Counter-Strike: Source
description
The arches in the de_dust series are quite distinct, this step-by step tutorial shows you the secret.
keywords
cs, source, counter, strike, counter-strike, dust, style, arch, arches.
We have all seen the cool looking arches in the new Dust maps, well after a little look I came up with a method to replicate them. This may not be the way the Valve boys did it or the only way to do it, but it seems to work in every situation. Let’s have a look at the dust one:
We have to take note of two things, firstly the top of the arch is pointed somewhat and not a smooth round area. Secondly the main wall is set back somewhat compared to the arch. If you have done much level-design before you can probably guess how it was done by looking at that screenshot, for the rest of you, read on.
The first stage is to get a doorway for the arch to be applied to:
Ok now we have that we need to create the arch, but to help us we need a template. So select the Cylinder tool from the Primitives list and choose 24 sides. Now drag the block tool across the doorway, but leave 1 grid square each side. Also whatever the width is make sure to drag it the equal distance the other way so it makes a perfect square.
Now create the Cylinder and rotate it on it’s side so it fits the door way and align it with the top of the frame and make sure it is dead centre. Do not re-size the cylinder manually, this will take it off of grid alignment. If you make a mistake, create the cylinder again.
We only need one of the top quarters of this template so feel free to snip away the unused parts using the clip tool.
Now, create a square brush that is the same width as the doorway and also fits the cylinder quarter exactly. When that is created clip the block in a downward fashion and make sure it is clipped along the vertices of the cylinder. Like the image below:
Now you are going to see why we made the cylinder template, what you need to do is select the block pieces one by one and use the Vertex Manipulation tool to move the edges of each block into alignment with the vertices of the cylinder. Start at the outside and work in as shown:
When you get the last block, the one nearest the centre, delete it and then move the next closest one all the way across to the centre. This creates the sloped effect at the top of the arch. Like so:
Ok, now select all the brush parts and copy and rotate them to the other side to make the arch.
Now we will use the gaps that we left behind at the start. Create a block that fills the gap and move it three grid squares down past the bottom of the arch, also slope the outside edge one whole grid square using the vertex tool.
Almost there, we now need to create the small part that pokes inwards. Create a small brush that is 2-grid square down and 1 wide and place it just above the sloped part of the last brush we created. Clip it as shown below:
Now, using the vertex tool move the bottom right vertice to the left by 1 tiny grid square and up by 3 as shown.
Give it a texture and you have one awesome arch!
Related:
Example Map
Blink
