Mapping

Ammo System

The ammo system allows mappers to control how many shots the player can fire from weapons that use ammo. All defrag weapons, the RJ rocket launcher, the sticky bomb launcher, and concs can be controlled with separate ammo types. The default state for the player is infinite ammo, but the player’s ammo can be changed with player IO inputs and entities. Additionally, an ammo limit can be set that doesn’t allow the player to have more than a certain amount.

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Collectibles

This guide covers how to use collectibles in Momentum Mod. Collectibles are a tool that lets mappers create non-linear, staged maps.

Prerequisites #

To follow this guide you should:

  • Be on Momentum 0.8.7+
  • Have a working Hammer install with the Momentum FGD
  • Some experience with entity I/O and filters

What are Collectibles? #

Collectibles are any entity that the player must interact with to continue in the map. They can be thought of like pickups, but any entity can be a collectible, so long as the player can interact with it to “collect” it. The entity filter_momentum_collectibles is used to control entities based on how many collectibles the player has gathered.

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Creating Surf Ramps

Ramp Guide Header

Note: This guide assumes that you have a basic working knowledge of the hammer editor and the tools used.

Basic Surf Ramps #

Planning #

devstage header

Before you start to create your ramps in hammer, there are a few factors you should consider:

  • How steep do I want the ramps to be?
    • A ramp that is too steep / wide may be considered awkward to board.
    • People tend to use a 5:4 ratio for the dimensions of their ramps
  • What size do I want for my ramps?
    • People may find themselves sliding off the bottoms of small ramps.
    • They may feel like they are going slow on oversized ramps, it is important to find a balance.
  • How do I want to detail my ramps?
    • Will models be needed to achieve the visual style, or can it be brushes?

These characteristics of your ramps will inevitably be refined through testing, but it is a good idea to start off with a plan for how you want the surf to feel. Look at different surf maps that you enjoy and try to get an idea of how exactly you want yours to pan out.

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Giving Players Powerups

Two powerups are implemented: Haste and Damage Boost. They can be given or removed with these inputs:

SetHaste (time in seconds)

SetDamageBoost (time in seconds)

If time = 0, the effect will be removed. If time < 0, then the effect will last indefinitely until removed.

There are also powerup entities: momentum_powerup_haste and momentum_powerup_damage_boost. They both take a ResetTime key like the weapon spawner entity. The haste powerup takes a HasteTime key, and the damage boost powerup takes a DamageBoostTime key. They are both specified in seconds the same way as the inputs.

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Hammer++ Setup

Background #

Momentum Mod ships with a customized build of Hammer (named “Strata Hammer”) which includes some, but not all of Hammer++’s features. Our development has been geared more towards stability than new features, with a focus on porting to Qt for cross platform UI and bug fixing. While Strata Hammer should be perfectly usable (and we appreciate testers), it will be a while until Hammer++ features like accurate lighting preview are fully implemented. If you prefer using Hammer++, that is completely reasonable and this guide should get you set up.

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Parallax Corrected Cubemaps

Cubemap Guide

This page covers Momentum’s implementation of Parallax-Corrected Cubemaps, created with a combination of custom entities and materials.

Thanks to Brian Charles for his work on this feature.
More technical information can be found on the Valve Developer Wiki Page.

Prerequisites #

To make use of this page, you should:

  • Be proficient in using the Hammer Editor
  • Have the momentum.fgd in your Hammer configuration
  • Know how to use the developer console

Components of a Parallax-Corrected Cubemap #

In Hammer, Parallax-Corrected Cubemaps need two entities to function correctly:

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Porting Goldsrc maps to Source

This guide is a work in progress. If you have questions or problems ask for help in the Momentum Mod Discord. #

Before you start, you should know that maps with simple geometry work best for porting. Complex geometry can cause invalid solids which will need to be manually remade, and some textures will need to be realigned.

Prerequisites:

  • Have a basic understanding of Goldsrc, Valve Hammer Editor, and potentially Trenchbroom

Download the .BSP and (in some cases) the .WAD #

Most Team Fortress Classic skill maps can be found on the TFC Refugees forum here: https://www.tfcrefugees.com/resources/categories/conc.4/
Maps downloaded from this forum always include any relevant custom content not packed into the map itself. Additionally many maps have descriptions and author info text documents included.
Of the files downloaded, the BSP is the actual map file, and the WAD contains the textures used in the map. In most cases custom textures will be embedded into the BSP itself.

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Porting Quake 3 maps to Source

Before you start, you should know that maps with simple geometry work best for porting. Complex geometry can cause invalid solids as vertices tend to shift around if they are off grid, and you will be forced to recreate a lot of the brushes manually. Patches and props cannot be ported across either, so choose maps without those or you will have to spend a lot of time manually replacing them in Hammer.

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Weapon System

The weapon system allows mappers to give and remove a players weapons via entity logic.

Weapon Spawner Entity #

The momentum_weapon_spawner entity can be used to give the player a weapon. The entity currently takes a weapon entity name in the WeaponName key. The following weapon names can be used:

"weapon_momentum_pistol"
"weapon_momentum_shotgun"
"weapon_momentum_machinegun"
"weapon_momentum_sniper"
"weapon_momentum_grenade"
"weapon_momentum_concgrenade"
"weapon_knife"
"weapon_momentum_rocketlauncher"
"weapon_momentum_stickylauncher"
"weapon_momentum_df_plasmagun"
"weapon_momentum_df_rocketlauncher"
"weapon_momentum_df_bfg"
"weapon_momentum_df_grenadelauncher"

The entity also has a ResetTime key, which is the amount of time in seconds before a weapon can be picked up again. If this value is negative, then the spawner will only give a weapon once. Once we implement a save state system on map reset, this entity should reset along with that, but right now the only way to reset the spawner when it’s in this state is to reload the map.

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World Portals

Portal Guide Header

This page covers Momentum Mod’s implementation of world portals, how they work, how to add them into a map, as well as the limitations associated with the technology.

Prerequisites #

In order to easily follow along with this guide it is recommended to have the following:

  • A basic knowledge of the Hammer editor and how to create functional, playable maps using it
  • A version of Momentum Mod from version 0.8.8 or onwards
  • The momentum.fgd file in your Hammer configuration

Introduction #

What Are Portals? #

World portals are placeable entities that emulate a connection between two points, such as the example pictured below. Portals can have many uses for mappers attempting to push their creativity or for those stuck in Hammer-related corners.

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