It doesn't waste faces:DragonDude said:Just looking at the wireframe layout of that example screams "wasted faces!" If you decide to map for HL2, even Source has its limits. Mapping with a tool like "surface painting" may be a shortcut, but it's a crutch.
I am not mapping for HL2. I just wanted to hear how I did make grass fade into dirt (And something like that).DragonDude said:There's a Half-Life 1 (GoldSrc) Hammer, and there's a Half-Life 2 (Source) Hammer.
I tell you this for your own good, not to be snide: learn triangle brushing by hand. It gives you absolute control over your map, and a new understanding and respect for the technique.
Just looking at the wireframe layout of that example screams "wasted faces!" If you decide to map for HL2, even Source has its limits. Mapping with a tool like "surface painting" may be a shortcut, but it's a crutch.
Addressing your question on the textures, though, based on the wireframe geometry, it looks like they're using three independent textures, with the dirt path designed to blend into the grass. It could all be one texture map, being that it's hard to tell from the given perspective, but the geometry would suggest to me otherwise.
Allow me to correct that. A true mapper puts his detail in the textures, not in the brushes/faces. As DD said, that screenshot really is screaming "Wasted Faces!" Just learn how to triangle map, I swear to God, it's 10 times better then a terrain generator or the terrain painter from HL2.MC said:To be honest, I don't know. I think there was a map that used something like what you're trying to make but I'm unsure.
Edit
DragonDude beat me.
It doesn't waste faces:
http://www.freewebs.com/danotoriousmc/aw4efaw.JPG
Displacement surfaces was added to allow the mapper to make detailed maps without taking a hit to the face count.
Painting geometry saves faces:
http://www.freewebs.com/danotoriousmc/save.JPG
As for the textures, read my tutorial. It's on esf world and somewhere in the stickies here. It should explain everything you need to do to make maps like that.Theoboy said: