Forum posts

Yes, GameBanana has got a private messaging system.

Spirit of Half-Life as a whole is a little bit unstable. It's best to just borrow and stitch features from it.

Also, you maybe already know this, but just in case, make sure that you have permissions from Cybermax to actually use that in your mod. My mistake in 2015 was that I was just downloading models and never crediting anyone nor asking for permission.

Most of what you described in regards to changing (NV to flashlight, talking HEV suit, HUD changes) won't be hard.

operational Half-Life: Opposing Force source code engine

A source code engine. Hah.

As for the mod's concept, well, I can't say much since I'm more into total conversions. But, good luck with the mod.

I've written a small tutorial for setting up the SDK with your updated HL SDK, for VS 2017, on GB: link

And there are a bunch of tutorials I've found at Sourcemodding, and I think the SDK Basics series would be useful for this:

pev structure and entity variables
Introduction to the source code
SDK2 Basics - Looking at a simple entity class
SDK2 Basics - String handling
SDK2 Basics - Creating a new entity class, and adding it to your level
SDK2 Basics - Adding a new monster

And the mouse will only rotate the character's view by 180 degrees instead of 360 degrees.

Try turning off "Raw mouse input" in the mouse options. As far as I've seen, this type of bug seems to appear with modern Half-Life SDK sources, except it was about 90 degrees on my end.

I am asking to the code to add PRIMARY AMMO to a weapon that HAS NO PRIMARY AMMO to load in...

Oh, the joys of coding.

What exact error messages are you getting? You could try Visual Studio 2010 Express if it won't compile on VS 2017's toolset.

I don't think you can measure distance in QuArK directly. I've used it for some time, but I never found a way. Unless you turn on the grid. I remember yours was turned off.

See those green-ish dots? (might not be visible so see full image)

The option is right here:Each square on the grid is a×a units, and a is whatever your grid size is set to.

As for the bots, I'd go with a personality approach (something like int m_iPersonality, or even better, an enum) and each bot gets a random personality at spawn. And then depending on their personality, they can fire slower, faster, and even prefer weapons.

In some aspects I find it to be a CryEngine-GoldSrc hybrid. I'll definitely check it out at some point. Thanks for posting it here.

Edit: I've looked it up. It wasn't much of a problem for me.

Quake II does BSP differently as far as I've heard, so I wouldn't be surprised. It's either storing BSP files with complete brushes, or storing faces with an extra lump for the original brush data. Can't quite remember what exactly.

I think GoldSrc map decompilers will never have 1:1 results, since all the decompiled brushwork will always be the decompiler's guess. GoldSrc BSPs have faces that form one big mesh, and .map files have plane intersections that form individual volumes. It's all a big guess and approximation.

Although, it would be nice to see if we had smarter decompilers. The ones I've used didn't care for face subdivisions and they left it like that. There's also one decompiler that turns every solid entity face into a 1-unit-thin brush. Ew.

And I agree with potatis_invalid. The root of this problem is cultural (not sure if I'd call it a problem, but I guess it is). If a mapper doesn't want to release their map sources, it's their decision. It's their work, they can do what they want with it.

I'm definitely not against an effective map decompiler (I'm for it). I'm just afraid it's going to induce more laziness and potentially a more efficient way of stealing maps or parts of them.

Nice. :3
It reminds me of the style of CS 1.0-era maps.

This is really nice.

This usually happens when you have very complex geometry. You should convert these complex brushes into func_detail.

Do you want the sound to loop by itself, or do you want it to play only after a certain trigger was activated, or something else?
We need more info for that.

In the worst-case scenario, you can use a logic_timer, which will call the ambient_generic's PlaySound() function, every duration of the sound (e.g. every 5 seconds).
The ambient_generic's flags should be like this:

Play everywhere - up to you
Start Silent - check
Is not looped - check

Lastly, I'm not entirely sure about this one, but ambient_generic should only be able to playback mono sounds.

You could try two things:

1. Hide the info_texlights entity, then in the compile dialog:
Check "Save visible objects only" and compile only with HLCSG, with Only Entities, or -onlyents if you're in the Expert mode. The "Save visible visible objects only" flag basically lets the compiler know to not compile anything that is temporarily hidden.

2. Use RipEnt. I've never used it myself, but from what I know, it can be useful in situations like these.
Essentially, it rips out entity data, and allows you to edit it, and back into the map, similar to -onlyents in CSG. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Around 175 textures total.

Just realised I forgot to add a verb to my last sentence.
Correction:
"You should either make or edit the gameinfo.txt file."

It helps only on the first run, since it launches Hammer in its proper environment.
If it's for a mod, you should probably the gameinfo.txt file.

I've made some more progress on the school map, mainly on the props:And finally, I started completing my wish from 7th grade:...which gave me a 2-year leap ahead of my classmates in programming.
Currently, it's a part of my "Useless Suite" that has will have a bunch of practically useless programs, which I am writing just for the sake of learning.

bump

Have you launched hammer.bat first, instead of the .exe?

512 is the number of models that can be precached. That means player models, weapon models, different sprites, solid entity models and prop models.
Keep in mind that creating, say, multiple env_sprites which use the same sprite will only take up one model.

As for the entities, just what potatis_invalid said.

You'll want to maintain good network performance.
func_train, func_tracktrain, things that move etc., they take up quite some bandwidth, and they can make a choppy server. So it's not how many entities you place, it's what kind of entities you place, and how you set them up.

You've just made me thirsty.

Something there smells fishy.

Take your time, man. Some of my maps have been in progress for years due to other maps and projects. But it gets done eventually.

Some more textures, nothing special. The next objective is creating the classrooms and stuff, since the hallway is pretty much empty:

That lighting reminds me of my first HL mod. :3
What is it about?

Well, compiling the map uses 100% of your CPU time, so it's not surprising. ^^
Even my 2018 PC can slow down significantly when it's compiling.

And no, I don't think smiling itself is ugly. I love it when I make someone smile, for example. It's just that I am ugly when smiling. :/

Sprites don't have collision, yes. But you can always place a CLIP brush to define the collision box, as Instant Mix said.

My avatar isn't because of you. It's just a selfie I took after taking a shower, maybe in early 2018 or so, and then I did some stuff to it in GIMP. It was better than my old one anyway.

As for looking depressive, well, I can be happy (I mean, I am most of the time), but I look a bit ugly when smiling. So don't worry, it's just a coincidence.

Use a cycler_sprite if you want a prop model in your map. A regular cycler entity has the collision box of the player.
It looks a bit dark on the top of the model, too. Nice work, though. Keep it up. :3

It's progressing and looking better than I imagined.

@DocRock
That is sad to hear. But what you've made in her honour, that's so, so nice.

In reality, you don't need a ModDB page right now. You can create a ModDB page right after you finish the mod 100%.

You might wanna create a mod page if you want to get people hyped and excited about the mod, or to maybe show WiP screenshots and videos as you go - all that might increase the mod's potential popularity.

And of course, a mod page will probably help with motivation. You can see how many views there are, people might write comments, but only if you have something worthy to show them. Seeing that people are interested in the mod helps a lot with motivation.

So I say: keep up the interesting work. I could help you with some things if you want. :3

And The303 saves the day. I knew someone would know about this. ^^

In the Half-Life SDK, I found an in-depth document that explains all of that.
I think it's called "GoldSrc Modelling Workflow". I forgot the explanations themselves, but you'll find them in there, as well as a lot of other useful info.

@Vodka
This isn't a school. It's something I imagined.
The high school map is also a priority though, so I might work on it after this.

Yay!

zhlt_embedlightmap, it works on some entities depending on the render mode. It's a neat thing. Even works on water, but make sure to put a bigger zhlt_embedlightmapresolution (I think) otherwise it'll take some more time and AllocBlock.
And weren't the ~ textures the ones that emit light?

SourceSkyBoxer said:how do we draw like awesome rock

If you want to draw awesome rocks, you can read my tutorial which is now available on TWHL.

Guess which WiP map of mine came back to life. It's one of those maps I promised to finish (either to myself or the community) when I get my new PC, like Kobbl. This one's a priority.
Currently, I'm planning:

• to make a helicopter model to replace that ugly green thing over there
• to add some more, but inaccessible terrain (or maybe still accessible? :3)
• fix some things and optimise

@hfc, that's a pretty nice outcome!

Edit: it has compiled, hooray! It would've taken 2 days on my laptop or even more, while it only took 2 hours and 30 minutes on my new PC.
Tomorrow I'm gonna optimise the living hell out of this portalhole.

I'd also share my laptop's current desktop, but I can't, since I'm using my phone at the moment and the laptop is unavailable.

There's a single GIF I could make that explains exactly why I got into mapping. A part of it would be this:For me, it's fun to make, and fun to play. I just love explosions in maps. Boom boom. BOOM! BOOOOOOM

As for other reasons why I'm mapping and modding:
I like creating things. Having started working on a HL mod in 2015 made me start learning new skills: music production, modeling, coding and texturing.

Until then, I only knew some basic low-quality mapping and video editing. And this just opened up so many new opportunities. Now I'm planning to work on a game in Unreal Engine with a team, and I already am in 2 mod teams.

So TL;DR, it's fun, it's a nice brain exercise and it can even sometimes bring you some money.

Here's my GoldSrc texture workflow:

I make the texture in GIMP (either photosourcing or by hand), and then I save it as a high-quality BMP or PNG.
Then I open IrfanView and decrease the colour depth to 8 bits, and save the BMP into another folder.
Once I'm done with putting all the 8-bit BMPs into the folder, I open HL Texture Tools and I make a WAD with them.

As for the colours, Wally sometimes really tends to screw up my texture. A single GoldSrc texture can only have up to 256 colours. I use IrfanView now, because it converts it to 8-bit as good as possible. GIMP can sometimes convert RGB 0 0 0 into 27 27 27 (for example), which is laughable, so I don't index the texture in there.

It can be a bit complex at first, but once you get used to it, it's not a big deal at all.

I make my image then drag it over in the wally image editor, then it loads for a bit (idk why), then I try my best not confusing export to save as I need to save as a .wad file, then I have to open up hammer editor and import the .wad into the texture, then who knows if the texture is even right. Once I'm finished with everything, I don't know how to even pack the whole map! I assume you just put the textures in the correct folders and then post it online, but what about people who download it through the game?

First things first, in Wally you should go to File -> New and then pick Half-Life WAD.
It's loading for a while probably because it's converting itself to 8-bit.
As for packing the texture into the map, use -wadinclude [wadname] (no extension). You can even include an entire folder IIRC, and if you want to include more than one, do -wadinclude [wadname1] -wadinclude [wadname2] in HLCSG.
If you don't want to pack it into the map, and have the WAD file in the valve or cstrike folder (for example), create a RES file by dragging and dropping the BSP file into a RES generator. That's all.

One more thing, textures must be powers of 2 if you want to ensure quality and compatibility.
Multiples of 16 are allowed, like 96x96, but that's going to be downscaled to the nearest power-of-two texture (64x64) in OpenGL and Direct3D. Hence 1024x256 looks exactly like 256x256. So yeah, 32² up to 512². This wouldn't happen in Software mode, however.

I'm thinking, maybe you only used "Opaque" for the func_wall. You could've used "Opaque + Concave Fix", but func_detail is a better option anyway.

As for surface lights, of course they're going to not work with this kind of setup because it's going to be too blurry. I usually avoid texlights when I want cool shadows. (they also seem pretty dim compared to regular point light entities)

Either way, on an unrelated note, put a CLIP brush for the entire window so that you don't waste any clipnodes.

any mappers have made "faked shadow mapping". Like Trempler, Admer,

I actually never did in GoldSrc. Only GZDoom.

Decrease the texture scale of the floor to 0.250. It will produce more wpolys, but the lightmaps will appear hi-res, because they're essentially being downscaled as well.
The bars are blocking light, but the lightmap is too low-res to actually display that shadow. This was done with a texture scale of 0.160.
However, keep in mind that I could've gone as low as 0.050, but the AllocBlock/lightmap limit would've been hit. A map can have a maximum of 64 lightmaps in GoldSrc. In SC, that limit was raised to 512, but nobody's sure how far that can go (in some cases beyond 512).

It's a Super Mega Hi-Tech Space Ship Naked Metal BareBones Techy Techy Tech Space Ship Interior.
Nah, this is the Centre. The players spawn in the apartments, and then come to the Lobby, and then go down a 8500-unit elevator ride, and walk there.

Here's some more progress on that huge area:

Oooor, check your settings.txt wherever you extracted your compiling tools. It probably auto-sets them that way.

Edit:This thing is huge.Here's a ground view. This small part will have a couple of telephones.

I've also been playing around with chrome textures.This one is just a test, however.

I've experienced that after every major update so far. Windows 10 resets its settings after updating, just as I heard. :/
But you can always set up a Windows 7 virtual machine or something.

Oh, this is actually a standalone project. I rather avoid community stuff, except 2 or 3-person collabs. But yeah, nice windows you have there.

I've been working on the map a bit more:A glass dome. Now with reflections. B)Tractor beam lift. B)Now I'll work more on expanding the map, instead of finishing what I've covered so far. I've still got to do the elevators, the center, and the many rooms the ship will have, the aliens' capturing sequence, and a demo may be ready. ^^