Trading in UED for Hammer

Category : games + half-life + updates

In the past I’ve tried creating maps for Unreal, mainly Unreal 2004 and a couple of it’s mods. But I’ve developed this kind of love/hate relationship with UnrealEd and the Unreal engine where I decided to try something new. Now don’t get me wrong, Unreal is a very good engine and the editor is by far the best out there in almost every aspect. However I never actually managed to release any of my work largely due to the fact that I didn’t like how some things looked or turned out differently in game. And revisiting the engine and many of my projects now, I noticed how everything looks a bit washed out and aged when put next to other titles.

So over the past week I dumped everything I’ve ever worked on in UED and switched over to teaching myself how to use Hammer, and in doing so I’ve learned that there is always some kind of trade-off. The main trade-off is clearly the editor in question. Hammer isn’t exactly flush with as many options on the surface as UED is, but for some this might be a good thing. The learning curve however is very shallow in comparison, but some of the methods for creating a map are similar with some minor differences.

The largest adjustment for me is learning how to model a map largely using BSP brushes and limiting the number of models in used that are in view. Previously I was modeling mostly with terrain layers and meshes with very little BSP as Unreal gave you a performance penalty if too many BSP brushes were used, so you had to balance. While juggling your geometry still applies to Hammer and Source based games, the bonus is that there’s actually less to do. This allows me to focus more on the layout than asking myself whether I want to use a model or brush for a certain area where either could work in that type of scenario, but the only drawback to that is I’m having to retrain myself to use primarily BSP brushes without making it overly complex.

Until I find an easy and suitable method for creating overcast conditions with rolling cloud shadows over a large stretch of outdoor terrain, then I’ll still miss Unreal and UED for being able to create a good atmosphere. However, Valve seems to be constantly updating Source quite frequently with each new game to a point that eventually some of those features and options may be possible in the future. In the meantime I’m going to start by creating a Team Fortress 2 map which I actually intend to release, and possibly document how some stuff was made.

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