@starlight_garden

6 months ago

Here are some complimentary guidance for avoiding pitfalls and solving some problems that might arise. Due to character limit, I had to split this up into two comments. See replies. # Regarding the ray tracing requirement You CAN, at the time of writing, FULLY COMPILE your map without a ray tracing-capable graphics card! I will explain this in the next chapter, but first: how can you know for sure that your GPU is not ray tracing capable and it's not just some error in the editor? According to unreliable sources (but it's the best I have), all Nvidia graphics cards with "RTX" (not "GTX") in the name have the ray tracing feature. Not sure about AMD. Valve provided these Hammer GPU spec requirements in June 2023: • Nvidia RTX 2060 6 GB (2080 Ti+ recommended) • AMD RX 6600XT (6800XT+ recommended) ## How do you compile without a ray tracing GPU? You can use the Valve's CPU renderer to render with your CPU instead of GPU by using command line. CPU rendering is however deprecated and might not work forever. To complie, follow "How to test run the map at any point (CPU method)" further down this comment. You will of course not be able to view the map with ray tracing directly in Hammer. Also, I read that some specific emitters(I think?) might not work. So don't use those, I guess, I dunno, they aren't in the video. # How to test run the map at any point (normal method) 1. Follow along with the video up to at least 4:30 and you can pause there. 2. If you have already placed out spawn points, skip to step 7. 3. Entity tool (Shift+E)>Counter Terrorist Spawn Point 4. Click on floor to place. 5. Translate tool (T). 6. In object mode (5), click the counter terrorist, drag the blue arrow up to pull him up into the air. He won't spawn in the air, but if you don't do this, he might get stuck in the floor or something. 7. Save. 8. F9 or File>Build map... 9. Select a preset. "Final compile" takes the longest time and has the best lighting. 10. Hit "Build". 11. When you're done testing, know that if you shut down the game, Hammer and Workshop Tools will also close. Probably better to first close Hammer, then shut down the game from the "Tools" menu in the top-right corner of the the Workshop Tools window. # How to test run the map at any point (CPU method) TLDR for pros: F9, select preset, in the same window: Settings>Command Line, copy the command, paste into cmd.exe but add " -lightmapcpu" before "- threads" and change the outroot path at the end of that command to "[full-path-to-game-folder]\game", hit enter, wait, when finished: go back to the Build window in Hammer, hit "Run (Skip Build)". Optionally, build cubemaps with console command "buildcubemaps". 1. Follow the normal [GPU] method above, _up to and including step 8_, and then come back here. 2. Select a preset. "Final compile" takes the longest time and has the best lighting, but it might take a many hours to complete with CPU rendering. "Full Compile" takes just a few minutes for me. I haven't tried any presets besides those two. 3. Don't change anything, but expand "Settings" by clicking the plus next to it (if it's not already expanded). 4. Expand "Command Line" (not "Console Commands"). 5. Select and copy the text there. 6. Open Notepad or something. Doesn't matter what program. 7. Paste. 8. Before "- threads", enter " -lightmapcpu" (without my quotation marks). 9. Open Steam and right-click on Counter-Strike 2. 10. Properties>Installed Files>Browse. 11. In the Explorer window that should have now opened, click on an empty space on the bar that shows the path to the folder you're in (or it might only say the name of the folder) close to the top. This should turn it into a text field with a path. Copy the path, then close this Explorer window. 12. Go back to Notepad or where you pasted the command earlier. 13. At the END of the text string there should be a folder path within quotation marks. Remove the path text. 14. Paste. 15. Type "\game" (without my quotation marks). 16. Select everything and copy. 17. If you're on Windows, open up a command prompt by opening the Start menu, type "cmd" (without quotation marks) and open Command Prompt. If you are on Linx, I guess use Terminal. 18. If the path that appears in the command line is not on the same drive as you have installed CS2, then type the correct drive letter followed by a colon and then hit enter. If it is already the correct drive, move on to the next step. 19. Paste via right-clicking. Then hit Enter. 20. Wait until it's done. You can close Hammer and Workshop Tools if you want, but it's not necessary. Not sure if it's safe to keep working on the same map file while it's compiling though. 21. If it says "CDataModel: 20 elements left in memory!!!" and "Leaking 20 elements", I think that's fine... but don't blame me if something bad happens with your computer. 22. Go back to Hammer and hit "Run ( Skip Build )" in the Build Map window that we opened before. The map should load in the already open game window. If it can't find the map, then you probably entered the directory path in the CMD command incorrectly, review that. 23. If you want to give cubemap reflections to your map, open the game's console/VConsole (google if you don't know how), type "buildcubemaps" and hit Enter. You (probably) need to have added env_combined_light_probe_volume first, as shown in the video. If cubemaps still don't work, try "Preview Baked Lighting">"Bake All Cubemaps" in Hammer, then recompile and build cubemaps again. 24. When you're done testing, know that if you shut down the game, Hammer and Workshop Tools will also close. Probably better to first close Hammer, then shut down the game from the "Tools" menu in the top-right corner of the the Workshop Tools window. # Installing the tools* (as of October 2023) 1. Right-click Counter-Strike 2 in Steam and select "Properties". 2. Go to DLC and tick "Counter-Strike 2 Workshop Tools". 3. Counter-Strike 2 will update and install the tools. If it doesn't update, run Counter-Strike 2. (continued in reply)

44 |