Best Grid Refinement to Use?

Bad MojoBad Mojo Join Date: 2009-05-01 Member: 67317Members
in Mapping
Question for the more experienced mappers here, what is the best grid refinement to use when building rooms and geomatery in general? Obviously it would need to be changed when working with different levels of detail, but what do you guys use as a 'default' grid size? 8? 64? 128?

Another thought: Is Spark Editor a bad editor for someone who is just beginning to map? It seems to lack a lot of the tools that Hammer has that make it a lot easier to create certain (many) objects...
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Comments

  • alibialibi Join Date: 2009-11-20 Member: 69445Members
    1" all day every day.
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  • schkorpioschkorpio I can mspaint Join Date: 2003-05-23 Member: 16635Members
    it depends on what you are doing, if you are just greyboxing out a map layout you're probably fine with 16" or 32"

    when you are making the actually room layout i'd go down to 8" generally and then sometimes down to 4" if you want to do a few diagonal things
    most things in the game/editor are made in multiples of 4 or 8.

    if you open up an official map you'll see that most trims are 4 or 8", most doors are 128" or double doors 256" so the hallways match this


    you shouldn't need to go down to 1" unless you are doing something really detailed like tracing an opening for a door model/prop. it seems like you would just be causing yourself to watch the measurement bar down the bottom too much to get alignment just right - and you'd be drawing out things to 4 or 8" anyway. its pretty rare that you'd need to align something to 3" or 5" so not sure why you'd need the 1" size very often.

    but looking at hera and esoteric it seems to be working for you alibi :P
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  • Rudy.czRudy.cz Join Date: 2012-02-13 Member: 145410Members
    I agree with Schkorpio. I dont know if its a habit from Hammer times, but sticking to 8" for main geometry helps me keep everything in order and easy to edit. Ocassonaly going down to 4 or 2 for trims and details. To 1" I am decreasing rarely, only when dealing with some crazy, angled geometry.
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  • MagnetoMagneto Join Date: 2010-12-22 Member: 75856Members
    I use 8 most of the time but drop down when need be, mapping would be so much better if things didn't go off the grid, its probably the biggest bug and annoyance for me, should have been fixed a long time ago.
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  • JanosJanos Join Date: 2002-08-02 Member: 1050Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester
    <!--quoteo(post=2032917:date=Nov 23 2012, 04:46 PM:name=Magneto)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Magneto @ Nov 23 2012, 04:46 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2032917"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I use 8 most of the time but drop down when need be, mapping would be so much better if things didn't go off the grid, its probably the biggest bug and annoyance for me, should have been fixed a long time ago.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I know exactly how you feel, rotate something that is on the grid and it ends up entirely off the grid resulting in you having to scale it and miss-aligning the textures, so you to sit there and spend the next min or two aligning them again. While that in itself doesn't sound so bad, it really does slow down the work flow and possibly interrupt whatever mapping 'groove' you are in.
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  • Rudy.czRudy.cz Join Date: 2012-02-13 Member: 145410Members
    Actually, I do not adjust rotated geometry to grid because those precise angles will become skewed and it will become hard to add to that geometry.

    I have learned to create new geometry in orthogonal views and rotate it to new position around the same pivot by the same angle. This way it will fit in with old gemetry there precisely.
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  • MouseMouse The Lighter Side of Pessimism Join Date: 2002-03-02 Member: 263Members, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    Personally I mostly stick with 64 & 32 and drop down to 8 for aligning angled brushes. I only really need to drop lower if I'm working on really smooth curves or something.
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  • TigTig Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71674Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    4, 2, 1
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  • ScardyBobScardyBob ScardyBob Join Date: 2009-11-25 Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    <!--quoteo(post=2033204:date=Nov 23 2012, 03:32 PM:name=Mouse)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mouse @ Nov 23 2012, 03:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2033204"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Personally I mostly stick with 64 & 32 and drop down to 8 for aligning angled brushes. I only really need to drop lower if I'm working on really smooth curves or something.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    This, though I've been known to jump up to 128 to start a room (and get a sense of the relative sizes).
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  • ShrimmShrimm Join Date: 2012-10-05 Member: 161652Members
    It's pretty much completely preference and slightly what fits the situation. I use larger grids for the basics such as layout. But after that I tend to stay on 1", just the way I prefer it.
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