CS:GO SDK Navigation and Interface Basics in 15 minutes

Navigation and interface basics of Hammer World Editor. Before you can start creating maps, you need to know what the interface requires you in order to navigate around the editor.

CS:GO editor is the same for most Source based games. It is very simple to navigate and get used to the functions within the editor.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• Navigation around the viewports
• Commonly used functions in the interface
• Viewport options
• Grid snaps and sizes
• Toolbar
• Visgroups
• Object properties
• Fast and to the point overview to get you comfortable using Hammer World Editor

NEW MAP FILE

Lets start a new map file. File --> New

AUTOSIZE 4 VIEW

If you do not see four orthographic viewports, (side, front, top) go to View --> Autosize 4 Views.

Shortcut: Ctrl+A

OPTIONS

You can look at editor options by going up to Tools --> Options. This will give you some editor preferences you can set. Some require more knowledge about what they do, but others are self-explanitory.

You can switch over to different tabs from game configuratons to general to 2d/3d views.

VIEWPORT OPTIONS

Each viewport offers different ways of displaying your geometry. You can change each viewport to an orthorgraphic or a perspective viewport.

For perspective viewport, I set 3D Shaded Textured Polygon option to display textures and brush geometry.

NAVIGATING AROUND THE EDITOR

Z - Free Look Mode in perspective viewport

WASD - movement in the perspective viewport after pressing Z for free look mode

Shift+Z - maximize viewport

Hold Spacebar + Left Mouse Button Hold and Drag to pan around in top, side or front views

GRID SNAPS AND SIZES

[ ] (bracket Keys) - Increase/Decrease Grid size

Bottom right of Hammer you will see grid display.

I use 16 or 32 for blocking in. You can access few of other options for grid setting under:

• Map --> Snap to Grid
• Map --> Show Grid
• Map --> Grid Setting
• Map --> Units

TOOLBAR FUNCTIONS MOST COMMONLY USED

VISGROUPS

Visgroups are organizational tools within the editor. Think of these as layers or folders that you can place objects into and then switch the display on and off. This helps to keep the viewports to what you are working on without being overwhelmed by all the geometry within the scene. This becomes very important as you map grows in size.

OBJECT PROPERTIES

By double clicking on any object (brush, entity) within the map, you will access properties for that object.

For example, below are light_environment object properties:

SELECTING, DESELECTING AND DELETING

Use Selection Tool (Shift+S) to select objects, brushes

Press Escape to deselect it

Select any object and hit delete to remove that object

CS:GO SDK Beginner Basics Series:

How to Download, Install, Launch Hammer World Editor

Level Editor Navigation and Interface Basics in 15 minutes

Player and Architecture Scale, Dimension and Proportion

BSP Brush Geometry: How to Create Your First Room

Adding Prop Models: Using Models In Your Map

Adding Lights: How to Light Your First Room (Lighting Basics)

Texturing: Applying Textures and Principles for Optimizing Early

How to Compile and Run Your First Map

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