User:Cvoxalury/Sandbox
Separate article for Goldsrc Hammer: its brief history, then mapper content - Introduction, features, basic overview of toolbars (main pages are separate), and organised directing to separate tutorial pages. And alternatives.
Redirects: "VHE", "Hammer (GoldSrc)", "Valve Hammer Editor (GoldSrc)"
Valve Hammer Editor
Valve Hammer Editor, often called simply Hammer and VHE, and originally called Worldcraft, is Valve's in-house level editor for GoldSrc games.
Important:While it's functional, Hammer hasn't been updated since the early 2000s. Consider the list of alternatives - modern editors that support GoldSrc.History
Worldcraft started in 1996 as a level editor for Quake created by Ben Morris. Valve, having just started working on Half-Life, hired Morris and purchased the rights to the editor. Over the course of development, support for Quake and Quake II was dropped, and the editor was re-christened as Hammer.
The last version released by Valve is 3.4; it is available in Steam as part of Half-Life SDK. There is also a community-released update 3.5.
Downloading and using VHE
VHE can be downloaded in Steam with Half-Life SDK (located in the Library among Tools; or click here to install it directly from Steam). However, that version isn't the latest, and lacks important features such as model previews.
A more updated Hammer 3.5 can be downloaded from TWHL, from VDU, from ModDB and in other community places.
For setting it up, see Configuring Hammer for Half-Life. That tutorial is effectively the same for other GoldSrc games.
Alternatively, see the 
Tutorial: Setup Guide: Hammer on TWHL wiki.
For creating your first map, see TWHL's Tutorial: In the Beginning Part 1 and further. The local tutorial on VDC is pending construction.
Features
Goldsrc level design, and by extension, Hammer relies on building enclosed levels with brush geometry, populating them with entities, and compiling them. To that end, Hammer enables you to:
- Create geometry of virtually any complexity by combining Primitives;
- Choose and apply textures to those primitives' faces via the Material Browser and the Texture tool, deciding their alignment, scale and rotation;
- Place base and game-specific Entities - defined in the FGD - with the help of the Entity Tool, and converting brushes into Solid Entities;
- Set up events, triggers, scripted sequences, paths and other types of map logic by editing the settings of each entity;
- Create and load Prefabs;
- Use compile tools (which you can replace with any compatible ones of your choosing) to turn your map into a game-ready BSP.
Hammer alternatives
Modern alternatives for working with GoldSrc levels include:
J.A.C.K. (formerly Jackhammer) - many improvements, new features and QoL; also supports idTech titles;
TrenchBroom - primarily an idTech (Quake games engine) editor with recent added support for GoldSrc; open-source;
NetRadiant-Custom - also primarily a Quake-games editor with full support for GoldSrc; open source;
QuArK - multi-purpose tool and level editor, supports GoldSrc;
Historical (mostly not actively developed) alternatives include:
Sledge - open source;- BSP (editor) - an older tool that is maintained by the community. It was also the tool several of Valve designers used to work on Half-Life, until Worldcraft was purchased and BSP was phased out.
Developer resources
- TWHL Wiki - a large collection of GoldSrc tutorials with a community forum.
- Valve Developer Union (VDU) - a collection of archived tutorials for GoldSrc modding.
- The 303's tutorials and resources.
- Tommy of Escondido's Mapping Help tutorials.
- List of GoldSrc FGD files.
Legacy versions
Note:The earlier versions of Worldcraft are mostly a historical curiosity. You'd have to jump through a few hoops to get them to work, and they'll be lacking features. You're almost guaranteed to never need to use them!- Worldcraft versions 1.x support Quake I, i. e. idTech 2 engine. Version 1.6 supports Quake II and Hexen I&II.
- Worldcraft versions 2.x mark Half-Life oriented, Valve-released versions. 2.0 released with Half-Life and was on its retail disc.
- Worldcraft versions 3.3 and 3.4 were released by Valve. 3.5 was in the works and released as beta, but never officially released by Valve.
Various versions can be downloaded from Valve Archive.
External links
- Overview of Worldcraft on Valve Developer Union
- VHE 3.5.3 on ModDB - the very latest version of VHE.