Valve Hammer Editor (Source)
(4.0)
Hammer (version 4.x), sometimes informally called Hammer 4, is Valve's in-house level editor for Source titles, included in the Source SDK. It is a further evolution of Hammer 3.x from the GoldSrc engine. Many of its core concepts, features, and UI elements still match those of 3.x, as does the underlying mapping theory: building sealed levels with brushes and compiling them into BSP maps.
While in many ways improved, its core is still tied to ancient software architecture, and, being a product of its time, it often struggles under the load of designing modern, highly detailed looking levels.
Despite that, Half-Life 2 and every other Source title was built with it. Its relative ease of entry and gradual learning curve attract modders to this day. This version of Hammer also continued to receive updates to this day.
Important:There are several community-made updates to Hammer (unfortunately, none are open-source, as the source code for Hammer has never been officially released, only either leaked, or available to licensees who kept it closed).They are not essential for creating Source levels, but include bugfixes, QoL and extended features. They are listed further below ↓.
Installing and launching
Older versions of Hammer (for Source 2009 and earlier) are shipped in their respective Source SDK packages, and are intended to be launched via the deprecated Source SDK Launcher.
Since the SteamPipe update and the release of Source 2013, Hammer are often preinstalled automatically with the games, and is available in the 
/bin/ folder of a particular game (Half-Life 2/bin, Portal/bin, etc). However, in some cases, such as games starting with Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, etc., or some third-party Source games, their Authoring Tools need to be installed and launched to access Hammer.
Some of these sub-versions are interchangeable, such as between HL2, both of its Episodes, Portal, Counter-Strike: Source and Source 2013. Others, such as Portal 2's and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, have certain exclusive features (Maya integration for P2, Sprinkle Tool for CS:GO) and may not be fully compatible with other titles. Additionally, VMF files created on newer branches of Hammer (such as Alien Swarm) may crashes on Hammer made for older branches (like Source 2013) when loaded, unless it was converted or by using community-made version of Hammer.
For further information on setting up Hammer for Source, see Your First Map, Getting Started and its following articles.
See also Category:Hammer for more links to Hammer documentation.
Features and tools
Compared to Hammer 3.x, the most notable new features include Displacements, I/O system, and using Source's own materialsystem for rendering textures and models. Later versions expanded on the user interface, adding the particle browser (since ASW), improved Model Browser, instances and other extra tools.
Extensions
Hammer++ updates Hammer with additional tools and modernized workflow, realtime in-editor lighting preview, in-editor physics and more.
TeamSpen's Hammer Addons is a set of FGD enhancements, editor assets and scripts for working with Hammer, which don't directly modify the editor.
Slammin' Source Map Tools addresses performance and bug issues, adds convenience options and features, and comes with extended compilers: Slammin' Compile Tools;
Developer resources
- Level Design Video Tutorials - a large collection of videos on mapping techniques and tricks across multiple Source titles.
- Mapping Sites and General Sites - listing of forums and resources in various languages.
- Map Archive Sites - for downloading existing maps (primarily for Half-Life 2).
- See Category:Level Design for all documentation on the subject.
Common issues
No grid (black viewports)
First, check that the grid is on. The hotkey ⇧ Shift+R controls, so give it a try.
If that didn't help, check the formatting of your mod's 
gameinfo.txt.
It needs to include a key called SteamAppId, and the number after it needs to match the Steam Application ID of the base game you will be using to launch your mod.
This issue may also be caused by using a different Hammer version than the one intended for the game. To stay on the safe side, be sure to be launching 
hammer.exe from the /bin/ folder of the base game of your mod, or using Authoring Tools to launch it, if you're modding Portal 2, Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Poor performance
The fault is due to Hammer's legacy and unmaintained code. It will struggle to display too many detailed objects and draw levels across vast distances; this is even apparent with Half-Life 2's own stock levels. To make matters worse, having a large number of visible objects - regardless of what they are or how low-poly they are - will degrade both performance and input times, and make everything like selecting, editing settings, or moving objects take longer. Hammer++ and Slammin' Hammer fix some of these performance pitfalls.
Bug:Some AMD cards have a long standing bug with the selection tool in Hammer, which causes selections to have a severe performance penalty and even take several seconds. This is mostly mitigated in Hammer++. [todo tested in?]To workaround this, keep the Model and Detail render distance in the 3D View tab of the Settings, on the lower side.
Tip:Hotkeys 1 and 2 move the 3D view clipping plane back and forth - you can use it to quickly adjust it and thus lessen the rendering load on the editor.Make sure you didn't accidentally turn on Radius Culling by pressing C. This easy to press hotkey can cause huge performance loss and, to add insult to injury, make your level not compile until it is turned off.
The Radius Culling status is indicated by a circled red "R" on the Map Operations toolbar. Make sure it is de-pressed, unless you actually intend to use it.
Note:Depending on the Hammer version, the button and the feature itself may not be present altogether. Older - pre-Steampipe - Hammer didn't have it, while Slammin' Hammer and Hammer++ remove it.Freezing during compiling
Prior to Hammer in Left 4 Dead engine branch and later which opens up a separate CMD window, Hammer has it's own compiler window, which can freeze the entire program during compiling.
To workaround this and see the compiling progress, users can use Notepad++, open the log file (example: d1_trainstation_01.log), and go to View > Monitoring (tail -f) (this will prevent Notepad++ from editing the file until "Monitoring" is turned off). Alternatively, users can use Hammer++ which also opens up seperate CMD window when compiling maps.
Version History
| Version | Game/Branch | Release date | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 (build 2934)[confirm] | All Source 2004 games | November 05, 2004 | Initial release of Hammer in the Source SDK.
Updates:
|
| 4.0 (build 2959) | Source 2004 | November 22-30, 2004[confirm] | Updated version of Source SDK 2004. |
| 4.1 (build 3316) | Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, All Source 2006 games and newer | November 22, 2005 |
Updates:
|
| 4.1 (build 4037) | Source 2006 | November 13, 2007 | Last Old Engine version of Hammer.
Todo: Changes?
|
| 4.1 (build 4038-404x)[confirm] | Source 2007 | November 14, 2007[confirm] |
Updates:
Todo: Add more updates and changes in Source 2007 Hammer.
Fixes:
|
| 4.1 (build 4627)[confirm] | Left 4 Dead | June 25, 2009 | Initial release of Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools's Hammer.
Updates:
|
| 4.1 (unknown build) | Left 4 Dead 2 | Between November 17, 2009 and December 26, 2009 | Initial release of Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools's Hammer. Question: When L4D2 tools was actually released? |
| 4.1 (build 4715) | Source 2007 | September 21, 2009 | Last version of Hammer for Source 2007.
Todo: Changes?
|
| 4.1 (unknown launch build) | Alien Swarm | July 19, 2010 | Valve Map Format (.vmf) that are created using this version are incompatible with previous version of Hammer without some modification and workarounds (such as using Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools/Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools or editing VMF files). Updates:
|
| 4.1 (build 5307)[confirm] | Portal 2 | May 6, 2011 | Initial release of Portal 2 Authoring Tools's Hammer.[confirm] |
| 4.1 (build 5313)[confirm] | Portal 2 | May 12, 2011 |
Fixes:
|
| 4.1 (build 5318) | Portal 2 | May 17, 2011 |
Fixes:
|
| 4.1 (build 5321) | Portal 2 | May 20, 2011 |
Fixes:
|
| 4.1 (build 5327 to 5688) | Portal 2 | May 26, 2011 to May 21, 2012 | Unknown |
| 4.1 (build 5439) | Source 2009 (Half-Life 2, Portal) | September 15, 2011 | Last version of Hammer for Source 2009.
Todo: Changes?
|
| 4.1 (build 5476) | Postal III | October 22, 2011 (build date) December 13, 2013 (leak) |
Leaked Postal III SDK.
Todo: Changes?
|
| 4.1 (BETA, unknown build) | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | May 5, 2012 (or earlier)[confirm] | Initial release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Authoring Tools's Hammer. |
| 4.1 (unknown launch build) | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | August 21, 2012 | Launch version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Authoring Tools's Hammer. |
| 4.1 (build 5845) | Source Multiplayer (Counter-Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2, etc.) | October 25, 2012 | Last version of Hammer for Source MP.
Todo: Changes?
|
| 4.1 (build 8678) | Alien Swarm | September 24, 2020 | Latest version for Alien Swarm. |
| 4.1 (build 9008) | Source 2013 | July 2, 2021 | Latest version for Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Source SDK Base 2013 - Multiplayer |
| 4.1 (build 9092) | Team Fortress 2 | September 16, 2021 | Unknown |
| 4.1 (build 9109) | Team Fortress 2 | October 5, 2021 | Unknown |
| 4.1 (build 9122) | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | October 29, 2023[confirm] | Latest[confirm] version for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. |
| 4.1 (build 9464) | Team Fortress 2 | September 26, 2022 | Unknown |
| 4.1 (build 9520) | Half-Life 2 | November 17, 2023 (release) | Last version prior to 20th Anniversary update. (only in  )
|
| 4.1 (build 9540) | Team Fortress 2 | December 8, 2022 | Unknown |
| 4.1 (build 9958) | Left 4 Dead 2 | June 4, 2024 | Latest version for L4D2. |
| 4.1 (build 10038) | Team Fortress 2 | April 18, 2024 | Updates:
|
| 4.1 (build 10042) | Team Fortress 2 | April 22, 2024 | Latest version for  Team Fortress 2.
|
| 4.1 (build 10247) | Half-Life 2 | November 16, 2024 | Half-Life 2 20th anniversary update.
Updates:
Fixes:
|
FGDs
Note:Most games come with their proper FGD.- Half-Life: Source (FGD)
- Half-Life 2 (FGD)
- Counter-Strike: Source (FGD, with fixed code for func_buyzone and func_bomb_target)
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (FGD)
See also
Deprecated]External links
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Level Editors
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