Tutorial

Once you load up the program for the first time, you'll be prompted to check out the wiki for some tutorials and bugfixes. Here's the tutorial, at least a set of basic instructions:

here is an alternate video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUSwz-WLFg

Tutorial

After you close the window that prompts you to go here, you'll see another popup, this time asking for a grid size. For every 1 square, it's 512x512 hammer units, so imagine the size you want divided by 512 when you input these integers. For reference, the average playermodel height is around 80-100 hammer units. A good test is to just make a 3x3 grid and test out how the program works. You will also see something asking for the height: this means how many levels it will have. Really, it only needs 1 for most cases, as transportation between levels isn't exactly smooth yet. Each level is 448 hammer units tall, as each square in the grid is 512x512 units wide and long.

In the program, you'll see a grid of buttons, some rotation icons, and a list of the prefabs, as well as a popup asking for the skybox. You don't really need to choose a skybox for your first test. Pick the first level, as that's probably what you're going to want. To make your map, choose the prefab you want on the prefab list on the right, and click the grid button where you want it. Once you choose a prefab, you'll see the current prefab and rotation between the rotation icons. Rotate it how you want, and then place it. Don't want a prefab in a slot? Either overwrite it or Ctrl+Click it to remove anything from the slot entirely.

File menu, options menu, create menu, and tools menu

On the top bar are three menus; the file menu, options menu, and create menu. The file menu has 3 functions; exit, open hammer, and export. These are all pretty self-explanatory, but the most important one is the export function. There are two options there: as .vmf and as .bsp. A .vmf is a hammer save file, and a .bsp is a TF2 map. For After you export, you will be prompted to choose a skybox height. This is in hammer units, and a bare minimum should be 512. Choose where you want to save the .vmf, and then click the "open hammer" button. This will save a .vmf there, and a .bsp there as well if you chose the .bsp option. If you chose the .bsp option, it will also be in your tf/maps folder, and can be opened by typing 'map tf2mapperoutput' in the TF2 console. If your hammer is not in the default location, it will ask you to point to it. The "Open Hammer" function will do the same thing, but will not load any specific .vmf, and is mostly used for users to create your own prefab. Or a shortcut for hammer.

The options menu also has 3 functions; change skybox, change grid size, and remove prefabs. A user shouldn't use the remove prefab unless they make a prefab that they want removed, as it deletes prefabs from the end of the list of prefabs. The changing of the grid size function changes the grid (and removes all prefabs), which is what the user is prompted with at launch. The "change skybox" function brings up the skybox window. When you select a skybox, it won't do anything, but the skybox you selected will be the one the map uses, unless you change it.

The create menu has one function; createPrefab. Probably the buggiest part of the program, it takes a .vmf and makes it into a prefab, and adds it to the list. Creating a prefab works as follows:

1. Prefab Text

Enter the name of the prefab as it will appear in the prefab list on the right.

2. Prefab Name

Enter the filename of the prefab. No spaces allowed.

3. VMF File

The vmf file for the prefab (exported from hammer)

4. Icon

The jpg file containing the icon as it will appear in the prefab list on the right.

5. Make Rotations

Check this if you would like to create rotated version of the prefab.

This only takes effect on restart of the program, so after creating your prefab, restart if you want to use it. In addition, for the prefab a user creates to work, it needs to fit a certain formatting in hammer. It needs to be in the lower right quadrant, 512x512, and has one point touching the origin. For the ground to fit in, it should be 64 hu (hammer units) high, from z = 0 to z = 64. Making the ground prefab bigger than 512x512x64 will look poor, and possibly not work. It is okay for geometry and entities to protrude out from that invisible 512x512 square, but they may conflict with other prefabs. I would recommend not using (or tentatively using) it until better documentation/a tutorial is provided.

The tools menu has two commands: open developer console and open Hammer. Opening Hammer does exactly what you'd expect. What it does is tests to see if Hammer is in the default location, and if it isn't, it prompts you to locate it. The developer console is for developers, and there is no real extra functionality you can get from it that you can't get from the main mapper, other than a few special commands.

Levels and Saves

In the file menu, there are "LOAD" and "SAVE" buttons, which do pretty much what you'd expect. There are also levels, which essentially make it a giant 512x512x512 based cube. The current level can be changed by clicking the big "Level:" button, or by typing "level " in the developer console.

Updater

The updater is an external program that is in the main folder of the program. It downloads the latest executable version and places it in the updated/ folder. It requires administrator privileges, as it moves files around.

More info:

Don't know what to do? Send an email to [email protected], add us on steam or check out the readme, here:

https://github.com/baldengineers/easytf2_mapper/blob/master/README.md