Hammer editor question (handrails)

[Jimmy Lander]

I'm not quite experienced in the hammer editor yet but I've been watching/reading a lot of tutorials and decompiling valve's original maps to see how things are made. Upon exploration I noticed that handrails next to stairways (like those on d1_canals_01_d) are made of something I don't recognize (seems to be some brush of a kind). I couldn't find any information about it so I'm turning to the Half-life 2 Discussion tab - if anyone knows how to make or where to get the handrails from (inside the hammer editor) please tell me.

[Blixibon]

They're probably static props. Try going into their properties. (double-click on the entity in the 3D camera)

[Jimmy Lander]

Originally posted by acj2001:

They're probably static props. Try going into their properties. (double-click on the entity in the 3D camera)

It's definitely not an entity, yet it doesn't look like a simple brush too. It's really confusing.

[Blixibon]

I took a look myself. They're brushes. Anything which isn't an entity or a model is a brush, including the stairs themselves. If you're confused about the textures, like how you could shoot through them, they're part of the material itself. (if you use it on your own brush, it will have the same properties)

I hope this helps.

[Jimmy Lander]

So it's a texture they used? Ok I'll try to find it and recreate the handrails. Thanks a lot for responding! :3

[Blixibon]

The staircase rail in d1_canals_01 is metal/metalrail013b, but you can also try using the Texture Application Tool (directly below the block tool) to figure out exactly what texture a face is using. Its interface can be a lot to take in, but don't worry. You'll mostly just be using it to apply multiple textures on one block.

Good luck using Hammer! There's other tutorials on the internet if you need additional help, but don't be afraid to ask me anything.

[Jimmy Lander]

I've already had some experience with almost every tool in the tool bar in hammer so I'm kind of familiar with how they work, I've been applying,resizing,rotating and fitting a lot of textures using the Texture Application Tool, but I've mostly done it on squaric/rectangular faces, with the exception of arches used to create a road turn. So whatever I do now I can't properly fit the texture on the brush that's supposed to be my handrail next to the stairway. I've cut the brush into the appropriate form but i'm out of ideas how to make the texture fit properly and look realistic like in d1_canals_01. If you know a way to make it fit correctly do share, since I really can't find any help on the Internet regarding such things. (and all guides and tutorials only teach you how to use the Texture Application Tool itself and provide examples on basic brush faces).

[Blixibon]

I think I know what you mean. Try using Texture Lock, marked as "tl" on the top bar. It will keep textures looking the same when you move the brush. This includes rotation and copy/paste. (you can try copying and pasting the rail itself to your map if you need to) But remember: If you're trying to move things like walls across the X axis alone, it's best to keep it disabled. Trust me.

There's also Scaling Texture Lock, but that just scales the texture's size when you scale the brush.

[Jimmy Lander]

Here are some screenshots of the handrail I'm trying to make so that you can get a clearer picture (since hammer stuff is really hard to explain over text >.<)

So this is the handrail itself in NODRAW textures: http://prnt.sc/e2u0ka
I clicked Alt+H to hide everything except said handrail and added the texture: http://prnt.sc/e2u19c - looks pretty bad so I've tried going with the "FIT" option in the texture application tool ( http://prnt.sc/e2u27b ) and messed with the X Y values (including making them the same value after fitting), tried resizing but it just wouldn't fit perfectly. And I'm really looking forward to spending more time with level designing in the hammer so I need to know how these things work :<

[Blixibon]

Maybe you could try segmenting it like the rails in d1_canals_01. I'm sorry if this suggestion is too simple, but keep in mind I haven't made many brush rails in my lifetime.

[Jimmy Lander]

I was thinking of making the rail the same size as the ones in d1_canals_01 too, but I'm not sure how to cut it that way (being the same exact size). Anyways, the main thing was finding out what the rails were made of - from this point on I'm going to have to dedicate a little bit more time and experiment, maybe try reverse engineering. Thanks for the help anyways, I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out :3

[Blixibon]

Good luck!

[MrMuffinz]

If you mean these:
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/94975439618508050/3BE07DAAD2888E5B502D35C38C2E5C1A79D61051/

Yeah, they're brushes; probably func_detail.
Making these is actually quite simple.
There's a 'dev' texture for handrails called dev/dev_measurerails01 that has the exact height of handrails (32), you make it as long as you need it to be horizontally (not diagnolly), then use the vertex tool to raise an edge up to the stop of your stairs.
From there, tweak with the rotate texture button and the Y-texture-shift value until it looks right.
Then optionally replace the texture with the one you wanted to use.
https://puu.sh/tIVFV/470a63eae9.png

Valve does do it a specific way, but I don't quite remember; I think they place the diagnol rail texture down, cut it out of the square with the clipping tool, and then rotate the normal rails to fit it, but that takes too much time.

[Jimmy Lander]

Thanks! Will try it as soon as I can and reply back the results here!

[Jimmy Lander]

After trying both methods the results are as follows:
First one failed: http://prnt.sc/e32zsz - the texture doesn't seem to be able to do it because it's not connected like this one: http://prnt.sc/e330hx
On the other hand, the second method worked - http://prnt.sc/e33ay4, although I will have to reconstruct my entire stairway, since the rail doesn't follow the stairway correctly and rotating the brush with "texture lock" on just makes the rail look unrealistic. And by looking at d1_canals_01_d it seems valve did it the same way: http://prnt.sc/e33379 (and from there I can hopefully take the correct measurements for the stairway, in order to make it follow the rail properly). Thanks for helping me out with this! :3 <3