Christmas Day has actually become a little less chaotic as the kids have gotten older. Everyone comes to our place now on Christmas Day/Boxing Day rather than us racing from one end of the county to the other to visit everyone.
The rest of my week off will consist of looking after the kids, playing as much Baldur's Gate 3 and Fortnite as possible and maybe even doing some mapping if the mood takes me.
Commented 4 months ago2023-12-17 11:22:01 UTC
in wiki page: Tutorial: Evolving GrassComment #105757
Maybe a bit too far-fetched, but I think it would be cool to have macro previews. It was something that I suffered from back when I was trying MESS out. Obviously, editor integration would be needed for this, and while it could be feasible with TrenchBroom (it being open-source and actively developed), it'd still take a frightening amount of effort, I figure. Add its lacking Half-Life mapping support on top of that. And of course J.A.C.K. is out of the question.
Commented 4 months ago2023-12-17 01:22:50 UTC
in wiki page: Tutorial: Evolving GrassComment #105755
An entity can be marked as 'primary' by giving it a _mess_merge_entity_master attribute. If a group has no master then the attributes of the first entity will be used, but it would probably be better to issue a warning if that group contains entities with different attributes.
As for the future of MESS, the big step with v1.2 is that instead of macro entities and a scripting language that is geared towards technical users, there is now a set of template entities and automation scripts that anyone can use. I intend to add and improve template entities when new things come up, such as Erty's func_illusionary + hlt_noclip 1 discovery. But I've also got ideas for new features, such as a geometry API that lets you generate brushes, and support for reading textures and models. Think of automatically covering brushes with thin extruded overlays with additive textures, or generating clip-brushes for prop models, or maybe even generating models from entities. Other ideas are things like issuing a warning if a func_ entity with a transparent texture doesn't have the right render mode or FX amount, or if a map transition uses an uppercase map name. Oh well, we'll see.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
A short map with a range enemies to shoot at. They are little to no threat due to there being no node graph to guide the AI and a lot of them are stuck in the geometry. Certainly not worth a 70MB download since the one audio file included caused my game to crash to desktop until I deleted it...
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 4 months ago2023-12-16 12:33:41 UTC
in wiki page: Tutorial: Hint BrushesComment #105743
Relaying other member's comment on this page: a top-down view of the setup was sorely needed. In that aspect the Tutorial: Total Map Optimisation Part 2 (VIS, Hints) page is much more helpful (and much more thorough tbh).
Commented 4 months ago2023-12-16 12:02:30 UTC
in wiki page: SKY textureComment #105742
I found that compiling with VHLT will make sky lighting not work on sky brushes that aren't all textured with sky texture, making that particular brush not emit skylight.
It's also particular about having different sky "ceiling" brushes at different levels. Hard to explain why; I think it can only emit light from one side, and so having one sky brush act as both wall and ceiling of a skybox makes it only emit light on the wall side. So it might mean one sky brush emits light on only one face.
My solution was to have rooms with sky be at only one ceiling level each.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Where did hull 0 go? Aren't there four hulls? 0 is point hull, 1 is standing hull, 2 is big monsters, 3 is crouching. I don't get why the amount of clipnodes is 18/36 instead of 24/48.
Commented 4 months ago2023-12-16 09:30:25 UTC
in wiki page: Tool TexturesComment #105738
I made a version with legends and emojis. The aim is threefold:
trim the wasted space the table headers are using, and give more space for the description column
Immediately infer the properties with emojis without constantly having to look up the yes/no columns back to the header way up the page
hopefully get this to display better on mobile
For now it's in this comment for my personal use. If feedback is favourable then we can merge this version into the main page.
merged to main page 2024-05-03
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 4 months ago2023-12-15 18:23:54 UTC
in vault item: Lab HuntComment #105730
Honestly, i enjoyed playing this Little map. Its pretty fun also. Guiding Barney off some rooms, especially the starting room where you find barney can be pretty frustrating, because there Isn't a sigle mode graph. Another thing is the tank: seems parked in a small inaccessible room. And the last thing: the ending. You end in a room full of crates. And nothing.
But to be your First map, i think it's pretty good and fun! Keep Up the good work man!
I kinda thought this might have a few jokes. It's presented as a troll map, but just lacks any attempt at lulz, earned or otherwise.
Architecture:
Extremely blocky. There are two clipped/VM'd brushes in the entire map.
Texturing:
Mostly aligned, but very strange choices throughout. Two separate wads for a grand total of two custom textures, both of which are somehow simultaneously overused and also completely absent.
Ambience:
70MB of completely unnecessary, base-game overwriting song ripped from, i think, Mario 64?
Lighting:
Floating point-lights with no source. Over-bright in most areas, plus eye-gouging colour clashes with the texture choices.
Gameplay:
Monsters stuck in floor (yellow dots), monsters clipping through walls, no node navigation. One vaguely interesting combat space in the whole map with your office cubicles that might have been fun if there had been nodes to let the monsters run around.
If this was a genuine attempt at a fun map, I apologise for being so harsh. But it needs a lot of work to be worth a download.
If it was a troll map... it's totally devoid of any personality or jokes.
If you're overwriting original game files (Suspense02.mp3), please package this as a minimod, otherwise the file will be changed in the player's base game.
Click here to see how to do this with no effort
The rest of my week off will consist of looking after the kids, playing as much Baldur's Gate 3 and Fortnite as possible and maybe even doing some mapping if the mood takes me.
This tutorial definitely needs a part 2 for the more advanced tasks e.g. vertex manipulation, bsp import/export, lightmap editing.
Again, we are very happy to see someone enjoy our creation so much. Cheers!
Yes.
As for the future of MESS, the big step with v1.2 is that instead of macro entities and a scripting language that is geared towards technical users, there is now a set of template entities and automation scripts that anyone can use. I intend to add and improve template entities when new things come up, such as Erty's func_illusionary + hlt_noclip 1 discovery. But I've also got ideas for new features, such as a geometry API that lets you generate brushes, and support for reading textures and models. Think of automatically covering brushes with thin extruded overlays with additive textures, or generating clip-brushes for prop models, or maybe even generating models from entities. Other ideas are things like issuing a warning if a func_ entity with a transparent texture doesn't have the right render mode or FX amount, or if a map transition uses an uppercase map name. Oh well, we'll see.
It's also particular about having different sky "ceiling" brushes at different levels. Hard to explain why; I think it can only emit light from one side, and so having one sky brush act as both wall and ceiling of a skybox makes it only emit light on the wall side. So it might mean one sky brush emits light on only one face.
My solution was to have rooms with sky be at only one ceiling level each.
- trim the wasted space the table headers are using, and give more space for the description column
- Immediately infer the properties with emojis without constantly having to look up the yes/no columns back to the header way up the page
- hopefully get this to display better on mobile
For now it's in this comment for my personal use. If feedback is favourable then we can merge this version into the main page.merged to main page 2024-05-03
But to be your First map, i think it's pretty good and fun! Keep Up the good work man!
In SC the black_hidden texture is not drawn. It's also hidden.
Texturing — 1
Ambience — 0
Lighting — 0
Gameplay — 1
Architecture:
Extremely blocky. There are two clipped/VM'd brushes in the entire map.
Texturing:
Mostly aligned, but very strange choices throughout. Two separate wads for a grand total of two custom textures, both of which are somehow simultaneously overused and also completely absent.
Ambience:
70MB of completely unnecessary, base-game overwriting song ripped from, i think, Mario 64?
Lighting:
Floating point-lights with no source. Over-bright in most areas, plus eye-gouging colour clashes with the texture choices.
Gameplay:
Monsters stuck in floor (yellow dots), monsters clipping through walls, no node navigation. One vaguely interesting combat space in the whole map with your office cubicles that might have been fun if there had been nodes to let the monsters run around.
If this was a genuine attempt at a fun map, I apologise for being so harsh. But it needs a lot of work to be worth a download.
If it was a troll map... it's totally devoid of any personality or jokes.
Click here to see how to do this with no effort
Texturing — 9
Ambience — 10
Lighting — 9
Gameplay — 8