Forum posts

Ow, I'm sorry to hear that, Tycell... I see now why you had to quit so firmly...

I've had a girlfriend once, about 4 years ago. When I look back at it now, I think we were both too young for it all, as I think the relationship was mostly based on butterflies. Well, perhaps not mostly or such, as we had a relationship for 10 months, but I think I've let myself get blinded by it.

She had a troubled background, but had become a christian about a year before we met. Things were improving, but she had still difficulties with her past. I cared for her and wanted to help her, and she felt the same for me. We had a great time together, even though we lived about a 100 km. from each other - we would only meet twice or so per month. I used to call her on her mobile phone ($$) and we wrote letters often. Yeah, we were so in love...
We have never even kissed each other and my friends used to laugh at me by walking next to each other with 2 m. space in between, but I don't regret never having done so. I believe it would only have made things harder.

Her situation at home became more and more hostile towards church, and perhaps the stress got too much for her? I don't know. Anyway, she started to make some questionable decisions, which I think weren't the wisest. But, we continued, and it seemed to go fairly well. At some point, she decided to step out of church. I don't know why, I don't know what exactly drove her to that point, or what exactly she did choose for by doing so. I really hope she's still saved and right with God...

Obviously, that caused a difficult situation. I don't want to marry a girl who's not on one line (more or less) with me about God, but at that point I also didn't want to loose her. We broke up more or less, but I couldn't get her out of my mind, I think for several months. At some point she briefly got back into church. I was in Florence at that moment with school, and (stupid as I was, I think now ;)) I bought a ring for her there. We would never see each other again though so that ring is still with me, waiting for a girl that does fit.

Anyway, it wasn't a smooth breakup, not something I'd like to do again. I would ask my friends for advise more next time, and try to keep the butterflies down while focussing on checking whether or not it fits, and also pick a girl who believes in God more firmly.
The long-distance aspect of it wasn't so much the problem here - it has it's disadvantages but maybe also it's advantages, but that depends on the situation itself I think. I think I just based too much on this girl. Well, some lessons are learned a hard way...
Note that a relationship isn't a quick thing for me - it's looking whether or not you can get along fine, and then deciding to either split up, or marry.

Why not just go with a mainframe system or a vector computer? Not your average gaming system, but at least they're powerfull...

Those parking spots are too square, definitely. The buildings and canal in the second shot look good, it's getting a nice canaly feeling.

I once made a coaster of some sorts. Moving with it was buggy - you'd either get thrown out, or crushed as far as I remember. Using a camera would be better indeed.

Anyway, you can't do loopings and all that sort of stuff since the HL camera entity doesn't support rolling, as far as I know, so there's no way to get it up-side down. As for the train, I reckon both the train and tracktrain can be used, the func_train would probably be better (you can set it's orientation through the path_corners it travels through).

I wonder if a rollercoaster would provide any decent gameplay, given the difficulties involved...

Oh, in that case, but that's not mitering (well, not in the meaning I give it ;)) - it's not clipping two brushes to line up, you'd simply clip one of them.

It's not wise to react offensive if you need help, but that should be obvious, non? As for feedback, feel free to ignore it if you don't like it. You may throw away a possible source of valuable feedback (knowing Kasperg, he can provide some good insight if you would've asked), but who cares about that these days?

As for working on a map for 2 whole days... some people work on maps for many months, and on mods for years... and no, that shot Kasp provided doesn't look promising indeed. By the looks of it, you lack some technical knowledge. Read around a few sites, visit the Valve wiki and spend some time familiarizing. Asking for tips isn't a bad idea either.
// Reading your profile... So you're 11 years old? That's no problem. My little brother of 10 can map too and doesn't do a bad job actually. But your attitude looks troublesome though. If you don't care, why would anyone care to help you out? If my brother wouldn't give a thing about mapping, I would never have taught him. It's that simple.

Uhm, you mean? Extra depth?

For pipes, it's good, since it actually affects their shape and all. For wall corners, it's useless.

Ah, I see, seventh.
Easy to overlook after such a big image (thumbnail!).

Just don't waste your time mitering corners. It won't help, instead it'll make modifying the map more difficult. Plus, simply applying the same texture to the face of the other brush in case of an outside corner is faster anyway. Using the Alt key while texturing does a good job.

As for looking tidy in the editor, using visgroups for that helps a lot. Though these aren't as handy to use as in Hammer 4.0, they can still be valuable. Actually, when looking for leaks, I put all entities in a single visgroup and hide them before I start flying through the map.

I've used LithUnwrap a few times, but found it wasting a lot of space on the texture area. I still skin by hand for that reason (which isn't the most difficult part of skinning for me, as the skins themselves usually take the most time ;)).

Looks like a nice boat, though pretty high-poly for an essentially simple shape. How large will that boat be in a map?

Oh, no problem. It seems to have been a quite popular method 'back in the days'. I know at least I did it some times.

Nice. But there's a little itchy edge on top of that logo, in the center, a bit to the right.

ZL: Waste of time and resources. The 45 degree surface adds a plane as far as I know, and is generally harder to manage in case you need to shift around some brushes. This may be an interesting read, too bad the images are lost: Mitered Corners: The Undying Myth.

Personally I believe such methods don't give significant results. A well-planned layout is much more worth than things like nullifying surfaces and that kind of tricks. Not that those aren't usefull, but they come at a whole lower level and I think they should (only?) be used in the latest stage. Some programmer (I think) once said: "premature optimization is the root of all evil". The same goes for level-design.
Ok, I might exaggerate a bit here and there but the idea is clear, methinks.

Sounds like an aw_ or whatever it is called map with a twist. Nice idea, might cater well with the majority of CS players.

As far as I know, nope. To get all files across when your map gets downloaded from a server, use a mapname.res file. All files named in this file will also be downloaded with your map. It's less easy than simply including it all (gotta love Source ;)), but it does the job...

Good idea, Rimrook. The Snarkpit allows 3 hosted on their site, or 5 external links - though these don't show up as thumbnails then (which could be a nice feature: uploading thumbnails that link to off-site images, or perhaps thumbnail generating code...).

I see a doctor everyday.

Hehe...

I sometimes clean out my mouse with a knife. Hardly ever cleaned my keyboard, though. They're so cheap these days that buying a new one from time to time might be more effective counted in time versus money. Nope, I don't buy expensive latest tech keyboards.

Being able to work with a team is a skill in itself, yeah. And motivation is a key resource, too.

I think it's better to start a mod casual and slowly expand it rather than aiming too high (as most mods do these days - it's cool to start a mod after all, right?).
Oh well, not that I have too much experience with mod teams or such...

More mappers doesn't automatically make a mod better... think of 'team management'...

A little overview of what the mod is like could be usefull...

Reminds me of Tron 2.0. Interesting game.

What do you mean with 'codes for doors'? If this is pure entity information, open the .bsp with a text editor and check the end of the file. Entities are stored as plain text in the .bsp files.

Instead of using triangles or cylinders, you can clip the edges off brushes. Probably more workable than cylinders.

Anyway, that those brushes all touch doesn't matter much - it's still a pretty simple map for the VIS process by the looks of it.
What I believe is a problem with this map, a gameplay problem, is that there's little flow throughout. All octagons are finally connected to a single spot, with little connections between them. How are you supposed to run happily through the map if there's just one route to take - and you'll always meet your opponents at the same spot? Looks too predictable and restricting to me. If you change that, the map might become much more fun to play.

Keep it up!

There's an entity for this, yes. Seek and ye shall find.

// Hmm, srry was faster. Oh well, it's func_monsterclip anyway.
Nice thing about it is that it's triggerable.

It's likely to work, unknown entities are simply ignored usually, but indeed, you'll limit yourself by not using the HL .fgd for a HL compo. Simply create a new profile within Hammer for Half-Life, and select that when you start a new map.

If you take some more time to type words correctly, it'd make your post much easier to read.

Anyway, there's little info you give us. A compile log would be helpfull here.

Also, alexb911, what do you mean with Hammers tools and asking for trouble? He's using ZHLT compilers by the look of it, and compiling from the Hammer compile box isn't troublesome unless you've configured it incorrectly...

Nope. You don't have access to the CS/CZ gamecode. Also, if you would have, and made modifications to it, it wouldn't be CS/CZ anymore but a different mod.

Maybe there's a way you can fake that fly with mapping, though without being able to parent entities that looks pretty tricky to me.

Always VIS, yes - if it's taking a long time you either have a large map or an unoptimized one, there are tricks to reduce the compile time.

And perhaps this contributes to the problem as well:

Error loading studio model ""!

As for skyboxing, you do know it's a bad habit, right?

Heh, that looked pretty cool. Fun stuff.

Looks funny. What did you use to create that?

Usually maps that run fine under HL 1.1.1.0 run fine under Steam too. You may want to ask someone to test your map, though (I recommend asking feedback anyway so why not combine it? ;)).

As I said, they just go in the same folders, except that you place them in your half-life 2 folder rather than your garry mod folder.

A friend of mine once made a little tool that could convert .map files into a format Milkshape can import. Only the vertices though so in the end I never really used it much.

Oh, bytheway, if you can model for HL, you can model for Source just as easy. The only difference, besides a different .qc setup and using a Source model compiler, is that you'll have to export .smd files with a weight (only the latest versions of Milkshape support this).

I don't like dark maps either - you've got to be able to play at least, plus bright maps feel happier. I'm no competetive player so aestathics matter more to me, but gameplay is pretty important to me as well. Detail has to be sufficient to look good for me, but me too would turn down the settings to get a playable framerate.

I think I've gotten more balanced towards the gameplay side. There was a time I was very keen on visuals, but everything has it's time and place.

.mdl files go into your models folder, their materials into your materialsmodels folder.

Nope, it's not important, if used at all.

And then to think the author of Dust is quite the opposite of the players of his map...

Ehm, people... we're not talking about using a color key for transparancy here... Unbreakable wants to create the inverted version of the additive rendering mode, so that dark(er) area's will darken what's behind the surface, and brighter parts won't do anything, as opposed to bright spots being more visible and dark spots being invisible.

You're still using the old compile tools. Try switching to ZHLT first - those are updated, much better, compilers.

A first counter-question would be: what game are you mapping for?

I assume this is Source, and in that case you'll use point_spotlights and spot_lights.
As for ray effects, or volumetric light, there's a model for that, I believe it's in the effects folder.

Just try it. Can't hurt, except for taking some time (with knowledge as a reward anyway).

Heh, I didn't know that +skill parameter. Not that I've investigated HL startup parameters much, but hey.

Looks like a usefull site. Keep it up!

// From a web-designers point of view, I don't like those scrollbars for long lines - you don't want to scroll for every line that's a little longer than normal. Just continue the line on the next line or such, makes the article more organized too (I can't help but think after every such scrollbar a new text block/subject starts).
Those quick screenshots on the left could use some more description and linkage to their sites too. All in all, some more organization of text with paragraph titles and such would clear it up. Not that it's bad right now, it could just be done a little bit better.

I've seen this question come up many times. I don't remember having seen a single answer that always works (if there was something at all). But, maybe multiple walls behind each other or such things have some effect, you're free to try.

Code is just like a map when it comes to compiling: you'll be doing it a lot. Asking someone to compile your untested code basically means he'll be busy debugging it for quite some time - so basically, you'll just need a coder.

I still don't know why people type their recruiting posts 'in a hurry'. No real need for good recruitment, perhaps?

Anyway, I wonder, why would you need to compile the SDK? If you need to change game-code, you may as well want to look for a programmer instead of a single compile...

Brushes aren't visible from the inside, people...
@Ant: I assume that's going to be a back-alley?

I think it's time to give some comments on the version I played (well, ran through). It's late, I know, but hey.
Well, the map looks great, that's for certain. Nice style, maybe a bit too 90-degreed but not as bad as I expected. I like the architecture and the sunny feeling of the map.

I've got some things about the layout though, and that's those small canals to the right of the library, when seen from the water. They don't seem to furfill a purpose and are essentially dead-ends. Besides that, it looks like a very close-packed yet open layout. Might be a good thing for fast action, might be less for tactical play. Well, I don't play CSS so I'll leave that to others.
One thing I had rather seen is the use of canals for actual gameplay (besides fitting well with the Venice theme, they also make interesting situations because water makes noise...). They're much more Venicy than streets (I love that little plaza in front of the library though) and bridges would be nice too. Probably too late to throw it in the actual gameplay but you definitely should put those into the background.

All in all, a small but good-looking map. I hope it turns out well and becomes a fun-to-play map, then you've got it all settled. Keep it up!

As far as I know, point_camera is supported in CSS too. Why don't you try it?