Forum posts

heheh, tis chocolate pudding, of course

The stuff of Kasperg's that I began with is freely available in the unfinished maps section. Here:-

http://twhl.co.za/mapvault_map.php?id=4518

So when you see the final thing you'll able to see just how much work I've done.

I wanted to not say much about this and just show you it all when it was finished. But I've had a few beers tonight, and I just can't help myself.

This is a small taste of the project I've been working on which I based on Kasperg's unfinished HL2 work. I've spent a lot of the last several weeks doing very little else. I have learned a LOT from expanding Kaspergs work, and now I'm creating my own new areas which I think look much, much better than anything I've done previously.

I've taken these screenshots with the objective of not giving away any of the story or gameplay ... those things will remain as secret as possible until it's finished.

Kasperg, of course, if you want to know exactly what's going on then you just have to PM me.

All I will say publically now, is that you play the part of a normal civilian.

I'm confident that you're going to be impressed with the mechanics of the gameplay. You can't see that side of it in these pictures. I've also done a lot of work on ambient sound, and me and my band have even recorded a custom soundtrack for it.

The project is about 30% complete. The pictures are all from the early stages of the game, as they're the only areas so far which are anywhere near approaching completion. There will be 5 maps in the scenario, one will be a driving section.

I've had a bit of a delay in the last week while waiting for one of my voice actors to send me his WAV's (there are 5 custom voice actors so far, with more planned) which for various reasons has slowed my progress on one particular area.

I estimate at least another couple of months before I'm ready to release it.

Thankyou Kasperg, for the chance to do this. I've learned soooo much.

Click the pictures to enlarge them...(I hope this works)

(sorry about the crowbar being there, it's unlikely you'd have it by that point, but I was cheating!)

The sky looks a lot more white than it really is in game, for some reason.

You're welcome.

they're all fear-mongerers.

Yup, as are all the folks on the other side of the argument too.

An good example of bias right there from Zombieloff. You mock it because you don't believe it.

I'm not saying you're right or wrong.

Just that you made your decision based at least somewhat on your own feelings.

And therefore, it means very little.

I'm not saying you're lying.

Just that what you believe to be true may, or may not be. The fact that you believe it, doesn't necessarily make it true. If you didn't believe it - that wouldn't make it untrue either.

All of your information on that subject has probably come from the media. TV, internet, whatever. You haven't got any first hand knowledge or experience of these events, and you haven't seen any real proof of anything with your own eyes.

Just like me. I'm not claiming to know anything.

What you and I believe has been fed to us by a variety of people, all of whom have an agenda of their own.

I'd like to re-iterate :- I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying, you might be. And you can't consider yourself to be fair about it, until you can consider that without predjudice.

Most normal people don't like things that go against what they believe. It's part of human nature and nobodys fault.

When people see things that go against what they believe, they dismiss them simply because they don't like them. You can see yourself doing it if you try, you've probably done it already while reading this post. Or, If you're an athiest, you'd probably scoff when you see posters outside churches with slogans like "Jesus will save you" --- you dismiss them out of hand because you don't believe them. You don't actually consider that it might be true, because to you it seems stupid. And it does sound stupid! (I'm no Christian) But if you have any belief in the methodology of science, then you'll know that personal feelings and opinion play no part whatsoever in ascertaining the truth.

To consider the opposite side of the argument fairly and without any of your own personal feelings getting in the way, no matter how stupid it might be, is very hard to do. There are milliions of scientists who spend all day, every day, trying to work out ways of testing things fairly, to eliminate bias.

Until you can eliminate bias, then there's always going to be a definite possibility that you're wrong about what you believe.

That's what I believe.

And so, we're all wrong.

About everything we all believe.

Yes. Use the select tool, the top one that looks like an arrow cursor.

Then drag a box in the 2D views like you would do when creating a new solid brush. Make the box surround or touch everything you want to select.

Press Enter - voila. All selected. If you got some included that you didn't want, you can CTRL+click to deselect them while keeping the rest highlighted.

The toolbar that is greyed out becomes usable when you select the block tool.



For relationships, use the ai_relationship entity.

I don't do modelling (yet) so sorry if this comment is redundant.....

Don't you also need materials for your models? When I've ported CS:S models to HL2, the models themselves and the textures for them are located in totally seperate locations.

IE, for the cars in nuke

models are in:

modelspropsde_nuke

textures are in:

materialsmodelspropsde_nuke

and both have to be present and correct before the model shows up right.

Again, sorry if not being a modeller made this post stupid.

No ... I hadn't tried that .... I couldn't see it helping .... but what the hell though ..... deletes file ..... reboots Steam....

Nah it didn't help.

I've submitted a support ticket to Valve......not holding my breath though....

/edit I fixed it!! All the tabs at the bottom right of Faceposer, the different models. I didn't realise that they represent a model which is loaded whether or not you are actually using it. I'd added a load to the list, thinking not that they were being "loaded" (by loaded I mean active in the 3D window) but just they were available to switch between.

So I un-loaded all the models and just added back one of them -- and now the lip sync works again.

Woooooohooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lag's gone too.

Makes sense, I suppose slaps own head

So it seems that too many loaded models makes Faceposer go ARGH!

Time to update that support ticket

This has been annoying me lately, especially as I have a lot of work to do with Faceposer as soon as possible. Gah.

Everything is still working except the following:

1) Lip movements no longer playing in the 3D view
2) It's laggy as hell, at doing everything!

NOTE: Although lip movements don't play, everything else DOES. Gestures, movements, the lot. It all plays fine, except the lip movement.

And the wierd thing is, that if I ignore the problem and make a scene anyway, it works fine in-game!

But this is still annoying, because it's a bitch having to recompile a map to test the lip sync, and even harder to compensate for problems in Faceposer.

I've tried the following:

1. I deleted the SourceSDK .GCF file and re-downloaded the whole SDK. (I was soo pissed when that didn't fix it)

2. I've changed every option I can find in the SDK and faceposer, just in case it helped (I just ended up making myself lots of work to put it all back again)

3. Refreshed the SDK content and Game Configs as per the SDK menu.

4. Reinstalled the Microsoft Speech SDK

But nooo! I cannot see my lip movements in the Faceposer 3D view! And Faceposer is laggy as hell (it even lags when a dialogue box should come up saying "Are you sure?")

Anyone got any ideas before I trash my house in frustration?

HL2 editing much easier than HL1 editing.

grunt

I'm a big fan of the whole Hitman series - I really, really wish there was an SDK available for that.

It's not for everyone, but like Marmite - you'll either love it or hate it. The newest one - Hitman: Blood Money - is just fantastic.

I'm looking forward to Bioshock a great deal. I still play System Shock 2 now and then, and it's a 'spirtual' successor to that (but due to legal wranglings, it's not a sequel) with many of the same people working on ioshock as worked on SS2.

I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights 2 recently as well, not a bad distraction if you like RPG's.

A 'bad spot' on your drive isn't as simple as it sounds - if you've got game data in bad sectors then yes, it would cause crashes, but defragging will not help because the data is corrupt and simply moving it to another location isn't going to help. You'd end up with just another copy of the same messed up data.

So, I don't think defragging will help, but then again - I am a fan of trying anything which couldn't hurt, just in case --- so go for it. You never know.

There is one foolproof way of proving if it's your hard disk at fault, but it is somewhat long winded, but is guaranteed to give you at least some useful info about what is going on.

Find a hard disk that you know works reliably. Format it and install all your stuff. Run your PC from that hard disk for awhile. Does the problem go away? If yes, then your other disk is faulty, if not then it's something else.

Simple but effective - it takes time but could easily be shorter than trying a hundred other inconclusive tests.

If your disk isn't at fault, then my next prime suspect is the HDD controller on your motherboard. Much worse. Pray it's the disk!

I wish I'd seen this earlier .... hehe .... I'd love to answer a million questions in here but by the time I get to the threads, the question's already answered!

You don't need anything in the sdk_content folder

You just need it in the hl2/materials folder (assuming your making textures for HL2SP)

The path inside the .VMT (that you posted above) MUST be correct -- so you will need to have a directory called 'myTextures' inside your hl2/materials folder, and both the VMT and VTF files should be placed in there.

If the files are in the wrong directory (IE not the one listed in the VMT) then you will get black and purple squares!

RotatorSplint may have a point about the full stop in the filename too -- it might not be allowed. But I've never tested that myself....

Mmm, Strider's method definately sounds worth a try

Yeah you could ........ but I think it would be a bit crap....

Maybe it's worth using an AI relationship entity to make the zombies hate the player more.

I know they 'hate' the player by default but there are different, definable levels of hate in the entity properties.

I'm not sure if it affects any behaviour though, it might just be used to work out what attacks what first.

That's just a scripted sequence in Day 15. It wouldn't work in the setting that guy wants. You would need one for every single zombie. And the spots they walk to would have to be fixed. Which wouldn't really be very good here, I don't think.

I haven't got much time right now (at work and it's busy) but I will have a think about how this might be achieved....

Hmm, if you're deleting bsps and then you can still play them, then you must have multiple directories which you are getting confused with. You can't run something that you've deleted, plain and simple, and so therefore there has to be another copy somewhere, which your installation is using.

Either that, or it is a HDD problem.....wierd symptoms though....

Ahh but Zombieloff, 1, 2 and 4 were ruled out in earlier posts, so I didn't need to ask if he had those configurations ... LOL

Hope it got fixed

Oooh, RAID. What setup do you have exactly, 0, 3, 5 or 6 ?

I'm guessing 0.

I've seen brand new high spec disks fail after 2 days. I've seen crappy drives soldier on without problems for more than 10 years. It really is pretty random!

With Raid 0 you gain performance, but there is no benefit in terms of fault tolerance. Indeed, when one disk in a Raid 0 config dies, it makes it harder to recover the other one, as it only has 50% of the data (it's not impossible though)

I suggest you make a backup...

It is certainly true that even minor hard disk problems can have varied and interesting results. As someone who fixes PC's for a living, I have seen many different symptoms of slow hard disk demise.

When HL2 dies because of RAM problems, it complains in an obvious RAM-related way. Since this hasn't happened to you, and because things start working 'if you just leave them for awhile' - I think your HDD might be starting to die a little bit.

Got a backup?

Splendid.

MaddoxX is going to jail, having achieved absolutely nothing.

I bet his parents are proud.

Education is a good thing, and certainly a path to peace when free from corruption.

However, human nature in itself is corruption.

Maybe we need the Combine to supress our reproductive capability and teach us how to ignore instinct......;)

There is no proof of anything yet as far as you an I are concerned. We just have to wait, and in the meantime, suffer the wrath of the misguided

That said, MaddoxX should get jailtime, even if it is a big hoax.

Yeah, I'm not convinced it's really happened either.

But I don't know because in fairness, its doubtful that anyone not directly involved with the affair has anything to offer but speculation.

I hope my CC details haven't been stolen.

And I hope MaddoxX gets jailtime.

Does this happen with any map, or just ones you've made?

I've had similar problems with Half Life2 crashing when I've experimented with certain entities. You can crash the whole thing with a bad laser-beam setup, for example. Maybe it's something like that?

If it crashes for all maps though, I'm not sure.

Make a "Game_Text" entity in your map. You enter the text you want to display in the properties of the entity.

Then use the I/O system to trigger this entity to 'Display' using a trigger or something else in your map, preferably so it corresponds with what the message is talking about.

If you want to use the "Scan Out" effect, rather than just Fade In/Out, I recommend using the following parameters:

Fade in Time 0.05
Fade out time 0.5
Scan time 0.05

If you want more than one line on the screen at once (using multiple game_text entities), you need to put the entities in different 'channels' (look in its properties) -- the maximum is 4.

You control where the text appears on the screen with the X and Y coordinates in the game_text properties. The default is -1, and this centers the text. If you want it somewhere else, put in a number between 0 and 1.

0.1 is the very top for the Y axis, or the very left for X

1.0 is the bottom, or right.

Hope that helped.

It's the scaled down buildings in the skybox.

Damnit.

I'm a bit confused because it wasn't like they were very intricate buildings, just a bunch of blocks and wedges really. I've done similar things before and not had this problem....wierd.

Anyway. Time to make some new buildings.

I've tried just removing the skybox entirely. It fixes the problem. It has to be something in the skybox. I'm fairly sure there's no hidden objects in there -- but I'm off to check that now.

As well as models, I did make some buildings with brushes and then scaled them down to go in the skybox --- I don't get any microbrush errors in the compile, but at the moment they are currently my prime suspect. I'll try just removing those.

The only annoying thing about this really is that it only happens with a full compile, which currently stands at about 40mins on this map......

Posted by RAD log
No vis information, direct lighting only.

RAD doesn't run properly without information from VIS. It does still have an effect though, so that would suggest a leak in the map, or as someone suggested earlier, no light entities (or cubemaps). Also,

Posted by BSP log
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_day01_01 to build the default cubemap!

That can't be too helpful.

VIS probably isn't crashing at 2.. I've never known the compile tools to crash (am I just lucky?). But if your map is even slightly complicated and you haven't optimized it (something which can be tricky to do well) this can cause VIS to take many hours to run.

Rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated

I know I haven't posted here in ageees, I've been busy, but between work crap I have been working feverishly on Day15.

And now I have a very odd problem.

I've got a fairly large outdoor area. It was fine, until the point I threw away the old skybox and installed a shiny new one.

Now, with the new skybox, I get wierd white and black polygons being rendered on the screen when you walk through certain places on the map. It happens very quickly - so for example if you are moving you will only see a quick white flash, and then it's all normal again. However you can fairly easily find spots to stand in the map where it happens constantly. I've found over a dozen places where it happens! Here are some examples of what it looks like:

Now, because the problem started when I changed the skybox, I figure it has to be the skybox which is causing the problem.

But, the new skybox took me ages, and looks nice apart from having this effect. I'd rather not have to make it all again.

Also, the problem only happens with a full compile. If I only run BSP, it never happens.

And, the FPS drops massively if you stand still in one of the problem spots. The swap buffers go through the roof.

I've gone through the compile log, no errors at all. Clean as a whistle. Hammer also reports no problems.

Anyone got any suggestions?

PS I can't wait to show you all Day15

Heheh, yeah it definately needs that sound!

But Habboi - I'm not using Gman, I might do, but the whole Gman concept in this thread was invented by Kasperg I haven't done anything yet, haven't had much time this week.

Thanks Habboi

I think you could make the Gman make a gesture each time he killed someone. I think you'd need to set up the gesture using faceposer and trigger it whenever npc's died.

Sounds logical, but I can't try it right now, I'll have a go later

Just need to find a way to arm him with a scythe instead of a briefcase!

I wonder if you can fix that by re-applying an ai_relationship when each one dies?

Hmm.

Woo, extra replies Thanks.

I don't 100% know how I'm going to do my zombies. They're not going to end up just like the RE4 ones - I know that - because that would require a lot more skill than I actually have. The RE4 zombies are just an idea, a reference point. I'm not going to achieve it, but I maybe can steer things in that direction a bit.

With a lot of custom sounds (I am going to make them all myself), and some creative trigger work, I think I can create something spooky. Spooky is the main aim here.

Kasperg -- that idea you mentioned sounds really cool. Mind if I give it a try?

I have played with fog a little but find it hard to get right. Habboi -- I have Gmod but have never really used it to help me map. Can you explain what you mean a bit more please?

If you post the compiled map, I'll take a look when I can.

I don't really know what the map is about yet. As with Day 14 -- I am just building a place, and I will see what comes out of it. I know from experience that this is not the way that many mappers work, and many would say that it is not "best practise" to do it this way. But it is the only way I can do it. I do not think of a story and map around it --- I make a map and write a story about it.

Thanks, Kasperg, for your comment. I have been trying as hard as I can with the brushwork, and I plan much, much more detail. As I said, I think the map is only 10% complete. But I have to be careful with the optimization. Right now, after moderate optimization, the compile time is 20 minutes --- with only the single environmental light. I have not lit inside any of the buildings yet (all the buildings are completely accessable) and so I am trying to learn more about hardcore optimization before I continue. This is the biggest map I have ever done, by far.

I'm looking at a "Silent Hill" kind of arrangement for this one. But there will NO headcrabs. I do plan on using "zombies", but not any of the HL2 zombies. I plan on using human models, with a lot of custom sounds, and they will be more like the enemy in Resident Evil 4 (I've played that a lot recently) rather than traditional 'zombies'.

I plan on making the area into one big, long, multi-part puzzle. I don't plan for much combat -- but there may be some. Who knows? I want to create a truly spooky atmosphere....I'm going to work long and hard on making the player feel very nervous.

I will probably change the lighting a lot (the pic is from the very first build I did of the map) and I have a lot of plans for scenes -- I have voice actors standing by, and I want to get a lot of complex, subtle happenings in the map to make the player feel scared.

My main aim with this map, the only aim I can identify now, is to make a genuinely scary game, which will suck the player in. Level beauty is kinda secondary.

And nothing is set in stone yet.

If anyone wants to co-map this with me......I'm open to that. (but you have to be competant!)

Also, if anyone has any really advanced tips for optimizing large outdoor maps, then please get in touch with me!!!!

Thanks! I have big plans for the skybox .... that one is decidedly beta-version

Here's a pic of my latest, as yet untitled, singleplayer HL2 work.

Approx 10% complete.

It may end up being part of Day 15, it may not.....only time will tell.

Just fancied showing y'all.

Unfortunatly graph cards here in the uk are seriously overpriced still....ie. NVIDIA GeForce 6800 approx ?220 or $404 !!!

I'm not quite sure where you're shopping. Here's a Geforce 6800XT With 256mb of RAM for ?83.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=402366

For ?220 you can buy this.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=386398

But seriously, you need to go to PCI-Express.

Before physics in any games get even close to "best case goodness", we're all going to have dedicated physics processors built onto our graphics cards.

I'll beta test too, definately!

Thanks pepper!!

As promised in the other thread (which has dropped off the front page so I didn't bump it), here is the article published in German magazine Gamestar about Day 14......

Unfortunately my German isn't all that good, and they sent me it in PDF format so I can't cut 'n paste it into Babel Fish

So if anyone can translate, that'd be ace

[img=http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/723/gamestarday145oa.th.jpg]

I'll definately post the article from the magazine as soon as I see a copy.

Thanks again all