L4D Level Design/Ladders
- Getting Started
- Your First L4D Level
- Ladders
- Visibility
- Nav Meshes
- Checkpoints
- Checkpoint Rooms
- Outdoor Levels
- Level Organization
- Level Standards
- Clip Brushes
- Elevators
- Panic Events
- Breakable Walls
- Finale Events Part 1
- Finale Events Part 2
- Finale Events Part 3
- Additional Finale Components
- Nav Flow
- Advanced Nav Editing
- Versus Maps
Go back to Hammer to create a ladder.
Depending on your machine, you might want to quit out of the game.
Select the ceiling of the second room you created in tutorial01.
Move the brush 128 units higher than it is.
Select the wall brushes in the second room and duplicate them so that the new set of walls rests on top of the old ones.

You will now see a hole to the blackness outside our contained rooms and hallway. Levels will not compile correctly or run correctly if there is a hole or leak to the outside.
Select one wall to the side of the hole and expand its size to cover the opening.
Select the lower portion of the back wall in the second room.
Widen the wall in the Top viewport so that it is 128 units wide.
Deselect the brush by pressing the Esc Key.
[edit] Texturing a Brush Face
Just to illustrate how to change the texture of a brush face, let's make all of our floors and ceilings the dev/dev_measuregeneric01b texture.
To edit individual faces of brushes, click on the 6th icon on the Tool Bar, the Texture application mode button.
You will see the Face Edit Sheet dialog box appear.
You can browse for the texture just like when you used the Texture Box Browse Button to find the texture, or you can lift it from an existing face. To lift it from an existing face, simply left-click on the ground where you see the gray developer texture.
This will replace the thumbnail with the measuregeneric texture.
To apply it to another face, hold down the Ctrl Key and right-click on the face you want to receive the texture.
[edit] Placing a Ladder Model
Go into the Entity Creation Tool and select "prop_static" from the Objects drop-down menu on the Entity Box if it isn't already set as this.
Place a prop_static by clicking on the back wall that you just widened.
Deselect the prop_static by pressing the Esc Key then double-click on it to bring up its properties.
Click on the World Model row.
Click on the Browse Button on the right of the Object Properties dialog box.
Type "ladder" into the Filter field.
Select props_c17/metalladder002.mdl and click on the OK Button.
You should now have the ladder where you placed your prop_static.
Rotate and move your ladder so that it is in the middle of this back wall and the bottom touches the floor.
[edit] Creating a func_ladder
Now that you have the model that shows where your ladder is, you will need to place the actual entity that allows players and npc's to climb it.
Click on the Browse Button on the Texture Box.
Type "nodraw" into the filter.
Double-click on the texture "tools/toolsnodraw"
Decrease your grid size to fit the ladder better by pressing the [ key twice.
Click on the 5th icon on the Tool Bar (the Block Creation Tool) and then draw a brush in the Top viewport in front of the ladder.
Now, you will need to make one face of the brush (the face that points out from the ladder) a ladder texture. To edit individual faces of brushes, click on the 6th icon on the Tool Bar, the Texture application mode button.
You will see the Face Edit Sheet dialog box appear.
With this dialog box still appearing, select the face pointing away from the ladder in the Camera viewport with the left mouse button.
Click on the Browse Button in the Face Edit Sheet dialog box and you will see the Textures window appear again.
Type "ladder" into the Filter field.
Double-click the texture "tools/toolsinvisibleladder".
You should see the LADDER texture now occupying the thumbnail in the Face Edit Sheet.
Now click the Apply Button and your selected face should change to the LADDER texture.
Exit the Texture application mode by closing the Face Edit Sheet dialog box.
Select the brush with the LADDER texture on the one face.
Go to Tools > Tie to Entity
This will make the brush a Brush Entity. The default brush entity is a func_detail which we will talk about a little later.
We want to make this brush entity a func_ladder. Pull down the drop-down menu choices and select "func_ladder".
Then click on the Apply Button.
Close the Object Properties dialog box and then save your level as "tutorial02.vmf".
Now compile the level by pressing the F9 Key and then clicking on the OK Button.

You should see your ladder look something like this: