Journals
Lookin for something to do with free time.
It has been a while since my last journal. I've mostly just been busy with work and being exhausted and had all my project on hold except for my part in this year's Ragemap (a mapping collab for Sven Co-op).
I brought up the fact that func_illusionary will produce cliphulls came up earlier today when helping Sassy Boy with advice on reducing clipnodes, which came as a surprise to some. Understandable, it's always non-solid so why would func_illusionary need cliphulls for in the first place? I thought a journal might be a tidier format for talking about this.
So the thing is, the CSG compiler that comes with the HL SDK makes no classname checks, it's pretty much entity-agnostic in this regard. So the compiler generates clipnodes on all HULLs for func_illusionary just as it does for any other brush entity. It doesn't become non-solid until it's spawned in-game and the game code gives it
Big waste of clipnodes if you ask me.
Surely those who've worked on ZHLT and VHLT would have thought about this too and made sure to skip cliphull generation for func_illusionary. I opened up the source code for VHLT v34 and searched for "func_illusionary" and just as I expected I found a conditional checking for that classname and flagging those entities as "noclip" (which will make them skip cliphull generation). Though then I remembered I had this habit of adding
What better way to check than testing it?
So I set up a basic room. That's 6 faces with a clipnode each, times the 3 clipping HULLs, for a total of 18 clipnodes for the room itself.
A box is created and tied to func_illusionary. 6 faces on that one as well, so we can expect an additional 18 clipnodes if the generation isn't skipped. Run compile, and...
We have 36 clipnodes total, what we expected if func_illusionary's cliphull were generated after all.
Doing another test with
So this confirms that func_illusionary does produce clipnodes in both the HL SDK CSG and VHLT v34's CSG.
But why?
Unfortunately I do not have that answer yet, but I'm curious about finding that out and so I started looking into it today.
I tested the conditional in VHLT's CSG where it checks the classname in isolation and it worked, so that can be ruled out.
I'll be sure to update this journal if I find out more, and if anyone reading this happens to know anything about it, please let me know!
Update:
Oxofemple brought to my attention that the
This was strange to me as I was sure it should be on by default, which used to be the case for ZHLT. Solokiller helped me confirm that the flag was changed to be off by default for whatever reason somewhere early in the VHLT branch.
So to sum it up it's not a bug but rather a change in default behaviour from earlier versions.
I brought up the fact that func_illusionary will produce cliphulls came up earlier today when helping Sassy Boy with advice on reducing clipnodes, which came as a surprise to some. Understandable, it's always non-solid so why would func_illusionary need cliphulls for in the first place? I thought a journal might be a tidier format for talking about this.
So the thing is, the CSG compiler that comes with the HL SDK makes no classname checks, it's pretty much entity-agnostic in this regard. So the compiler generates clipnodes on all HULLs for func_illusionary just as it does for any other brush entity. It doesn't become non-solid until it's spawned in-game and the game code gives it
pev->solid = SOLID_NOT.Big waste of clipnodes if you ask me.
Surely those who've worked on ZHLT and VHLT would have thought about this too and made sure to skip cliphull generation for func_illusionary. I opened up the source code for VHLT v34 and searched for "func_illusionary" and just as I expected I found a conditional checking for that classname and flagging those entities as "noclip" (which will make them skip cliphull generation). Though then I remembered I had this habit of adding
zhlt_noclip 1 to func_illusionary in my FGDs, and I was pretty sure that even in VHLT the entity will still have cliphulls generated by default.What better way to check than testing it?
So I set up a basic room. That's 6 faces with a clipnode each, times the 3 clipping HULLs, for a total of 18 clipnodes for the room itself.
A box is created and tied to func_illusionary. 6 faces on that one as well, so we can expect an additional 18 clipnodes if the generation isn't skipped. Run compile, and...
Doing another test with
zhlt_noclip 1 on the func_illusionary, and without the entity at all, as controls we get the total of 18 clipnodes we expected to see if it was skipped.So this confirms that func_illusionary does produce clipnodes in both the HL SDK CSG and VHLT v34's CSG.
But why?
Unfortunately I do not have that answer yet, but I'm curious about finding that out and so I started looking into it today.
I tested the conditional in VHLT's CSG where it checks the classname in isolation and it worked, so that can be ruled out.
I'll be sure to update this journal if I find out more, and if anyone reading this happens to know anything about it, please let me know!
Update:
Oxofemple brought to my attention that the
-clipeconomy must be on to skip generating cliphulls for func_illusionary (and similar entities).This was strange to me as I was sure it should be on by default, which used to be the case for ZHLT. Solokiller helped me confirm that the flag was changed to be off by default for whatever reason somewhere early in the VHLT branch.
So to sum it up it's not a bug but rather a change in default behaviour from earlier versions.
I Open "Half Life SDK on steam
I create a basic map after following a tutorial.
I have a problem and ask around
I get told to download J.A.C.K
I Get some weird thing called a "Leak"
Here I am
I create a basic map after following a tutorial.
I have a problem and ask around
I get told to download J.A.C.K
I Get some weird thing called a "Leak"
Here I am
I made this to get my head around the structure of a BSP file and its lumps.
Updates:
The BSP tree has a lot of academic literature so I'll just skip it.
One unique property BSP leaf is the contents, describing whether the volume is air, water, ladder, etc. The marksurfaces info translates to face entries. There doesn't seem to be an offset of leafs from the Model struct so tracking the sum of all previous models might be required.
A face defines a plane, its edges, texture information, and lighting style. There is only a pointer into the lightmap data; the exact shape and size of the data is inferred from the plane, its closest axial orientation, texinfo vectors, and the styles (non-255 value means there's 1 lightstyle of the calculated size, up to 4 lightmaps)
An entity can have the model reference the internal BSP model of a BSP file with the
This is just tentative information as of writing. My end goal is to understand enough to be able to completely translate a BSP file into a 3D scene for rendering. I would update this page as I learn things as I go.
- 2023-12-20: now has data from all 15 lumps
- 2023-12-22: cleaned up. lump references explicitly marked, and implied to be index into lump struct
The BSP tree has a lot of academic literature so I'll just skip it.
One unique property BSP leaf is the contents, describing whether the volume is air, water, ladder, etc. The marksurfaces info translates to face entries. There doesn't seem to be an offset of leafs from the Model struct so tracking the sum of all previous models might be required.
A face defines a plane, its edges, texture information, and lighting style. There is only a pointer into the lightmap data; the exact shape and size of the data is inferred from the plane, its closest axial orientation, texinfo vectors, and the styles (non-255 value means there's 1 lightstyle of the calculated size, up to 4 lightmaps)
An entity can have the model reference the internal BSP model of a BSP file with the
*N notation. Interestingly it can also reference external BSPs, in which case it'd load only model 0 of that BSP afaik.
This is just tentative information as of writing. My end goal is to understand enough to be able to completely translate a BSP file into a 3D scene for rendering. I would update this page as I learn things as I go.
References
First off, I'd like to say that this is my first journal that I am posting to both TWHL and SoFurry. I'd also like to add the disclaimer that I am not encouraging anybody reading this on TWHL to seek out the SoFurry platform, as that would violate the site's rules. In fact, I'm going to say that if you're not there already, you're not the kind of person who should go there. Anyway, onto the journal.
So I recently started drinking coffee, which is of course much higher caffeine than my previous go-to, Dr. Pepper. Well, last night I drank two coffees and failed to fall asleep at all. It's now five in the afternoon and I'm still not "tired." Which means I see a high likelihood of this becoming a recurring problem...
Why do I keep doing this shit to myself? I'm easily the most self-destructive person I know. I'm going to end up working myself to death, or lazing myself into morbid obesity. I can't find a middle ground in anything. I like to say that I don't think in black and white, but I can't seem to find the gray...
So I recently started drinking coffee, which is of course much higher caffeine than my previous go-to, Dr. Pepper. Well, last night I drank two coffees and failed to fall asleep at all. It's now five in the afternoon and I'm still not "tired." Which means I see a high likelihood of this becoming a recurring problem...
Why do I keep doing this shit to myself? I'm easily the most self-destructive person I know. I'm going to end up working myself to death, or lazing myself into morbid obesity. I can't find a middle ground in anything. I like to say that I don't think in black and white, but I can't seem to find the gray...
Hey there,
Finally another journal, and it is of the lighter kind this time around. I have finally got the courage to start moving the information about Deleted Scenes towards the TWHL wiki!
This is pretty big for me as generally I don't feel very comfortable writing things up in the proper, professional way. I feel as if I am not good at structuring things. But, I do understand that this needs to happen eventually, even if it is just one wiki entry a week or a tutorial a month on the weird stuff that Deleted Scenes can do.
I started with the special items in Deleted Scenes, like the "Tools" and the brush entity that is required to use them, that being "trigger_usetool". I hope that I can stick with this for a bit and migrate all the knowledge that I have in my head to a more stable and helpful place, which is in the TWHL entity guides section.
Anyway, that was all I wanted to write about.
See ya later!
Finally another journal, and it is of the lighter kind this time around. I have finally got the courage to start moving the information about Deleted Scenes towards the TWHL wiki!
This is pretty big for me as generally I don't feel very comfortable writing things up in the proper, professional way. I feel as if I am not good at structuring things. But, I do understand that this needs to happen eventually, even if it is just one wiki entry a week or a tutorial a month on the weird stuff that Deleted Scenes can do.
I started with the special items in Deleted Scenes, like the "Tools" and the brush entity that is required to use them, that being "trigger_usetool". I hope that I can stick with this for a bit and migrate all the knowledge that I have in my head to a more stable and helpful place, which is in the TWHL entity guides section.
Anyway, that was all I wanted to write about.
See ya later!
(I know that it's suppose to be on the 6th of November, but there's a high chance that I'll forgot about it tomorrow, so I'm posting about it now)
I kinda forgot that I have this account until someone on Discord mentioned seeing me in the Shoutbox. So I decided to change up my account a bit so that it isn't looking like it was made by a 5 year old and then I suddenly realized that it's 2 years of me having this account.
So uhhhhhh, happy anniversary or something, idk I don't celebrate things.
Anyways in the mean time, have this picture of a thing I may or may not finish one day. Cya!
I kinda forgot that I have this account until someone on Discord mentioned seeing me in the Shoutbox. So I decided to change up my account a bit so that it isn't looking like it was made by a 5 year old and then I suddenly realized that it's 2 years of me having this account.
So uhhhhhh, happy anniversary or something, idk I don't celebrate things.
Anyways in the mean time, have this picture of a thing I may or may not finish one day. Cya!
Hi everyone,
Just thought it would be impolite not to share some auto-pro… website you could be interested in!*
With a few (or rather a lot of) months in the making, behold Mapping-Fusion! As you expect the site is centered around GoldSource and Sven Co-op modding. Its aim is very modest, it is just to share our thoughts (Neophus and I) on the mods and maps we play, but also to try to promote and encourage GoldSource mods and modding in the French-speaking community. So far we’ve posted a few tutorials as well as some unbiased reviews of randomly selected maps cough.
Apart from reviews and similar articles, we make sure that anything we create is already present on more widely known websites, so to avoid contributing to the scattering of GoldSource resources.
I’ve also taken some care in implementing microdata. I have the vague hope that at some point, an extensive database of annotated GoldSource resources could really help put some order and help people find what they need as well as new interesting stuff (mods, maps, tutorials…). Not sure how this could materialise though, and it’s obviously a long way from here.
Feel free to share your thoughts! (Either on the website or on anything else if nothing comes to mind)
*: Oh, did I mention, it’s better if you speak, or at least read, French. Here’s a tutorial.
Just thought it would be impolite not to share some auto-pro… website you could be interested in!*
With a few (or rather a lot of) months in the making, behold Mapping-Fusion! As you expect the site is centered around GoldSource and Sven Co-op modding. Its aim is very modest, it is just to share our thoughts (Neophus and I) on the mods and maps we play, but also to try to promote and encourage GoldSource mods and modding in the French-speaking community. So far we’ve posted a few tutorials as well as some unbiased reviews of randomly selected maps cough.
Apart from reviews and similar articles, we make sure that anything we create is already present on more widely known websites, so to avoid contributing to the scattering of GoldSource resources.
I’ve also taken some care in implementing microdata. I have the vague hope that at some point, an extensive database of annotated GoldSource resources could really help put some order and help people find what they need as well as new interesting stuff (mods, maps, tutorials…). Not sure how this could materialise though, and it’s obviously a long way from here.
Feel free to share your thoughts! (Either on the website or on anything else if nothing comes to mind)
*: Oh, did I mention, it’s better if you speak, or at least read, French. Here’s a tutorial.
EDIT: We did it! Scroll to the bottom to for the final result!
We're two Mappers who haven't released a map for a while and have left many of projects to collect dust, especially our joint projects. Though we have learned a lot from our failures, we still have a lot to learn from successes too, and that is why we're here today.
Oxofemple and I, Chimz, have decided to bring to you a new Sven Co-op map in just 2 weeks! That's right, just 2 weeks.
Why are we telling you this? Well that's because we're counting on you! Not for support and having an audience (though we would appreciate it) but we're asking you to hold us accountable!
We have started work on our project today and are scheduled to release our map on the 10th of November. There will be no delays, no date changes or anything. Come hell or high water, we will release our map in whatever state that is, and to keep our dignity we will do our best with what little time we have and release it.
If we miss our mark, well then, we're asking you to yell at us until we release it in whatever state it is.
So tell us, can we count on you?
We're two Mappers who haven't released a map for a while and have left many of projects to collect dust, especially our joint projects. Though we have learned a lot from our failures, we still have a lot to learn from successes too, and that is why we're here today.
Oxofemple and I, Chimz, have decided to bring to you a new Sven Co-op map in just 2 weeks! That's right, just 2 weeks.
Why are we telling you this? Well that's because we're counting on you! Not for support and having an audience (though we would appreciate it) but we're asking you to hold us accountable!
We have started work on our project today and are scheduled to release our map on the 10th of November. There will be no delays, no date changes or anything. Come hell or high water, we will release our map in whatever state that is, and to keep our dignity we will do our best with what little time we have and release it.
If we miss our mark, well then, we're asking you to yell at us until we release it in whatever state it is.
So tell us, can we count on you?
Track No. 4
What the hell
For US residents: What kinda zombies do you think we'll turn into later today after the announcement test? I'm hoping I'll be a Return of the Living Dead style zombie. That'd be so cool!!
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Also it just so happens to be my birthday.
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Also it just so happens to be my birthday.
There are quite a few people on this website who use these journals as a way of venting their problems, as well as getting some support from the community. I myself have done this on a small scale... Sorry for keeping this entry to that same convention.
I've been having full-blown existential crises on a weekly basis, sometimes more often. Usually, these happen around midnight (guess when I'm writing this), as for some reason it's when I'm desperately trying to sleep that I do the most thinking. This isn't always a bad thing. Many of my best ideas have come to me during the 2:00 AM caffeine overdose. But so have most of my mental health issues. I can't seem to figure out who I am, really. Over the years, I've built up a facade of sorts that has changed with the political climate, so as to shield myself as effectively as possible. This has been ongoing for so long that it's basically replaced my personality. I don't know who I am outside of my own self-deception, and that is terrifying. Furthermore, I identify as a furry, and I believe I am, but I seem to be more... hardcore (if that's the right word) about it than the rest of the fandom. I truly feel like I should not be what I am, even though there is no existing alternative. I actually care about the politics of the situation, as opposed to the rest of the fandom, which doesn't even seem to care that there is a group of literal domestic terrorists directly and personally opposing them. I mean, are they okay with continuing to be the bottom of the barrel? I soon came to realize that hate can never be dispelled, not completely. Only moved from target to target in the name of "progress." And not seeing this, we think it really is progress. I suppose it's better than letting it stagnate upon one target though. That's when it is allowed to grow.
I recently met a Therian (my brain always thinks theremin first, even though that is not the right word), and they helped put some of this into perspective for me, a little bit at least. I didn't have a very good understanding of what Therians were prior to that, and although the person I talked to seemed to be having a hard time explaining it, from what I can tell, I think I'm something of a mix. I hold some interests related to the furry fandom, and in other ways, I'm more like a Therian. Something of an undecied middle ground.
I'm used to being a shade of gray. I suppose I find some comfort in not being a perfect fit for a hole, because it at least means I'll be unique enough to stand out (I mean, I have a fox fursona who's not a femboy, and I'm still an interesting person!) But in being different in ways nobody talks about, I have no reference point. How am I supposed to know if I'm a one-in-a-million, or if I'm part of a silent majority, if it's silent? Nobody talks about this stuff, whether because there's some social stigma about it or if it's just boring to many people. I mean, I have many issues. I put some forward, and I keep others close to my chest. Like, for instance, how many of yall knew that I'm autistic? My deviancy isn't news to anyone, but my neurodivergency is. And when it's the high-functioning autism like I have, you can rarely ever tell. I never realized how common it really is until me and two friends were sitting in the same group in math class a year ago, and we realized that we all had it (someone overheard this, and it became the autism table. We leaned into it). Considering my neurodivergency, I have even less to compare myself too, because I can't even assume that basic human psychology always applies. Often it does, but sometimes it doesn't. I'm basically just floating in a void.
Sounds fun to think about constantly, huh? I'm probably not gonna get any more than about two or three hours of sleep tonight, because my alarm goes off at 6:30 and I'm still caffienated. Ugh.
I've been having full-blown existential crises on a weekly basis, sometimes more often. Usually, these happen around midnight (guess when I'm writing this), as for some reason it's when I'm desperately trying to sleep that I do the most thinking. This isn't always a bad thing. Many of my best ideas have come to me during the 2:00 AM caffeine overdose. But so have most of my mental health issues. I can't seem to figure out who I am, really. Over the years, I've built up a facade of sorts that has changed with the political climate, so as to shield myself as effectively as possible. This has been ongoing for so long that it's basically replaced my personality. I don't know who I am outside of my own self-deception, and that is terrifying. Furthermore, I identify as a furry, and I believe I am, but I seem to be more... hardcore (if that's the right word) about it than the rest of the fandom. I truly feel like I should not be what I am, even though there is no existing alternative. I actually care about the politics of the situation, as opposed to the rest of the fandom, which doesn't even seem to care that there is a group of literal domestic terrorists directly and personally opposing them. I mean, are they okay with continuing to be the bottom of the barrel? I soon came to realize that hate can never be dispelled, not completely. Only moved from target to target in the name of "progress." And not seeing this, we think it really is progress. I suppose it's better than letting it stagnate upon one target though. That's when it is allowed to grow.
I recently met a Therian (my brain always thinks theremin first, even though that is not the right word), and they helped put some of this into perspective for me, a little bit at least. I didn't have a very good understanding of what Therians were prior to that, and although the person I talked to seemed to be having a hard time explaining it, from what I can tell, I think I'm something of a mix. I hold some interests related to the furry fandom, and in other ways, I'm more like a Therian. Something of an undecied middle ground.
I'm used to being a shade of gray. I suppose I find some comfort in not being a perfect fit for a hole, because it at least means I'll be unique enough to stand out (I mean, I have a fox fursona who's not a femboy, and I'm still an interesting person!) But in being different in ways nobody talks about, I have no reference point. How am I supposed to know if I'm a one-in-a-million, or if I'm part of a silent majority, if it's silent? Nobody talks about this stuff, whether because there's some social stigma about it or if it's just boring to many people. I mean, I have many issues. I put some forward, and I keep others close to my chest. Like, for instance, how many of yall knew that I'm autistic? My deviancy isn't news to anyone, but my neurodivergency is. And when it's the high-functioning autism like I have, you can rarely ever tell. I never realized how common it really is until me and two friends were sitting in the same group in math class a year ago, and we realized that we all had it (someone overheard this, and it became the autism table. We leaned into it). Considering my neurodivergency, I have even less to compare myself too, because I can't even assume that basic human psychology always applies. Often it does, but sometimes it doesn't. I'm basically just floating in a void.
Sounds fun to think about constantly, huh? I'm probably not gonna get any more than about two or three hours of sleep tonight, because my alarm goes off at 6:30 and I'm still caffienated. Ugh.
