The first thing we are going to do is create a spike with atleast 22 sides, you want this thing to look realistic, if you want, shoot for 32 sides, that is the highest hammer lets you go. Make the spike rather tall, so it is slightly skinny, but not needle thin, here is a pic of what you want it to look like:
Notice the player start entity, this is to give you a idea of the size mine is, the bigger, the more work, but dont make it too small or it will be harder to scale. I like them big, cause they look nicer. So far you should have the spike as shown above. The next thing we will do is get out our clipping tool, we are going to clip this into multiple sections, 20 units each section, paralell to the base of the spike.
(See what I mean by not making it too large?)
You can make a cube that is 20x20x20 units in volume to help measure. Make sure to make your grid smaller to make the measuring easier. Go ahead and cut your spike into multiple sections of 20 units, do NOT worry if your last section cannot be cut cause it isnt even 20 units, or is like 1-3 units larger than 20. You wont be doing anything to it anyway. Here is what it should now look like:
This is the boring part, select every section except the very bottom one, the base that is. What you are going to do now is use the "front" or "side" view and you are going to scale all the sections BUT the bottom one at once, pulling the tip the the top of the section below it, like so:
(The red lines are where it WAS, the blue lines are where it now IS)
Remember that too, you need to rely on the red line/ blue line rule, so you can follow my tutorial easily.
Now, once you have done this, you will de-select the the second bottom and very bottom sections you currently have selected. Then you will again pull the rest of the sections down just like we just did in the last picture above, by making the point end at the top of the section under it.
To make it clearer, I'll post a picture of what it should now look like:
(Not much of a difference, eh?)
Just repeat that until you get your desired shape, below is a chart of the steps, this should actually make things easier. (Also tells how to optimize it)
Here is the chart of the steps:
1. Make a cylinder, 22+ sides, rather tall, slightly skinny, not needle thin
2. Cut it horizontally into multiple sections of 20 units, STARTING FROM THE TOP. Don't fear of the last section at the bottom being smaller than 20 units, or a few units larger.
3. Select all sections But the very bottom section.
4. Look in the front or side view in hammer editor, and pull the selected sections DOWN towards the bottom section, matching the tip of the top section with the top of the section under it.
5. De-select the second bottom and very bottom sections *of the currently selected sections** and repeat number 4.
6. Repeat numbers 4-5 until you get your desired shape.
7. *optimizing* Don't make your new cone-shaped dome have displacement, or it may not appear right. Select every face within the dome and assign it's texture to the nodraw texture. This will make each face inside the dome NOT render and will save alot of compile time and make the dome not lag, this also makes it look right if you want a glass dome, so you don't have a ton of faces that you can see inside it.
8. *your choice* You may tie this newly formed and optimized brush to any entity, depending on what the entity does. If you are just using it for eye candy, and it is just a structure in your map, tie it to func_detail, this will help optimize even more.
Here is what it should now look like:
(Your shape may look different, depending on you you wanted it)
To make the dome shorter, just select every section but the bottom and scale downwards some, not too much or the edge at which the bottom and second bottom sections meet will be too much and it wont look right, like this:
Hope you find this useful, and I hope no one has already submitted this. Enjoy.
nub
