Forum posts

Search for the Ty to World button in your Hammer interface.

Yes, that's a leak. Fix it by making that func_wall world brushes again.

I prefer OpenGl since I already know how to program for it

Amen to that.

oh ok so you mean every entity? buttons speakers and all?

Every single entity. To do this easily, go to the Entity Report in the Hammer menu, select all entities in that list, hit the Mark button and then press the Hide selection button. All your entities are now made invisible (you can turn them visible again with the vis groups control panel in Hammer, usually at the right of your screen).

Just do as I said, Ansith, and you'll find it. You'll learn more from it than if I would just tell you immediatly, I think.

Heh, this map has the kind of leak a hollowed cube won't solve quickly, unless you put real strong lights there to notice the cause.

madcow, select all entities and hide them. You'll see the leak soon enough.

The map is not at all too big.

I've taken a quick look, and there are several places where I spotted 1-unit gaps but those didn't seem to leak. I recommend working with Snap to Grid and a gridsize of 32 for this map, it prevents those nasty little 1-unit spaces.
Anyway, the real leak was easy to spot though...

Hide all your entities, and take a look for yourself. You'll see the problem in no time. Entities don't count for vis, remember?

Yes, it could. That's why prevention is the best way to go...

I usually spot leaks within a few minutes by looking through a map in Hammer. I don't know, I think it's just some sort of experience to spot them as well.

Another trick (that often compiles much faster ;)) is to put a brush over half your map and then compile. If you still have a leak, it must be somewhere in the uncovered area. Place another brush that covers half of this area, and compile again. Continue untill you've found the leak.

But I might add that preventing leaks is the best way to go. Set Snap to Grid on and work with a rough grid-size for your basic architecture. That gives a tidy and clean 2D look and it's much easier to spot a leak now without even looking at any .lin or .pts file.

Yeah, when's the next compo going to be? Kasperg decides on the theme, I assume?

Heh, no, I liked those balls, though I found them really strange in your map, but it's funny.

@madcow: you can see the dimensions of a selected brush in the lower right of the Hammer interface. Alternately, while clipping, you can press o to see the dimensions of the clipping sides and such. Maybe that's enough for you?

Either way, those brushes shouldn't give r_speed trouble. As long as the textures on them have the exact same properties, they're combined into one face (though 240 texel splitting still applies, it won't give any different result than one brush would).

Congratulations!

I quickly ran through the entries today. I liked Kaspergs and Rabideh's the most because they felt larger and not so cramped. Good job for such a small and cramped layout!

Kaspergs RPG trap was pretty hard to do, it's good if you want to discourage the use of the RPG. I liked the feeling to this map, it felt detailed and had a strong sense of place.

Rabideh had a lot of custom content but I probably unpacked it wrong because I saw a lot of checkerboard textures. Next time, please, include it in the map itself or use easy folders like materials/mapname(/subfolders) and such. Makes my folders less cluttered...
The RPG trap was much easier here, it's as simple as blasting the barrels and the RPG might even fall down. Still a good idea but with the current moveability of items, less trickier to get.
Besides that, a good looking map.

Cpl.1nsane made the best looking and feeling map but indeed, it played horrible. A real shame because the look is promising. The RPG trap was nicely thought out I think, though perhaps a bit too time-consuming to get to. Well, there could be placed SLAMS in the vents...

I didn't like stealth monkey's map. It felt so cramped that I quickly noclipped out of it to see the layout. Well, that's the layout but also the feeling of the map. It had some characteristic area's but other than that, a too generic theme and feeling. Good luck next time.

doodle's map was the most original. I liked the theme and the look of it. It felt small (it was, but ok), the 3D skybox could've been used better to add some buildings and mountains and all to make it feel like it's a part of a bigger place. The RPG trap was nicely thought of though easy to avoid, and basically it locked up some paths in the map which is a bad idea I think, because there weren't a lot of paths in the layout already.

All in all, some nice maps and none of them was really bad overall. Congratulations again.

I've got some remarks concerning the rules though: it was a really small layout to work with, I think this really limited the playability of the maps even though some mappers made the maps feel more free. The RPG trap was a nice touch though, I had rather seen it with a larger layout than without the RPG trap.

Just so you know, I'm keeping all my r_speeds around 600 or less. I could push detail higher, but I usually think that 600 is too high a number for multiplayer maps.

(...) IMO All our HL1 maps should be able to be played on software mode and on a Pentium II with no problems. That's what the engine was meant for in the first place, right? quizzical -

I think you limit yourself too much. Most people have better systems these days. Shooting for 800-900 wpoly's is just fine, there's but few people that won't be able to play it at a decent framerate and those people aren't likely to play a lot of custom maps anyway (if they even play HL anymore with such systems). Most games update their system every now and then, so bothering about software mode really isn't a concern I think.

@madcow: one of the floors exists of many brushes. Can't you combine these into one brush?

Detail is not always the curvy, archy use of brushes. Detail can be found on different levels as well. Beit the logic in your map (a teleport lab that has huge pipes in it gives a sense of power required, which is a nice detail for a teleport lab environment but would not at all fit in your home office), the little touches you give it (like references to other things, in whatever form you wish to give it, for example Barney in HL2 joking about your MIT graduate) or the gimmicks you put in a map (wasn't the airstrike in that hldm map fun? And for those that played Gollum's gmdm2, the rolling ball that rolled through the level, guided by the doors you could open and close so it followed different paths each time...)...

That's detail, that's putting in thought in a map, that's what people like. Fitting things together is much more important than curving your walls.

You should enter, Captain wink-wink - ;).

I won't. Too busy, plus I'm working on a HL2DM map which I give priority now. I prefer mapping for Source now anyway...

I know it's not final, it's just some things I notice in an instant.

The computers aren't completely the same, but at first look the look just copied. It's that first look-effect-copied that you may want to avoid.
Also, it's the ceiling that looks repetetive and that's because there's a lot of contrast in the texture. The floor is much less obvious.

Keep up the good work, all of you! Don't quit because of that Kasperg, he didn't win last time anyway... Also, you'll learn a lot from competing with others, especially losses are good teachers.
/rant

Do a wing version and do a without-wing version, and either decide for yourself which one looks best, or show us if you want us to decide.

Looks nice so far.

@Kasperg: besides the repetetive ceiling texture and computer placement, that looks good already.

Nah, the store part was there with Steam anyway, just not as integrated as it is now.

I like the new look they're working on. Let's see how soon they'll have this finalized.

Hey, that's a while ago indeed. So you've been moving...

Nice to see you back here.

So, you mean to say that the game locks up?

Options -> Keyboard -> Use default settings?

EDIT: Or whereever that button is located, just reset your keyboard configuration.

Use a scripted_sequence when dealing with animations. The trigger_monsterjump entity is useless as far as I know.

EDIT: Anyway, just give it a try. If it doesn't work with that animation, then you should try another method.

Who said it has to be a monster? quizzical -

Nobody, that's why I asked.

You could use an invisible enemy. Otherwise, take a look at the animations the headcrab has and pick a suitable one, or create an animation yourself.

Jump towards who, hit who?

If it's an enemy, the headcrab will just attack it as normal. If you want to trigger that, just put in an invisible barrier and remove it when you want the headcrab to attack.

Do a Google search for either WinZip or WinRar. Both programs can unpack .zip files, and if the mapper was a smart one, he has included a readme text file that states where the maps should be unpacked to.

Fix the link. Copying it removes the last part of it. Use the url tag.

If you have no experience with C or C++, then coding a new weapon is probably out of your range. You could try to follow some tutorials though, the tutorials at Wavelength would be a good place to start then.
But then again, it's much better to be familiar with programming than just trying things out you don't know.

but the members aren't friendly as here. frown -

The Snarkpit crew is a happy bunch of friendly guys last time I checked...
But they do keep up higher standards than at TWHL and that might pull some people off. For example, they expect people to search for solutions before asking in the forums. Personally I think that's a normal thing, but it seems not everyone thinks like that...
Most of the old regulars have stopped mapping, though...

Anyway, another Source-related site:

The Ascendancy - Excellent Maps for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

• Lists the top of the custom HL2DM maps out there. Looking for a good map to play? Check out this site!

For Source mapping:

CannonFodders Half-Life 2 tools

• Mainly modelling tools, but since Source maps often extensively use models, a good link for mappers anyway

VMTCreate

• A handy tool for quick and easy material creation

Interlopers.net - error page

• A page that has listed a lot of (compile) errors, the tommy14 page for HL2 so to say

Zombie @ computers optimizations page

• A well-known, reliable article about map optimization

HL2world.com - Source entity guide

• What TWHL did for HL's entities, HL2world does for HL2's entities

It looks better now, though maybe you could litter that floor a bit so it doesn't look so clean.
Also, I liked the athmosphere in the first shot more. That was too dark, but now it feels much smaller where otherwise it would work stronger on the imagionation of the player. I agree it's hard to strike a balance between these two, but a few more dark spots could do well, just not as much so the player can't see where he's going anymore.

That ramp at the end of the hallway looks too simple, though. Otherwise, looks good.

He has put a - between the keys and the values so that 1 is just fine already, Elon...

Just update, or live with it, I'd say. It's not that important if it's all about the playing amongst friends, isn't it?

Besides, it could well just be a bug in that particular version, so...

Who plays that 'LAN' version anyways these days... get Steam, or at least update to the latest version...

Trigger it each time you want a weapon. The settings look good otherwise.

I could've done university here in Holland, but I decided to go to highschool, or whatever it is called in America or other countries. It's kind of the same as university, just simpler and more practical. I chose for it because of the practical aspect.
So far it's going well: I'm in my second year, doing some fourth-years things as an extra to finish this study faster, and that's interesting subjects actually.
Oh, and it's a programming course. Informatics.

After that, I'm going to find a job, maybe try something in the games industry but if that doesn't work out, I'm fine with a 'regular' job.

You want weapon boxes in HL? I know there are ammo boxes in HL2, maybe you posted in the wrong forum?

Otherwise, for HL, a monstermaker entity could do the job, spawning a weapon everytime you trigger it (instead of spawning monsters, it can also be set to spawn a specific weapon). Read up on that entity on this site for more information.

LAN version, non-Steam? That's the WON version, isn't it?

Or are you referring to some third-party mod or such?

is to get the constraints to stop fighting each other.

For example, when a wooden lat is held up by two phys_lengthconstraints (say, it's held up by ropes), you would use a phys_constraintsystem entity that both phys_lengthconstraints refer to as their constraint system. This will stop them from fighting each other.

Also, you may have noticed this already but maybe not, there are several example maps in the sdk folders, quite some cover physics entities.

I hope that helps a bit...

1 question, why use the dev textures?
they were only used to see what the map was like before all textures were made in HL2.

I've built the layout first using simple dev textured brushes, to get that part done first. This new approach seems to work: before, I usually got stuck at the layout part after I had done a few weeks of detailing work. Now, I can do the detailing while I already have a good layout.

And yes, I'm going to draw my own textures, but that's not the real reason for the dev textures. I just used them to get a feeling for the layout without getting bothered by the looks of it.

The wireframe may look complicated, but because of displacement maps it really is a lot easier to work with than the HL equivalent of it. It takes some time to get used to them but it's worth it.

Thanks for the comments so far.
I'm starting to add detail to the map and tweaking the lighting. It's a bit dark now...

Sounds like a really complex and hard thing. Have you tried the phys_hinge constraint already, plus constraint managers to keep the constraints from working against each other?

Other than that, I'd definitely would've modelled this and written code for it. It looks like just too much work with too limited things to me. But hey, you learn things experimenting with this and it's interesting to see how it's going...

EDIT: Looks like a nice mech-styled leg bytheway...

The crystals are very well done although a model might be better wink-wink -

They are models, actually...
But the textures are shaded at the moment, I'll make them self-illuminating to do away with those ugly shadows.

Wireframe shot? Coming up straigh away: Wireframe attack!

I'll show some more once I've got some more done, which is likely in a few weeks time.

It's brighter in-game indeed. Viewing them full-screen gives a better impression since there's no bright parts on the screen then that make it look darker, but since that's not really applicable here... I'll touch them up a bit next time.

And thanks.
I'm still working on many things, one of them is the lighting so maybe the full version gets brighter somewhat. During playtest it wasn't really a problem though. We'll see.

Cool rendering pipeline picture.

Cool 3D card, too...

Yes, it's that time of year: Captain P is busy again.

In the works: Mudanchee. This time I'm working with the Source engine and that's a lot better to do than HL's engine. Mudanchee is a cave-styled map that features crystals, waterfalls, archeologic equipment and signs of long forgotten cultures.
Currently it's in alpha-stage, meaning that it's playable, but needs a lot of work on the details and some gameplay elements. The layout is mostly done, though, and I've started spicing up some area's already.

Enough said, here are the screenshots:The archeologic siteGlowing crystals... Archeologic site overview'tomb' cave overviewCrystals again

As you can read in my journal, I just playtested this with some friends, one being Muzzleflash, and we had a lot of fun.

Any comments are more than welcome.

Heh, indeed, good feedback is wonderfull, bad feedback isn't so motivating sometimes...

Good luck with it, Bratty. Nice to have you back here, too...

all these multiple compos are delaying hostage situation's development unhappy -

You don't have to enter a competition... just continue with your mod...

Different textures to stress the hugeness of the ship are important, yes, but I think also small details will add to the feeling greatly. Right now the shapes of that mothership look very blunt and rough.

Nah, he means that when he wins a HL compo, he thinks he'd be a bad judge for a Source compo because he knows nothing about Source mapping.

I think there's a point to that. If technical aspects are judged as well then the judge should know what he's dealing with.

Maybe keep the judging and idea thinking from those compo's apart from each other, e.g. the HL compo winner judges in the next HL compo and the Source compo winnern judges for the next Source compo?