Journal #5084

The outside looks really good, but the little that I can tell from the screenshots the inside doesn't.

lol i havent posted a screen shot of the inside yet.

You can see a door and some floor, walls and ceiling.

thats not the inside... its a glass bridge.

anyways, i uploaded some screenies of the map ingame.

What kind of crab is that anyway. It's awesome.

dunno, face hugger?

It looks like a regular crab that lost some limbs.

yes

edit: i just added a new screenie.

I like the new screenshots, but the top left of the space station doesn't look very space-stationish, and there also are some unnecessary (?) lights.
Everything else is just perfect.

thanx, and where do you see an unnecessary light?

edit: new screenie.

Image link
I guess that the #2 makes at least a little bit more sense than #1.

The new screenshot looks even better than the others, now show us the inside

eh, ok

Looks prety neat.

But i agree on the useless outside lights. You can place a couple of (usually red) dim lights here and there, but no real lighting as in potatis's picture.
If you still want outside lights, then make sure that there's actually something important to light, such as docking ports for spacecrafts.

Also, get a different skybox texture. Xen skies don't fit very well, instead, use the space skybox (type space in the environment map (cl_skyname) property).

I added lots of new screens. check them out...

Muzz: thanx. yes i guess i might change the sky box... hey, you know im having trouble with light. i want the light brush to atcually be bright and give out some light by itself or atleast look like so, but as you see in my screenies, i wasnt really able to do that. any tips?

i was also thinking about adding cool features, like when you go outside (in the space) you will get freeze damaged. i was also thinking about making whole buildings explode and stuff... but thats for later.

If you want more brightness from your lights, just increase the brightness value in your lightsfile (.rad).

20000 should be a good starting brightness for big fluorescent lights. Kinda depends on the size of the brush too, so experiment with different brightness values.

If you want a certain texture to give out light you can edit lights.rad (should be in the same folder as your map compilers).

EDIT: Muzz beat me to it.

hehe. well thanx. anyways, i changed the background to space. (img in first post)

Wait a minute, looks like you're using light entities to light things up. Switch to texturelights, this will make the lights much more realistic.

That texture theme looks pretty familiar to me, as i used it in one of my maps as well, and i already have the correct light brightness values for it. So what wad(s) did you used?

heh, yeah i was using entities. the ones im using are submerge wad. the problem with those lights is that they dont have the ~ value infront of them, ill rename them make some of my own and remake the wad.

NO, no need to add ~ in front of the texturenames! Don't do it, its a waste of time. As long as the texturename is in the lights file, and you have a high enough brightness value, it'll emit light ingame.

Here:

mod_light1a 240 240 210 4500
mod_light2a 190 30 30 5000
mod_light3a 45 45 245 5000
mod_light3b 135 135 245 5500
mod_light4 252 200 105 5000
mod_lights1a 255 230 205 5000
mod_lights2a 240 120 120 16000
mod_lights3a 150 120 240 8000
mod_lights4a 120 230 160 6500
mod_thinlighta 135 135 245 2500
mod_thinlightb 240 220 170 3000
mod_labsideligh 140 140 200 10000
mod_spot1 220 240 255 500
mod_screena 50 140 240 1500
mod_screenb 50 140 240 1500
mod_screenc 50 140 240 1500
mod_screend 50 140 240 1500
mod_screene 50 140 240 1500
mod_screenf 50 140 240 1500
mod_screeng 50 140 240 1500
mod_screenh 50 140 240 1500
mod_screeni 50 140 240 1500
mod_screenj 50 140 240 1500
mod_screensa 50 200 240 600
mod_screensb 50 200 240 600
mod_electro2a 50 140 200 800
mod_electro2b 50 140 200 800
mod_electro2c 50 140 200 800
mod_electro2d 50 170 200 800
mod_elec1a 50 240 200 1000
mod_contpan1a 50 190 200 800
mod_labcab2a 50 120 220 500
mod_labcab2b 50 120 220 500
mod_labcab2c 50 120 220 500
mod_labcab2d 50 120 220 500
tech_dwb_lightg 240 240 210 1000

Add those to your lights file, save it, remove all your light entities, recompile and let there be light (from your textures, not the light entities)!

Lookin' good so far. Submerged.wad textures, I presume? ;>

I think the outside walls could use more gadgets spammed around them. Go for pipes/wires/vents, etc.

The new sky looks far better, too.
I'd suggest removing those 3 useless pictures at the bottom of your post; they just make scrolling down take longer.

thanx for all the suport guys :>

i added some screenies on new textures i just made and i removed those imgs daubster didnt like lol.

muz, so where exactly is the lights file thingie?

http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/4/5/22/f_1m_e6a1aa2.jpg
That Airflow Control sign sticking out in the void doesn't look too realistic. Move it down a bit so that it's fully inside the walkway.

Its in your tools directory.

Its either lights.rad, or valve.rad. Check which one has the most entries and add those texture names with their values i posted earlier in there.

Make sure you load this rad file in your compiler. If you're using Hammer, i can't tell you how, but if you're using a third party compiler front end (like my Compilator), you can easily open the light file in there and compile it.

Muzz: you meen my zhlt directory? no such file there.

Daubster: hehe, ill try to do something about that

"Make sure you load this rad file in your compiler. If you're using Hammer, i can't tell you how"
When I compile my maps using Hammer, ZHLT loads lights.rad automatically.

EDIT:
@Skals: see if there is a .rad file in you Hammer Editor\tools\ folder, if there is, copy it to your ZHLT folder.

In other words, put the rad file in the same folder where your comile tools are (HLCSG, HLBSP, HLVIS and HLRAD).

Okey!

Edit: done. now i just compile my map and voala right?

Hopefully.

all this light thing is confusing

Edit: muzz, it don't work

In what lightfile did you added those mod_ ... texture names?

valve.rad because it had more text in it than light one (just like you told me to do)

Try lights.rad then.

oKEY!

you know its strange, i made my own ~ light textures and inside the game they wont light up... do i have to do this thing for them too?

Edit: SHE WORKS! SHE WOOOORKS! lol the lights work now. ty.

You can also place your lights file in your .rmf directory and give it the same name as your map. Then the Compile tools automatically read it out.
This is only usefull when you need to change the brightness of existing HL textures though.

k, thanks for all the help muz and potatis

edit: does it look better now?

Yes, that looks better
The lights look much more realistic now.

Why are there vents in space?

Maybe it is to release air/gas into space or something, you're right, it's a bit odd.

lol, lets just say some of they are used for air purposes and other for heat purposes.

Edit: new screenies!

Edit: i exceded max texture limits lol, ill try replacing some.

Edit: new screenies!!!

The first level on my map is almost completed.

Man, ive only got 3 space stations in it not that big sized and ive already exceeded the texture limit (well i fixed that) and the compilation time is quite high looking at the fact that im running on fast vis.

progress so far:

Done:
completed all 3 space building soutsides
completed the spawning spot
Textures everything excellently.
Added lots of stuff to the space stations like vents wires and pipes.
Lighting is perfect.

Needs to be done:
All the trigger_hurts
End of level
one more passage way to the end of the level.

Use -texdata 8192 when compiling.
That should allow you to use more textures.
By default it's set to 4096 if you are using ZHLT.
If you use The Compilator it should be set to 8192 (twice as much) by default.

oh well, thanx for the advice. i already changed some uncommon textures tho.
if i get this error again ill try doing this.

anyways, new screenshot of the map. the third building is complete. the map is complete. i will just adjust some lights and then release the first part of it.

How will the gameplay be?

it will be short and good.