Half-Life Featureful SDK Created 10 months ago2023-06-05 13:54:51 UTC by FreeSlave

Hi everyone. You may know me as a developer of Half-Life mods like Field Intensity and Half-Life: Induction.
While working on Field Intensity, I made my own version of Half-Life SDK incorporating a lot of features that I needed in the mods I worked on or implemented just for fun. A few months ago I've come with a name for the SDK and properly published it on github.

Github Repository
Wiki
Releases

Currently the releases include one map that demonstrates a number of features (but not all of them). I might make more demo maps in future.

Some excerpts from the wiki:

Half-Life Featureful aims to serve as a base for a classic Half-Life mod. This SDK provides entities from various mods and official addons, as well as additional entity parameters, bugfixes and new monsters' abilities and behavioral changes. Half-Life Featureful is meant to be used by modmakers without experience in HLSDK programming, who seek for easy ways to bring more features to their mods.

Feature overview

• All Opposing Force monsters and weapons are implemented, as well as other opfor-specific entities (excluding CTF-related).
• Some of Spirit of Half-Life features merged into the codebase, e.g. the locus system.
• Modeled health and HEV chargers and eye scanner from PS2 version of Half-Life are implemented.
• Introduced many new entities and additional parameters for standard Half-Life entities useful for a mapper. Timers, trigger randomizers. Useful properties for monstermaker, scripted_sequence and scripted_sentence. Precise configuration of some behavior aspects of monsters.
• Improvements to monsters' AI and new abilities for standard monsters.
• A lot of features and behavior aspects can be adjusted specifically for your mod via the Feature configuration files without rebuilding the game libraries. E.g. the unused custom weapons can be disabled and their assets won't need to be distributed with the mod.
• Crossplatform. Support for GoldSource (including old pre-SDL2 versions) and Xash3D-FWGS engines. VGUI and VGUI-less builds. SDK potentially may work on mobile platforms, but it needs to be tested.

Some Q/A

Q: Why is it called Featureful?
A: In the context of this SDK features are adjustable gameplay aspects. Most of the features are configured via text files and don't require rebuilding of the game libraries. In that sense "customizable" or "featureable" would fit more, but "featureful" just sounds better.

Q: You call it featureFUL, but the SDK X provides more features to me!
A: There're different Half-Life SDKs available, and each of them has their own focus. Featureful may lack some of the features that exist in other projects, but it also introduces a bunch of its own additions and improvements. More features will be incorporated in future.

Q: Is there a roadmap for future updates of this SDK?
A: There's no strict roadmap, but you can look at the TODO list.

Q: Is it well-tested?
A: The mod Field Intensity is based on the same code, but the ability to adjust features via configuration files is a recent change and it's not present in the mod, so this particular detail needs to be tested better.

Q: If Field Intensity uses the same codebase, why Featureful SDK lacks some of FI additions like scalable HUD, captions, objectives interface and improved squad mechanic?
A: Some of these features were quite experimental and not ready to be merged back into the main codebase. Some of them are made for Field Intensity only and probably won't be merged back at all.

Great addition for sure, thanks Field Intensity is awsome

It supports Linux. It's mentioned in the README on github.
As for macOS, as far as I know GoldSource doesn't work on modern macOS versions, and you can't even build 32-bit applications for macOS anymore. So I guess the only way would be to play on 64-bit version of Xash3D-FWGS, and I haven't tested the 64-bit builds of my SDK yet.

I'm not sure why you bring up all of this.
The opengl hacking is not planned in this SDK.
The only place where the OpenGL is used is to set the opengl fog type (the engine uses the exponential one by default, but it can be configured with opengl call), and this is completely optional.
If you're interested in graphics improvements on the opengl level, you might resort to Trinity or some other sdk with custom renderer.

New release of Half-Life Featureful SDK (including the mod sample) is available.

Incomplete list of changes:

• Added func_illusionary_toggle
• "Victory dance" AI schedules of human grunts and alien grunts are now interrupted by danger sounds (e.g. grenades).
• "Move away" AI schedules (when the ally monster is "pushed" by a player) are now interrupted by damage and danger sounds.
• New configurable feature doors_open_in_move_direction to allow opening rotating doors in the direction of player's moving instead of facing.
• Fixed a crash when controllable func_tank is triggered with null activator (original Half-Life bug).
• Voice pitch of talking monsters is now customizable in entity properties.

New release

List of important changes:

• Target on pickup now works on ammo entities too.
• Fix zombies not being able to attack sentry turrets (original Half-Life bug).
• func_ladder can be turned on and off.
• Don't mess Yaw spawnflag for env_sprite. In Half-Life the yaw value set in the editor for env_sprite is used as a roll value in the game. It's programmed this way due to some historical reasons and it makes oriented sprites setup harder. The new spawnflag is added to overcome this problem.
• Female assassin cloaking ability can be controlled by sk_hassassin_cloaking skill cvars. If they're missing, the original behavior from Half-Life is used (cloaking enabled only on Hard difficulty).
• Configuring custom amount of gibs for func_breakable and func_breakable_effect.

我想起一件事，请问您可以加入身着防护服的NPC吗？
Hi, I just remembered something. Can you join an NPC in a protective suit?

Your pic doesn't load for me.
If you mean the cleansuit scientist, it's already in the mod.

我不知道原因，但是麻烦您右击图标，在新的页面打开图片。这样可以解决，希望没有给您太多困扰。
I don't know why, but please right-click the icon to open the picture in a new page. This can be resolved, hopefully without bothering you too much.

Every mod impements HEV scientists differently and there's no golden standard (different behavior, different models).
I will need to think of the best way to implement them.

好的，我很期待。
I look forward to it.

In case the project won't use opfor ally soldiers, one can make a custom model for opfor human grunts which would look like a guy in HEV. Then also replace sounds and redefine sentences. Of course it's a hacky solution but it's at least something.

New release

Chaneglog

• New parameter Gravity Setting for pickups (items, weapons and ammo)
• Customizable models for ammo entities.
• Add Master parameter for scripted_sequence. If the script has a master, then it won't possess the monster until the master is enabled.
• Sound Radius parameter for func_tracktrain
• Add HG_HOSTILE sentence group for human grunts to use against non-player non-alien enemies (in Half-Life they use HG_ALERT only against player and HG_MONSTER against alien monsters).
• Add Speech Group parameter for talk monsters. It's a custom prefix used by a monster. E.g. you can make Barney talk like scientists by specifying the SC Speech group. Note that the monster will still use its original pain and death sounds in this case.
• Add bigmomma_wait_fix configurable feature in featureful_server.cfg. When enabled info_bigmomma entities actually use the provided Wait value (bugged in original Half-Life).
• Fix the upper rope segment sometimes incorrectly aligned.
• env_warpball can create AI sounds now (e.g. combat sounds).
• New flags Relative Teleport and Random Destination for trigger_teleport.
• Allow +use, flashlight and other impulse commands during weapon reload (those commands are locked during reload in original Half-Life).

New release

Changelog

Configurable features

• Wall puff sprites (cl_weapon_wallpuff) can be configured via featureful_server.cfg. Up to 4 sprites can defined (wall_puff1 - wall_puff4) which allows to set sprites from Counter Strike. By default sprites/stmbal1.spr is used as a sole wall puff sprite.

BugFixes

• Fixed opfor ropes physics on high framerates.
• Fixed spore launcher not playing a pet sound.
• Fixed some HUD issues when player has both flashlight and NVG.
• Fixed FG_CURE sentence group (a resource change)
• Replaced fgrunt/checkin (a missing sound) with fgrunt/check in sentences.txt (a resource change).

Entities

• Each global variable has one integer number associated with them, in addition to the state value. The number can be changed via game_counter_set targeting env_global with Modify/Set value triggermode. Also, triggering such env_global with 'On' or 'Toggle' use-type increments the global variable number by 1. Triggering it with 'Off' use-type decrements the number by 1.
• New parameter Obey Use-type for env_global which allows to change the global variable state accordingly to the input use-type.
• New spawnflag Act as Master for env_global which allows to use the global variable state as a master.
• New entity trigger_compare for comparing constant numbers and numbers associated with entities (so called Locus Ratio) and triggering different targets depending on the result of comparison.
• New entity calc_state to evaluate the state from boolean operation where the 'On' state corresponds to True and 'Off' state corresponds to False. Can be used as a master.
• Copy Input and Reverse Input trigger modes for trigger_relay.
• New entity calc_eval_number to evaluate the math expression based on constant numbers and calc ratios of entities.
• New entity game_number for storing floating point numbers (you can still use game_counter to store and retrieve integer values). Can be used as a storage or parameter of calc_eval_number.
• New entity trigger_check_state to check the master entity state and trigger the target depending on the check result.
• Customizable smoke sprite for env_explosion.
• monster_human_assassin_dead.
• Barnacles can't grab victims possessed by non-interruptible scripts anymore.

Server commands

• set_global_state - set the state of global variable. Available only when sv_cheats is enabled.
• set_global_value - set the number value associated with global variables. Available only when sv_cheats is enabled.
• ReportAIState (impulse 103) now reports the name of the scripted sequence entity if monster is currently possessed by a script. The command also draws the current monster route and the nearest node using temporary beams.
• calc_ratio - calculate a ratio values associated with entity and report the result to developer console.
• calc_state - calculate/get the entity state and report the result to developer console.

Other

• Support for snow texture material.
• Added item_sodacan to FGD.

New pages on wiki: Math and Master entities.

New release https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/releases/tag/featureful-2023-11-10

Changelog

BugFixes

• Fixed Pitworm entity light, laser attack sprite, strafe beam and missing sound precache.
• Fixed barnacle grapple physics to match Opposing Force.
• Fixed player_weaponstrip unintentionally removing player's flashlight or NVG.
• Fixed trigger_camera no longer prevents enabling the control if player dies while using the camera.
• Level transition won't be activated if player is dead, to avoid strange situation when player gets transitioned to another level in a dead state (which is possible if trigger_changelevel is triggered by something else with a delay).
• When trigger_camera entity gets removed it automatically releases the player who activated it.

Entities

• Added Ignore Armor flag for trigger_hurt and trigger_hurt_remote
• Added No Camera Punch flag for trigger_hurt and trigger_hurt_remote
• Added Alive player only flag for trigger_camera to ensure that the camera won't start if player is dead. It also makes camera release the player's view if player died while camera was activated.
• Allow opfor human grunts to have no weapons if weapons are set to "None".
• Opfor medics and torch grunts can be set to throw hand grenades. FGD was changed accordingly.

Client cvars and commands

• hud_min_alpha cvar to control the minimum HUD alpha value.
• hud_color is now a client command. The color is now getting saved to the player's configuration.

Server cvars

• Added items_physics_fix server cvar in attempt to fix items and ammo sometimes falling through the floor (e.g. if spawned from a func_breakable on a shelf). Changing this cvar may have some unwanted side-effects. Read description in featureful_exec.cfg

Configurable features

• monsters_spawned_named_wait_trigger. When set to false, named monsters spawned from monstermaker won't wait 5 seconds before entering their regular AI loop, unlike they do in Half-Life. Previously the default behavior in this SDK was the same as having this feature set to false, and while it's usually desirable, it might break some existing maps. So now it's set to true by default in order to match original Half-Life behavior.
• vortigaunt_squad allows to add a capability to form squads for vortigaunts. In original Half-Life they don't have this capability set.

Nice work.

New release https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/releases/tag/featureful-2023-12-11

Changelog

• The glow shell effect (applied by the shockroach projectiles) now wears off over time from osprey and apache.
• Fixed Desert Eagle not ejecting a shell upon firing.
• Fixed the Half-Life path finding bug when the fleeing monster couldn't choose a spot as a cover because the enemy couldn't build a path to this spot.
• Don't report missing HG_HOSTILE and ST_HOSTILE sentences (as they're optional)
• The entity with game_playerdie targetname is now triggered upon the player's death in singleplayer as well.
• The pain indicator sprite color doesn't blend with the HUD color anymore. This prevents pain sprite rendering green or other weird colors depending on the HUD color.

New release https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/releases/tag/featureful-2024-01-12

Changelog

Support for subtitles

Mods can use sound/captions.txt and sound/captions_profiles.txt files to define captions.
Sample files defining captions for some sentences on the first two maps of "Anomalous Materials" chapter are packed with the mod sample.

HUD scaling

Added hud_scale client cvar to control HUD scaling. 1 means the original scale. 0 means autoscale depending on the screen resolution. Note that support for high definition sprites from the anniversary patch will be added later.

Configurable Weapon Layout

Weapon layout can be configured in features/hud_weapon_layout.cfg file. The format is described in the sample file.

Entities

• trigger_configure_monster can configure more monster's parameters: Free Roaming, Gib Policy and Size For Grapple.
• Added dead turret entities: monster_miniturret_dead, monster_sentry_dead and monster_turret_dead
• Added Custom amount parameter for ammo entities.
• Added Custom Initial Ammo parameter for weapons.
• Added Delay after blocked parameter for monstermaker. If not zero, this is used instead of spawn delay before trying to to spawn the monster again, if the spawn was blocked before.
• Added Don't fire look target for trigger_camera.
• Added scripted_following entity and the Followage policy parameter for following monster (Experimental).

Bugfixes

• Fixed HUD not showing after 'fullupdate' command.
• Fixed repeatable scripted_sequence with Walk or Run move type not properly working after it got interrupted and triggered again (Half-Life bug). Thanks @Aynekko for reporting.
• Fixed scripted_sequence being unresponsive when it has Idle Animation and Turn to Face move type (Half-Life bug).

Configurable features

• Color values in hexadecimal form can be prefixed with # symbol instead of 0x.
• hud_autoscale_by_default - whether hud_scale value is 0 by default (meaning autoscale).
• crosshair_colorable feature and corresponding cvar. Allows crosshair color to depend on the chosen HUD color. Requires a sprite with white crosshairs to apply colors properly. Experimental feature, not enabled by default.

New release https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/releases/tag/featureful-2024-02-13

Changelog

Half-Life Anniversary changes

Some Half-Life Anniversary changes were merged from https://github.com/FWGS/hlsdk-portable. Thanks @nekonomicon

• Improved handgrenade throw physics.
• Improved spawn spot randomization in multiplayer.
• Fix gauss sound on level transition.
• Added HL anniversary fix for pushable acceleration
• func_vehicle implementation
• Fixed snark throwing when player is on the edge.
• Applied new satchel controls.

More changes related to HL anniversary will be merged in the next version.

Cvar changes

• New client cvar cl_satchelcontrol to control the preferred control scheme. 0 is for legacy, 1 is for anniversary.
• Changed how pushablemode cvar works. Now 0 means anniversary mode (default), -1 means legacy mode and 1 means XashXT mode. The special value 2 (which meant the SoHL mode) has been removed.

Configurable features

• gargantua_larger_size - when enabled, make Gargantua's size equal to one from Opposing Force. This fixes the problem with some projectiles (e.g. shockroach and hornetgun ones) not properly hitting the monster.

Other changes and fixes

• Shock trooper and voltigores now have a 'hate' relationship to the player instead of just 'dislike'.
• Picking up items by +use (when the pickup_policy value is not 0) is no longer allowed through the walls.
• Fixed a bug when colorable crosshair didn't restore properly after using a func_tank.

Hey! i really love your work, this level of easy customization its awesome, i downloaded this recent version (yesterday's) and i found a bug, the grande of the mp5/m4 grenade launcher doesn't do any damage (player itself and/or monsters) and for some reason the sprite its really big, like x3-x4 scale of a normal grenade.

EDIT: And i don't know if its just me, but in the sample mod, no matter what i try like executing the skill.cfg, or skillopfor.cfg, or whatever, all monsters health and parameters are 0 in every map. In the console it shows all the overriden values:

"sk_agrunt_health1" is "0"
"sk_agrunt_health2" is "0"
"sk_agrunt_health3" is "0"
"sk_agrunt_dmg_punch1" is "0"
"sk_agrunt_dmg_punch2" is "0"
"sk_agrunt_dmg_punch3" is "0"
"sk_apache_health1" is "0"
"sk_apache_health2" is "0"

etc.

Thanks for reporting. Yeah, that's weird. I'll look at it and make a fixing release when I find out what causes the problem.

For now the fix is to replace all tab characters in skill.cfg with spaces.

I've uploaded the new archive with fixed skill.cfg.

I also added user.scr, so Advanced tab in player settings has some configurable options.

for some reason the sprite its really big, like x3-x4 scale of a normal grenade.

Do you mean the HUD sprite? There's a HUD autoscaling feature, but it's turned off by default, so it shouldn't scale unless you change hud_scale client cvar.

New release https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/releases/tag/featureful-2024-03-14

Changelog

Ammo changes

• The max ammo carry per each ammo type can be configured via features/maxammo.cfg file (example included).
• Increased the max ammo the player can potentially carry - now it supports showing up to 4 digits in HUD.

ParticleMan implementation

ParticleMan is an additional library made by Valve that is used to spawn particle effects in Counter Strike and Day of Defeat. While Valve's ParticleMan is a separate closed-source library, it can be reimplemented in the client.

• The ParticleMan reimplementation by SamVanheer added to the SDK.
• Added a new client command test_particles to spawn test particles with ParticleMan.
• Note: particles produced by ParticleMan won't work in Software render mode.

Entities

• New entity particle_shooter - create particles with ParticleMan. Designed after the entity from Day of Defeat.
• Buttons are now allowed to play scripted_sentences.
• New parameter Delay Before Reset for trigger_relay which allows to ignore consequent calls to trigger_relay until the specified time has passed since the last call.
• New suffixes for multi_manager delay values: forward and reverse to forward or forward-reverse the use type the multi_manager has been called with to its targets. E.g. if multi_manager was triggered with On use type, all targets which have #forward suffix in the delay value will be triggered with On. All targets which have #reverse suffix in the delay will be triggered with Off in this case.

Cvar changes

• The client cvar cl_satchelcontrol has been renamed to _satctrl and set to 0 by default (classic satchel control behavior).
• New client cvar _grenphys added to let user control whether they want the new hand grenade anniversary or not.
• Note: weird cvar names is the result of user info buffer being limited to 256 bytes.

Other changes

• Added previously missing func_vehicle to fgd.

Codebase changes

• The minimum required C++ version now is C++11, instead of C++98.
• Ammo types registration is now separated from weapon precaching.

I love you guys for doing this. Your todo list also looks very impressive. It will contain everything I always dreamed of.

Additional wishes or recommendations if not added yet:

-Solokillers random trigger spawning possibility. Making each play through unique and different.
-Solokillers triggers that only activate based upon the set difficulty.
-Solokillers Audio library & entity maximum extension. (I believe that was already included within Field Intensity, am I right?) So that the game allows for more maximum npc sentences written within the sentences.txt and an increased number of entity usage within any given map.
-Fix on Field Intensity Code and probably here as well to give Hecu_Ally_Grunts a rifle. When I spawned em per entity or per console they still spawn without a rifle just like in the original Op4 SDK.

As far as Monsters go possibly this:

-Hecu Minigunner, seeing how you're gonna add the minigun at some point.
-rpg hecu and blackop rpg variant- also being able to take on choppers.
-Robo Grunt of the censored German Version?
-Decay: npc Keller. Rosenberg is already in it if I remember correctly.
-Eventually a port of the Sweet Half-Life Hev Suit npcs & the Grey Aliens?
-Would be cool to get the Todesangst 2 Loader Enemies in as well. That was a one timer. Haven't seen anything like it any other Half-Life mod since.
-Eventually female Scientists https://gamebanana.com/mods/393927 (I've got a full sound set ready, based upon their male counterparts.)
But it's not yet released. Let me know if you're interested in obtaining that.
-Female Azure Sheep Security Guards.
While these can get added in by the mapper themselves it might save time and would serve as full package for any upcoming mappers to have everything available from start.

Last but not least a minor and more fun like request:
-If permission given add the brown shocktrooper variant of this SDK project onto your project: https://www.moddb.com/mods/opposing-force-enlightened It uses the former Alpha model but enhanced to the default op4 standards and uses the spore launcher instead the shock roach. Of course it's just a simple weapon and model swap within the entities in the editor but still kinda cool to have. Maybe eventually as 2nd skin within the model itself? Might be even cool to have for Field Intensity. That combined with a slight different pitch within the monster entities and you get a female version of said Alien.

---

As far as the Archer is concerned: I love how it got handled back in Azure Sheep, game play wise.
Although an additional distance attack might not be wrong especially if the player is hiding behind something in the water.

It could have 3 attacks.
1. When it comes under close range attack from the player with a crowbar it will release a minor electrical charge which stuns the player and their vision, swims off before charging or long range attacking the player again. Similar like you did with the Alien Slaves.
2. the regular bite animation that azure sheep portrayed
3. and your suggested pit drone like attack.

I'd love to get the sounds from the Azure Sheep version for it. It had the best sounds for the Archer and the most memorable.

Stukabat - Hl: Point of View - hanging as ammo or idling around in the air and attacking any humans once it sees them.
Panthereye - Hl: Invasion, yes.
Charger - Hl: Invasion, yes.
Alienflyer aka Aflock - Love to see a dynamic flight script like you did for the boid.
chumtoad - Idle walking and hopping logic like for the boids. If approached to closely they explode on you.

23-down, some of the things you mentioned are already implemented.
E.g. robogrunt, heavy weapons grunt (he probably needs a bit of improvement though), Richard Keller and female security guards. Some of them are not enabled by default in the sample mod but can be configured. Look at the features/featureful_monsters.cfg file.

As for females scientists and HEV scientists (similar to ones from Sweet HL) it would be ideal to come up with a system that allows a mapper to replace NPC's sounds for specific instances. Currently only the sentence prefix replacement is already supported, but one will need to replace pain/death sounds as well. Once it's implemented mappers can make female scientists based on monster_scientist and HEV scientists based on monster_human_grunt or monster_barney.

-Solokillers random trigger spawning possibility. Making each play through unique and different.

You can emulate random spawn via trigger_random.

-Solokillers triggers that only activate based upon the set difficulty.

This is something I want to add later along with some other utilitary entities.

-Solokillers Audio library & entity maximum extension.

It basically requires to rewrite the whole Audio Engine. While it's technically possible (Sam used OpenAL, but there're other alternatives like miniaudio), it's a lot of work, I'm not sure when I'm gonna do it.

Cut HL monsters is something I will be implementing when I need them in my own mods. Basically I do most of the stuff because my own projects may need it.

Sounds lovely... I will have a check on it. At the moment I'm working only with your Field Intensity Build v1.6 so I haven't even started yet to check out featureful.

Are there some documentation files you published somewhere explaining what each new entitiy does? I did go through your test maps on the Field Intensity SDK. Some maps didn't work as they should've as far as I could've determined.

Anyway stay on it. You're doing a wonderful job as always.

There's some documentation on wiki, e.g. https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/wiki/Other-entities
The wiki just lists changes comparing to Half-Life. For (re)implemented SoHL or Sven Co-op entities you'll need to refer to the corresponding tutorials. The FGD itself serves as documentation since most of the new entities and property names has descriptions you can read in J.A.C.K.

While Field Intensity uses the same codebase it has some adjustments that are currently not available in Half-Life Featureful SDK.
I'm not sure what you mean by test maps. There's only one demo map included in the Half-Life Featureful archive.

Thanks for letting me know about that. I just tinkered around with your various config files and also read your github guide. This project is truly stunning. I've finally switched from Fi 1.6 to featureful.

Still missing all the fancy Field Intensity monsters though, but all in the good time, eh?

The fact that you won't re-add your story, thought and radio features saddens me immensely. Besides your mod and Todesangst2, Point of View I can't recall any other SP mod that ever did something similar. Would be a massive boost to any story driven mod to get that included in featureful even if it was just experimental.
Any chance on getting the Squad disband and recruitment feature into Featureful? Might be useful for all sorts of Npcs later on.

Bug report: monster_flyer_flock won't accept my custom models. It launches by default with the Boid model. But what I'd like for my XEN map is the real flock.mdl model. The model animations are present and accounted for.

So far I'm very happy and very grateful to you and your ambitious project..
For you: http://sndup.net/t8hd

Thanks for the bug report regarding boids. It will be fixed in the next version.

There're reasons why some FI specific features are not ported yet:

• They're not implemented in a manner which is generelized enough to be used in other mods.
• I just want FI to have some things unique to the mod.

I'll port FI features over time when I figure out how to implement them in a more generalized way.