News posts

atom20 years ago2003-07-11 16:09:00 UTC 0 comments
The MapVault now has proper a proper sorting thing. Yay! There's also some new info up at the top of every page - latest tutorial and contest status. By the way, there are a couple of tutorials in the pipeline, .....

Two New Tutorials posted, I have removed the CS-Setup guide and replaced it with a multi-Mod setup guide, check it out 'Setup Guide:(WorldCraft/Hammer)' also I have added a little something for those of you wanting a challenge 'Elevator Doors that move'.

If anyone has an idea for a tutorial.. Let me know, or just put it down on a .txt file and e-mail it to Andy.
atom20 years ago2003-07-08 12:54:00 UTC 0 comments
Those entries were so good it took me almost 3 weeks to judge them. Whoa! Check 'em out. Well done to everyone who entered.

Plenty of you will have noticed the stupid 2MB upload limit that I can't do anything about right now. But I've just done a work-around that might actually make things easier for some of you: you can now link to a zip file on another server!
Andy20 years ago2003-07-05 23:21:00 UTC 0 comments
SlayerA has done it again with a great little Decal tutorial, check it out. 'Decals, all you need to know' will show you the easiest way to place decals in your map.

Rebel Shuttle has also come up with a great little tutorial on the 'Land Mine Effect'.
Andy20 years ago2003-06-22 02:23:00 UTC 0 comments
This new tutorial shows you the easiest way of adding night to your outdoor area. Dark Outdoor Maps will guide you through the process for making your map appear nightlike.
atom20 years ago2003-06-19 13:16:00 UTC 0 comments
If you thought the downtime last week was nice, then I'm sure you loved this week's :)

Fortunately they had a backup, so the site is back to how it was on Monday.
atom20 years ago2003-06-15 15:29:00 UTC 0 comments
Freakfragger is our 100th member, so we're sending him $1.2 million* because we feel so pleased with ourselves :) pop clink

In other news... you've only got a week left to enter our current contest - Scripted. So hurry up, dammit! There are some entries already in. Good luck to y'all.

I've just been looking at our hit logs. Here are our most popular pages, in case anyone's interested: the tutorial page is first, with 180 hits a day. The forum list page is racking up about 170 a day (surprising, since nothing's happening on them :)). The Vault is getting about 120, which is pretty cool. The lowest per-day count is for the 'forgot password' page (0.33), but I reckon that counts as a good thing :)

Oh, and getting wildly off-topic, check out this soccer quiz. It's a friend of mine's, and if you enter he'll send you a sweetie.** That is, if you dare to.

<SMALL>*Only joking, but we would if we had that much money. Honest.

**Well, he might. Depends on whether he has any left.</SMALL>
atom20 years ago2003-06-13 16:30:00 UTC 1 comment
Wow, two weeks of uptime for the server. That must be a record. Of course, someone had to trip over a cable or something yesterday evening and then didn't notice until mid-morning today.

Sorry guys! Just thought I'd let you know that I'm always on the look-out for more reliable hosts... if only they didn't all charge ridiculous amounts for bandwidth usage.

Anyway... If you've looked at the MapVault and had some ideas for improvements, head over to the Stuff forum and check out my post there. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!
Andy20 years ago2003-06-10 02:37:00 UTC 0 comments
Skeeve has produced a really quick guide to the most common forum question: "How do I run a HL map (.bsp file)?".

And I have added a tutorial on Rope, Waterfalls and Dripping water. If anyone has had success with swinging rope, please let me know.
atom20 years ago2003-06-06 20:30:00 UTC 0 comments
The Map Vault has arrived!

Yep, this is the secret project and I've been hammering out the code for it for a good handful of hours (albeit stretched over several weeks), and I think we're all hoping it catches on.

There's still plenty more to add, but it's functional already, so you should definately check it out, and submit anything you've got while you're at it.

I think the Vault has the potential to become TWHL's most popular feature. Maybe it'll get so big it'll need a site of it's own :) But you guys need to kick-start it right away!
atom20 years ago2003-06-01 16:24:00 UTC 1 comment
That's right: a new competition has just launched: Scripted!

Get mapping right away, because there are sure to be some pretty amazing entries coming in.

In other news, there's a new setting for members: time zone. If you're already a memeber, go to your profile page and set your time zone. Then forums, the shoutbox, news items etc. will be dated according to your zone!

The 'mystery section' is pretty much finished... just doing some final checks, but get ready for its launch in a couple of days' time!
Andy20 years ago2003-05-30 22:53:00 UTC 0 comments
After months of testing and research I have released the R_Speeds Tutorial.

If you thought you understood why maps became Laggy, or why using func_entities was good for reducing r_speeds, then you might want to read this tutorial. A lot of the common myths about reducing speeds in the map are discussed. Some of them might surprise the veteran mapper.

I forgot to mention that I had posted the Dimensions tutorial during the week, a good place to start if you need to know unit height, width and length for your Maps.
Andy20 years ago2003-05-24 20:23:00 UTC 0 comments
Yesterday, TWHL was down for most of the evening (GMT+10). I am glad to report that it was the server, and not my new found Admin privileges : -).

On a more interesting note, Skeeve has set up an IRC channel on irc.chatbear.com (click the link to open the channel in mIRC or Virc, if you have it installed). I have had the pleasure of chating in real time to him. If you want to find out more about IRC and the new TWHL channel, have a look here.
Thanks Skeeve.
Andy20 years ago2003-05-23 19:34:00 UTC 0 comments
Check out SlayerA's Multi_manager tutorial.

These entities are the most useful and user friendly little devils in the whole entity set. Almost all 'timed' functions in Half-Life rely on multi_managers.

There are more tutorials in the pipeline, and we are always looking for inspiration, If you have a good idea for a tutorial or you think you might like to try your hand at writing one, send me an e-mail.
atom20 years ago2003-05-18 12:58:00 UTC 1 comment
I didn't plan on having a shoutbox, but I just decided a few hours ago I'd give it a go. Check it out down there on the menu! There's also a 'live' version thrown in for people who want more of a chatroom experience.
Andy20 years ago2003-05-13 11:12:00 UTC 0 comments
For those of you wondering what is happening to TWHL, don't ! It is still here and still going strong. The number of New registrations is climbing everyday, and I would like to thank those of you who have posted replies to the forums and answered questions. SlayerA and I are working on a few new tutorials. Atom is working hard behind the scenes to bring us a new (secret project?) section that will enhance the site.
If you have any comments, or suggestions, then feel free to post them in the Stuff Forum (actually we might have to change the name of that?) or drop me an e-mail.
Happy Mapping.....