll have my first map.
Actually, before I navmap, I’ll make the starting saferoom for the second level and link them so there’s less possibility of losing my navmap when I recompile with the level-link.
Once I do that, I’ll prolly put up a link for some feedback. I’d expect a month (because I only get a few minutes a day until the quarters done, waaaay too much work, and this project is keeping me sane, giving me something to do when I just can’t flash any more).
Oh yeah, a reason for posting: Any tips on making panic events work properly, lemme know here.