Comments

Commented 2 weeks ago2024-11-04 09:03:31 UTC in journal: Another Pathos update has dropped Comment #106490
Sounds interesting!
How's visibility handled? Is Pathos limited by the room-corridor paradigm, or does it handle large open spaces well?
Commented 2 weeks ago2024-11-03 16:53:09 UTC in journal: Another Pathos update has dropped Comment #106488
So Pathos uses its own BSP format? Other than bigger lightmaps, are there any other differences?
Commented 3 weeks ago2024-10-28 20:37:54 UTC in journal: Special Comment #106473
I just finished my own holidays 😄
Enjoy yours!
Commented 3 weeks ago2024-10-28 07:34:07 UTC in journal: It's been so long... Comment #106471
Happy birthday!
20 years is such a long time. I think it was around that long I joined this site as well. I bet it was fun to see your son picking up level design!
Commented 3 weeks ago2024-10-27 15:35:40 UTC in journal: Special Comment #106468
Happy belated birthday!
Did you do anything fun to celebrate, or was it mostly sort of 'just another day'? 🙂
Commented 1 month ago2024-10-04 21:16:17 UTC in journal: Today is the birthday of the FSF! Comment #106443
Happy birthday! 🥳
Commented 1 month ago2024-10-04 07:35:16 UTC in journal: 2^5 Comment #106440
Thanks you two! 😁
Commented 1 month ago2024-10-03 07:14:00 UTC in journal: 2^5 Comment #106435
Better than half of them being burnt!
For plain popcorn I microwave them until it takes about 4 seconds between each pop. In my experience that's a good balance between getting as many popped as possible, without burning them :p

For pre-buttered popcorn I'd just do whatever the instructions say and play it safe. Those burn very easily.
Commented 1 month ago2024-10-02 19:58:24 UTC in journal: 2^5 Comment #106433
Thanks! How did that go? 😁
Commented 1 month ago2024-10-02 18:44:36 UTC in journal: 2^5 Comment #106431
Thank you, Admer!
How was the restaurant? Would you go back? :p
Commented 1 month ago2024-10-02 13:02:40 UTC in journal: 2^5 Comment #106429
Thank you! 😄

I won't be doing much to celebrate, just going to bake a cake and cook a fancy dinner and enjoy some stout beer ^^
Commented 2 months ago2024-09-18 05:20:19 UTC in wiki page: Tutorial: The packing (and non-packing) of bodygroups and skin groups in GoldSource models Comment #106405
Well done. About time we got a tutorial going into detail about the body property packing. 🙂
Commented 2 months ago2024-09-14 11:27:22 UTC in journal: A bigger Pathos update dropped Comment #106396
Great to see you're back to working on Pathos Engine! 😄
I hope you're feeling better now 🙂
Commented 2 months ago2024-09-12 08:35:43 UTC in wiki page: Reference: Entities and their models Comment #106392
Ah there we go, great work! 🙌
Commented 2 months ago2024-09-10 19:47:29 UTC in journal: Tutorial bucket list Comment #106386
Very good list, especially looking forward to #2 there (body/skin groups one)!
Commented 2 months ago2024-09-10 19:29:57 UTC in wiki page: Tutorial: Modelling for goldsrc with Blender - Part 1 Comment #106385
One might think I wrote Map2Prop just to avoid writing Part 2 of this tutorial, BUT actually
a) it's been a very busy year since I wrote this tutorial
b) I'm tired
c) Part 2 is going to be about rigging and basic animations and M2P can't do that, so I'll have to write that at some point anyway 😔

(Also that previous comment from me above was in response to a now-deleted user, sorry for any confusion it might have caused) :p
Commented 2 months ago2024-09-05 11:34:11 UTC in wiki page: Reference: Entities and their models Comment #106371
I think adding entities used for displaying models, such as cycler* entities and env_sprite, could come in handy for those wanting to use props with multiple body/skin groups.
Commented 2 months ago2024-08-31 10:19:04 UTC in journal: Cyprus Comment #106352
Sweden and Norway are beautiful in different ways.
Norway has fjords and some pretty dramatic mountains, while Sweden is full of forest (so much forest) and the coast being full of archipelagos (the skärgårdar).

Not to mention there's a big difference whether you're north or south of the Arctic Circle in either country, such a big difference in the nature you get to see, not to mention that north of the Circle you get midnight sun and it's a very popular place to see the aurora borealis.

There's also lots of glaciers in both countries, I highly recommend seeing one if you ever go to either one 🙂
Commented 3 months ago2024-08-21 20:49:12 UTC in wiki page: Entity Attribute: Entity Effects Comment #106319
I can confirm at least EF_INVLIGHT (16) and EF_LIGHT (64) works on point entities.
It'd be useful to do further testing and create a table of which effects works on which type of entity.
Commented 3 months ago2024-08-20 18:49:52 UTC in journal: Map2Prop v1.0.0 Released! Comment #106314
I'm glad to hear it!
Commented 3 months ago2024-08-20 18:49:20 UTC in journal: Which WAD Comment #106313
Thanks! Better late than never, and it's good practice for me.

And yeah, nothing quite like growing your own food 😃
Commented 3 months ago2024-08-09 09:48:05 UTC in poll: Favourite HL Title Comment #106290
No inclusion or even a mention of Uplink??
I shall write a slightly displeased letter to the council about this! 😤
Commented 4 months ago2024-07-13 21:21:31 UTC in journal: Map2Prop v1.0.0 Released! Comment #106248
Thanks you two! 😊
I'm actually surprised it wasn't already made for GoldSrc, only for Source in the form of Propper. And I agree, I think mappers would really have benefitted from it being made earlier. Just a shame I never really got the time and opportunity to properly sit down and work on modding until now.
Commented 4 months ago2024-07-12 19:50:12 UTC in vault item: GoldSrc Map2Prop Comment #106244
Thank you! 🥳
Commented 4 months ago2024-07-11 10:28:04 UTC in vault item: Core Critical [final] Comment #106242
Excellent map. Beautifully crafted and fun to play.

The teleport sequence, with its complete change of the arena and resetting of player loadout, adds an interesting and exciting variation to the map and its gameplay that I haven't seen in other HLDM maps. -Chef kiss- 👌
Commented 4 months ago2024-07-08 10:09:38 UTC in journal: There is no spoon Comment #106238
Happy belated birthday!
Commented 5 months ago2024-06-22 11:49:15 UTC in journal: The periodic table of ElementsSrc™ Comment #106209
Of course, the next step is to invent the GoldSrc equivalence of organic chemistry
Commented 5 months ago2024-06-02 20:49:36 UTC in journal: Continued absence Comment #106194
Take the time you need, your health and wellbeing very much comes first, you have no obligation to us.

Take care of yourself, and hope you get well soon!
Commented 6 months ago2024-05-14 08:28:02 UTC in vault item: BSP Runner [v1.1.1] Comment #106177
Looks useful if you want a more advanced launch stage of one's compilation process, great work! 👌
Commented 7 months ago2024-04-20 12:04:46 UTC in journal: Reporting in Comment #106147
Ah, a fellow snowboarder! 😃
Those mountains look lovely! I bet that slope was fun!
Commented 7 months ago2024-04-20 11:46:59 UTC in journal: Hiatus(Yes, again) Comment #106146
Taking breaks and resting is very important. No matter if it's work or hobby or chores.
I hope things get well and you get the rest you need 🙂
Commented 7 months ago2024-04-09 08:06:56 UTC in wiki page: Tutorial: Intro to the Tools of Hammer Comment #106121
Good idea! Will see about adding a section about the toolbars 🙂
Commented 7 months ago2024-04-07 19:52:21 UTC in journal: 🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀 Comment #106118
Huh, didn't realise that about t0a0b and t0a0b2. Is one actually unused in the game?
Commented 7 months ago2024-04-07 00:41:46 UTC in journal: 🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀 Comment #106115
I suppose we could do a search for "monster_rat" in the vanilla maps to get a correct count, and to make sure it really is only within the Hazard Course.
Wikis are community driven, so information isn't guaranteed to be correct. Someone might have made a guesstimate without checking, and the number was never fact-checked. That happens all the time :p
Commented 7 months ago2024-04-04 06:39:57 UTC in journal: Hiking Comment #106110
That's a nice photo!
Kind of reminds me of the mountains in southern Spain 🙂
Commented 8 months ago2024-03-18 14:32:55 UTC in journal: The Problem With Planning Comment #106073
Planning a map isn't only done by sketching ideas, but definitely can be done by just writing down ideas or even writing it as a kind of story.

In fact, writing down ideas is always a good thing to do as it helps preventing you from forgetting about it, and even if it gets unused in your current project it can be archived in an "idea bucket" where you can come back to later on to reuse ideas for new/other projects.

Myself, I like to do a combination. I start out writing down the main ideas and keywords etc I have for a project, and try to write a story of what I want to happen in the project, and sketch out things I have a visual idea for to help remembering it and to start fleshing out details I didn't think of first.
Commented 8 months ago2024-03-12 10:22:08 UTC in wiki page: func_pushable Comment #106062
Just to answer that age-old question that has been left unanswered for so long here:

The Hull Size (size) determines which of the three cliphulls to test its own collisions against.
This is why a big pushable using HULL1 or HULL3 might be clipping into world geometry when pushed around.
("Am I colliding with the world?" from the pushable's perspective).

This isn't the same sort of collisions as when a player is touching/climbing the pushable, in which case it's the player testing collisions against the pushable's own cliphulls, which are similar to its shape regardless of size.
("Am I colliding with the pushable?" from the player's perspective).
Commented 8 months ago2024-03-11 14:22:23 UTC in wiki page: func_pendulum Comment #106061
Just posting it here as well for convenience:

Linear Pendulum trick

If you want to simulate a linear pendulum (e.g. a weight on a spring that bobs up-and-down or side-to-side) you can do so by placing the ORIGIN brush at a distance far away from the pendulum.
To find the values to be given to the func_pendulum for a given length of oscillation you can use the equation
A = 2 × sin⁻¹(h / d)
User posted image
where h is how far from the center the pendulum should oscillate (half the total distance),
d is how far the center of the ORIGIN is from the center of the pendulum,
and A is the resulting angle we will use for Distance (distance).

To make sure it oscillates properly we also need to set negative half A to Pitch Yaw Roll (angles) in the appropriate axis.
As for the Speed (speed) you'd want a value that's near A, otherwise it'll move too fast (as the origin is so far away, small changes in the angle results in great changes in position of the pendulum).

As an example, let's say we have a pendulum we want to move up-and-down by 32 units in the Y/Z plane. We create our pendulum and set the ORIGIN brush to be 7300 units away along the Y axis and we use the equation to find A = 2 × sin⁻¹(32 / 7300) ≈ 0.5°.
So for our func_pendulum we set Distance to 0.5, Pitch Yaw Roll to 0 0 -0.25, Speed to 0.2, and we set the Start on and X-axis flags.
Note:
Make sure to set your calculator to use degrees, not radians
Commented 8 months ago2024-03-11 10:21:45 UTC in poll: New Poll? Comment #106060
Have we had a poll for favourite TFC class yet?
Commented 8 months ago2024-03-07 21:39:49 UTC in poll: New Poll? Comment #106045
It sure do cause torture, but personally I wouldn't consider the recorder to count as a proper instrument, Oskar :p
Commented 8 months ago2024-03-06 18:47:45 UTC in poll: New Poll? Comment #106040
Since there had been talks about it in the Discord lately, how about a poll about if we play any instruments? 🙂
Commented 8 months ago2024-02-26 09:31:06 UTC in vault item: GoldSrc Map2Prop Comment #106014
That's really exciting to hear! Looking forward to seeing it! 😁
Commented 8 months ago2024-02-24 16:40:58 UTC in journal: Map2Prop supports MAP format now, what's next? Comment #106010
I could just implement an parent_model key, where the value is another func_map2prop that becomes a template so to speak.
Perhaps add a spawnflag "Is submodel" that makes the mesh of this entity become a submodel of the template's model (or the worldspawn model, if no parent_model is set).

I have some ideas for skeletal stuff, but I'm saving that for post-release.
Commented 9 months ago2024-02-24 00:10:08 UTC in journal: Map2Prop supports MAP format now, what's next? Comment #106008
Thank you! I had already started working on a FGD, currently it looks like this:
@SolidClass = func_map2prop : "Brushes for Map2Prop to turn into a model"
[
    spawnflags(flags) =
    [
        1 : "Disable" : 0
    ]

    outname(string) : "Exported model's name"
    outdir(string) : "Exported model subfolder"
    gamma(string) : "Gamma (default 1.8)" : "1.8"
    smoothing(string) : "Smoothing threshold (0 disables)" : "60.0"
    scale(string) : "Scale" : "1.0"
    rotate(string) : "Rotate" : "0.0"
    convert_to(choices) : "Classname after conversion" : 0 =
    [
        0: "cycler"
        1: "cycler_sprite"
        2: "env_sprite"
        3: "item_generic"
        4: "monster_furniture"
        5: "monster_generic"
    ]
]
So your mock-up was not far off, just missing some of the QC options.
Also instead of an offset key the mapper should just use an ORIGIN brush to set the model origin. It's a practice most mappers should be familiar with already. 🙂

The source code repo is still private, waiting until v1 to open that one.
Commented 9 months ago2024-02-22 17:00:53 UTC in journal: What is your opinion of melee combat in Op4? Comment #106001
As long as you make it clear they have to flee from the Gonarch and not engage in combat with it, it should be fine 🙂
Commented 9 months ago2024-02-22 15:10:39 UTC in journal: What is your opinion of melee combat in Op4? Comment #105999
If you give the players no other options, they will eventually get used to using only melee.

Just be careful about the difficulty ramp. Warm them up with some headcrabs and breakables first and slowly increase the encounter difficulty instead of dropping the player directly into an arena with several gonomes and bullsquids. Let them become comfortable with it before challenging them, so to speak.

If the enemies have ranged attacks, give the player plenty of cover so they don't end up feeling defenceless (which in turn is experienced as unfair and difficult by the player).
Commented 10 months ago2023-12-30 18:44:39 UTC in journal: func_illusionary and clipnodes Comment #105815
You're welcome! Just glad to help out with these things. Would be a shame if you or someone else had to do severe cuts to their map just because of wasted clipnodes :p
Commented 10 months ago2023-12-30 12:38:07 UTC in wiki page: Specification: JMF Comment #105812
With the December 2023 update the JMF version was changed to 122, now including a data for background images in the 2D displayports.
From what I've found so far, the new structure looks like this:
typedef struct {
    char[4] magic;                      // File format magic number, "JHMF" in ASCII encoding
    int32 version;                      // File format version (currrently 122)
    int32 ep_count;                     // Number of recent export paths
    p_char[ep_count] export_paths;      // Recent export paths
    bg_image[3] bg_images;              // Background images
    int32 group_count;                  // Number of groups in the map
    Group[group_count] groups;          // Group objects
    int32 visgroup_count;               // Number of VisGroups
    VisGroup[visgroup_count] visgroups; // VisGroups objects
    Vector cordon_min;                  // Minimum corner of the Cordon box
    Vector cordon_max;                  // Maximum corner of the Cordon box
    int32 camera_count;                 // Number of Camera objects
    Camera[camera_count] cameras;       // Camera objects
    int32 path_count;                   // Number of path objects
    Path[path_count] paths;             // Path objects (created with the Path tool)
    Entity[] entities;                  // All entities including worldspawn, read until the end of the file
} Jmf;
and for the background image struct:
typedef struct {
    p_char path;                        // Background image path
    double scale;                       // Image scale
    int32 luminance;                    // Image brightness (0-255)
    int32 filtering;                    // Image filtering (0=nearest, 1=linear)
    int32 invert;                       // Invert image colours
    int32 offset_x;                     // Image horizontal offset from center
    int32 offset_y;                     // Image vertical offset from center
    byte[4] unknown;
} bg_image
Commented 10 months ago2023-12-29 11:31:33 UTC in wiki page: env_sound Comment #105810
Just to document this somewhere:

The cvar waterroom_type (default 14) controls which env_sound Room Type is applied when the player is underwater. It's seemingly unused in the game.
Commented 10 months ago2023-12-26 20:11:01 UTC in journal: func_illusionary and clipnodes Comment #105799
So it's basically a permanent pointhull-only brush entity. Neat!