Valve Hammer Editor facts for kids
Valve Hammer Editor, which used to be called Worldcraft and is now often called Hammer, is Valve Corporation's map creation program for their game engines, Source and formerly GoldSrc. Worldcraft was originally made for Quake and Quake II, but is now used on other games such as Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Left 4 Dead 2.
Contents
History
In September 1996, Ben Morris created and released the original Worldcraft as a tool for making custom Quake maps. On July 14, 1997, Valve hired Ben Morris and started to use Worldcraft in Half-Life.
Basic tools
Hammer uses four windows: three grids and a 3D view. Many tools are available to the user. Work on a map starts by the user creating the main world out of blocks called brushes. These brushes can be made to look different by selecting images called textures to paint onto it. Many other tools can change the look and shape of these brushes to create any shape or figure the user wants.
Smaller parts of a level can be made out of props, which cannot be made in Hammer and only in a 3D drawing program. Special devices called entities can be used to give a level functionality. Entities can be anything from where the player starts (called "info_player_start" in Hammer) to specific guns to non-player characters.
File format
Maps save in the ".vmf" (Valve Map File) format, but cannot be played in-game until it is compiled. Compiled maps take all the entities and lights and transform it into a format that the desired game can read (".bsp").
Images for kids
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A screenshot of Half-Life 2: Episode One. The high dynamic range rendering and Phong shading effects are evident.
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The launcher menu for Source SDK as of 2010
See also
In Spanish: Valve Hammer Editor para niños
