Miscellaneous
description
Learn to use the full potential of your compile tools.
keywords
compile, compiling, expert, advanced.
First of all, don't be scared to compile in expert, because you think you're a noob, it's the same thing as normal compiling, but it allows to do more stuff then the normal compiling. So why should you use expert compiling instead of normal? Well like I said it allows to do more stuff, in this example it will automatically copy the bsp to you cstrike\maps folder, and launch the game with your map after you compile it, so it saves some time for you. So let's get it started:
1. First open your map of course, and hit F9. After this click on the EXPERT button to change to expert mode.
You should see something like the image above, which is nothing, just a empty configuration. So click on the EDIT button, to had a new configuration. Press the "NEW" button and give your configuration a name, it doesn't really matter what the name is as long as it makes sense to you. I'm naming my config CS: Source. Another thing about expert compile is that you can have multiple configurations for different games, like cs, hl2, hl2dm, or any other mod you may want to map for, and you can have configurations for different types of compile, like for example a test compile in which you run fast VIS to make the compiling faster.
You hit the CLOSE button now, and let's start adding our compile parameters. Make sure you have your configuration selected.
2. First thing to do is the "change directory command", to add a new command just click the new button. After that click on the CMDS button in the right and select the "change directory" command. Now we need to specify the parameters for the change directory command, which will be the folder we should change, so click on the "PARMS" button and select "GAME EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY". You should now have this:
3. Now we will add the compile tools (BSP, VIS, RAD) commands. To do this click on the NEW button again, and add the command (CMDS button) "BSP PROGRAM", and for parameters choose "MAP PATH" and had a "\", just press that key on the keyboard and then had the "MAP FILENAME (no extension)" parameter
Now repeat this process for VIS and RAD, you just need to change the command to "vis program", and "LIGHT PROGRAM". You should now have this:
4. So far the compiling process would do the same as the normal compiling, so let's add more stuff. First we are going to make the compiler copy the BSP to the cstrike\maps folder. So had a new command, and choose "COPY FILE" from the cmds list. The parameters are a bit confusing so pay attention.
First choose "MAP PATH", then add a "\" as before, now choose "MAP FILENAME (no extension)", and after that write ".bsp". So this will tell the program that it is going to copy the BSP file, the only thing we need to do now is tell it where we aew going to put the BSP. First add a space after the parameters we just added, then add the "BSP DIRECTORY" parameter, a "\", "MAP FILENAME(no extension)", and then ".BSP", the same as before you just have to change the dir.
Please note that the compile screen on the image doesn't show all the parameters, but they are there.
Now there's a little detail we need to change, in our hammer config, so close the compile screen, by pressing "CANCEL", don't worry our config won't disappear, and go to the "TOOLS>OPTIONS" menu, and choose the "BUILD PROGRAMS TAB". In this tab you need to change the "game executable" to your steam.exe which usually is "C:\Valve\Steam\Steam.exe". After that go to where it says "Place compiled maps in this directory...", and change that to "C:\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\YOULOGIN\counter-strike source\cstrike\maps", in case you're mapping for CS:source.
5. Now let's make it execute the game with our map after it compiles. Open your compile screen again (F9), you may notice it already is in the Expert mode, and add a new command. For this command select the "GAME PROGRAM" cmd. Now you need to tell steam which mod your running, for that you use the steam parameter "-applaunch", just write it on the parameters window of the command, after the applaunch you need to add the mod number, so:
CS:Source -applaunch 240
HL2 -applaunch 220
HL2DM -applaunch 320
Now we just need to tell steam to run our map so write the following "+map $file.bsp".
And that's it, now just make sure that the "USE LONG FILENAME" option is selected for all commands, and check the tick boxes for the commands you want to run, and then click on "GO!". Make sure you have steam open before compiling if you're running the game from the compiler.
BaRRaKID
