[release] Half-Life DM GOLD Map Megapack Created 6 years ago2018-03-10 17:55:24 UTC by xawari

<<< Half-Life DM GOLD >>>
century megapack - best of all times!

version 1.0
1998 - 2017

[ DOWNLOAD HLDM MEGAPACK TORRENT ]
IMPORTANT! add trackers from https://github.com/ngosang/trackerslist - "best"
[ DIRECT DOWNLOAD mirror (slower) ]
Official thread mirror
For seeds ask at half-life@conference.jabber.ru Jabber conference.

This is the most complete (because maps are still being produced) selection of Half-Life multiplayer maps of good quality every server must have.
Not only these maps were selected and tested, but also missing or damaged resources were recovered, mistakes and bad resources were fixed.

What's included?

• 805 maps for multiplayer game.
• all required resources (textures, models, sounds, skyboxes, details, etc.).
• documentation, whenever available.
• original fixes that you won't find anywhere else.
• 7 playlists, sorted by genres.

Who is this for?

• First of all - for players: no more need to spend hours digging a couple of nice maps out of mountains of garbage.
• For HLDM server owners: pack does not contain any trash like temporary files and you will find maps for every taste there.
• For collectors: this is history!
• For admirers of beauty: this is art!

Features:

• Original documentation was preserved and recovered (all text saved to mapname.txt).
• Recovered lost resources for many maps.
• Many maps were fixed (e.g. wrong transparency modes for ladders, fences, etc.).
• Maps were tested for playability.
• Fixed sounds: markers, frequencies, some loops were purposefully cut to avoid crashes on some HL versions and for smooth looping.
• In some rare cases "music" was cut off - huge WAV-files with horrible quality that were playing on the map (like the train announcer voice at the beginning of HL).

Installation:

• Unpack the entire archive into Half-Life directory, when asked to "overwrite folder valve?" choose "yes".
• Note: all files are new (no standard HL files will be overwritten), they can be safely deleted to restore HL to its original state.
• Nothing else

Important notes:

• mapcycle.txt cannot be larger than 8KB (8192 bytes)! Because of this it is better to keep it in unix format (LF) - Half-Life does recognize it and more maps can fit inside.
• Some maps contain animated lights (flickering lamps, fire, etc.), that on some video cards may drop FPS from 60 down to 10! That's how the game is made.
• Old Half-Life versions (WON) have tighter limits on models, sprites and sounds - some maps may fail to run there.
• Also, some Half-Life versions are likely to crash because of unsupported sound file format (> 22050HZ, > 8bit, > 1ch) or those containing bad markers/regions/etc.

Afterwords:

• Pack author: ~X~
• My respect goes to map authors - without them we wouldn't have anything to play!

Hi, it's been a long time! So long, in fact, that the old thread was archived. Finally I have finished this "project", and hope you enjoy it!
Sorry it took so long, but sometimes unavoidable circumstances appear. Anyway, it's done! In a way. I hope it will be continued because, luckily, maps are still being made and, especially, good ones Right now I'm thinking of some Git-like version control system for future updates. But Git itself doesn't like binaries and requires server that'll have to take all the bandwidth.

Thanks for all the good wishes, I think they helped me a bit

So, found my map in the pack, thanks for that. At least I've left a mark somewhere, kinda.
The problem is, I have almost finished rebalancing dm_deadlands. The old version had too many gaussclips lying around, and that wasn't the only issue. Also several cosmetic changes have been made.
If only you'd have waited with the release a little bit longer...

Anyway, nice job out there. Judging by the readme file you had to go through hell to get most of the maps lol.

Great work. I guess it should be possible to stop animated lights with a hex editor. A crazy coder would need to be consulted tho. Also it's better not to fix .bsps because that will create clashes, people who already have the map unable to connect, the solution is to rename the map a little. Or well no... editing entities does not cause clashes

Windawz, you're welcome )

Anyway, nice job out there. Judging by the readme file you had to go through hell to get most of the maps lol.

Exactly!
I really love to play HLDM ocasionally, so it had to be done

Bruce, yes, animated lights are a nightmare. On modern videocards one stupid candle can drop fps down to 10 on an otherwise fairly optimized map. For example dm_hairpoint is almost unplayable on some systems because of just 1 light. I think it SHOULD be possible to set the number of lightmaps to 1. But the question is, will HL be able to read other structures normally?

PS: share your thoughts on these maps if you found something new and interesting!

PS2: if you have downloaded the file from direct mirror, please consider seeding it through the torrent. Sharing is the future!

Ah my map isn't in there

Anyway have a mirror:
https://node.rufee.eu/mirror/hldm_gold_megapack_v1.7z

Should be way faster than M$ for those who don't use torrents.

rufee
You had a chance to show it in previous thread But don't worry, I plan, as long as I'm alive, to release update(s), and also HL anniversary (20 years since 1998) version. Thanks for the mirror!

I also haven't included any self-made maps because of the hurry.

I'll post a list of all reviewed maps soon so there'll be a good opportunity to add those which are missing.

IMPORTANT WARNING:
Do not use the uninstaller script as it is now!
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do a full testing, and so it happend that a few original Half-Life files got listed in mappack_files.lst:
valve\mapcycle.txt
valve\halflife.wad
valve\xeno.wad
and maybe some others. That's because I used modified versions of those files and they were automatically added by diff. Sorry.

Did not pay attention I guess. No big deal

THIS IS Awesome! nice work.

Thanks!

I'm open to suggesitons on keeping this archive up to date. Something like git maybe.

"I'm open to suggesitons on keeping this archive up to date."

If so, may I ask you to replace the current version of deadlands with the new one? It would be very nice of you.

Sure! That's the point!

cool nice job

I've been checking the old thread for over a year, in fact I put it on a monitoring service to be checked every week, and just today I noticed it got archived! So I went to check your profile xawari, and that's how I discovered this thread! Really glad you were able to finish the work and I appreciate all the effort you put in. Thank you!

csapdani: you're welcome!

UPDATE: as you all are probably aware, it's time to celebrate Half-Life's 20 years anniversary. And so, let's bump this project and make it up to the big date!
The primary goal is to find and include all HL multiplayer maps that have been made or updated since this megapack was released (dec 2017). AUTHORS: this is your time to act and flood me with links! =)
The secondary (optional) goal is to provide a preview screenshot for every map. Something like a 1280*960 (4:3) JPEG. For easier navigation and possibly for future in-game use. I have some screenshots ready since last year (those on the background), but that list is far from complete. Currently noone is assigned to this task yet, you're welcome to try )
I'm also working on improving playlists and... something more to include.
This is going to be something of the scale of GoodNES archive or similar projects!

When the 35th competition ends, I'll be happy to include all HLDM maps, regardless of the prize, into the upcoming release!
Thank you for your support! Hope to see more feedback