News posts
From all of us on the admin team, we wish you all the best in your future mapping endeavours of 2012! We have some very exciting stuff in store for you in the upcoming year, so stay tuned!
What with the holidays being so fun, even the grumpy folks on the admin team are getting in on the holiday spi-
.. wait, it's already over? Oh well. More tutorials.
First up, Random Entity Triggering by Stojke, which covers everything you'll need to give your GoldSource maps a bit of replayability, or to create more complex entity systems.
Next, Perfect Timing with Doors by Instant Mix offers an in-depth guide in door timings, as well as a crash course in basic kinematics. Great for entity setups where complex door systems play a big role.
Finally, Map Layout Theory for CS by Skals analyzes the layouts of a few more successful Counter-Strike maps, giving you pointers on what made them work, and why. It also provides you with general guidelines to keep in mind when designing a layout, making it worth a read for any CS mapper.
Now that the tutorials are out of the way, let's focus on the awesomeness that is Captain Terror, give him a round of applause, and provide him with our first Map Vault Award given away since 2005!
He has consistently been one of the most active members on TWHL, constantly helping out in the forums, and most importantly, giving almost every mapper in the vault constructive feedback on their submissions.
Happy Holidays, congratulations, and keep up the great work!
.. wait, it's already over? Oh well. More tutorials.
First up, Random Entity Triggering by Stojke, which covers everything you'll need to give your GoldSource maps a bit of replayability, or to create more complex entity systems.
Next, Perfect Timing with Doors by Instant Mix offers an in-depth guide in door timings, as well as a crash course in basic kinematics. Great for entity setups where complex door systems play a big role.
Finally, Map Layout Theory for CS by Skals analyzes the layouts of a few more successful Counter-Strike maps, giving you pointers on what made them work, and why. It also provides you with general guidelines to keep in mind when designing a layout, making it worth a read for any CS mapper.
He has consistently been one of the most active members on TWHL, constantly helping out in the forums, and most importantly, giving almost every mapper in the vault constructive feedback on their submissions.
Happy Holidays, congratulations, and keep up the great work!
A new competition this soon? Blasphemy!
Re-invent a Counter-Strike Classic is live, and this time we have prizes!
Be sure to check out the official thread for more details.
Re-invent a Counter-Strike Classic is live, and this time we have prizes!
Be sure to check out the official thread for more details.
The results for competition 31 have been posted! Congratulations to Captain Terror, Skals and ninja defuse for landing the top three spots, and good work to everyone else who entered! All the entries were quite good, you should all be proud!
Daubster is currently organising a new competition, which should start soon. We've also got another surprise in the works...stay tuned!
Daubster is currently organising a new competition, which should start soon. We've also got another surprise in the works...stay tuned!
EDIT:
Competition 31 is live. Head over here for the rules. I'll have an official thread up a little later.
Slow news lately, but two new tutorials have gone live tonight. They are Introduction to Colour Correction by Archie, and Coding NPC's in GoldSrc by dexter. Head on over and share your love for the authors. I command you.
Sigh.
Competition 31 is live. Head over here for the rules. I'll have an official thread up a little later.
Slow news lately, but two new tutorials have gone live tonight. They are Introduction to Colour Correction by Archie, and Coding NPC's in GoldSrc by dexter. Head on over and share your love for the authors. I command you.
Sigh.
Someone decided that it would be a good idea to mess with the front page. As a result, some people with aggressively cache-tastic browsers will need to force a page refresh. You will know if you need to, because there will be bullet points chilling in the general shoutbox region.
On every browser except Opera, this means pressing Ctrl+F5 while on the TWHL home page. For Opera users, good luck! Try pressing F5 a few times, restart your browser, reboot your PC, format your hard drive, buy a new computer, and so on. I'm sure you'll figure it out.
On every browser except Opera, this means pressing Ctrl+F5 while on the TWHL home page. For Opera users, good luck! Try pressing F5 a few times, restart your browser, reboot your PC, format your hard drive, buy a new computer, and so on. I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Dragos has let us in on a neat lighting trick in his first tutorial, explaining how to implement some sharp & sexy shadows in GoldSource!
With a relatively simple technique that can create some truly awesome visuals, Realistic Shadows is definitely worth a read for any GoldSource mapper.
With a relatively simple technique that can create some truly awesome visuals, Realistic Shadows is definitely worth a read for any GoldSource mapper.
Yep, it's finally here. Now is the time to call in sick from work or school, because there are much more important matters to attend to. I, unfortunately, will be away from my gaming rig for the next few days, so if you spoil it I will hunt you down. Other people might not appreciate it either. Discuss!
EDIT: The results for Compo 30 are out.
EDIT: The Portal 2 Authoring Tools Beta are now available!
EDIT: The results for Compo 30 are out.
EDIT: The Portal 2 Authoring Tools Beta are now available!
Time for a competition! A short one this time, and we're doing it a bit differently. Be sure to read the rules here, and post your entries here, NOT the usual way.
This time the winner will be decided by community voting. We don't have a proper system for that in place right now, so it's a bit of a messy way of handling things. Another feature to add to the TWHL4 checklist!
EDIT:
The competition is over! Time to vote.
Visit this voting page to make your choice (image heavy!). You can only vote once, but you can change it at any time by simply selecting your new favourite. We'll be leaving it open for a week at the most, or until the votes die down.
Like the other competitions, there will still be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner once we tally it up. Good luck to everyone!
This time the winner will be decided by community voting. We don't have a proper system for that in place right now, so it's a bit of a messy way of handling things. Another feature to add to the TWHL4 checklist!
EDIT:
The competition is over! Time to vote.
Visit this voting page to make your choice (image heavy!). You can only vote once, but you can change it at any time by simply selecting your new favourite. We'll be leaving it open for a week at the most, or until the votes die down.
Like the other competitions, there will still be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner once we tally it up. Good luck to everyone!
Well, we had a bit of a problem in the middle there, but the move is complete! Thanks to some co-operation with the site's original creator, atom (who was paying for the site hosting previously), we have recovered any data that may have gone missing otherwise.
For the people who missed the mid-upgrade shenanigans, there was a few hours where we thought that we would have lost about one week's worth of data. Fortunately this is not the case, and we have a perfect and complete back up of the instant the co.za domain went down 14 hours ago. All in all, a good migration. I may have had a heart attack at some point during that time.
For the people who missed the mid-upgrade shenanigans, there was a few hours where we thought that we would have lost about one week's worth of data. Fortunately this is not the case, and we have a perfect and complete back up of the instant the co.za domain went down 14 hours ago. All in all, a good migration. I may have had a heart attack at some point during that time.
Good news, everyone!
After some discussion, the admin team has decided to purchase a new domain and hosting for TWHL and migrate the site across. This means that, finally, work on a site redesign (TWHL4) can begin.
The new domain is twhl.info. Not exactly the greatest domain, but the .com, .org, and .net variants of the domain have already been taken - so we'll have to take what we can get.
The official changeover is scheduled for next weekend. That's Saturday the 19th of March to Sunday the 20th. During this time, TWHL will be offline. This is to give me time to download the site's content and upload it to the new domain. There will be a way for the admin team to provide information as the upgrade happens, and we encourage anyone who wants to to join the IRC channel or the Steam group for updates.
Once the update is complete, any links pointing to the old domain will automatically be forwarded to the new one. Once the change happens, remember to update your bookmarks! You will need to log into the new domain at least once, so make sure you haven't forgotten your password. All data will be transferred including map downloads, user accounts, forum posts, and so on.
EDIT: For the people who are confused, next weekend is NOT when TWHL4 will be done. We are moving this website to the new domain only. Work on TWHL4 has started but will take a while to make - you probably wont even see it until next year. When we move on the weekend, everything will be exactly the same in every way, except the domain will be different.
After some discussion, the admin team has decided to purchase a new domain and hosting for TWHL and migrate the site across. This means that, finally, work on a site redesign (TWHL4) can begin.
The new domain is twhl.info. Not exactly the greatest domain, but the .com, .org, and .net variants of the domain have already been taken - so we'll have to take what we can get.
The official changeover is scheduled for next weekend. That's Saturday the 19th of March to Sunday the 20th. During this time, TWHL will be offline. This is to give me time to download the site's content and upload it to the new domain. There will be a way for the admin team to provide information as the upgrade happens, and we encourage anyone who wants to to join the IRC channel or the Steam group for updates.
Once the update is complete, any links pointing to the old domain will automatically be forwarded to the new one. Once the change happens, remember to update your bookmarks! You will need to log into the new domain at least once, so make sure you haven't forgotten your password. All data will be transferred including map downloads, user accounts, forum posts, and so on.
EDIT: For the people who are confused, next weekend is NOT when TWHL4 will be done. We are moving this website to the new domain only. Work on TWHL4 has started but will take a while to make - you probably wont even see it until next year. When we move on the weekend, everything will be exactly the same in every way, except the domain will be different.
It's my pleasure to welcome you all to 2011 and another year of mappin' goodness. Happy new year from the admin team at TWHL!
Edit: Egad! The compo results are up!
Double Edit:
The following games are now available in the map vault (with icons!):
Alien Swarm
Blue Shift
Opposing Force
Deathmatch Classic
Garry's Mod
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal 2
Edit: Egad! The compo results are up!
Double Edit:
The following games are now available in the map vault (with icons!):
Alien Swarm
Blue Shift
Opposing Force
Deathmatch Classic
Garry's Mod
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal 2
2 days to go and as mentioned in the brief, there will be no extension. Working to deadlines is the how the world turns, people!
In other news, Valve has launched their annual Steam holiday sales. As per usual, there's all manner of ridiculous discounts going down. Seriously, if you haven't picked up the entire Valve collection yet, then what are you waiting for?
EDIT:
Compo's over. Good luck to those who entered. Results will come soon, and be prepared for the next compo, beginning next month.
In other news, Valve has launched their annual Steam holiday sales. As per usual, there's all manner of ridiculous discounts going down. Seriously, if you haven't picked up the entire Valve collection yet, then what are you waiting for?
EDIT:
Compo's over. Good luck to those who entered. Results will come soon, and be prepared for the next compo, beginning next month.
Well folks, it's finally here, so quit whinging. Competition 29: Map Something Historical is alive and kicking, so get to it. You have a month to get your entries in.
The competition will be judged by Penguinboy and myself: yes, I'm making a return to compo judging. Now, toddle off to Hammer and get cracking.
Please make sure to check out the thread for updates and an FAQ.
Edit: Don Punch has given the more advanced mappers around here a through guide for sprucing up your maps with a bit of extra spice in "Detailing map brushes using XSI". This is Don Punch's first tutorial, so go on, take a look.
The competition will be judged by Penguinboy and myself: yes, I'm making a return to compo judging. Now, toddle off to Hammer and get cracking.
Please make sure to check out the thread for updates and an FAQ.
Edit: Don Punch has given the more advanced mappers around here a through guide for sprucing up your maps with a bit of extra spice in "Detailing map brushes using XSI". This is Don Punch's first tutorial, so go on, take a look.
Correct me if I'm wrong folks, but I do believe we're about to have a first second on TWHL: a marriage! Provided Rimrook isn't a great, big, dirty liar, he is to be congratulated for proposing to his partner. This is Rimrook's second appearance in the news recently, so let's try and have a bit of time where you don't do something newsworthy, ok? 
In other news, it looks like the next compo will start up soon. Unless those poll results deceive me, it could be time to get out the history books...
Edit: Dang you to the person who pushed up the other option!
In other news, it looks like the next compo will start up soon. Unless those poll results deceive me, it could be time to get out the history books...
Edit: Dang you to the person who pushed up the other option!