Modding - Steam or non-Steam? Created 10 years ago2014-11-26 00:04:10 UTC by DinkyDonk

I'm beginning a mod, and I'm wondering... Would it be better to use the Steam version of Half-Life or a non-steam Half-Life? Which one are people more likely to play, and which is generally better? If there's any difference at all.

There's really very little difference, IMO. WON Half-Life seems to be able to start up a tad quicker, but Steam Half-Life is what most people play, so if for whatever reason your map works fine on WON but not Steam, that's more of a problem than the other way around.

I'd recommend Steam, personally.

Alright, thanks.

I have another question.. I'll ask it here instead of making another thread.
I'm interested in trying Spirit Of Half-Life. It doesn't seem to work though.
I've downloaded it from ModDB, put everything in c:/Half-Life/ and so on, but the .fgd for Spirit brings up errors in Hammer. (I'm using VHE 3.5.3).
Hammer gives me error messages when loading the .fgd that tells of unexpected stuff in lines, and things being multiply defined with different types.
What does this mean? Is it just Hammer?

Never mapped for SoHL, but I always wanted to try. Have you tried the Spirit FGD with Sledge yet?

I would also recommend Steam Half-Life 100%, there is no reason to mess around with WON anymore

The differences between WON HL and Steam HL are:

• Steam HL have a better compatibility with newer operating systems;
• Steam HL runs at 32bpp instead of 16bpp like WON HL.
• Steam HL supports transparent and additive textures on models, WON HL not.
• Steam HL supports multiple resolutions at 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10, WON HL just 6/7 standard resolutions;
• Steam HL supports more video and general options, and it's more customizable in terms of "console commands". For instance, the command "fps_override" isn't available on WON HL. This lets you unlock the frame rate limit to a max of 999;
• WON HL Multiplayer isn't played anymore, and it's also a bit bugged;
• Some new mods that uses new stuff (for instance: SoHL, Trinity, Xash3D/XashXT, etc...), could give problems with WON HL due to its old version, hence incompatibility issues;
• Steam HL is the most played nowadays (as Jessie said.);
• Steam HL have a better/less bugged render.
• Steam HL have all its files inside folders, while WON HL uses .pak files. So it's easier to access them if you have to do a fast looking to see what you want to add in your map(s).

So yeah... I'd recommend Steam HL too.

"- Steam HL supports more video and general options, and it's more customizable in terms of "console commands". For instance, the command "fps_override" isn't available on WON HL. This lets you unlock the frame rate limit to a max of 999; "
developer 1 ?

Thanks for all the information about the differences between the two versions. I'll definitely stick with the Steam version.

Captain Terror, the fgd still brings up errors. Spirit just doesn't seem to want to work. :s

Are you trying to load both the HL and the SOHL FGDs at the same time? I'm not sure if you're supposed to do that, but the "things being multiply defined with different types." message makes it sound like you should only use the SOHL FGD. I could be wrong, I've never used it before.

If you post the FGD you're using on pastebin, we can take a look at it to see if it's a problem with the FGD or with your setup.

Yeah, the Spirit FGD is a modified version of the original halflife.fgd and they should not be used together.

http://pastebin.com/XQkkkjHi

No, that's not the problem. Even when loading the fgd into the game configuration by itself with no other fgds, it still gives an error.

edit
Hammer 3.5.3 gives more info about what is wrong with the fgd than Sledge does. It told me which lines in the fgd have problems. So I fixed two of the issues, but can't fix the last one. On line 6034 item_camera, "targetname" is multiply defined with different types. I don't know how to fix that.

Here's a pastebin of the fgd with my fixes if you want to see it:
http://pastebin.com/jMGEkwCx

Yep, that FGD is broken. Probably best to find a new one because you don't know what other problems it has, but you can fix it by doing this in a text editor:

Line 1295 (@Pointclass [...] calc_subratio) - Comment this line (put "//" at the start)

Line 1346 (3 : "Fail) - Put at " character at the end (3 : "Fail")

After that it should load correctly (at least it does in Sledge, I don't have Hammer installed at work)

Sledge reports on the line number that it finds the error on - maybe you're using an old version?

Eehhh yeah I think I'd prefer to use one without errors. :s
But this one does seem to work fine in Sledge. Hammer only gives an error but that doesn't stop it from working.
What's weird about this, to me, is that this fgd is directly from ModDB. I tried two different versions and both gave errors.

edit
I get no errors in Sledge about the fgd now.
I'm using v. 0.1.0.28.

For the last issue, you can probably just change the property in item_camera:

targetname(string)
with:
targetname(target_source)

I think Sledge just uses the last type that was defined, but it sounds like Hammer needs them to be the same type. If it's still broken in Hammer, you could just remove targetname from the item_camera altogether, because that property is already defined for that class in a base class.

It's weird that the FGD from ModDB is broken. I've heard that some people avoid 1.8+ versions of SOHL and stick to 1.4 or so, maybe this is one reason why they do that?

It works with Hammer without problems as well, actually.

I downloaded 1.4 from ModDB and it's broken as well.
And with both fgds, none of the entities or custom settings or anything that comes with Spirit (such as changing a monster's model) does not work despite Hammer/Sledge giving the options to use them. I assume that this is because it needs Spirit's dll, but telling my mod to use Spirit's dlls and all that stuff for testing gives an error.
So basically every version of Spirit from ModDB is broken and should not be used. That's frustrating.

I have some versions of Spirit hosted, I haven't tested any of them, they're just files that I had laying around. I don't know if they're any different to the ones on ModDB, but they're hosted here if you want to try a different download: Click here

(I tried the 1.4 FGD and it's broken, but you can fix it pretty easily by removing an extra bracket)

Edit: Also just tried the 1.8 download and it's the same as your one, so no improvements there.

I haven't tried all of them (and won't) but all of the versions that I've tried besides 1.8a1 give a dll error upon launching the game. 1.8a1 loads fine, the maps can be played, etc. The FGD for this one, though, has errors. Except it doesn't now because I fixed them.

But, ah! Everything is working, no errors!
Thank you for the help, everyone. I appreciate all of it. Hopefully I just don't run into any more problems. Or am speaking too soon.

developer 1 ?

Rufee, developer 1 unlocks the maximum frame rate limit just on some video cards. I've tried that with 4 different video cards, and still my fps couldn't go over 99/100. While on Steam even at 500/600 fps with ANY video card.
The only video card that let me go over the 100 fps limit with "developer 1" and "fps_max 999" is with my very old Nvidia Geforce FX 5700 LE.

Though don't ask me why this happens because I don't know. I've also tried with an ASUS EN 8800 GTS 512 MB (Nvidia), but I still couldn't go over 100 fps.

Hopefully I just don't run into any more problems. Or am speaking too soon.

You're welcome, DinkyDonk. We hope that everything will run fine from now on!

Happy modding!

Idk, developer 1 worked for me every time with many different systems.

Idk, developer 1 worked for me every time with many different systems.

It's strange for me to hear this.
I've installed WON HL on a friend's computer 3 days ago. I've used developer 1 and fps_max 999 and it couldn't go over 100 fps. I've also tried to force fps_modem at 126 fps and to set his VGA to force disabled VSynch on its Nvidia Control Panel (just in case), but this didn't change anything unfortunately. So I don't really know what could be the problem. :/

I thought WON HL supported 32bpp in the last update they did?

edit/ also WON HL can support model transparency. The hw and sw dlls are literally interchangeable. I could actually break transparency by using the WON ones in Steam without crashing.

I thought WON HL supported 32bpp in the last update they did?

Oh I know nothing about that.

WON HL can support model transparency. The hw and sw dlls are literally interchangeable. I could actually break transparency by using the WON ones in Steam without crashing.

It doesn't work for me :/

Am I the only idiot here that have things not working like everyone in WON HL? lol