Commented 11 years ago2012-06-04 15:28:39 UTC
in journal: #7827Comment #58027
I quit smoking cigarettes habitually almost two years ago. Feels good man. I can smell things properly now!
Weed on the other hand tends to provoke creativity for me if I'm focused intensely on a specific task. It also doesn't fuck with my lungs as much as cigarettes did...perhaps this is due to methods of filtering the smoke though
Good overview for beginners to blend textures. Might want to expand upon the texture modulation/addendum as the modulate textures are really what sells the 'blend' effect between the two materials themselves rather than just using a linear blend which happens if you omit the modulation material.
Some good points about specifics for CS gameplay (clash zones, objective runups etc) - Stojke makes a good point about limiting your routes and I think you could have touched more on general layout theory and how it ties into CS, (i.e. how the popular maps are generally built around a simple series of loops, or a figure-8 layout) perhaps even dissected a round of a popular map like Dust in detail to truly examine how the gameplay works in an actual round. Overall you have some good tips, but general layout theory is equally as important as taking into account the CS specifics!
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 13 years ago2011-02-09 11:48:32 UTC
in journal: #7024Comment #44696
To work on my portfolio, my skills, get a game out on the Iphone platform and to just keep applying in the future. Tommorow is another day and new jobs may arise.
Great way to look at it...I wish you the best of luck. Keep that attitude up and you'll be at your dream job sooner than you know it
Seriously.
LinkedIn is a good way to make connections, too; networking alone can put a job in your hands - I wouldn't say game dev is as reliant on networking as other industries like, say, aviation, but it's pretty close. All about who you know and being in the right place at the right time...
Commented 13 years ago2011-02-06 15:42:18 UTC
in journal: #7024Comment #44695
The industry wants people who are good at their jobs (professionals) not people with degrees (graduates). The game dev industry is growing at an extremely rapid rate, and there are too many potential candidates and people that want to work in game development than there are positions available, so companies really can afford to pick and choose their potential hires, specifically with regards to experience. (and there are quite a few unemployed game developers out there!) There are a lot of people who get degrees in game development because they think that the degree alone will secure them a job (sometimes the schools even promise you a job/interview with the degree); which is not the case.
Job hunts are always difficult and sometimes frustrating, though. I don't envy you! If you really want to make games for a living, keep applying for jobs and developing your skills in your free time; if you have the drive to learn things yourself, better your skills and talents and remain persistent, then you'll do much better in the job hunt than the multitudes of people who are expecting jobs just because of their 'game design' degrees that they paid a lot of money for. A degree is a nice extra and can certainly make you stand out from many other candidates, but it's worthless if you don't have the skills to back it up that a specific company wants.
Every company will be looking for something different, too. Company A might want you to have a degree and several years of experience while Company B might not care about their hiring requirements if they like your work. Your sample materials and portfolio are really the most important thing in this line of work.
Commented 13 years ago2011-01-27 14:40:19 UTC
in journal: #7001Comment #49241
Model texture isn't appearing because it's looking for the wrong material, or in the wrong path. You need to use $cdmaterials in your .qc to define the right FOLDER where the materials are, but when you export your mesh, make sure the correct material is applied - the game will derive the material's filename from the material applied to your model. So if you apply texture1.tga to your model, but rename your file to texture0001 when you place it in the game's materials directory, you'll get pink checkerboards!
If you are still having trouble with materials not showing up, get MdlTextureInfo (http://www.wunderboy.org/sourceapps.php) and drag your .mdl file on top of it - it will tell you the exact path of the material the model is trying to use so you can debug missing textures easily.
Source has to have the worst pipeline for implementing models, though, seriously...
Commented 14 years ago2009-11-12 04:54:37 UTC
in vault item: logic_playerproxyComment #8458
Yes; health packs should act as normal physics objects, but there are some cases where this would be a problem.
Specifically, I had a level where players were on a moving tracktrain (boat) while fighting a helicopter. I needed a way to give the players health, but health chargers cannot be part of movement hierarchies. Normal physics-based health kits wouldn't work, either, because of the potential for collision errors, and health kits falling into the water where players couldn't access them. So, this was the next best solution - it provides the effects (adding health, sound, props disappearing) of using a health kit that players are used to, without any hard code. In most situations a regular health kit should suffice, and I would suggest using them over this method, because players are conditioned to being able to do specific things with certain items (like carrying health kits as physics props)
Plus being able to relay inputs/outputs to and from players, and using specific player actions or values (like ammo or health) has a number of possibilities for single-player games, like enemies that only spawn/attack when the player is above a certain health threshold, or events that occur in certain areas when the player uses their flashlight.
Commented 14 years ago2009-10-08 07:24:49 UTC
in journal: #6112Comment #40209
Thanks for the support everyone
With regards to your comment, srry...
I remember years ago on IRC, you said that after working on BM you'd never want to have that as a full time job. I guess things change?
I've kind of taken a different outlook on the whole idea of making games for a living. Even now I am learning new things every day about level and game design; having a career where I can put my skills in that department to use and grow as a designer and artist would be a welcome change from my current line of employment which is basically just the same, day in and day out. While there are stressful aspects of the industry I have come to the realization that at this point in my life there is nothing more I would rather do.
Commented 17 years ago2006-07-03 05:41:52 UTC
in vault item: Cable Shakes on BlastComment #12433
Ooh, clever. This is simply to exaggerate the effect, I take it? Cables should move to some extent I think? (Or is that only caused by env_wind? I thought rotorblades on the combine heli did that too...) - In either case, a useful effect.
Commented 18 years ago2005-06-06 23:34:39 UTC
in vault item: OfficeComment #7631
d1_trainstation_05 is Kleiner's lab, which also has an example VMF format map counterpart in the HL2 configuration. Anyways, some of the things just looked really similar, and some of the dev stuff I was getting lead me to suspect that. If it's not, okay.
Commented 18 years ago2005-06-05 01:45:48 UTC
in vault item: OfficeComment #7604
Not horrible, but I suspect a few things were ripped from d1_trainstation_05 (I kept getting some dev stuff about broken outputs for blamarr_break_monitor_1)
You need to use more light_spots for the windows, too, if you want good shadows - The wood isn't casting a decent shadow, because I suspect you're using a light entity or letting the texture do it. Make your lightmap scale on the floor 4, too.
Commented 18 years ago2005-06-02 12:05:59 UTC
in vault item: de_boshiComment #7546
I'm with Trapt on a lot of the points.
It has a lot of really weird detail choices, too (valves sticking from walls?) and the physics lockers are ANNOYING UP THE ASS. You also are missing corner bits on all the angle architecture in the halls which makes it look lazily done, and yeah, the spotlight fx are whored. (You can do it with one yknow, but the beams don't even come out of fluros like that [even in really dark or dusty areas]).
And yeah. Weird prop choices and placement. Just seems like a random amalgam of various props stacked in piles around a room. Doesn't really fit the theme.
Texture selection is odd, too (I like the raincheck inspiration though ;D) - The thing about the texture set is that it needs a lot of architectural detail to look proper (or at least proper proppage) - Sometimes in the corridors the flat walls look a bit odd.
I'll give yah 3 1/2 as well, but since I'm nice and we don't have half-ratings, I'll award it 4.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 18 years ago2005-05-14 22:39:01 UTC
in vault item: N.S.E.W. - Version 1Comment #7269
To be entirely honest I don't see a differentiation from Source and HL1 engines. Spend some time on detail physics props - cans, bottles, trash, etc - and functional static props - Detail conduits, pipes, ropes, etcetera.
Commented 18 years ago2005-05-01 06:00:22 UTC
in vault item: ANTI-SkyboxComment #7092
A single box is 6 wpoly if no faces are culled(if their backfaces are not deleted and no sides are covered in NULL or another tool texture.) Sky brushes, which usually only have one side facing in towards the map, should count as 1 wpoly, and it shouldn't get split when BSP makes standardized cuts.
Check out some of his Gumroad training vids if that kind of stuff interests you (they're linked near the bottom of the article).
Weed on the other hand tends to provoke creativity for me if I'm focused intensely on a specific task. It also doesn't fuck with my lungs as much as cigarettes did...perhaps this is due to methods of filtering the smoke though
Great way to look at it...I wish you the best of luck. Keep that attitude up and you'll be at your dream job sooner than you know it
Seriously.
LinkedIn is a good way to make connections, too; networking alone can put a job in your hands - I wouldn't say game dev is as reliant on networking as other industries like, say, aviation, but it's pretty close. All about who you know and being in the right place at the right time...
Job hunts are always difficult and sometimes frustrating, though. I don't envy you! If you really want to make games for a living, keep applying for jobs and developing your skills in your free time; if you have the drive to learn things yourself, better your skills and talents and remain persistent, then you'll do much better in the job hunt than the multitudes of people who are expecting jobs just because of their 'game design' degrees that they paid a lot of money for. A degree is a nice extra and can certainly make you stand out from many other candidates, but it's worthless if you don't have the skills to back it up that a specific company wants.
Every company will be looking for something different, too. Company A might want you to have a degree and several years of experience while Company B might not care about their hiring requirements if they like your work. Your sample materials and portfolio are really the most important thing in this line of work.
BRILLIANT!
Glad I'm not the only one who's frozen...
Words of wisdom. It's worked for me for the past few years!
If you are still having trouble with materials not showing up, get MdlTextureInfo (http://www.wunderboy.org/sourceapps.php) and drag your .mdl file on top of it - it will tell you the exact path of the material the model is trying to use so you can debug missing textures easily.
Source has to have the worst pipeline for implementing models, though, seriously...
quickhide - h
unhide - u
Added with the L4D2 tools, but added to the regular SDK with a much later update...
and then I was like -_-
Specifically, I had a level where players were on a moving tracktrain (boat) while fighting a helicopter. I needed a way to give the players health, but health chargers cannot be part of movement hierarchies. Normal physics-based health kits wouldn't work, either, because of the potential for collision errors, and health kits falling into the water where players couldn't access them. So, this was the next best solution - it provides the effects (adding health, sound, props disappearing) of using a health kit that players are used to, without any hard code. In most situations a regular health kit should suffice, and I would suggest using them over this method, because players are conditioned to being able to do specific things with certain items (like carrying health kits as physics props)
Plus being able to relay inputs/outputs to and from players, and using specific player actions or values (like ammo or health) has a number of possibilities for single-player games, like enemies that only spawn/attack when the player is above a certain health threshold, or events that occur in certain areas when the player uses their flashlight.
With regards to your comment, srry...
I remember years ago on IRC, you said that after working on BM you'd never want to have that as a full time job. I guess things change?
I've kind of taken a different outlook on the whole idea of making games for a living. Even now I am learning new things every day about level and game design; having a career where I can put my skills in that department to use and grow as a designer and artist would be a welcome change from my current line of employment which is basically just the same, day in and day out. While there are stressful aspects of the industry I have come to the realization that at this point in my life there is nothing more I would rather do.
Email me the file and I'll host it up on my server instead.
Glow = env_sprite -> glow rendermode -> constant glow renderfx.
You need to use more light_spots for the windows, too, if you want good shadows - The wood isn't casting a decent shadow, because I suspect you're using a light entity or letting the texture do it. Make your lightmap scale on the floor 4, too.
It has a lot of really weird detail choices, too (valves sticking from walls?) and the physics lockers are ANNOYING UP THE ASS. You also are missing corner bits on all the angle architecture in the halls which makes it look lazily done, and yeah, the spotlight fx are whored. (You can do it with one yknow, but the beams don't even come out of fluros like that [even in really dark or dusty areas]).
And yeah. Weird prop choices and placement. Just seems like a random amalgam of various props stacked in piles around a room. Doesn't really fit the theme.
Texture selection is odd, too (I like the raincheck inspiration though ;D) - The thing about the texture set is that it needs a lot of architectural detail to look proper (or at least proper proppage) - Sometimes in the corridors the flat walls look a bit odd.
I'll give yah 3 1/2 as well, but since I'm nice and we don't have half-ratings, I'll award it 4.