Forum posts

The tutorial by Seventh-Monkey called STEAM has a good description where to install your maps.

Usually found in C:/Program Files/Valve/Steam/SteamApps/Steam_account_name/Game_name

You can do a search for files and folder though Windows find, if you do not have a default load. Search for maps

GL

Remember that video cards type and memory effects Hammer also. I have a fairly slow machine (by todays standards) but having 1Gig Ram and 512Mb video keeps Hammer running smoothly.

was getting same error when trying to start half life using command propt or through run in Hammer. Rarely compile in Hammer, but did on test map just to insure correct settings for steam.

In hammer, point to steam.exe as the game executable.
When compiling add -applaunch "070" as an additional game parameter.

If compiling through batch files, as I do, add
"directory_pathsteam.exe" -applaunch "070" +map "map_name" at the end of the batch file.

Thanks to XargoL I was able to fix same problem today

Hope this helps.

DM read Jaardsi's post, taken from an earlier forum thread. There is no tutorial on submitting tuts, but apparently has been covered before.

GL

yes

Creating tutorials has always been encouraged. Write it up, with any images needed and blast it off to a mod. I used to hit Andy with them. I'm sure Seventh or one of the others will be happy to do what is needed to add the content.

Add examples and triple check for accuracy, really helps prevent embarassment through the forums

Looks like you have not inputted your CD Key into steam yet.

Open Steam, Browse Games, click register a product I already own, and enter your CD Key.

GL

Keeping compos at a single HL version evens the playing field. Competitions are meant to push your imagination, creativity, and attention to detail. There are so any ways to push the HL1 code, which leaves a lot of room for original and wild effects and player circumstances.

Remember that there is a lot of time spent on this site. The competitions are an extra that is thrown in when someone sees a glimpse of available time. Running and judging two comps at once would leave no time for real world responcibilities.

This site provides a place for you to place your completed maps and ask for opinions. TWHL is a great resource for help, new ideas, and opinions. Just do not get the attitude.

Comp requirements are always posted with enough detail to know what is expected. Face it, there has to be guidelines to maintain a level playing field.

Sounds like your map is not in the correct directory. Insure that your map is in the maps directory within valve.

Not true, Marvin will pop into all channels that you are in when you !identify yourself. The trick is, if he is not in #TWHL, pop over to #valveerc and !identify with him there. Marvin will then pop into all the rooms you have an open chat with.

Marvin was written to keep an eye on registered rooms that have registered members frequenting.

Just some information on why I set up an IRC channel with ChatBear instead of some of the others out there.

Many of the IRC servers, such as DalNet, and other larger servers heavily rely on inetd. This makes things tough for some people to log onto the server (especally Windows Users).

#valveerc is on the server. Usually there are several people on there that are know their stuff. Use it, but do not be pushy

Ever since Valve found that TWHL exists, they have been much more receptive to Newbie questions. I strongly believe this is in direct relationship to the attitudes of this sites administrators and membership.

The issue of Marvin:

I guess folks are complaining that Marvin is not on the channel. The way Marvin works is, the bot will not visit the channel if registered users do not log in occationally. The only way Marvin knows if you are registered is if you identify yourself.

To identify: Privite message Marvin with

!identify EMAIL PASSWORD

of course your EMAIL is the address you used to register your BearKey account with.

Sorry I have not been on much, real life has been requiring a lot of time. When it comes to the IRC stuff, Atom and Andy do have full administrator privledges.

Should wrap up real life issues in six months or so and can start mapping again (may have to learn the basics again). Just thought this post can help some concerning IRC issues.

Set author to Skeeve, presuming it was he - Seventh

Read Scripted, More Complex Triggers, Multisource, Multi-manager and some of the tutorials that are more specific to an event (such as the two elevator tutorials). Get through those, you should have a fair understanding of how they work.

Another resource is http://www.vlatitude.com/tutorials.php

Multiplayer -> Internet Games

Update: to get a list of currently active games, then join the game you wish to join.

You may use Filter to filter out the Game, map, show only servers with players, ect....

Trophy would be cool, yet do not foresee me getting one without submitting an entry. Will do my best to send one off next round.

Ugliest and most lagged map contest, hmmmm may have a chance if that is a contest subject

Due to real life stuff, it has been a while since I have logged on. First thing I noticed was the CS Guide. The current contest entries are great. Its really nice to see such an active online community.

Oh while I am here, atom you may want to create a trophy to represent a team effort win. This is not meant to downgrade a team entry, for it takes more planning and communication to put something together as a team.

Having a trophy set that represents a team entry winning, will let users know there are more than one person to credit for the entry. Not suggesting a new entry class, just a trohpy class.

Just a thought.

http://www.planethalflife.com/blueshift/files/

Follow the Mapping and editing links. Appears the .zip contains sdk, fdg, maps, etc... Just strip what you need from the zip.

Interesting, no link section to this site as of yet. It may be useful to new mappers if there was a link area, especially to mapping tools and utilities.

So atom, I would bet that you are finding that building and maintaining an Internet community is a never ending time consumer. I hope you still enjoy the time spent. If you want, I can throw together a link section.

atom, you may want to allow members to delete their map entries in the map vault. Especially problem maps. No since keeping them after the troubles are repaired.

Have to agree, great job. Looking forward to the next competition, for some creative stuff came out of this one.

Or new comments. So the easiest way would be to place a marker on areas that have changed since last viewing.

I would bet the question is the drive location of the game maps. I have no clue, so cannot help.

Is there a favorite server everyone likes to play on? (HL, CS, or Sven) May be fun to get shot by one or two of you

This suggestion could take a bit of coding, but would be worth the time.

I would guess that the greatest amount of time spent in managing the competition area is deciding on the winners. Create a script allowing members to vote for the competition entries.

In order to keep thing fair, the script should check to insure the user has not voting for the current competition.

Give each user three votes:

first place:  5 points
second place: 3 points
third place:  1 point

The main purpose of the point system is to minimize the chances of a tie. A tie breaker could be sent through the voting function again (limiting the voting choices)

A time stamp could be used to make the voting fully automatic.

Well work just calledd, so gotta go. But, I'm sure you all get the picture.

BTW, I'll log back onto IRC went I get back (approximately threee hours)

Thanks for the suggestions, I will give it a try in my test maps.

You can E-Mail me the level. I would be happy to have my children run through it and get their opinions. Of course, I would go through it also

Playing around with monster behaviors right now, and having a bit of a problem with monstermaker.

How can I get monsters created through monstermaker to follow path corners? I guessed it would be the target on release, but no such luck.

I am guessing my next wuestion would involve coding, but just in case. Is there a trigger or method to temporarily over-ride the AI?

For example:
Squad of grunts notice Freeman in a room. Can I get the squad to rush the room and into position, before allowing the games AI to take over?

Time zone issues are always a problem when using live chat programs. But, IRC is a strong method for recruiting new members and offering users to chat with one another.

IRC requires a IRC client installed. I have been using Mirc (http://www.mirc.com/) for nearly a decade, which has a shareware version available.

Virc (http://www.visualirc.net/beta.php) is a freeware IRC client. Never used it myself, but the price is rightt.

My GMT is -7. http://greenwichmeantime.com/ expains GMT and will help learn your areas GMT zone.

With IRC, users usually just log on and yack to anyone that may be online at the time. I have registered #TWHL at irc.ircbear.com port 6667 and will log on when I am on my computer. http://www.ircbear.com gives information on needed software and what IRC is. http://www.bearkey.com creates and configs registered users.

Just need to know usernames to set as channel Operators.

I rarely turn on IM clients due to the holes they open in my network.

May be tough with the varied time zones this membership has, but how about registering a IRC channel with ircbear, dalnet, or another server? I know that IRC is pretty much dead with all the new technologies, but still the best way I know to chat.

Just a suggestion.

Thank you for your input and the link to the Test Chamber. The test chamber is a big help concerning optimizing maps. Since this is my first map, its development is entirely educational. Although; my children seem to like the map.

With compiling, I was using Hammer's run command (F9) to compile and run the map. Today, I did my first attempt at a batch compile and found it much faster. More information is also given when compiling through a batch file (leak info and such).

Thanks again, with the help of this group I have been able ti fix 90% of the maps problems.

Thanks,

Was using a custom sky, which once I removed there is a lot less problems up top. Now just need to make a cargo bay area smaller and fix a few leaks. Map is wa too large for anything other than LAN play. A little over 13 hours for a full compile.

Thought about scrapping the map alltogether, but my son and nephew threw a fit when I mentioned that. Map is ugly, but there is definately room to battle.

I will definately keep these things in mind for my second map.

As far as using func_wall, I thought that was not a good idea. I read an article saying that using that method will speed up compile times, but slow down the gaming engine. If I remember correctly, the article said this is because entities are only rendered when the entity is in a players veiw.

Is this accurate, or not?

Thanks again for the suggestions, I am very happy that I happend upon this group.

Have a slight problem with the map I have created. Things in the distance go black in several places, including the sky.

There are a couple of places in the map that there is no obstruction of sight from one end of the world to another. Map is a battleship, so hard to just throw up a wall : )

sky distances
4997 x 1919 x 1204

Have tried playing with Max Viewable Distance in the worldspawn, but does not have any affect. Have taken it up to 64000.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, helped a bunch

When making ladders, I have noticed that there are times that the texture does not align as it should. Rail will be in center, with rungs on either side of the rail.

Currently, I am fixing the problem by moving the group over some, compiling, and running the game to see if the group needs to be moved more to get the texture to appear correctly. This could cause problems if I want a texture in a certain spot.

I have noticed this with lights and other texture objects. Any suggestions on aligning textures would be appreciated.

Valve Hammer 3.4 SDK with current ZHTL compiling tools.

Thanks.