Getting Started with Valve Hammer Editor 3.5: A Beginner's Guide to Mapping in Half-Life Source

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If you're interested in creating custom maps for popular first-person shooters like Counter-Strike or Team Fortress 2, then this tutorial is here to help get you started! In order to begin mapping, however, there are a few essential tools that you'll need to download and install onto your computer.

Step 1: Downloading the Required Software

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of map creation itself, let's take care of business by downloading all the necessary software. You can find links to these files below:

* Valve Hammer Editor 3.5: This is the main editor that you'll be using for creating and editing your maps.

* Download: 'https://www.vikendi.org/hammerserver/hammer/HammerSetup.exe'(https://www.vikendi.org/hammerserver/compiler/)

* ZHLT Tools (hlrad, hlbsp, hlvis, hlcsg)

These are additional tools that will help you optimize and compile your maps once they're complete.

* Download: 'http://zdoom.wiki/Troubleshooting#Troubles_with_HLDS'(http://www.vikendi.org/hammerserver/zhltdownload)

Step 2: Installing the Software

Once all of these files have been downloaded onto your computer, it's time to install them. Here are some quick steps for each:

1\. Installing Valve Hammer Editor 3.5

* Double-click on the `HammerSetup.exe` file that you just downloaded.

* Follow through with the installation prompts until asked where you'd like to install the software.

+ Choose a location such as 'C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\steamapps\\your steam username\steamworkshl2\hl2mpmaps'

+ Make sure that both of these boxes are checked before proceeding:

- Create Desktop Shortcuts

- Add to system PATH

1.3\. Once installation is complete, you should now see two new icons on your desktop:

* One for the Valve Hammer Editor itself

* Another that will launch Steam and take you straight into Source Engine\HL2MP

Step 3: Creating Your First Map!

Now that we've got all of our software installed correctly, it's time to start creating some maps!

1.4\. Double-click on the Valve Hammer Editor icon located in your Start menu or Applications folder depending upon which operating system you're using.

The first thing you'll see when opening up the editor is a blank map view with several tools and panels along the top of the screen:

* Toolbar: This bar across the top contains all of your most frequently used brushes, entities, etc.

* Clicking on any one will bring it into focus so that you can manipulate its properties further if needed!

* -Brushes: These are essentially building blocks for creating shapes and structures within your map. You'll be using these a lot when mapping!

+ func_static: This is an invisible solid entity used primarily as a worldspawn brush to define the overall bounds of your map.

1) Right-click anywhere in the editor window then select 'Entity' from the context menu that appears.

2) In the Entity Properties panel on the right-hand side, under 'Class', enter `func_static`.

* -Entities: These are objects or items within a level such as players, props (static models), lights etcetera which can't be touched by default but still affect gameplay somehow.

+ For example:

1) Right-click again in the map view and select 'Entity' from the context menu once more.

2) In this case we want to create a player so under 'Class', type `info_player_counterterrorist`.

* -Materials: These are essentially textures applied onto surfaces within your worldspace like wood planks or metal walls etcetera.

That concludes our basic introduction into the world of mapping with Valve Hammer Editor 3.5! In future tutorials, we'll be diving deeper into more advanced topics such as lighting and texturing your maps to really make them stand out from the crowd. Until then happy mappy making everyone!!

Valve hammer editor 3.5 tutorials