Your First Room

In this tutorial I will explain to you how to make a room, in the simplest way it can be done. If you are not familier with the Hammer Enviroment then read this tutorial and/or use it as a reference guide.
First off open up Source SDK and choose the game that you want to make the map for (Game Configuration).
For this tutorial im going to be making the map for Counter-Strike: Souce (CSS)

Lets get started then.

Now open up a new map in hammer. File ->> New.
Now before showing you how to start making your map im going to show you how creating blocks works.

(Note: Press [ or ] to increase or decrease the size of the grid (how far the lines are apart), Shift + W to toggle snap to grid. Snap to grid makes objects snap to the grid in units that you choose)

Select the block tool
Now click and drag on the top right viewport. Dont worry about how far you drag as this is just a demonstration.

Once you have dragged out your block to your desired size let go of the mouse click and press Enter.

The block that you have made will still be selected (you can see this because the lines are red), so just hit Esc/Escape and then it will unselect it in the block tool mode. When you hit Esc it automatically goes back to the selection tool.

Now that we have got the block selected with the selection tool it shows the dimensions of the block you have selected.
Next up lets create a camera so we can view the object we just created. So select the camera tool
Like we did with the block tool you just click and drag.

Then let go of the mouse button.
(Note: if the blocks aren’t turning out with a texture on them then click on the top right viewport where it says “Camera” and then click on “3D Textured”)

Congratulations, you’ve just created your first camera and block!

Now, if you dont know how to use the camera tool then i’ll quickly explain it to you. (I’ll take it youve played HL2 or CSS though). The keys are exactly the same as CSS or HL2 except to start/stop using the camera you press Z. So hover your mouse over the top left viewport and press Z. Now your the camera. use W, A, S, D to move around and move the mouse to look around. The camera will follow the mouse.

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Now that I’ve run through using the very basics of Hammer its time to start making you room!
Close the map you were just working on and open up another one.

First of all create a camera.

Then create a block that is:
]Width: 64
Length: 512
Height 128

As shown in this picture:

Then another block next to it:

Dimensions:
Width: 64
Length: 512
Height 128

Note: Make sure that your blocks are touching in the top right and bottom right! If they are not you will get a leak! I will explain what these are in another tutorial, but make sure they are touching! It should look like this:

Then another block:

Dimensions:
Width: 64
Length: 512
Height 128

And another:
Dimensions:

Width: 64

Length: 512

Height 128

Now that you’ve created the walls for your room its time to create the ceiling and the floor. First up; the floor:

Make sure that you create this at the bottom of your walls.

Dimensions:

Width: 640
Length: 512
Height 64

Then the ceiling:
Dimensions:

Width: 640
Length: 512
Height 64

Congratulations, you’ve made your first room!

Now to add a spawn point.

Click on the entity tool.
Now on the right pane of hammer look at the New Objects toolbar.

(Make sure that you have nothing selected when doing this)

Under ‘Categories’ select Entities.
And under objects select ‘info_player_terrorist’ if your mapping for CSS or ‘info_player_start’ for HL2.

Once you have selected that; click just above the floor on one of the viewports. This makes sure that the spawn point is created and that the player doesn’t get stuck to the ground when spawned.

It should look something like that.

Then simply just hover your mouse over the viewport and hit Enter

This is where you will spawn when you compile your map!

Now lets add some light to the map!

Select the entity tool again and scroll down to ‘light’
Add four of them in the corner’s of the room. Try not to place them to close to the floor/ceiling/walls.

Now that we have added some light to the map, lets change the texture’s of the room.

The default texture in most cases is brick/brickfloor001a
Click the texture application
This brings up the Texture Application/Face Edit Sheet Window.

Keep this window open and go into the 3D/Top Left viewport and press Z. Go to the inside of your room and click on the walls. They will then have a transparent red over them showing you that you have selected a face. Now select all of the inside walls. (Shift + Left Click to select more than one). Now select all 4 of the inside walls.

Then click on ‘Browse…’

This brings up the Texture Library.

Under filter at the bottom type in brick/brickwall003d
Double click on it. Then on the Texture application click Apply. Your room should now look like this:

Now lets apply another texture to the floor. Select the floor with the texture application and then browse to the texture metal/metalfloor003a

Your room should now look like this:

Now were ready to compile the map!

Navigate toFile->> Run Map

This brings up the Run Map Window.

(If you have a slow/’ish computer, then uncheck the HDR option if you want, and check the ‘Don’t run the game after compiling’ option. This will give you time to close other applications before running it)
When your ready click OK and it will start compiling!