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How to Create Roads in Hammer Source Part 7/8:
Blocking Roads Off with Terrain and Displacement

February 09, 2011
Category: Left 4 Dead 2 Mapping, Left 4 Dead Mapping, SourceSDK/Authoring Tools

How to Create Roads in Hammer Source is 8-part series covering various beginner and advanced techniques on creating roads.

Part 7 is focused on:

• Using Terrain/Displacement to Block Off Areas Around Roads
• Blending using textures
• Overlays and props
• Using terrain on curved roads

VIDEO: PART 7/8

CREATING BELIEVABLE TRANSITIONS

Blending terrain and roads is the key to creating believable transitions. Using proper textures that matche the road and the terrain.

Use prop_statics to detail the area:

Use overlays to add variation and hide ugly seams. Go here for overlay tutorial.

CREATING TERRAIN

Creating terrain displacement in Hammer Source is simple. Create a brush with the size of the terrain you want.

Apply any blend texture on top of the brush.

Select the top face of the brush and go to Face Edit Sheet.

Click over to Displacement and click on Create:

Choose Power of 2 for now. Power of 3 or 4 will give you more terrain detail.

Select the terrain displacement, go back to Face Edit Sheet and choose Paint Geometry:

Use the options to shape terrain displacement:

Shape the terrain how you like it along side your road and curb:

For more detailed tutorial go here.

ALPHA BLEND/PAINTING TEXTURES

Since we are using blend texture, we can paint in the blended second texture into our terrain.

Select your terrain, and go into Face Edit Sheet again. Now click on Displacement and on Paint Alpha:

Options to Paint Alpha will come up. You will now be able to blend terrain texture near the road:

USING PROP STATICS

We are now going to use prop static to detail and create better sidewalks. prop_static are models in Hammer Source.

Click on Entity Tool:

Lower, Right hand side of the interface, choose prop_static in the drop down menu:

Left-Click in the perspective viewport to place prop_static place holder:

Double click on the prop_static place holder (red box) and go into prop_static entity properties. We need to choose our curb model.

Choose World Model first, then click on Browse:

Depending which game you are working with, you may or may not have exactly the same models. I am using L4D2.

Filter by typing in curb and in the preview window, see what the model looks like.

Begin to populate terrain displacement with trees and bushes:

TERRAIN AND CURVED ROADS

To modify terrain around curved roads you will need to change the Axis on Displacement Paint Geometry option along z-axis, x-axis or y-axis.

z-axis: up/down
x/y-axis: front/back/left/right