Large Scale Large Detail Maps

[Kaine904]

I was wondering, what kinds of limitations does hammer have for creating large and detailed maps. Basically what i am talking about is creating a true-to-life rendering of a section of a city. Rendering say, 4 square blocks of downtown chicago or indianapolis, or even NY.

Can the source engine handle maps on the scale of 10 square miles?

 

[The Dark Elf]

basically, the bigger it is, the less detail you'll have.

You've a limited number of everything, so you'd max that out filling up a large map and it'll still be less detailed than a small map.

Split it up over various map files like Valve did for C17 and other area's.

 

[RoyalEF]

Dark Elf is correct. Worldspace is 32768 x 32768 x 32768 units, where each unit is 1 inch. That works out to a little over one half mile square.

 

[Dead-Inside]

Dark Elf is correct. Worldspace is 32768 x 32768 x 32768 units, where each unit is 1 inch. That works out to a little over one half mile square.

Actually it's not translated to any real units as of now. As stated in some FAQ I read, if we were to turn Hammer units into real measurements Gordon would turn out to be a short stubby person.

That said, you're probably correct about size of map though.

When working with outside maps you can always use areaportals. Some new thread spoke about this (Here in the custom mapping forum).

 

[PvtRyan]

Actually, one unit is one inch (2,54 cm) and Gordon is 72 units, making him a normal person of 182,88 cm.

The worldmap has a maximum size of 832,3072m x 832,3072m

 

[RoyalEF]

It is one unit=one inch, however the game create a hitbox around the player of 32x32x72 units, so the game restricts players from entering space smaler than 33x33x73. This forces you to create ultra wide doorways and hallways and stairwells and prevents you from creating a "workable" model of say your house. You could do this and it would be correct but Gordon would simply get stuck.

The second thing is Gordon has an unatural perspective and, I've always believed, he sees things from a height of about 7 feet up instead of 5'9" which is where his eyes would be. I never understood why they don't adjust the rendering engine to correct this. That's why when you look down at a table that is the right height for the character it looks like it is a kid's table. Its screwed up, by the time you make it tall enough to be good from first person perspective, it looks gigantic when you see another player or NPC stand next to it.

I always place G-mans in every room so I can get a good perspective of what it looks like comparative to player heights.

 

[Hazar]

the bigger the map, the more likely it is too lag as well, unless properly optimized.

 

[Kaine904]

ic.... as i have looked around in hammer, i have to ask myself, why the devil is there not a "ruler" tool? I mean, i dont think that would be 2 much to ask, just drag from point a to point b and get a nice and clear American unit or Metric unit designation for the distance. I mean, its so easy to lose your sense of perspective...

Also, would it be possible for someone to fix that perticular gordon perspective skrewup? I mean, its just plain annoying sometimes when creating to-scale models of existing buildings from existing blueprints, to walk around the building in real life, and then walk around in source, and have the perspective be way off. I mean, i'm 5'9 and gordon looks about 5'9, but when i look at how it looks, it looks like i'm seeing from some basketball players perspective....

 

[Hazar]

there's this thing called the grid....

 

[Limpet]

Anyone notice that when you walkup to, say, a combine soldier that it seems like he's a half head taller than you?

 

[Hazar]

maybe that's 'cause he is. :O

 

[Limpet]

Maybe but, I was talking about in DM, so I guess I should say "walk up to any other person". And I thought all the people were the same height in DM.

 

[Kaine904]

nonono, its not a problem with the grid, but the players perspective is kinda wacked out. Gordon's model's eyes are at a certain hight, but the players pov is not where his eyes would be. I mean, if you were looking at yourself in a mirror, it would look like you were looking from a place over gordons head, and not from his eyes.

 

[SAJ]

Just read in a cube-map tutorial , that the players viewpoint is set at 64 units.
That would explain the "oh god Im a shortarse" syndrome that is common to HL2 players.

 

[Kevnadian]

I thought we were all saying his viewpoint was too high ?

 

[RoyalEF]

I never thought other players were too short or too high. Only world objects seemed distorted. I just ran about a map and everyone seems about the same.