General Half-Life 2/Architecture
description
Takes you through constructing the prison guard booths seen in dm_lockdown.
keywords
prison, guard, prison guard, area, window, nova, prospekt.
Have you seen those guard areas in dm_lockdown and parts of Nova prospekt? We will be recreating the slanted wall with the window and bars in exactly the same fashion that Valve have used.
Here is the window in game:
First of all setup two walls, 128 units high and 80 units long, and 16 wide. Set them at 90 degrees to each other with a square space in the middle of 128 units. Like the below:
Once you have done that it’s time to add the surrounding walls for the window frame. Add two brushes next your wall, and make them 64 units wide and 32 units high, place one at the bottom and one at the top, do this both sides and this will act as the window frame area.
Now we need to add the slanted area to connect the two pieces. Clone one of you blocks you just made, the top one will do for now and then click on it until the third set of manipulation handles appear. Now drag it up to meet the other wall and clip off the excess. Clone it and use it for the bottom area. Remember this method as you will need it for other parts.
Once you have done that the basic outline of the window area should be ready to go:
Next is adding a window frame to the walls.
Create thin brushes in the opening that are two units thick. The top one overlaps by 4 units on the outside edge and the bottom one pokes out by 1. They are flush againt it on the inside edge.
Complete this for the other side as well so that you are left with both sides complete and a space in the centre
Now using the same method as when you copied the centre walls, you need to clone a top part of the frame and manipulate that into the centre, do it for the bottom as well and the basic frame is complete.
We now need to setup a supporting part each side of the centre part. These are easy but require a bit of vertex manipulation to complete.
Setup a brush from top frame to bottom frame with the same thickness as below:
In vertex manipulation mode click on the central right vertice and press CTRL-F and this will split the face and allow you to drag out the right side to form the below shape.
The slant on that post will be where the centre parts connect.
Repeat this for the other side (or clone it and rotate) and then the frame is almost done:
Next we need to add the horizontal dividers that separate the two panes of glass. To achieve this drag a brush that is 1 unit wide and 60 units long and slot it between the edge of the frame and the newly created support pillars.
Have this 11 units above the bottom frame section and repeat it for the other side. Once you have done this you can now create the centre section. You can either use the same method as before and vertex the edges so it becomes square, or simply copy the brush or rotate it to 45 degrees. Whatever way you choose it should overlap by a unit at each end.
And finally to finish off the frame parts just a centre pole, create the brush and rotate it to 45 degrees like so
Now the whole frame should look like this:
Creating the glass is the easiest part as the glass is actually the same dimensions of the horizontal bars you created a moment ago. Simply clone this and re-size it into position and then add a glass texture. It is a separate glass brush for the bottom and top, do not use one otherwise it will show as overlapping.
Repeat that technique of cloning for all the other parts and you should be left with the glass in place and the frame done:
Remember to func_detail the frame as well, easy.
Blink
