Journals
The user Erty released his tool Map2Prop, wich allows the user to make models from maps. I previously used this tool to make 3D models on J.A.C.K., but now i tested another idea.
GoldSource is not able to create maps with functional chrome textures. In fact, i haven´t seen any mod or GoldSource-based game that uses this (please comment if you do know one). The theory to test here is that we could create a brush, turn it into a model with the chrome texture and add it to the map. We also could add it to glass, so we dont just limit to a texture, but also add it a "shiny" effect.
To start i made a map with some random prefabs and stuff to test:
We will make chrome for the computer screens, the glass and metal frame and the Black Mesa logo
We will also make chrome for the bike and the metal boxes
After creating the map, i made a copy and only kept what would be turned into chome models:
So good so far
But before making the model, we need chrome textures. I quickly made some in paint.net. Most, if not all of them, are pretty rough and ugly, but its meant for a test rather than an actual map, so we really dont have to care that much for quality.
4 textures
We "compile" the map and turn it into a model, but we ran across our first problem:
Image
Either the chrome or the meshes are too big, wich turns the textures into a really simple chrome. I tested another theory, wich consisted in tiling the chrome texture to fix this problem:
Example
It didn´t made that much of a difference. I didnt knew what caused this problem, but my theory was that there were very few faces on the model. However, i did not knew how to add more faces to the meshes, maybe there is some modelling tool that can do this but i didnt found anything useful. There was no other choice but to use the model.
I compiled the map, but ran across more problems.
GIF
1. The textures were opaque
This was a skill issue of mine, i forgot to add the "Additive" flag to the textures.
2. The model does not match the map
I dont know why this happened. The model appears to match the brushed in the editor, but when compiled it does not match. I tried moving the model several times, but in the end, i never got to solve this problem,
Looks fine in J.A.C.K. however
The final version
In the end, the map was somehow a failure. This because i couldn´t figure out how to solve the textures and the matching problem.
CONCLUSION/TL;DR: The idea looks good on paper, but is a pain on practice. However, im pretty sure that a skilled mapper or modeller could make this succesfully. If anyone wants to try to fix (or even improve it), here is a download link.
GoldSource is not able to create maps with functional chrome textures. In fact, i haven´t seen any mod or GoldSource-based game that uses this (please comment if you do know one). The theory to test here is that we could create a brush, turn it into a model with the chrome texture and add it to the map. We also could add it to glass, so we dont just limit to a texture, but also add it a "shiny" effect.
To start i made a map with some random prefabs and stuff to test:
We will make chrome for the computer screens, the glass and metal frame and the Black Mesa logoWe will also make chrome for the bike and the metal boxesSo good so far4 texturesImageExampleI compiled the map, but ran across more problems.
GIFThis was a skill issue of mine, i forgot to add the "Additive" flag to the textures.
2. The model does not match the map
I dont know why this happened. The model appears to match the brushed in the editor, but when compiled it does not match. I tried moving the model several times, but in the end, i never got to solve this problem,
Looks fine in J.A.C.K. howeverThe final versionCONCLUSION/TL;DR: The idea looks good on paper, but is a pain on practice. However, im pretty sure that a skilled mapper or modeller could make this succesfully. If anyone wants to try to fix (or even improve it), here is a download link.
Working on a very gothic inspired build with some really nice looking real life reference images. I'm of course taking liberties here an there, but I think it's definitely gonna be a show of what I can actually do as far as making architecture, and it's helping me get a little more comfortable with just adding more complex decorative geometry. I'm really just trying to see how much I can push the engine with the scope of the build and the complexity of the architecture. Stay tuned, I'm currently about 1/4th the way done and I started about 6-7 hours ago, so it's gonna take significantly longer than most my maps.
**UPDATE 1**
This is by far going to be my biggest map. I don't even have the two side towers on the cathedral finished and haven't even started on the main cathedral part yet and it's 2800 brushes and the BSP is 2.63mb. This is likely not gonna be a map that's going to be played on and just strictly a show of what I can do, so I'm gonna just really focus in on detail rather than function in gameplay or any other real purpose...basically I won't be adding stuff I'd normally do to make the deathmatch experience more fluid and fun. I really love how the map is looking so far, and I might even experiment with more texturing stuff, though honestly the cathedrals I'm looking at don't have much variation in that department so maybe I'll just stick to what I know and not deviate too much cause it already looks fine.
**UPDATE 1**
This is by far going to be my biggest map. I don't even have the two side towers on the cathedral finished and haven't even started on the main cathedral part yet and it's 2800 brushes and the BSP is 2.63mb. This is likely not gonna be a map that's going to be played on and just strictly a show of what I can do, so I'm gonna just really focus in on detail rather than function in gameplay or any other real purpose...basically I won't be adding stuff I'd normally do to make the deathmatch experience more fluid and fun. I really love how the map is looking so far, and I might even experiment with more texturing stuff, though honestly the cathedrals I'm looking at don't have much variation in that department so maybe I'll just stick to what I know and not deviate too much cause it already looks fine.
I finally found a way to make something like cushions in HLDM. In quake live there's a tool texture for it, and I was a little disappointed to see it wasn't in Half-Life (maybe it was only added in later id tech iterations or maybe it was just never added to Half-Life). BUT I found a way to make the gravity trigger act as a cushion. I know this probably isn't new, however it's new for me and it makes it easier for me to do some of the ideas I have without effecting the actual gameplay too heavily. Maybe there's a better way to do it, but I tried looking it up and I got a whole lot of not related stuff, so this is what I had came up with. if anyone wants details just ask, but I won't bother saying it here cause I don't know if it's already info everyone knows and I'm just rehashing it.
While trying to finish jump arena, I decided to try and add a secret to the map, but in doing this I went down a rabbit hole of experimentation and learning how to manipulate the tools given to me from the gold source engine. There's a lot more stuff I can do with gold source entities rather than the idtech 3 quake live ones, and I kinda got, and still am, sidetracked from actually finishing jump arena. I know there's probably a lot more I could do if I learned how to code for the game, but I really just don't feel like learning all that right now, so I'm just kinda seeing what I can do with the tools given. I'm thinking about how I could use this, or maybe halflife 2 with the more advanced source, in some kind of multimedia project, but I need to think of a smart way to incorporate all the elements so it doesn't just feel like a virtual museum with music.
For those asking about a reverse Map2Prop, or Prop2Map if you will,
well...
I did some testing to see how it'd work out...
and...
...I suppose I better not. The world isn't ready for this.
well...
I did some testing to see how it'd work out...
and...
...I suppose I better not. The world isn't ready for this.
Hi again!
Juggling a lot of projects right now, both IRL and mapping/developing. Might have more to show/tell later on but for now I've made a github.io page for Map2Prop with info about that little thing as well as download links with changelogs but more importantly it has a subpage for format specifications for some of the formats used in the project.
(Edit: The specifications have made their way to the TWHL wiki now over at Format Specifications)!
I've added a lot of my own findings where I could and hopefully made it easier to read by using consistent notation and style (but I'll gladly welcome any feedback for what can be done differently!)
– Erty
Juggling a lot of projects right now, both IRL and mapping/developing. Might have more to show/tell later on but for now I've made a github.io page for Map2Prop with info about that little thing as well as download links with changelogs but more importantly it has a subpage for format specifications for some of the formats used in the project.
(Edit: The specifications have made their way to the TWHL wiki now over at Format Specifications)!
I've added a lot of my own findings where I could and hopefully made it easier to read by using consistent notation and style (but I'll gladly welcome any feedback for what can be done differently!)
– Erty
Recently Erty released a program capable of turning RMF and JMF to SMD, wich is pretty cool. I had the idea of attempting to make a 3D model entirely on J.A.C.K., to test and see if it was a good idea, or if it was better than normal modelling with standard 3D modelling software.
So, to start this, i tried to make a v_shotgun, and after some time i created a very basic model
You can go and suck it, Blender
Wich is based on a random stock picture of a Remington (it looks more like the TF2 shotgun). Anyways i "compiled" the thing and honestly it did looked better than i expected:
I also forgot to plug in my laptop
The only thing left now was rigging and testing, however i found quite a lot of issues when doing this (that luckly were not caused by the converter).
1. The pump-thing was incorrectly placed.
I forgot that the pump is located really far away from the barrel end, and that the hand would not be able to grab it.
Image
I could edit the model in MS3D, however i wanted to fully model the thing in J.A.C.K, so that was definitely not an option.
2. The barrels are too short and the rest is very large
In the pumping animation, Gordon cocks back. This was an issue, since the pump was very far away from the hand, and i did not wanted to edit the animation.
GIF file
So, i had to edit the reference to make the barrels longer and the rest shorter:
Concept
I edited the reference and added some more details:
Pretty much the same thing
Now it was time to rig and compile, but during the rigging process i ran across a problem. I dont know exactly what i did, but i "erased" the backfaces in the pump after i converted.
missing
At this point i was very tired and it was really dark outside, but i needed at least a reference or a concept. So i quickly deleted the hands, moved the viewpoint, and compiled.
SS2 Shotgun?
CONCLUSION/TL;DR: Most of the problems i encountered were a skill issue of mine, but an experienced mapper and modeler should be able to use mapping tools to create 3D models easily.
So, to start this, i tried to make a v_shotgun, and after some time i created a very basic model
You can go and suck it, BlenderI also forgot to plug in my laptop1. The pump-thing was incorrectly placed.
I forgot that the pump is located really far away from the barrel end, and that the hand would not be able to grab it.
Image2. The barrels are too short and the rest is very large
In the pumping animation, Gordon cocks back. This was an issue, since the pump was very far away from the hand, and i did not wanted to edit the animation.
GIF fileConceptPretty much the same thingmissingSS2 Shotgun?My main goal of this project is to help get people a little more interested in making fun, fluid, and interestingly designed deathmatch maps, for all different deathmatch games. I have found myself really loving the old deathmatch/arena style of gameplay, But I don't have many people to play with so I have mainly focused on duel maps, though I do have a few bigger Quake maps that I never finished.
You may notice in a lot of my maps I only really like to focus on architecture, and not a lot of the texturing or the fancy wall geometry, because honestly, for me that stuff doesn't fit with what I'm doing and has been a massive waste of time when I've tried to implement it. I just like to keep things simple and make sure it's fun and fluid to play on.
You may notice in a lot of my maps I only really like to focus on architecture, and not a lot of the texturing or the fancy wall geometry, because honestly, for me that stuff doesn't fit with what I'm doing and has been a massive waste of time when I've tried to implement it. I just like to keep things simple and make sure it's fun and fluid to play on.
Heyo,
So, to all the readers who are new and don't know what I do. I maintain the Counter-Strike Deleted Scenes FGD, Which has had a smallish update that was just pushed today. It has been a wild ride.
We left off from the last journal a few years ago. During that time I was in contact with a lot of cool dudes in the early 2000s game development scene. I had tracked down most of the staff from Ritual Entertainment, some of the Gearbox guys and a really cool dude that had left Valve, but still helped me out when making an approach. Made some new friends in the YouTube game and a rather outlier of a person that was fundamental in the rise of early mobile games.
Though all of the planning and searching, thinking and optimizing the path to the proper people. I got to talk to some guys from Gearbox, and a few enthusiastic members of Ritual Entertainment (Looking at you, Castle, Kevin and a bunch more). Then came the greatest, yet strangest contact that I had ever made. For anonymity purposes, I will call them JD. JD was something of an entrepreneur in the early 2000s, and made a large name for themselves with early mobile games. The popularity skyrocketed and made a lot of money, they then acquired Ritual Entertainment and moved the dev teams off of there internal projects and onto other mobile market focused projects.
I messaged my normal opener of who I was, what I do, what I intended to do and how JD could help. Their reply was…
“Can you tell me who told you to contact me?”
My response was “No one in particular, just a lot of my own investigation into who would become the default owner of the materials owned by Ritual.”
The next message I got would send shivers of joy down my spine.
“We recovered a lot of the files from the servers, I also have a lot of boxes with the old tapes and such that I have no idea what to do with.”
There it was. I was exhilarated by the thought of finally putting my hands on the treasure that I had been looking for, 3 years in the making and here I was. Looking at the X on the map and seeing it in front of me.
JD was a key person, a proverbial “Key to the City” of old assets and developer files. I had a back and forth conversation with JD for a few months and even went as far to confirm what was actually extracted from the older raid servers that had been long powered off. Finding not only SiN content, but also the original XBOX version of Counter-Strike. Which I thought was the greatest thing around, and meant that the Deleted Scenes were also bound to be there too.
At this time, I had also learnt that another company, Nightdive Studios, had been in contact with JD about the SiN franchise (Which resulted in a purchase). So, I knew that I was in the right place at the right time. But I would lose contact with JD after a while… The messages just stopped. I would occasionally check in, but no more came in after this.
“We are starting the process soon, I actually started to search through the code archives myself this past week.”
I followed up twice with a message, hoping for a stir… nothing came back.
I had lost contact with the one person that could have put an end to the chase I had started. I was absolutely devastated. Destroyed. Immobilized from the loss of the most amazing cave of treasure to ever have existed for this long. I still am partially dead on the inside from missing my chance. I truly have not gotten over my own disappointment in myself.
After that, I too just drifted away from mapping, modding and developing anything. I just… didn’t get it anymore. I still have trouble coming back to do things for the Deleted Scenes FGD, any of the drafted documents that I had made, or the mod ideas I wrote down so enthusiastically during my free time. I had failed and at the moment, I am still in the midst of understanding that failure. Was it my eagerness, or was it the simple fact that JD might not be an avid user of emails. Was it this or that, I am still unsure to this date. I might check in later to see if the case is the same, only time will tell.
I had failed my goal in the modding community, and real life is still kinda tough with losing my job this month, now the 5th time that has happened, which is a bummer. Not sure what life has in store for me, I still live in Japan, which is cool. I know I can’t do corporate anymore, I am quite lost in real life and in the modding life.
But I came back today, just for a little bit to add in what was done bit by bit throughout last year and this year. I am still in the Discord and still comment on the occasional thing here and there. It was nice to see all the talent again and the dudes making cool stuff in WIP chat. Although, when I look at that, I just think that my skills in everything I do in the past year have reduced. I don’t create as much anymore, and not to the detail that I used too.
Kinda tired nowadays.
Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed the journal.
See ya.
So, to all the readers who are new and don't know what I do. I maintain the Counter-Strike Deleted Scenes FGD, Which has had a smallish update that was just pushed today. It has been a wild ride.
We left off from the last journal a few years ago. During that time I was in contact with a lot of cool dudes in the early 2000s game development scene. I had tracked down most of the staff from Ritual Entertainment, some of the Gearbox guys and a really cool dude that had left Valve, but still helped me out when making an approach. Made some new friends in the YouTube game and a rather outlier of a person that was fundamental in the rise of early mobile games.
Though all of the planning and searching, thinking and optimizing the path to the proper people. I got to talk to some guys from Gearbox, and a few enthusiastic members of Ritual Entertainment (Looking at you, Castle, Kevin and a bunch more). Then came the greatest, yet strangest contact that I had ever made. For anonymity purposes, I will call them JD. JD was something of an entrepreneur in the early 2000s, and made a large name for themselves with early mobile games. The popularity skyrocketed and made a lot of money, they then acquired Ritual Entertainment and moved the dev teams off of there internal projects and onto other mobile market focused projects.
I messaged my normal opener of who I was, what I do, what I intended to do and how JD could help. Their reply was…
“Can you tell me who told you to contact me?”
My response was “No one in particular, just a lot of my own investigation into who would become the default owner of the materials owned by Ritual.”
The next message I got would send shivers of joy down my spine.
“We recovered a lot of the files from the servers, I also have a lot of boxes with the old tapes and such that I have no idea what to do with.”
There it was. I was exhilarated by the thought of finally putting my hands on the treasure that I had been looking for, 3 years in the making and here I was. Looking at the X on the map and seeing it in front of me.
JD was a key person, a proverbial “Key to the City” of old assets and developer files. I had a back and forth conversation with JD for a few months and even went as far to confirm what was actually extracted from the older raid servers that had been long powered off. Finding not only SiN content, but also the original XBOX version of Counter-Strike. Which I thought was the greatest thing around, and meant that the Deleted Scenes were also bound to be there too.
At this time, I had also learnt that another company, Nightdive Studios, had been in contact with JD about the SiN franchise (Which resulted in a purchase). So, I knew that I was in the right place at the right time. But I would lose contact with JD after a while… The messages just stopped. I would occasionally check in, but no more came in after this.
“We are starting the process soon, I actually started to search through the code archives myself this past week.”
I followed up twice with a message, hoping for a stir… nothing came back.
I had lost contact with the one person that could have put an end to the chase I had started. I was absolutely devastated. Destroyed. Immobilized from the loss of the most amazing cave of treasure to ever have existed for this long. I still am partially dead on the inside from missing my chance. I truly have not gotten over my own disappointment in myself.
After that, I too just drifted away from mapping, modding and developing anything. I just… didn’t get it anymore. I still have trouble coming back to do things for the Deleted Scenes FGD, any of the drafted documents that I had made, or the mod ideas I wrote down so enthusiastically during my free time. I had failed and at the moment, I am still in the midst of understanding that failure. Was it my eagerness, or was it the simple fact that JD might not be an avid user of emails. Was it this or that, I am still unsure to this date. I might check in later to see if the case is the same, only time will tell.
I had failed my goal in the modding community, and real life is still kinda tough with losing my job this month, now the 5th time that has happened, which is a bummer. Not sure what life has in store for me, I still live in Japan, which is cool. I know I can’t do corporate anymore, I am quite lost in real life and in the modding life.
But I came back today, just for a little bit to add in what was done bit by bit throughout last year and this year. I am still in the Discord and still comment on the occasional thing here and there. It was nice to see all the talent again and the dudes making cool stuff in WIP chat. Although, when I look at that, I just think that my skills in everything I do in the past year have reduced. I don’t create as much anymore, and not to the detail that I used too.
Kinda tired nowadays.
Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed the journal.
See ya.
I don't think I'm gonna make any games at all. I'm too distressed and depressed to work on anything all the time. And even if I succeed on getting something finished I'll mess things up and ruin my life even more. I've made something. The Barrel, a thing that I don't want to go inside off. I rather die young than ruin any more parts of my life.
Well that was an entire month spent being mentally and physically exhausted.
Don't get me wrong, our new place is still great!
It's just cumulative exhaustion from the previous months, cleaning and handing over the old apartment, work stuff, not to mention unpacking, tiding and furnishing the new place. I don't do well with heat, so the heatwave last month pretty much destroyed what was left of me.
But we went to see a friend of mine who has a farm two weeks ago. That was a nice distraction. ^^
It finally started raining a week ago, and temperatures have gone down a bit. Enough for me to recuperate a bit at least.
SO! Got back to working on the .rmf support on my obj-to-smd converter.
Got the geometry to work quick enough, but got stuck on projecting the UV coordinates for the textures. Took me a while to figure out the Shift Y value and V projection both had to be negated. Took me even longer to figure out the reason rotations were messed up was because it's already baked into the Right Axis and Down Axis fields, so I had basically just doubled the rotation (d'oh!)
Realised my mistake some hours ago when I stepped through the code and recognised the Right Axis and Down Axis values were pretty spot-on for normal vectors at that angle. After removing the lines applying the rotation matrix, all textures snapped right into place.
I used it to convert a few test .rmf files and it all looked as expected!
We have .rmf support now! \o/
So next steps is to implement .jmf support (which shouldn't take too long as the format should be pretty similar to .rmf), should definitely add some proper arg parsing for the advanced users, and find a better name for my application other than "Obj2GoldSmd" as it's not limited to just .obj files anymore.
How about Goldsrc Propifier?
Once those steps are done, I think it's ready for a public release on here.
– Erty
Don't get me wrong, our new place is still great!
It's just cumulative exhaustion from the previous months, cleaning and handing over the old apartment, work stuff, not to mention unpacking, tiding and furnishing the new place. I don't do well with heat, so the heatwave last month pretty much destroyed what was left of me.
But we went to see a friend of mine who has a farm two weeks ago. That was a nice distraction. ^^
It finally started raining a week ago, and temperatures have gone down a bit. Enough for me to recuperate a bit at least.
SO! Got back to working on the .rmf support on my obj-to-smd converter.
Got the geometry to work quick enough, but got stuck on projecting the UV coordinates for the textures. Took me a while to figure out the Shift Y value and V projection both had to be negated. Took me even longer to figure out the reason rotations were messed up was because it's already baked into the Right Axis and Down Axis fields, so I had basically just doubled the rotation (d'oh!)
Realised my mistake some hours ago when I stepped through the code and recognised the Right Axis and Down Axis values were pretty spot-on for normal vectors at that angle. After removing the lines applying the rotation matrix, all textures snapped right into place.
I used it to convert a few test .rmf files and it all looked as expected!
We have .rmf support now! \o/
So next steps is to implement .jmf support (which shouldn't take too long as the format should be pretty similar to .rmf), should definitely add some proper arg parsing for the advanced users, and find a better name for my application other than "Obj2GoldSmd" as it's not limited to just .obj files anymore.
How about Goldsrc Propifier?
Once those steps are done, I think it's ready for a public release on here.
– Erty
Tomorrow will be the last day that I work as a doctor.
My flight training is taking longer than anticipated, due to various delays, including mechanical problem with the airplanes, sick instructor, poor visibility, and schedule conflict.
I will be a mental health therapist while I complete my aviation training to help the Asian-American community.
https://yellowchaircollective.com/
My flight training is taking longer than anticipated, due to various delays, including mechanical problem with the airplanes, sick instructor, poor visibility, and schedule conflict.
I will be a mental health therapist while I complete my aviation training to help the Asian-American community.
https://yellowchaircollective.com/
It's been 2 years so a bit of a refresher: These folks made a series of paper craft animation videos about a continuation of HL2Ep2's story, Here's a playlist. It was exciting, very high quality production, but as suddenly as they started they stopped all production.
Anyone has, or still in, contact with them? I'd be great to get some words out from them as to why production fell apart, and if they would take feedback, support, and whatnot. I want to see more Paper HL3.
edit: Found their subreddit it's just as dead: /r/PaperHalfLife3/
Also rewatching the last ep they published it kinda feels quite telling that they aren't super hyped into continuing the series. Gordon is still in that hangar. :'(
The last episode they released (Ep5) had in my opinion both hints at how they didn't want to continue the series but at the same time how they still had some ideas on their story board... both to do with G-man.
A lot has happened the past 2 years. Epistle 3 came out and that would have provided the team with fresh new direction for the story line. If that alone is what is holding them back, then they would have continued with the series. Money should be no problem as they have Patreon. Even the Monster non-sponsorship of Ep5 would not be that of an issue (in case they faced legal actions) as they could have retracted and remade ep5 without it.
Thus I think the team simply broke up for one reason or another.
Anyone has, or still in, contact with them? I'd be great to get some words out from them as to why production fell apart, and if they would take feedback, support, and whatnot. I want to see more Paper HL3.
edit: Found their subreddit it's just as dead: /r/PaperHalfLife3/
Also rewatching the last ep they published it kinda feels quite telling that they aren't super hyped into continuing the series. Gordon is still in that hangar. :'(
The last episode they released (Ep5) had in my opinion both hints at how they didn't want to continue the series but at the same time how they still had some ideas on their story board... both to do with G-man.
A lot has happened the past 2 years. Epistle 3 came out and that would have provided the team with fresh new direction for the story line. If that alone is what is holding them back, then they would have continued with the series. Money should be no problem as they have Patreon. Even the Monster non-sponsorship of Ep5 would not be that of an issue (in case they faced legal actions) as they could have retracted and remade ep5 without it.
Thus I think the team simply broke up for one reason or another.