Talk:Left 4 dead level creation

L4D Navigation Troubleshooting

Anyone have success in generating a navigable map? I've found that some nav areas are marked as ESCAPE_ROUTE, but it doesn't appear to be persisted to the nav file (or after nav_analyze).

I've marked PLAYER_START and CHECKPOINT areas, but I'm prompted on map load with:

GetGoalArea: Cannot find SPAWN_RESCUE_CLOSET area in FINALE, thus cannot guarantee reachability of goal area 
  Using centroid of finale region...
GetGoalArea: Cannot find end area - no checkpoint or finale located.
ComputeFlowDistances: ERROR - Cannot compute flow.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! --Molaughlen 17:46, 3 Dec 2008 (PST)

I've been adding some notes to the "Your First Left 4 Dead Map" article that cover some of these questions. It's still a work in progress at the moment, hence why it isn't linked to the main level creation page. There's also some good info over on l4dmaps.net site. --brandished 20:43, 3 Dec 2008 (PST)

Thanks for the link, but there's nothing in the article regarding my specific issue. The only thing I saw that could have been a problem is the info_changelevel entity wasn't touching the CHECKPOINT nav area. I adjusted the entity's position, but still produces nav errors. Also after decompiling l4d_vs_farm01_hilltop the info_changelevel is at position (0, 0, 0) and not in the CHECKPOINT area.

Also, the article doesn't go into exactly what needs to happen in the nav system, but does provide the basic steps in building a nav mesh. I think Valve needs to fix nav_analyze to get my map to work. It's strange to see ESCAPE_ROUTE areas disappear. --Molaughlen 07:57, 4 Dec 2008 (PST)

Creating a NAV file for Left 4 Dead

You need to have a safe room up and working, then create 2 *.cfg files in the "Left 4 Dead/left4dead/cfg" folder, call them "navigation" and "director" and put the following inside each:

navigation.cfg sv_cheats 1 nav_edit 1 nav_mark_walkable nav_generate nav_analyze nav_edit 0 sv_cheats 0 director.cfg sv_cheats 1 director_stop director_start sv_cheats 0

Then ingame in the console, type exec navigation to create a nav file, let it load and when its done type exec director. This will make the director work correctly

Reload your map and zombies should spawn correctly. If you have a saferoom.