Journals

Notewell2 years ago2021-10-25 13:58:54 UTC 9 comments
It happened again.It happened again.
Notewell4 years ago2019-10-25 11:16:35 UTC 15 comments
(Quantity: 5)
Notewell5 years ago2019-02-03 13:43:15 UTC 5 comments
Hey all,
So I know I haven't been super active for the past however long in terms of posts, but those of you who pay attention to the Active Users section of the front page have probably noticed me being online (THWL is, after all, still my homepage!) So I just want to say I'm not dead in case I don't log in for a while;
There was a fire in my apartment building early this morning, and while there were no human casualties it's currently not safe for human habitation. The apartment I share with my Mom is untouched aside from the smoke, but because it might be carcinogenic, the fire department has told us we gotta vacate until the county can bring in some cleaners, as well as someone to make sure the structural integrity of the building isn't compromised from the fire, which was on the ground floor and pretty well gutted the apartment it hit.

They're still investigating the cause of the fire but it's pretty clear it was accidental (Though jury is still out on whether it was caused by negligence on the part of the landlord) and I'm staying at my Dad's until everything is given the green light. Since he doesn't have internet, and I have a data cap on my phone, I probably won't be able checking in as often as I usually would.

Anyway, just in case anyone notices me suddenly dropping off the face of the earth, I'm still alive, and will be back.
Notewell5 years ago2018-10-25 13:11:20 UTC 6 comments
I don't even really listen to this band anymore lol
Notewell6 years ago2017-10-25 20:52:27 UTC 14 comments
Half a DNA.
Notewell7 years ago2016-10-25 03:58:30 UTC 12 comments
Notewell7 years ago2016-06-24 02:12:12 UTC 7 comments
So, I played the HL: Day One demo, and I found a few interesting things.
First off, some animation differences.
User posted image
The famous airlock guard had a trio of animations that differed from what shipped. At first I thought this was just an alternate standing_idle, but it also has 2 other sequences - halting_player and standing_looking. (His gun isn't quite on his holster, which may be why they changed it. Though I dunno why they didn't just use a higher quality version of the same pose.) There are 8 or 10 animations present in the barney model that just plain weren't used in the final version, not counting the unused ones that actually shipped. I kind of wish that Valve had kept them in - I can definitely see some of these having been used in mods if they were.

The hgrunt model, which has been presumably pared down to save on filesize, does not contain a shotgun submodel, balaclava, or cigar guy. There are a few unused unshipped animations, one of which is curiously reminiscent of the Sten gun.
User posted image
(due to the odd rotation and the arm movement I assume this was a prototype shotgun fire animation)

The bullsquid death animation is different - instead of collapsing and spreading out, it does a backflip and lands on its back.
User posted image
User posted image
player.mdl has a gender submodel slot, featuring Gordon and Gina, and a weapon submodel slot, featuring a shotgun and backwards Mp5.

Scientists were apparently originally slated to feature in an aquatic area, with a tread, frontcrawlling, and 2 floating corpse animations. I guess this is from a cut section of the Icky area in Apprehension? Other notable things include a trio of animations for the scientist who built the gluon gun crawling out of a hidey hole and showing off his work.

The dead_osprey model, which if I recall correctly, was used in Opposing Force, actually originated in the HL1 beta. Looks like it was probably meant to be switched out when you killed the osprey, then play the crash animation when it hit the ground.

Headcrabs have two movement speeds, run, which is the one we're all familiar with, and walk, which I don't recall existing. (When I first saw it ingame I thought it was limping.)

I know that some of the model content, such as the spazhard animations for the zombies, were included in the HL SDK, but I really wish that all the animations made for HL1 were left in the files. But anyway, moving on. Let's get some map screenshots up in this bitch.
User posted image
The second opening in this room in Office Complex is gone, and the hallway to the shotgun room is much more straighforward and not full of random crates. The submap does not exist, rather being nearly the exact same thing in the main map with the exception of the texture used on the fence.
User posted image
(My shotgun is transparent due to an OpenGL error. Decals flickered a lot too. I guess my GPU doesn't support the older versions?)
User posted image
The hgrunt in the first map of WHG is replaced with a barney, and there are vents in the walls. Not sure why those were removed, as the final version of the map doesn't have any significantly larger or more complex bits to it to warrant having to remove geometry like that.

Okay, now for stuff I can't show in screenshots - mechanics!

Auto-aim is always on, with no menu option to disable it unless you turn off the crosshair altogether. A neat feature with this, however, is that your viewmodel shifts with the auto-aim crosshair position, similar to non-ADS aiming in console games such as Goldeneye and Timesplitters.

The glock has no alternate fire - seems that was added late in development. There's also a modern-style tactical reload on it - if you have ammo, reloading will give you 18 rounds to represent the one in the chamber, but otherwise you'll get the standard 17. This also explains the reason why mods built with the HL SDK code often "give" the pistol the ability to reload at any time - seems in the version of the code we got, the tactical reload was removed as in gold HL, but the check for it wasn't - so if there's less than 18 rounds, and there will always be without the tac reload, the pistol can be reloaded. This feature, though cut, is long ahead of its time, so the only reason I can think of to remove it is that playtesters were getting confused.

Frag grenades are a lot lighter and more bouncy, closer to HL2's grenades in the distances and angles you can pull off with them. Not sure why this was changed, as the heavy grenades we got were a lot less useful.

The Mp5 has the same higher rate of fire as the Uplink demo, and on picking it up you have the full 50 rounds, rather than 25.

env_beverage does not restore health. The benefits of hydration were apparently lost on Valve until near the end of development.

A mechanic that was not present was the beta implementation of the long-jump module - but Gina's different line in the Day One Hazard Course gives us some insights as to what it was. Apparently the long jump module, like the beta flashlight, was going to use suit power, and a great deal of it per jump. The LJM, instead of a backpack, was a special kind of battery for "short duration long jumping" - either some kind of limited time powerup, or a second counter that you'd need to have points in in addition to suit power. They probably changed this to the final version because it was too complex for players and programmers alike.

Finally, something a bit cumbersome was that, like Quake, there was a limit to how high you can look in any direction. Presumably this was just a hold-off from the engine code they got from ID that they didn't get around to changing, but having it there makes barnacles a lot harder to fight.

All in all, the Day One demo had a lot more insights to HL1's development than I thought it would, having always been given to understanding that it was just literally the first few chapters of the game. I wish a lot of the cut animation content was left in for modders to play with, and I don't understand why a couple of the mechanics and map features were changed between the demo and release, (I'm looking at you, tactical reload and bouncy grenades! Also the damn extra Office Complex map we apparently didn't even need!) but there were still some dregs of the "bad" HL1 beta that Valve cut for good reason left in there too.
Notewell8 years ago2015-11-10 00:22:26 UTC 14 comments
User posted image
It begins.
Notewell8 years ago2015-10-25 03:10:28 UTC 5 comments
User posted image
GG, guys.
Notewell8 years ago2015-07-26 17:59:35 UTC 11 comments
Notewell8 years ago2015-05-21 23:16:37 UTC 20 comments
Lost my G500s after surgery today.

The Logitech G500s is hands-down the best gaming mouse I have ever used.

With the exception of the wire, which is apparently notoriously prone to fraying.

My dad and I managed to take it apart, figure out how everything works, cut, strip, and resolder the wire, then put it back together after an afternoon of work. After plugging it back in, I found that everything was working perfectly. Then, it died, and, unlike every other time in the past few weeks, did not come back on again after a few seconds.

So, I am unfortunately in the market for a new mouse. I need something with minimum 5 buttons, wired (bad experiences with wireless mice and battery life) and preferably with a low-key case design instead of something like this.

Anyone have suggestions?
Notewell8 years ago2015-05-16 22:47:56 UTC 4 comments
There, I did it. It won't be worth the wait, but hopefully you're not too disappointed in me.

Additional info is available in the readme and developer notes pdf.
Notewell9 years ago2015-03-31 13:45:03 UTC 6 comments
I [no longer] have a problem. I want to recompile all the C42 maps using Vluzacn's tools, but when I try to compile them using The Compilator, I get an error -
User posted image
I've verified that nothing else is running that should be using the BSP file - and even gone so far as to delete it before compiling (it once again compiled, spat out that error, and left me with a fullbright map)

Here's the compile log.

###############################################################################
### ###
## ##
  1. #
  2. #### #### #### #### #### # # #### ##### #### #### ##### #
  3. # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
  4. # # # # # # ##### # # ###### # # # ##### ##### #
  5. # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
  6. #### #### # # # # # ##### # # # #### # # ##### #
  7. #
  8. By: Michiel "The Mighty Atom" Breddels #
  9. Version: Version 3.0.00 Public Beta 1.5 #
  10. Released: October 15th, 2013 #
  11. #
    1. ##
      1. ###
###############################################################################

hlcsg v3.4 VL33 (Feb 2 2014)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (vluzacn@163.com)
--- BEGIN hlcsg ---
Command line: hlcsg.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.map" -wadinclude 42.wad -chart -estimate
Arguments: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.map" -wadinclude 42.wad -chart -estimate -low -wadautodetect
Entering C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.map

Current hlcsg Settings
Name | Setting | Default
--------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 4 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
reset logfile [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ on ] [ off ]
estimate [ on ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 33554432 ] [ 33554432 ]
max lighting memory [ 50331648 ] [ 50331648 ]
priority [ Low ] [ Normal ]

noclip [ off ] [ off ]
null texture stripping[ on ] [ on ]
clipnode economy mode [ off ] [ off ]
clip hull type [ simple ] [ simple ]
onlyents [ off ] [ off ]
wadtextures [ on ] [ on ]
skyclip [ on ] [ on ]
hullfile [ None ] [ None ]
wad configuration file[ None ] [ None ]
wad.cfg group name [ None ] [ None ]
nullfile [ None ] [ None ]
nullify trigger [ on ] [ on ]
min surface area [ 0.000 ] [ 0.000 ]
brush union threshold [ 0.000 ] [ 0.000 ]
map scaling [ None ] [ None ]
light name optimize [ on ] [ on ]
UTF8 game_text [ on ] [ on ]

Using mapfile wad configuration
Wadfiles not in use by the map will be excluded
Wadinclude list :
[zhlt.wad]
[42.wad]

CreateBrush:
(0.23 seconds)
CSGBrush:
(0.29 seconds)

added 2 additional animating textures.
Including Wadfile: \program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\half-life\colony42\42.wad
  • Contains 8 used textures, 8.99 percent of map (274 textures in wad)
Using Wadfile: \program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\half-life\valve\halflife.wad
  • Contains 81 used textures, 91.01 percent of map (3116 textures in wad)
Wad files required to run the map: "halflife.wad;"
Texture usage is at 1.08 mb (of 32.00 mb MAX)

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
---------- ------------- ------------- ------
models 0/512 0/32768 ( 0.0%)
planes 9428/32768 188560/655360 (28.8%)
vertexes 0/65535 0/786420 ( 0.0%)
nodes 0/32767 0/786408 ( 0.0%)
texinfos 1023/32767 40920/1310680 ( 3.1%)
faces 0/65535 0/1310700 ( 0.0%)
  • worldfaces 0/32768 0/0 ( 0.0%)
clipnodes 0/32767 0/262136 ( 0.0%)
leaves 0/32760 0/917280 ( 0.0%)
  • worldleaves 0/8192 0/0 ( 0.0%)
marksurfaces 0/65535 0/131070 ( 0.0%)
surfedges 0/512000 0/2048000 ( 0.0%)
edges 0/256000 0/1024000 ( 0.0%)
texdata [variable] 401776/33554432 ( 1.2%)
lightdata [variable] 0/50331648 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 0/8388608 ( 0.0%)
entdata [variable] 29904/2097152 ( 1.4%)
  • AllocBlock 0/64 0/0 ( 0.0%)
89 textures referenced

Total BSP file data space used: 661160 bytes

Wad files required to run the map: "halflife.wad;"
0.83 seconds elapsed

--- END hlcsg ---

hlbsp v3.4 VL33 (Feb 2 2014)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (vluzacn@163.com)
--- BEGIN hlbsp ---
Command line: hlbsp.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.map" -chart -estimate
Arguments: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.map" -chart -estimate -low

Current hlbsp Settings
Name | Setting | Default
------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 4 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ on ] [ off ]
estimate [ on ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 33554432 ] [ 33554432 ]
priority [ Low ] [ Normal ]

noclip [ off ] [ off ]
nofill [ off ] [ off ]
noinsidefill [ off ] [ off ]
noopt [ off ] [ off ]
no clipnode merging [ off ] [ off ]
null tex. stripping [ on ] [ on ]
notjunc [ off ] [ off ]
nobrink [ off ] [ off ]
subdivide size [ 240 ] [ 240 ] (Min 64) (Max 512)
max node size [ 1024 ] [ 1024 ] (Min 64) (Max 65536)
remove hull 2 [ off ] [ off ]

SolidBSP [hull 0] 500...883 (0.10 seconds)
BSP generation successful, writing portal file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.prt'
SolidBSP [hull 1] 500...Warning: Ambiguous leafnode content ( EMPTY and SOLID ) at (142,-1010,-252)(236,-932,-182) in hull 1 of model 0 (entity: classname "worldspawn", origin "", targetname "")
825 (0.11 seconds)
SolidBSP [hull 2] 500...Warning: Ambiguous leafnode content ( EMPTY and SOLID ) at (158,-1026,-256)(220,-948,-186) in hull 2 of model 0 (entity: classname "worldspawn", origin "", targetname "")
622 (0.07 seconds)
SolidBSP [hull 3] 500...Warning: Ambiguous leafnode content ( EMPTY and SOLID ) at (142,-1010,-270)(236,-932,-200) in hull 3 of model 0 (entity: classname "worldspawn", origin "", targetname "")
874 (0.12 seconds)
Reduced 5577 clipnodes to 5293
Reduced 1023 texinfos to 702
Reduced 89 texdatas to 86 (401776 bytes to 296740)
Reduced 9428 planes to 3035
FixBrinks:
Increased 5293 clipnodes to 5376.

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
---------- ------------- ------------- ------
models 86/512 5504/32768 (16.8%)
planes 3035/32768 60700/655360 ( 9.3%)
vertexes 4476/65535 53712/786420 ( 6.8%)
nodes 1995/32767 47880/786408 ( 6.1%)
texinfos 702/32767 28080/1310680 ( 2.1%)
faces 3194/65535 63880/1310700 ( 4.9%)
  • worldfaces 1097/32768 0/0 ( 3.3%)
clipnodes 5376/32767 43008/262136 (16.4%)
leaves 1316/32760 36848/917280 ( 4.0%)
  • worldleaves 214/8192 0/0 ( 2.6%)
marksurfaces 3611/65535 7222/131070 ( 5.5%)
surfedges 14754/512000 59016/2048000 ( 2.9%)
edges 7509/256000 30036/1024000 ( 2.9%)
texdata [variable] 296740/33554432 ( 0.9%)
lightdata [variable] 0/50331648 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 0/8388608 ( 0.0%)
entdata [variable] 29904/2097152 ( 1.4%)
  • AllocBlock 5/64 0/0 ( 7.8%)
86 textures referenced

Total BSP file data space used: 762530 bytes

Wad files required to run the map: "halflife.wad;"
1.32 seconds elapsed

--- END hlbsp ---

hlvis v3.4 VL33 (Feb 2 2014)
Zoner's Half-Life Compilation Tools -- Custom Build
Based on code modifications by Sean 'Zoner' Cavanaugh
Based on Valve's version, modified with permission.
Submit detailed bug reports to (vluzacn@163.com)
--- BEGIN hlvis ---
Command line: hlvis.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.map" -chart -estimate
Arguments: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.map" -chart -estimate -low
214 portalleafs
504 numportals

= Current hlvis Settings =
Name | Setting | Default
------------------|-----------|------------------------
threads [ 4 ] [ Varies ]
verbose [ off ] [ off ]
log [ on ] [ on ]
developer [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
chart [ on ] [ off ]
estimate [ on ] [ off ]
max texture memory [ 33554432 ] [ 33554432 ]
max vis distance [ 0 ] [ 0 ]
priority [ Low ] [ Normal ]

fast vis [ off ] [ off ]
full vis [ off ] [ off ]

BasePortalVis:
(0.04 seconds)
LeafThread:
(0.20 seconds)
average leafs visible: 54
g_visdatasize:3606 compressed from 5778

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
---------- ------------- ------------- ------
models 86/512 5504/32768 (16.8%)
planes 3035/32768 60700/655360 ( 9.3%)
vertexes 4476/65535 53712/786420 ( 6.8%)
nodes 1995/32767 47880/786408 ( 6.1%)
texinfos 702/32767 28080/1310680 ( 2.1%)
faces 3194/65535 63880/1310700 ( 4.9%)
  • worldfaces 1097/32768 0/0 ( 3.3%)
clipnodes 5376/32767 43008/262136 (16.4%)
leaves 1316/32760 36848/917280 ( 4.0%)
  • worldleaves 214/8192 0/0 ( 2.6%)
marksurfaces 3611/65535 7222/131070 ( 5.5%)
surfedges 14754/512000 59016/2048000 ( 2.9%)
edges 7509/256000 30036/1024000 ( 2.9%)
texdata [variable] 296740/33554432 ( 0.9%)
lightdata [variable] 0/50331648 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 3606/8388608 ( 0.0%)
entdata [variable] 29904/2097152 ( 1.4%)
  • AllocBlock 5/64 0/0 ( 7.8%)
86 textures referenced

Total BSP file data space used: 766136 bytes

Wad files required to run the map: "halflife.wad;"
0.27 seconds elapsed

--- END hlvis ---

Copied:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\intro.bsp

To:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\COLONY42\maps\

The weirdest thing is, I haven't touched this map in years except to re-export it to map today - And I know for a fact that last time I did, it compiled perfectly fine.
Notewell9 years ago2015-03-22 02:42:14 UTC 12 comments
User posted image
Soon.
..?