Journals

Just wanna share some goodies I put into uBlock Origin (uBO). This is partly an exercise to explore uBO's CSS capabilities which I recently learned is a thing, so you can just use uBO for simple CSS injections without requiring a user style extension.

! exclamation mark at start of line marks a line comment
! similarly you can comment out entries below by prefixing with !

! 26/12/2023 https://twhl.info

! these 2 lines remove the background for a better Dark Reader result
||twhl.info/images/body-background.png$image
twhl.info##body:style(background-image:none !important)

! this makes textareas use monospaced font
! trust me, you're going to need this!
twhl.info##textarea:style(font-family:monospace !important)

! this compresses entity guide's attribute value lists into 3 columns
twhl.info##[id^="Attributes"] + ul ul:style(columns:3)

! this compresses Render FX list into 6 columns
twhl.info##[id^="Attributes"] + ul li:has-text(/^Render FX/) > ul:style(columns:6 !important)

! this hides the bloated TFC entity guide panels below most entity guide pages
twhl.info##[id^="Team_Fortress_Classic_only"]:upward(1):style(display:none !important)

Here's a preview (Dark mode achieved with Dark Reader extension):

I made this to get my head around the structure of a BSP file and its lumps. Updates:

• 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

So basically, the highest level data is the models lump. Its items have indices into the BSP tree and to the faces that comprise the model. You can safely and completely bypass the BSP traversal by directly retrieving the faces, but that means you're drawing absolutely everything. The world is the first BSP model, and every brush entity is its own BSP model referenced by its index into this lump.

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.

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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

• https://hlbsp.sourceforge.net/index.php?content=bspdef
• https://www.gamers.org/dEngine/quake/spec/quake-spec34/qkspec_4.htm#CBSP0

It's been 2 years so a bit of a refresher: These folks made a series of paper craft animation videos about a continuation of HL2Ep2's story, Here's a playlist. It was exciting, very high quality production, but as suddenly as they started they stopped all production.

Anyone has, or still in, contact with them? I'd be great to get some words out from them as to why production fell apart, and if they would take feedback, support, and whatnot. I want to see more Paper HL3.

edit: Found their subreddit it's just as dead: /r/PaperHalfLife3/
Also rewatching the last ep they published it kinda feels quite telling that they aren't super hyped into continuing the series. Gordon is still in that hangar. :'(

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The last episode they released (Ep5) had in my opinion both hints at how they didn't want to continue the series but at the same time how they still had some ideas on their story board... both to do with G-man.

A lot has happened the past 2 years. Epistle 3 came out and that would have provided the team with fresh new direction for the story line. If that alone is what is holding them back, then they would have continued with the series. Money should be no problem as they have Patreon. Even the Monster non-sponsorship of Ep5 would not be that of an issue (in case they faced legal actions) as they could have retracted and remade ep5 without it.

Thus I think the team simply broke up for one reason or another.

I'm drawing this just from observation, particularly of this sub, but I think it'd be interesting to share with you what I think are the three generations of Half-Life fandom.

The First Generation

These are the people who were there when the original Half-Life and expansions came out. They've picked up and followed the franchise and the glorious modscene of GoldSrc. If asked "which Half-Life" to play, they'd always point to the original GoldSrc version.

The Second Generation

These are the people who were attracted to the series around the time of Half-Life 2 and its episodes, including the Source leak fiasco. They would still be familiar with the original HL, but maybe not too much on the GoldSrc modscene. If asked "which Half-Life" to play, they'd probably point to the Source version.

The Third Generation

These are the people whose first contact with the series is probably the "Half-Life 3" meme. Having only played contemporary modern games, they might find HL2 to be a bit old in comparison, and the original HL "ancient" and sub-par to their standards. They'll be the one to ask "which Half-Life" version to play.

These are not meant to be definitive, and I don't claim it to be. Pardon any inaccuracies.

I personally am a bit too young for HL when it came out, but back in those days we don't have internet and the latest rig in the house so my brothers and I are stuck with HL and the mods for way longer (in other words we're way behind on the latest gaming goings on). Counter Strike has a place on all three of us. I therefore am comfortable identifying myself as the first generation.

p.s. the choice of "three" is purely coincidental.

After the Black Mesa Incident, the global economy must have fundamentally changed. The shift in human population towards the fortified cities during the Portal Storms must have crippled the rural industries, especially industrial-scale agriculture. Then the Seven Hour War happened, which would have done the same thing to those urban centers and vital industries. By the time Gordon Freeman was dropped into City 17, 20+ years have passed and we would have seen the economy stabilized under Combine rule. I'd like to infer from the in-game world which industry survives, and even thrived, under Combine rule.

Before we start, I'd like to think that at least around City 17 there is no such thing as a scorched earth policy being carried out as we see that most of the vital infrastructure remains intact. Maybe other places prior to the 7hr War was totally scorched, and we just don't get to see it.

Food

First and foremost, food production would have been subsistence based, done by individual citizens (discreetly if they have to), and any surplus would have been traded in the black market. We know this because we see greens being prepared in the BME kitchen, and by the fact that Lamarr eats grade-A watermelons.

As for meat, maybe headcrabs have become the new chicken. It could even be the case that standard rations citizens receive are just headcrab puree. Large scale animal agriculture ceased, and game animals would have been virtually poached to extinction.

Resource extraction

We see many abandoned mines, but maybe we've been only to one type of mine (coal mine), as a lot of resource extraction is still talking place because of the products that we can see (see Manufacturing section). This includes iron ore to make steel for the rails, and oil to fill that many explosive barrels that Gordon Frohman ordered. Maybe the reason we're not seeing them much is because the Combine is mining most stuffs in other places in the Solar System which they would definitely have superior technology for.

Trade

Global trade has all but collapsed except for Combine-essential commodities as trade infrastructure was destroyed or made unusable. Destroyed and unsafe highways and railways, and ports are all dry because of sea level drop. The remaining large-scale trade would be Combine-controlled, between Combine cities and for Combine-essential commodities, facilitated by the rail infrastructure that they opted to use for general transportation.

Local trade in the from of black markets thrive. I'd imagine that apart from food, the other stuffs traded would have been antiques from pre-Combine era or things smuggled out of Combine-controlled industries.

Human apparel, weaponry, supplies

Very obviously the Combine has been manufacturing the standard denim that its citizens wear, though as for what material it's made from it is probably synthetic. The weapons and armour and health supplies that the human combine forces use would be manufactured on-world, as it's primitive teleportation tech is reserved to transport more critical cargo.

Healthcare

IDK if the Combine cares about basic human healthcare more than it cares about turning them all into transhuman forces which has been demonstrated in HL2 that they have had the infrastucture for. The hospitals in HL2 doesn't look totally trashed so the Combine must has been offering basic healthcare through Breen's own volition, in order to maintain some level of support from the citizens.

Education, entertainment and arts

Officially nonexistent apart from the extremely small production staff that supports the Breencasts.

Infrastructure

The Combine has its own construction technology but it also seems to heavily use the rail infrastructure, so the rail industry chain must have been more or less intact. This includes everything in the chain, from making the steel for the rails, the sleepers, the rock quarries that supplies the ballasting, the specialist track laying and maintenance machinery and personnel, the signalling.

Also the bridges and tunnels seems to have been maintained by human tech instead of Combine tech so the civil construction industry chain is also intact and completely servient to the Combine. They do need to do this as the razor train is physically taller than conventional trains for some reason, and you can see developer oversight in some cases where the tall razor train clips through tunnel ceilings in C17.

Telecommunication technology and infrastructure might have been maintained and co-opted by the Combine, for Breencasts and local communication between Combine cities.

Manufacturing

As stated previously, some level of manufacturing is maintained, it's just the matter of whether it's Combine-controlled or Combine-linked. Most probably clothing, weapony, supplies, and ration production is Combined controlled, manufactured inside the citadels or other combine-built facilities. Manufacturing of Combine materials and tech (eg their blue steel, force fields, gunships, etc.) would have been combine-controlled.

Meanwhile the manufacturing of materials for the human-made-but-used-by-the-Combine infrastructure might have been outsourced to local companies, though unlikely.

Some interesting things that are still being manufactured (i.e. normal things you can see in HL2 that is obviously not 20 years old) includes oil and oil drums, wooden crates, soft drinks, office furniture, and some electrical and electronic products (lights, beverage machine and TV).

Law Enforcement

Last but not least, Enforcement: Civil Protection is a career path guaranteed to get you on the Combine's good side. You could go up the ranks (losing your humanity along the way) and would be surely, maybe, eventually, integrated into the Universal Union citizenry. Also, better rations (though how they make it much better than headcrab puree is unknown.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are still a lot of industries needed to maintain a civilization, and a lot of jobs around in the Half-Life universe. It's just a pity that the only thing we see in HL2 are enforcement officers on-duty, and normal citizens off-duty. It would be interesting to see City 17 during rush hour and at night where we might see a lot more people coming off of work. Imagine working as Combine Oil and Gas Engineer, or Breen's make-up artist, or Combine nurse, or Combine electrician, or being the guy that restocks Breen's water reserve vending machines.

Let me know if I missed something, or anything you have in mind.

After reading the notes on monster_nihilanth, how it's very specifically coded to interface with specifically named entities in the map etc, and how awfully basic the retail map was, I became interested in experiencing what an alternative, reimagined Nihilanth's chamber would look like.

I feel like this would be a good opportunity for a competition (or a compendium mod) but seeing that TWGL is still ongoing I've been postponing. Plus the fact that I don't feel like shouldering the burden of judging a mapping competition, because I don't matter in the grand scheme of things, or even on the day to day.

I do also want to have a go at this. I wanted to go back to the concept (or a fan theory at this point, idk which) that Nihilanth was imagined as a giant alien baby that Gabe thought of as the personification of his unborn child at the time (Gray), and of Xen being more organic in the conceptual stage. I imagined Nihilanth's chamber as a uterus with life support structures surrounding and protruding the walls, and the mini-chambers being organically connected, taking a little inspiration from the HL2 beytah citadel advisor level (see right). However, two problems hindered my ideas:

• There are no good texture sets.
• I just can't get JACK to align the textures how I wanted. I wanted the fine-grained control of a 3D modelling UV mapping, but instead had to rely on completely arbitrary Hammer/JACK view angle hacks that is just impossible to get to align to an organic structure.
  • The alternative is to model the outer walls in a 3D modelling program but I suck at that more. I feel at least competent in CSG.

And thus my enthusiasm was very quickly lost. Close shop. Scrap the idea.

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But I still feel there's value to be had in this. I might have a go at my idea again, but at the same time I wanted to experience others' take of the core concept. I probably shouldn't participate if I'm judging, but I'm 95% sure I wouldn't make the deadline if I participate. And TWGL is still not out.

I feel so incompetent. Cool idea though.

p.s. Black Mesa doesn't count.