Forum posts

Those look pretty sexy Archie.

And I redid my icons so they are less derpy. The idea was fun but it got kind of embarrassing when people would notice and look at me with their questioning, accusing eyes.The icons for Half-Life, Black Mesa and Q.U.B.E were made by me, as I couldn't find any hi-res versions of the original icons.

The wallpaper itself, I got from 4chan.

Q.U.B.E is quite good, although the bit I'm up to at the moment is quite difficult. And this is the 'finished' product. I did what you said Archie, although I don't think I did it as well as I should have.And that looks pretty cool Mr Mix.

I gave Receiver a go. Difficult to get a hang of, but it's quite fun once you do. Although those flying drones are bloody impossible.
The furthest I have gotten so far is 3 tapes found, killed by one of those drones while listening to the fourth.

And that game does look like fun. I hadn't been looking at your posts because I misread and thought that was To The Moon, which I hadn't played yet. I'm looking forward to any updates now.

[Edit] Surprisingly for such a game, it seems to require a lot graphically. It's quite laggy for me, even when playing at 800x480.
Although despite that, in my last game I managed to take out 3 drones in a room with a 1911, before waltzing into the next room and being cut down by a turret.
My next game, I spawned with a revolver loaded with one round, right in front of a drone.

You know how annoying it is when you've got a tune stuck in your head for a few hours, and you can't remember what it's called or where you originally heard it? It's annoying isn't it.
Try two years.
That tune was driving me mad.
Luckily I heard it on the radio yesterday and I finally found out what it was called. For some reason I had been under the impression that the song was from the mid-to-late 90's.

Just preordered Overgrowth and got Receiver.
I'm downloading Receiver now, I'll have to get the Overgrowth Alpha tomorrow at Uni.

I've always wanted to give Receiver a go since I saw it. Thanks for reminding me of it's existence Urby.

Here is a half-done picture of my first real photoshopping/Paint.NETting attempt, a 128x128 icon for Q.U.B.E, as the one it has on steam is kind of sucky.It could be better, and I haven't really done the border yet, but otherwise, that's it. Any pointers would be appreciated.

It is time again to show off your desktops everybody.Wallpaper Source:
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/10/03
Icons were custom made by me with MS Paint. Could you tell?

I just completed the tram ride. Not only that, but I was able to play it with everything bar antialiasing set to maximum.
I like it.

I shall play more on the weekend, as I have to go to bed and I have assignments to do tomorrow.

Single blade razors

While I personally have never used a single blade razor, I have wanted to get one for a while. The initial cost can be quite high, especially as they can require peripherals, but if they are properly cared for they can last a lifetime. The blades themselves can also be gotten for extremely cheaply, unlike those Gillette Mach (N+1) blades.
There is also the case of straight razors, or 'cutthroats'. While the cost of the razor can be extremely high, they will also likely last a lifetime, and won't require replacement blades. And also, while they require a lot of practice to use effectively, I find myself swayed by the idea of being able to rinse the blade off easily. Too often I find myself unable to get those tiny fragments of hair from between the blades of modern razors, and if you don't rinse and dry them properly they dull much quicker, leading to higher costs as you have to replace them.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

I'm thinking perhaps some kind of physics simulation? The rendering shouldn't be too fancy, you don't want to use processing power on something as unnecessary as that. It should look just complex enough that you can understand what is going on, perhaps like some kind of green vector rectangular shape on a black background?

This thread

This thread sucks. The graphics are awful and none of the cheat codes I downloaded work. It doesn't even have 3D.
And the npc dialogue? It sucks. "Chocolate is my favourite food" - who writes this crap?

The next person who posts

Chocolate

Chocolate is amongst my favourite foodstuffs. I like to have chocolate as often as I can, and frequently eat so much as to make be sick. I then eat some more.
It would be on my personal list of best things ever, right between entering your nice warm apartment after spending half an hour outside in the bitter -18° cold (made defunct by the end of the 2010 winter) and more chocolate.
I have carefully cultivated a theobromine addiction over the years.

Next we have:
Libraries

I have my Windows installation disks sitting at home. All I have to do before I can play is finish my assignment, and that is almost done. And since my tutorial was apparently cancelled I now have a three hour block of nothing to do.

I would take that as them saying they did it before, when they didn't have the means to play those games otherwise. The same can be said for me, I used a copy of a friend's WON HL disk for two to three years before I was given a copy of Steam HL by Archie as a prize.
Although it's entirely possible that kaeza doesn't have the means to purchase things over the internet, just as I didn't. I wouldn't consider that to be looked down upon.

Anyway, I don't have any help for you kaeza, apart from trying a reinstall.

[Edit]
Goddamn internet connection keeps screwing up. Sorry for the double post.

I would take that as them saying they did it before, when they didn't have the means to play those games otherwise. The same can be said for me, I used a copy of a friend's WON HL disk for two to three years before I was given a copy of Steam HL by Archie as a prize.
Although it's entirely possible that kaeza doesn't have the means to purchase things over the internet, just as I didn't. I wouldn't consider that to be looked down upon.

Anyway, I don't have any help for you kaeza, apart from trying a reinstall.

I found my old sketchbook - these would have been done about four years ago. I haven't drawn pictures for the sake of drawing for a long time, nowadays I mostly just do plans or blueprint type stuff.

Sorry for the poor picture quality:A small drawing I did from a screenshot I had taken in Far Cry 2A drawing based on TES: Oblivion. A guy in a partially flooded Ayleid ruin wearing armour based on the Dwemer armour. Never finished

I've only played to around the place where you first see houndeyes. I've decided I will wait until I get Windows before I continue. It runs in Ubuntu, just not very stably.

iirc if you change the angle of the scroll texture used on the waterfall it will change the direction it scrolls.

One of the few drawings I have ever done, and been happy with was a drawing of a screenshot I took of Far Cry 2. I will see if I can fins it when I get home.

I have a ATA Samsung HN-M101MBB 1TB, 2.5" drive, 5400rpm, 8MB buffer.

That screenshot is from the disk utility software that comes with Ubuntu. I only did a read only test because it can apparently only do a read/write test on an empty disk. I would however be willing to do the read/write test in a few days when I'm reinstalling Windows.

I still like GoldSrc, and this seems like it could be fun to play around with.

I've heard a few complaints about them, but I much prefer them to touchpads.
If only there was some way to install one onto my laptop, I'm often in situations where I don't have an adequate surface for a mouse.

I don't know about any of those particular models, but for some laptops at least you can get extra-sized batteries. These tend to be around twice the weight of the normal battery though, and not far from twice the price.

I was thinking that would have worked, but Rimrooks post gave the impression he had tried it and it hadn't.
Also, I can't test this at the moment and I may be wrong, but wouldn't that not work if the graphics were in software mode? That leaves sharp edges between pixels iirc, so that would just show up as black on the top half rather than a gradient.

Well I had a dream last night that touching a mixture of flour and water would allow you to teleport into any flour container in the world. I tried it with a bowl in my fridge, but it turned out to be pancake batter.

I would wear that shirt.

I had intended to show some of my work today to bump the thread but a few things got in the way. First of all I realised that I don't actually have Half-Life installed on the computer that I was using, so I can't compile the admittedly rudimentary map I have made so far.
The other is that my brother had me swap out the screens on our laptops, as the one on his was broken and he needed to get some files off it, so my computer will be unusable for a few days. On the plus side since he will be scrapping that computer once he is done I will be getting his RAM, so mine will be doubled.

I vote Dimbark. You silly goose.

Come on Urby.
Think about it...

She was really a girl, but she wasn't anymore by the time she caught Blitz's eye.

I'll vote Skals too. Without so much as even taking Blitzkrieg out to a fancy restaurant first. Shameful. The fact that they were locked in the house is no excuse.

I know what I'll do! I'll make a map full of trigger_relays that form circuit gates, and build a computer that simulates the TWHL main page! I could make a monitor to display the page by using tiny func_wall_toggles as pixels!

It should only take 20 or so years, a ridiculously powerful computer and the Half-Life engine completely redesigned from the ground up. I don't know why I didn't think of this before.

Also, I want a deluxe office too Urby! I can give you a small piece of fudge in return.

I think to sweeten the deal a bit I can donate 0.83 EUR, or 1.02 USD to go to the winner. That oughta liven it up a bit.

Dead? But Urby is working on an entry, and I am attempting to make one as well!
I would put up screenshots but I have only done parts of one area, and they would be in-Hammer shots anyway.

I might give this a go. I haven't mapped in a long time though so I might end up not entering my entry.

I vote Scotch for his disregard for other people's stomachs, both blocking them from the food and giving them salad.

It's a tad dark for my tastes, but then again that chapter is set at night.
And with regards to the voice acting, I don't think it's too far beyond the realms of possibility that someone might release their own version of the lines. But then again, that could take too much effort for someone to do in their free time.
Either way, while I don't particularly like the voice acting, that was the dev-team's decision, and it doesn't really detract from the rest of the game.

Saw both The Hunger Games and Project X on the plane just now. All of the 747's I've been on have had crappy, blurry, low resolution screens, whereas the A380 had nice sharp Hi-Res screens.

I watched Project X out of curiousity, as my brothers have been talking about it a lot and I had never heard of it. Quite a good movie, but I would have preferred to have watched it with friends. Not to mention all the topless teenage girls made watching it on a plane awkward.

The Hunger Games, I watched in part because I thought I might not get a chance to see it soon, and because a lot of people are talking about it. I had just bought the book the other day as well and I haven't even had a chance to start it, leading to an internal debate as to whether it would be a good idea to watch it.
Also quite a good movie. I liked it. Not really what I was expecting though, after seeing a few of those Minecraft Hunger Games maps.

[Edit]:
I saw Man On A Ledge on the plane later, and I saw The Dark Knight Rises last night. Man On A Ledge was quite good. I wasn't really expecting anything, so it was a pleasant surprise. I didn't really like the climax, but overall I liked the movie.
I missed the first minute or so of Rises, so I didn't really know what was going on for a few minutes, but overall I was quite impressed by the movie. I noticed that a lot about the second half of the movie had a similar feel to the game Arkham City, which I quite liked. I don't really want to say anything more about it. There were a few things I liked about it which mentioning might spoil for those who haven't seen it, so I will just stop typing now.

Oh darn, I missed the beginning of the thread. But I've missed out on a lot of TWHL for the past two months, so I suppose that makes sense.

I always try to look at things from both sides. I've heard different arguments from both sides of the whole gun debate that raise good points. For example, the cinema apparently banned the carrying of firearms in the building. That left the law abiding people who normally carry guns unable to do anything. There is also the fact that in most US states, in order to carry a concealed firearm you have to get a license, for which you will have to take training courses and such so that if you needed your gun you would be able to use it effectively. People who would have been legally carrying a gun wouldn't have just started popping off shots in the direction of the shooter, and would have been thinking about the fact that they might end up shooting bystanders by mistake.
On the other hand however, this took place in a dark and noisy place. The guy had set off smoke grenades. Most people would have been confused as to what was happening, they couldn't really see the shooter, and all it would have taken is one guy carrying a gun with too much faith in his abilities to cause more harm than good. Also, the sound of gunfire from
more than one direction might cause problems with people trying to figure out what direction to escape, or for police responders.
In other words, carrying a gun might be a good idea for someone expecting to be mugged, or wanting to defend their homes, but in a mass shooting it would probably only cause harm. In a case like Columbine, where the shooters stayed on site, wandering around looking for people hiding, then someone with a gun might stop the attack. One, or few targets, moving slowly, no other people nearby, in danger of being hit, then someone carrying a gun could help. But that only happens in rare cases, and police responders are usually quick enough to negate this point. Someone carrying a gun might feel they should use it, when it wouldn't help the situation.
This isn't even taking into account how easily the shooter got hi weapons.
In short, gun control isn't really a black or white issue.
My personal opinion is that guns should be legal, but only accessable to those who have gone through evaluations and training. Probably more training than is currently required for concealed carry weapon permits.

I would actually like to own a gun. I seem to be good at target sports. I enjoy archery, and my experience with pellet guns has been positive, so I would be just as interested in target shooting. However, I would consider it perfectly understandable if that wasn't considered a good enough reason to own a gun, and was denied a permit. The fact that permits and such are required means that gun crime is quite rare in Ireland.
However, it should also be considered that outright banning guns wouldn't work for the US. Guns there are widespread. There are lots of places where you can buy a gun without it being registered. There are many, many illegally owned guns in the US, many owned by criminals who wouldn't be afraid to use them. The government couldn't take them off everyone without searching every single building from head to toe. If they were banned, only the law abiding gun owners would hand them in, leaving them unable to defend themselves from those criminals who kept theirs. Gun control and regulation is a good thing, but in a country like the US, it would be extremely difficult to implement.

/myrambling2cents

It probably is rather improbable that the ants caused it but they're the only thing that is different from where I normally use it. Either way, I have since sprayed around the edges of the desk with insect killer, so that should stop them getting onto it.
I haven't spilled anything on it. I have got droplets of milk on the keys once or twice from eating cereal, but I've never seen it go in between the keys at all.

I had to go to a restaurant, and when I came back the problem had fixed itself. Maybe it is a short circuit or something then.

I have noticed one or two ants on my desk or crawling out of the heating vents every now and then, I suppose it might be possible that one has bitten through a wire.

I haven't yet tried another keyboard. I don't have access to any USB keyboards,, and I don't have any tools on hand to try swapping it out with the keyboard on my brother's laptop.

I suppose I will have to do it when I get back to Ireland.

Thanks.

I turned on my computer today and I found out that I can't type in my password. The keyboard just doesn't want to work properly. I thought maybe I had accidentally changed the keyboard layout last time I used it, but after typing in my password using both Dvorak and Colemak I noticed that the keys were acting strange. Some of the keys were typing in two characters at once, or some of them would sometimes type one character, and sometimes 2. I didn't want to do a fresh reinstall because I had a few things that I didn't want to lose.
I looked up how to reset the password using command line, but once I got onto it an was able to see what characters were being typed I saw that when I pressed a key for example, G, it would type #g. Every key was in the right place for a Qwerty keyboard, just some of them would type a '#' or a '~' before the proper character. The arrow keys would type several characters, so I couldn't move the cursor to get rid of the #'s, so I couldn't use the command line.
I then decided to reinstall Ubunti, but when it came to set the keyboard layout the same thing would happen no matter what layout I set it to.

So basically, does anyone know what's happening? I would guess it's a hardware issue, because it kept happening even after reinstalling the OS, but to be honest I don't know.
I got really angry because I've been trying to get my computer working for 6 months, and then after I had fixed everything this happened, and I don't have the slightest clue how to fix ot, or what could have even caused it.
Not only that but my iPod won't let me create an account on the Ubuntu forums, so I can't ask about it there.
So does anyone have any ideas what's causing it?

Are you talking about the spotlight entity or texture lights?

For the entity, the inner radius is the angle of the bright part of the light, and the outer radius is the angle of the light in general. The inner radius is always smaller than the outer radius (I never got round to testing what would happen if you did them the other way), and everything inside the inner radius circle will be maximum brightness. Between the edges of the inner circle and the outer circle the brightness will fade.

I'm having trouble explaining what I mean without an MS Paint diagram, and I don't have MS Paint, so this picture should help.Normally the surface that the light is cast on will be about perpendicular to the direction of the light beam, but this picture shows it as being roughly parallel. Notice how in the middle is noticeably brighter than the rest of the light, well that would be the inner radius. In GoldSrc iirc the light gently fades between the inner radius and the outer radius as opposed to that picture where the outer radius is of uniform brightness.This picture shows the light being cast perpendicular to the surface. The bright part in the middle is the inner radius, and the less bright part is the outer radius.

The name inner/outer radius implies this value is the radius of the circle of light, but it is actually the angle between the opposite sides of the light cone, in degrees.

Sorry if I'm over explaining myself, I'm just used to being able to provide diagrams, and I'm bad at descriptions.

Archie, you should probably add somw kind of mounting point in the wall where those wires holding the platform up connect to it. Right now the wires going into bare wall looks odd.

I haven't been able to use this for various reasons, but I've been wondering, how does it fare for map optimisation? Does it automatically optimise to a degree or are you limited to relatively small test chambers unless you work on it in Hammer?

He's got a point come to think of it. A flame set up like the one on that model (as in pointing downwards, it would have to make a pressurised jet of flame to be effective) would probably give off a hell of a lot of heat, so a heat shield would probably be needed. Or the operator would have to wear heavy gloves, and clothing that covers the arms.

And I like the look of those melee weapons.

I didn't read it, I swear.