Just wondering, because obviously I'm new to this lol, what a good size map would be for me to work on. I'm going to try a multiplayer map for about 4-16 people.

Is there a good size (in your opinion) that I could use as a beginner to make a map that can comfortably fit that amount of people and have some room left to move around in?

Two rules when you map:

1) Besides rule number 2, there are no rules.
2) Don't use any CSG functions (i.e., CSG Hollow).

Put an actor in (right click > actor > pick one). That gives you a sense of scale. After that, just design your map. It doesnt have to be a super huge map, but it should have enough space so that the spawn points are seperated and not all in view of each other, etc.

My two Cents.....
Start with small maps untill you get all the basics down.
Then when you get a good grasp of the editor and building
with it. Go for bigger maps.
If Your just starting a big map may cause you too lose interest in the fact that it takes so much time. In The end,
Its all up to you really...

Map/Script On!

I'm going to make my own map too. Start small, but how thick do the walls have to be? And what's teh maximum height a player can walk/jump on?

Found this at gamespy i believe.. not sure.. but here you will find some answers on sizes and all

This FAQ is a set of the most asked questions, you might be able to find the help you need right here in this faq.

01. What do I need to start making Call of Duty maps?
02. What is a brush?
03. How do I select / deselect a brush?
04. What is a face and how do I select / texture one?
05. What is a leak?
06. What is an entity?
07. What is compiling?
08. Why can't I compile my map?
09. Why won't my map load?
10. What is caulking and why is it important?
11. What are the dimensions of a player?
12. How do I see my map in the in-game menu?
13. What is Z-Fighting?
14. What is an .arena file?
15. What is a shader?
16. What is a .pk3 file?
17. How do I make a .pk3 file?
18. What is a levelshot?
19. How do I get a picture of my map to show on the loading screen and level select menu?
20. How do I rotate an entity/model?
21. How do I apply a texture to just one side of a brush?
22. How can I make a ladder without using any code?
23. How can I group brushes together?
24. Is there any way to select group of objects in one area?
25. How do I take textures I make and import them so I can use them in my map?
26. How do I move a texture around once it's on a brush?
27. Is there a limit to the size of map I can make?



1. What do I need to start making Call of Duty maps?
Call of Duty - the game itself, The Call of Duty editing tools (including the editor CodRadiant) Get the game from the shop, and the tools here.


2. What is a brush?
A brush is the basic building block of mapping. Pretty much everything you see within a map are made up of brushes. They are blocks which you draw on the map to make rooms. A basic room would be made out of 6 brushes - 4 walls, a ceiling and a floor.
You can create a brush by clicking, and dragging your mouse over the grid to the size you desire. You'll see red lines around it, that means it's selected. There you go, a brush!


3. How do I Select/Deselect a Brush?
Press the ESC key to deselect. To reselect a brush, click the brush you want to select while holding down the SHIFT key. To resize a brush, make sure you have the brush selected, click and drag outside the brush to make that side move. To move a brush, make sure you have it selected, click and drag inside the brush to where you want it.


4. What is a face and how do I select / texture one?
A brush consists of 6 or more faces, i.e sides. Each one of these sides can be individually selected and textured. To select an individual face simply hold down CTRL + SHIFT and left click on the face with the left mouse button. You can select more than one face this way. To texture a selected face (or faces) simply click on the texture you want to use and voila the texture should be applied to the face. To deselect a face simple hit escape. If you have many faces selected and you only want to deselect one, simple hold down CTRL + SHIFT and left click on the face you want to deselect with the left mouse button.


5. What is a leak?
When you are creating your maps, think of starting out looking at a void or vacuum. Everything you build is within that void, and for anything to exist in your map it must be "sealed" from that void. A leak is a gap that leads from your map into that void. Your map must be sealed by brushes. You cannot use entities, models, Patch Meshes or Terrain Meshes to seal your map.


6. What is an entity?
An entity is usually just one point in the map (i.e. no size) and tells the game where it should place various items etc. An entity can also 'contain' one or more brushes. Using the entity you can tell the game that these brushes are 'special', and are dynamic. Sometimes that can be used/interacted with by the player.


7. What is compiling?
In level design for CoD you create a .map file. This map file then needs to be compiled into a .bsp file. The compile process is where the tools figure out what the map should be like in game, it determines the lighting, the environment, everything, it compiles it so it can be played.


8. Why can't I compile my map?
There are many different reasons as to why your map might not compile. We have compiled a list of the most common compiling errors here. If you can't find your particular error, check the various Mapping forums - chances are someone has had the same error before.


9. Why won't my map load?
Make sure that your .bsp file (the compiled map) is in the correct directory of CoD. Make sure you have added at least 1 mp/deatmatch_respawn entity. Also check to make sure that your map has compiled properly. If this doesn't work try asking in various Mapping forums.


10. What is caulking and why is it important?
This is applying a texture called caulk (which is found in the menu: Textures > Common) to any faces that you cannot see. Caulking unseen faces means the game engine doesnt draw them, which means higher fps and and better allround performance. Some mappers make there maps out of caulk first entirely and then put the texture they want to be seen on the faces.


11.What are the dimensions of a player?
The unit scale in CoD seems to be about 1 unit : 1 inch. (roughly)

1 unit = 1 inch in CoD.
1 foot = 12 units in CoD.

Players are 72 units or 6 feet high.
Players are 32 units wide.

Stairs in CoD are 8-12 units high.
Doors are 52x96 units in CoD (dawnville). Door thickness is 4-6 units.

Ladder rungs on a ladder that is in Dawnville are 24 units appart. It looks kind of silly. In real life this would be more like 12 units.

Outter walls are 8 units thick. I made inner walls 6.

Sidewalks 64 units wide and 8 units high

Height to ceiling is normally 128, but then again it all depends if its a anormal room, warehouse or what your creating.

Player Height Clearance =< 71 units
Player Crouch Clearance =< 51 units
Player Prone Clearance =< 31 units
Player Max Jump =< 39 units
Player Width Clearance =< 31 units


12. How do I see my map in the in-game menu?
Let's say your map is called mymap.bsp, create a file in the scripts directory called mymap.arena you would probably then add something like this:

{
map "mymap" // Map Name
longname "The French Village" // Full name you've given you map
gametype "dm tdm sd re bel ctf" //Type of game
}

Anything after the '//' are comments and not necessary in your .arena file, but are helpful to people looking at your creation.


13. What is Z-Fighting?
This is when CoD is showing two textures in the same plane and they both show in the game. The textures seem to 'fight' over which is displayed.


14. What is an .arena file?
An .arena file is what holds the information to put you map into the game, it will add your map to the list of maps you can choose when in the game.


15. What is a shader?
A shader is a text script that describes special effects you want to apply to a texture when it is rendered in game. Shaders are gathered in shader files. (default ones are in Main/scripts/*.shader)
You can create your own shaders, but at this moment there's no official Shader Manual for CoD, but have a look at the Q3Radiant version, many things still apply.


16. What is a .pk3 file?
A pk3 file is really just a zip file with a different extension, I would recommend using WinZip. Double click on the pk3 file in Windows Explorer and then choose WinZip to open it in the Open With dialog box, make sure the 'always use this program to open this file' box is checked. Click OK, now whenever you double-click a pk3 file it will open in WinZip.
(optional program would be PakScape)


17. How do I make a .pk3 file?
Coming soon...


18. What is a levelshot?
A levelshot is a picture of a map which is displayed to the player on the map loading screen and in the map select menu.


19. How do I get a picture of my map to show on the loading screen and in the level select menu?
You can make your own picture if you wish (e.g. take a screenshot in game in any position). Make sure you save this picture to main\levelshots\mapname.tga where mapname is the name of your map.


20. How do I rotate an entity/model?
Select the entity/model and go to the Entity Inspector (N). In the entity view you type angle in the key box, and then type the angle you want in the value box. You can also use the numbered 'angle' buttons in the bottom left of the entity view.


21. How do I apply a texture to just one side of a brush?
It's yet another selection method, Hold down CTRL-SHIFT and click on the face that you want to add texture to. This will only work in the 3D view, not the gridded views. Also You can hold down ALT-CTRL-SHIFT and click on a number of different faces to select them.


22. How can I make a ladder without using any code?
Here's a small tutorial on how to create a simple ladder. Link..


23. How can I group brushes together?
First you have to select the objects you want to group. Then apply a func_group by opening the Entity window or rightclick > Func > Group. Now you'll only have to SHIFT+Click on one of those brushes and do SHIFT+A, or SHIFT+ALT to select them all at once.


24. Is there any way to select group of objects in one area?
Make a new brush that completely covers the brushes you want to be selected. Use the 'Select Inside' button in the menu.


25. How do I take textures I make and import them so I can use them in my map?
Coming soon..


26. How do I move a texture around once it's on a brush?
Using different methods, the best is to use the Surface Inspector (press S). But you can move the texture around by holding down SHIFT and using the arrow keys, and rotate it by holding down SHIFT and using the PGUP and PGDOWN keys.
BTW: If you want the texture to move less with each press of the key, you can change the grid size for movement, and there's an option in the preferences to change the rotation angle.


27. Is there a limit to the size of map I can make?
Yes, the size of the grid in CodRadiant is the largest size map you can make.

thats a lot of ?? all @ once
to move a texture around when it is on a brush select the texture hold shift an use the arrow keys up/down/right/left...
or hit the S key to bring up an editor i forget its name but u can use this tool to do more with size an vertical/ horisontal sizes for the textrues..

to group more then one brush together just select em 1 @ a time done:) to ungroup keep holding shift an just select the 1 u dont want to group:)

a leak that sux dont let that happen!! lol

hit R t o Rotate an entity

a map size dont matter just go with any size you'll figure it out what size u want after.

wall size 32 units basicly.

to select anything hit shift an left click / deslect hit esc.

using a player model to size up windows is a good trick or using a player model to find angles in game is good too.

Note: chaulk is good use it from start to finish u cant go wrong...
Note: Chaulk is good because lets say u make a wall an want to colour 2 sides of the wall 1 side u want green other side u want black !! instead of making a new wall for the green side an other wall for black side. you make 1 wall in chaulk first.
the side u want green just hit shift select 1 face "inside"
give it a green texture then look to other side do same for the wall u want back.... hold shift select the part u want back boom ur done saves time making 2 walls :) !!! plus its easier on your video card to render all this crap lol the stuff u dont see is ? i mean lol try getting used to making everything in chaulk you'll see how easy it is really :)

wow that was large lol u have 27 ?? omg lol

about using csg tool u gota know how to use it some ppl
biscuit eater oh well use it if u want to just dont over use it if that makes sense.

just use the csg tool only for doors windows dont try to make more then 1 csg tool cut @ one time is ? i mean.
dont try to make a csg cut into a curve or bend stuff like that noooo goood to do nope!! only use csg tool on blocks or rectengles... flat stuff lol
never use csg tool on "Terains" = ground never never!!
never use csg tool in water noo noo. I saying it like this because its the way listen an learn...
my whole map is done with csg tool an it is fine no errors!! @ all
gota know how to use it is all :) ppl say no dont but use it wisely is ? they didnt say to everyone ha ha ha :)
like if u have a creek an water an wall in creek !!!
an u want to use csg tool for the hole in wall thas in a creek !!!
first of all move the wall up above the creek then cut ur hole with csg tool make it size u want then bring ur wall back down to the spot it was in first place thats right way of doing it:) because if you try to make a cut into a wall in a creek with csg tool u;ll get big cuts in da water lol ha ha ha..
anyhoo im not going to answer all ur ?? sorry to many an i get into detail my bad ppl sorry to write all this but feel ppl need to hear it because ? i write makes sense i know i been mapping a long enuf time to say this so there he he he!!!

MrSniper sorry im not going to answer all ur ?? i did hint on a few of them thou.. keep trying small maps till u get the urge to go big or stay home type of map lol I've made lots of maps take time to get the right one trust me u;ll get da hang of it in no time man good luck!!
MrSniper


edited on Apr. 4, 2006 03:52 pm by Mr-Snipper

Ignore rule 2.
CSG Hollow is a fantastic tool, and saves a lot of time.
I love that tool.



edited on Oct. 11, 2007 01:48 pm by morgawr

morgawr writes...

No, ignore morgawr.

The CSG Tools create problems, and you need to learn to make maps, without relying on automated functions.

I usualy only use the csg subtraction tool and it never seems to cause problems

edited on Oct. 11, 2007 03:58 pm by 94sniper

Start small, don't try and do somethign that you don't think you can handle, in otherwords be realistic.

About the CGS tools

The biggest advice i can offer you is save your map prior to doing a CGS function, it can and does crash if you attempt to do insane things with it, but after you use it enough you will understand what it can, and what it can't handle.

But it does work ,there is absolutly nothing wrong with using it, all it does is save you time.

Don't let anyone else try and tell you otherwise!

edited on Oct. 13, 2007 12:11 pm by Fr3ddi3

edited on Oct. 13, 2007 12:12 pm by Fr3ddi3