Just a little tip for the future. In Source 2 we no longer construct our maps using blocks everywhere, since everything is a mesh now we instead just use faces. Basically the old idea of putting nodraw textures on all unused faces is no longer a thing, instead we only actually create the faces that will be visible. To make a quick starting room you can just make a block in the same size you want it to be and then invert it, done, room created.
I agree, this should go to the top so he can notice it, and go watch a video on how to do that. The workflow is so much better, expanding meshes, to make walls, corridors, inset them, make them rounded and so much more.
Sounds like that would allow a day and night cycle ingame? The way I understand it, that you couldn't do sun movement in CS1 or 2 right now because all light is baked, right?
Since they announced CS2, i began waiting for your "new hammer editor" tutorials, since i learned mapping with your videos. I hope ti see you make more and better maps in the future. Also if you are willing to meet a fan in cologne or needed help, I'd love to meet you
I would do anything just to get your hammer tutorials for s2 hammer, they were what got me into mapping, no time wasted, exactly what you needed, you could binge watch the entire series of videos in such a short time and you got so much knowledge, thanks for making those!
Man I use the watch your videos as a kid long ago when I made CS:Source maps. After my time in the military I decided to go full on and become an Environment artist for games. I landed a position at EA as my first job in the industry. Seeing all these source 2 editor features fundamentally make so much more sense to me now then it did a decade ago. I am just sitting here laughing as I recall not understanding a damn thing in your videos back when I was a kid. Now that I have used Unreal Engine and Frostbite engine for years now professionally , I hope source 2 comes naturally. I am planning on booting source 2 up and creating some environments soon. Its really nice seeing you still on RU-vid making videos about this. You really did inspire me to start making maps and ultimately becoming an environment artist professionally! Cheers man
Your map making series inspired me to start making maps. Now I have 2757 hours in hammer editor and made one of the de_fenestration maps (df_pipline). I hope you can spread the joy of making maps to new people in the future. Thank you!
This is your best video in a long time. I got to know you as the "Map tutorial guy" way back when. I can't wait to see what you uncover, you Source Engine Detective Genius!
You got me into mapping, and I've released multiple competitive and workshop maps with the help of our community. Please, please, please make more videos talking about the new editor! I no longer have time to create maps, but maybe someone else will be inspired and have fun like I did years ago. Much love!
About 10 Years ago your creative and experimental source maps have gotten me into mapping. Back then you made a hammer tutorial on func_rotating's and showed the entity off with spinning pyramid shapes. I then used these exact pyramids in my first map and began my own journey. It never was of high quality but brought me and my friends plenty of fun. Can't wait to see where this new part of the journey leads 3kliks!
I first started watching you with your CSGO hammer tutorials. Not only were they informative and concise but also sprinkled with your lovable humor. Its been a joy, man.
Wow. Just Wow. I loved mapping in source 1 and made countless crappy prototypes that I loved. But, the main reason why I stopped was because it was just so damn time consuming and every time I did one little mistake it would cause the map to not compile, and so many headaches. I especially loved making surf maps, but my god were those triangles a pain in the ass. Seeing what source 2 is now capable of and the ease little prototypes like this can be made, I am inspired to jump back into mapping again. Thanks!
Oh man this bring me back the memories, of your s1 tutorial videos! That's how, we all got into mapping! I am so fucking hyped, for the future of Source 2!
Yesss more map making content! The updated source 2 tools look great, I was afraid they would be very complex and hard to get into for new mappers, but they look even simpler than source 1 for creating basic maps!
I would looove to see mapping stuff from you :) I think I will try to learn it as well, and the way you make tutorials has always been my favorite so I'm excited if that ends up happening! I personally hope that at some point Valve makes left 4 dead 3, because I'd love to map for that as well
I wish valve would have taken into consideration mapmakers with the cs2 beta. I dont really play cs anymore but still love to make maps here and there, would've been fun to be given access just to mess around with the new mapmaking.
I came from a very entry level mapping experience in source 1 to a new engine and have been grinding to figure out how stuff works. I managed to make a playable defuse map even tho it's even below BadMap1 qualitywise. I must say it's not an easy thing to get into but finding out how stuff works is so rewarding. I made 4 iterations of the same portion of a CT spawn just because I would get stuck and realize that to fix what I had done wrong I had to delete the whole thing so basically, I'm compiling a log of ways in which I screwed up. Looking forward to a mapping journey from you so I can piggyback off of your knowledge (much like I did for cs:go) as you discover and improve aswell. Thank you for the good work.
That bit about getting used to the new tools being scary is so real. Nowadays using Hammer is like the back of my hand, knowing all of the useful keybinds. Atleast I map for TF2 so I won't be changing map editors anytime soon.
First stumbling upon this channel when Phillip was still making Hammer tutorials back in the day and subbing, and seeing this video drop on my birthday all these years later is the best gift I could of ever hoped for, thank you Phillip.
For those starting Source 2, lemme give my advice (I've used hammer in HL:A and s&box) VIS will compile better if you have a map sealed otherwise you'll have it calculating way further extending compile times and it being a nightmare Don't use block building techniques in Source 2 hammer, use mesh techniques and good mesh practice to build your maps (similar to modelling software) For those wondering with "env_combined_light_probe_volume", its used in areas with reflective materials involved and to do lightmap samples for baking To put that quickly in my opinion: If an area is entirely reflective mats, use the combined light probe if an area has some reflective mats but rest aren't, you can separate it into cubemap boxes and light probe volumes otherwise, just use a light probe volume All in all, its best you look at tutorials with Source 2's hammer which I'll recommend watching Eagle One Development Team's playlist on (it covers HL:A and CS2)
I will never forget my first csgo map that I made thanks to you! your sdk tutorials gave me confidence to try, and after finishing a rough scratch of the map I played with my friends and had a lot of fun! I really appreciate your csgo videos and have been a watcher for over 10 years now! I hope you continue on delivering great content!
Yes! Please do share your cs2 mapping journey, a few years back I learned the basics of csgo mapping off your guides and would love more mapping content!
What you said at 3:15 made me realize, those intro/victory videos could probably be different depending on who won? Would be cool if it showed the bombsite being blown up if T-side managed to or not.
Lol I remember asking like... 2 years ago if you would do the mapping series for this game. You did say you will but need to learn it yourself.. and I can see why. Guess I got my answer! Super excited !
I really want to watch a series where you deal with map making again I fell in love with your old videos, which is why I still watch your newer ones, even if I stopped playing CS:GO entirely
When I was studying games programming as our cool project idea we wanted to digitise our campus into a 3D shooter game, like CSGO. Our teacher said there’s no way we’re having students make a game to practise the best way to shoot each other in this building. Look, that’s a fair point when you mention it! We pivoted!
5:26 oh, i have something to add! very long time listener, first time caller hah! i love your work. from experience with building with unity, the "real time ray tracing" in the editor there is not something thats intended as a gameplay thing, not to say that it couldnt hypothetically be, but thats not gameplay ray/path tracing, thats a live preview of what the light baking/compiling function does! just with a lot less bounces, usually theres a max sample count which is why it looks less grainy over time, and it resets the samples every time you move the camera. blender has done the same thing for years using the cycles render mode, unity supports it too through an addon called "Bakery" with the realtime addon. its more similar to how the Portal RTX release functions, its doing all the lighting with path tracing live, but that has lots of smoothing so it doesnt look like the raw static the engine is actually seeing. the editor in source 2 however is far more intensive and "complete", its representative of what the map will look like after its baked, but thanks to modern graphics cards, waiting for things to be baked to see how lighting looks can be a thing of the past! well.. assuming you shell out for a 4090 like SOMEONE i know ehehe. anyways, never stop being who you are! i never get as excited about a video anymore on this platform as i do with yours! hell, i hardly even play csgo anymore, i just love game engine stuff.
7:42 I'd imagine it's because they would cover the same general area anyways. From what I've read, Source 1 would automatically generate ambient cubes, which function just like the 'light balls', where they sample lighting and apply it to dynamic entities. Like with cubemaps, these entities would be lit from the nearest cube. I'd imagine this could lead to unnatural results, like an NPC receiving light/reflections from an adjacent room, even if there's a wall in-between. Having a combined cubemap/light probe with a bounding box solves both issues with a single entity.
Super excited to see a map making series for CS2. Doesn't have to be anything serious like Sparity. Just enough to discuss your thoughts on mapping, playtesting, working, and learning in Source 2.
Finally Source2 mapping content! Waited for this. Please continue this adventure and share it with us. I could listen to your videos for hours and since Source2 reignited my love for mapping again I'm content hungry. I'd love to see how you figure things out bit by bit. For example how you currently use boxes like a brush but surely will soon realize that this is not the way in Source2 (Especially now with Backface light blocking! VALVe please bring this to HL:A). But I'm still sooo sad that I wont be able to make any (usable) Maps since there is no option for CPU rendering. I dont have an RTX Card and cant afford one currently. I'm sad that VALVe took this route eventhough I felt like they always try to include a huge community... but apparently not this time. I hope the community will bring a custom build tool for lighting where you can choose what to use. I'd rather wait 4 full days until my map is fully rendered than not beeing able to render the map at all...
Greati video! i really feel strongly about sticking with cs mapmaking for newer mapmakers that just got around csgos hammer! ive heard numerous comments about stopping mapping for having to learn a new editor and tools is too much work! i really feel this is a learning opportunity for everyone since the technical side has jumped, what 20 years forward. again, great video!
been watching the issues we face as a community on loot boxs. Do keep up the good work on creating content about the game and helping everyone enjoy the game as a game. Thank you Philip!
I really hope we get a nice playlist of short and concise mapping tutorials, just like the hammer ones but for source 2. Those tutorials are invaluable!
This is what I was waiting for. New co op maps, this time made even better. I just know that people will make crazy missions and fun stuff. Great new content for me and other youtubers.
Very, very much looking forward to CS2 mapmaking content. I'd especially love tutorials, but even just overview content like this is extremely interesting and entertaining.
There's just something absolutely special about mapmaking, regardless of what game it is. Watching this video really takes me back to the days where I'd spend endless hours watching tutorials about Hammer, trying to figure out how to do anything.
That approach to raytracing is really interesting to me. I think a lot of games could use baked raytraced lighting while only using direct illumination and ambient occlusion for the real-time stuff.
Coming from Blender and Source 1 I felt more at home with Source 2s hammer than I ever did Source 1. But I can certainly see how things may be less intuitive for others. By the by, it is still recommended to seal your maps for baking VIS, but it's less of an issue especially with the newly added culling methods. If anyones looking for tutorials, Eagle One Development team has a good series of long form tutorials for Hammer, and Hosomi has some excellent short concise videos on specific features and techniques.
Thank you for this, Phil. This is completely besides the point of the video, but I've been struggling to become a Producer for a couple of months now, and this vid has kind of shown me that it's alright to be in the process of not being as good or efficient at using a piece of software (in my case Ableton) when starting out and to not hold myself to high standards and to just do something, anything. I think my main takeaway form this video is that to be good at something, you need to be bad at it first.
I just started writing a long-form tutorial for Source 1 mapping and the first three pages are "here's how to install Hammer", "here's how to look at Hammer button tooltips", and "here's how to make the world's shittiest box with a random texture and exactly one player spawn entity and compile it". The pages after that will explain how to make it not technically shitty and then how to make it not design-y shitty, but the point of the first three pages rushing the reader through as fast as possible is to stop people from being able to say "I can't make a map". Because you literally did just make a map.
That first map does not deserve to be called BadMap1. It perfectly worked as expected. It's done its work just finely - to demonstrate new no-seal approach. You should've commended it Good job, NotBadMap1
It's interesting to see an engine evolve, when it's around for a long time. I never got into source engine but had about the same journey with Unreal, from version 1 with Deus Ex, then the Unreal Tournament series and Gears of War and UE4 and now UE5. It's fun to see certain elements being dragged along over decades (like BSP or CSG) and slowly being deprecated. Oh, and I too had a problem with feature creep in maps when starting out, but that's how you'll learn to compromise.
When the CS2 open beta comes out, many like you will make their own maps and their own content within the Hammer. It's a beautiful start to CS2. Let's hope the same for other Valve games, like Team Fortress 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead, etc.
I entered my map Into a Half-life Alyx mapping competition, it's a mini campaign featuring a new time of day/atmosphere and some mechanics that weren't in the default game!. Got 4th place I think? was a ton of fun learning source 2, feels like S1 but WAY less limited even with the half finished tools in HL:A. Best luck 4clickingphillps! As an interesting sidenote, I found this channel for its hammer tutorials ages ago.... Here I am again enjoying more hammer tuts essentially in 2023...makes me feel happy to be around for once XD.
Wow that lighting is massive. One of the reasons I gave up on mapping was because I just wanted to check my lighting but my map had become so complicated that itd take hours to render just to check out 1 room
Great to see you fiddeling around in the new Hammer with such fresh enthusiasm :) While i have not managed to finish and deploy my map i'm working on since Source times (was ported to csgo, i know it seems crazy but i also have a life, hahahaha) ... I've got more than 1200 hours in Hammer and 75% of what i know or learned was from you back in the days!!! Always loved your videos/content
man this takes me back... when i got my orange box and CSS i probably spent more time in hammer than in those games. every day i would draw maps during class and when i got home i would try and build them in hammer. i watched a handful of tutorials to understand the basics, but most of what i learned was from studying valves maps. i wish i still had that drive for game development.
I love how in the intro, Phillip used footage of the school map that was made by a student who got expelled and had to transfer because the school board found out their school was in a game about terrorists
If anyone reading these comments is curious to learn how to map for Source 2, I highly recommend looking at Eagle One Development's mapping tutorials. Their CS2 mapping tutorial is okay, but I recommend watching their Half-Life: Alyx mapping tutorials first. Their Half-Life: Alyx tutorials are MUCH more comprehensive, they talk more in-depth about topics like lighting, ngons, etc... they cover everything you need to know about mapping anything in Source 2. If you want to learn more, the Valve Developer Wiki is your friend (just be sure to consult the pages for Half-Life: Alyx and SteamVR Home mapping too, as those may contain information about entities that the CS2 pages do not)
