Forum posts

Why the hell not? If you don't push limits from time to time, you never get anywhere. Look at HL2; Valve could have used goldsource, but they pushed the limits beyond what was thought possible at the time.

Mine's in.
Good luck to everyone who entered/is entering!

Okay, so I've gotten two release candidates set up; an 8.14mb 7z file, and a 12.2 ZIP file. I'm looking into making sure everything will be openable for the judges, but here's quick rundown of the entry;

• Readme
• Mod format using HL2 code and content
• Custom models by other people- I double checked I could redistribute them under their creative commons licenses, and I've credited them.

Is all that acceptable? Also wikipedia says that Winrar can open .7z files, so I guess that's what I'll be uploading, for bandwidth's sake. As long as you guys are running a recent version everything should be OK.
I'll upload in the morning. Good luck to the other entrants.

Alright.

Use the clip tool instead of carving. That should fix it.
(Seriously, there's no need to carve, and it usually results in inefficient brushes, ie. Horizontal cuts in walls when you should be clipping a vertical cut for the doorframe)

Well, I just realized I'll have to
a) Get back to work post-haste, and
b) Cut the entry down a bit to meet the deadline.
EDIT: I know it says ZIP or RAR, but is there any chance we could also compress it as a 7Z file? The compression rates are usually better, and they can be opened by both 7-zip and WinRar.

Testing things for my compo entry; This part happens to be slightly inspired by the beginning of Goldeneye. (The movie)Whoops, that's not supposed to fall like that...

I just started yet another playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas. I'd like to be playing my latest game, but it hasn't downloaded fully yet due to restrictions on bandwidth usage.

I like it. But... you are going to replace that texture in the final version, right? It kinda breaks the fourth wall. A lot.

Mmmmmmm... Issues...
It's too bad Issues: Source died. (Or so I assume, they never got back to recruiting)

Well, shit. There go my chances of winning.
Which is to say, it looks fantastic. Though I'd replace the wall texture with something a little... less combine and metallic.

It's interesting. Also;

The Pledge (On TV)
I didn't see the first couple of scenes and the ending sucked. Good movie, though.

it's becoming a very obsolete method of content creation despite it's simplicity.

One of the reasons I prefer source is because it uses brush-based environments. You don't have to learn a modeling program to get stuff ingame, and frankly it takes more skill to do it right. Any half-decent modeler can make something that looks nice, but it takes a real artist to get something looking great using brushes and such a relatively small amount of props. Look at Fallout3/NV's gamebreyo engine; Everything ingame is either a model, or terrain. If you can't make any new models, or don't know how to make terrain efficiently (Which is, at least for me, due to the lack of documentation on the subject) you can't do squat. It gives you all these options to create things, but you can't use them. In source, everything's changeable, and you usually don't need modeling software to do it. (or code, in some cases) Want a new environment? done. Want the metrocops to have pink helmets? Go ahead and reskin it. Source's beauty is in it's simplicity, which far too many people mistake for being outdated. Look at the Dear Esther remake, or Black Mesa, and tell me you can't make anything good looking in source. It just takes the right amount of elbow grease, time and skill.

Jeff: Running on ancient pile-of-crap PC's is not really a good thing

I beg to differ. If your normal PC is in the shop, not with you, etc, you can still play your source games. You can play them at work, although you'd probably get fired. I once saw a guy running portal on one of the crappy school computers. And it does increase Valve's market by a bit, which is why they designed the engine that way when they made HL2.

As computers are increasing in power, they're adding things that they previously overlooked in favor of serving a larger fanbase. I look forward to finally having full dynamic lighting in Portal 2, and I hope they keep adding stuff until Source is once again at the top of the field like it was when it debuted.

One thing to keep in mind is that Source is designed to run on any computer you throw at it, not just a gaming supercomputer. Sure, the polycounts could be higher, the textures more highres, but it is superior to other engines in a lot of ways; the physics engine, even with it's bugs, is still the most realistic out there when you take into account that it follows all the laws of physics, has differing mass for each model, and has sounds for every material they use. I have yet to see a game that has better facial animation than source ingame. And the animation, while starting to show it's age, is still very good as well. And Valve is always implementing new features and gameplay into their engines and games, which is more than a disturbingly high amount of other big-name companies can say.

I agree, it looks great.The only difference between my old screenshot rotation and my new one is the ratio and resolution. My actual desktop is insanely messy, and I CBA to upload a printscreen and cover up the confidential stuff pertaining to my compo.
Oh well.

most rail tracks rest on broken up rock rather than just grass.

I know, and the brush under the displacement is a gravel texture, but it's an disused, overgrown track.

...He's gotten much better since this thread was posted.
Also, you just bumped it.

Or you could include it like a normal map using custom content, but in a lot of cases for something like this, the models/materials would replace the game ones.

Wait, so Mod format is okay now?
Score! I'm going to use this opportunity to practice making loading screens and menu maps, in that case.

Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Those are the shortest tracks in the HL2 GCFs, so I guess I have to fix that with info_lighting origin. I'll probably use the track behind it.
Thanks for pointing it out.

Everything's looking good, guys!WIP of the final part of the first map in my compo entry. Forecast for the final version is more shooting, period weaponry, and less blank skies.

...At the rate I'm working, I'll be releasing at least 2x the maps in my entry than the last one. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

You could use more path_corners/tracks closer together and with smaller angle changes, but that might not be very helpful in the long run.
Aside from that, I can't think of anything. Guys?

env_model

Is only in spirit.
Just pointing that out.

Well, I'm not a judge, but the way I'm doing it is this; (I'm using an alt timeline)
1) Pick a point in history where things could have gone catastrophically wrong/changed the face of our planet entirely.
2) Choose the path that humanity didn't take. (In my case, it's a good thing we didn't take it)
3) Make an event that could have happened as a result of that change.
4) Scour the internet for period weapon skins for your chosen game that the author is okay with people redistributing them; make sure to note the author and download page, and put it in the final readme.
5) Map it.

For example, a map where, say, you play a secret service agent and save JFK from a sniper on the grassy knoll.

Yeah, try deleting clientregistry.blob, and if that fails, just copy your steamapps to another location and reinstall. Though deleting clientregistry.blob usually works the first time you try.

Do Source weapon scripts count as custom code? Because I want my weapon skins to be historically accurate if possible, in terms of clip sizes.

Just to bring this up again.

Well, my maps' coming slowly but surely. I already have... 1.5/3 areas done.
That's areas I've started, not areas I'm going to map. So, how are you guys going to add that 'historical' feel?

Do Source weapon scripts count as custom code? Because I want my weapon skins to be historically accurate if possible, in terms of clip sizes.
I assume soundscapes don't count, because they're just added ambiance, something which is necessary to make a great map. I wouldn't expect (or want, seeing as this is a mapping compo) extra points, but I'd rather my AK-74 have 30 rounds and my 1911 pistol have 10, if only because I like things accurate.

A few questions; Are we allowed to use mod format if we
A: need/want custom soundscapes? (HL2 doesn't support adding new ones without changing the manifest)
B: Use custom weapon skins (It'd make no sense for modern/scifi weaponry to appear in the past)

I have a few pending ideas, a couple of which I can't do at all with what I have, but I'm going to have a look and see if I can't find some custom models to use.

SSD = Solid State Drive. As opposed to HDD = Hard Disk Drive.

Let's hope it has everything the Gamebreyo engine has, plus an editor that doesn't suck! (Either it has a higher-than-normal learning curve due to the complexity and the documentation sucks, or it's just plain bad. I'm not quite decided on which is the case)

...Or uranium rods, if that's the case.

Really, explanation is the best form of introducing a new gameplay concept. Maybe show an NPC attempting to do it, but being shot at the last second?

Then we're screwed either way, and we've, as a race, fucked ourselves over bigtime.
It was bound to happen eventually.

Thanks.
Also, there's not a better way to fly or breathe underwater unassisted, is there? No, there's not. And I happen to like breathing underwater and flying.
I think I got fairly close last night, but the first time my throat was really dry so I swallowed and it stopped, and the second time my mother began to read in bed, so there was a lot of light and sound coming from the next room, which threw me off.
Oh well, maybe tonight. Or tomorrow. Or on the weekend when I have a chance to sleep in so I can try it after an REM cycle.

I guess you have a point, but I prefer to wear my headphones rather than look at them.

So, any tips on how to achieve lucid dreaming for newbies who don't have much time in the day?
The only time I did it, I was (about) 7, and I was too absorbed in attempting to wake up to take advantage of it.

Okay, good to know that it does show up when you're affected by it
Because I have yet to be affected by it.

I'm using all purpose headphones my dad bought from a warehouse store. They have radio, wireless transmission from a box you can hook up to anything with a line-in jack, and a line in jack attached to a wire.
They cost around $20, tops, and they work great. The Moral: Don't be fooled by brand names or fancy designs. Just because something is inexpensive doesn't mean it's cheap.

So, I'm assuming most of you have been playing Hardcore mode, (I wanted to get a feel for the new mechanics and get three additional playthroughs in first, on for each way you can do the final battle) so here's a question: It does notify you when you need to eat/sleep/drink, right? Because I don't really want to have to keep checking the pip-boy to make sure I'm not hungry/thirsty/tired.

I don't usually mind crashes all that much, but not when they do this to me!

I seem to find that the most stability issues come when you're using Veronica as a companion. She's an awesome character, once you patch her so she levels up with you, but my second play through, where I used her exclusively, was a nightmare as far as crashes go.
But that doesn't explain why I crashed in Freeside last night.

You know what I reeeealy love about New Vegas? When it crashes, and screws over my computer for half an hour because it fails to boot up properly for that long.
It's a great game, but it crashes harder and more often than Fallout 3 did. And most of the crashes are similar to the "Tranqulity Lane crash" I always seem to get that puts the computer into a state that stops it from responding to even the power and reset buttons.

Assassinating the president... I'm set up, but I can't get close without the NCR raping me...

Well, there's always Faction Armour. It seemed to work fine for the Legion in my playthroughs. They would have gotten away with it, if they didn't toss a corpse off the tower.

Also if you're using spirit please use 1.5a4

Fixed. Really, it's the only version, official or non-official, that I've found to work without bugs or, in the case of non-official versions, features that make no sense and you don't want. (ie, you somehow get a silencer as soon as you pick up the Beretta the mod forces you to use)

No, no, no! Not the Securitrons! A mister handy in a different location.
You need 7 luck to do it.

Hahaha, I just got by a security robot by pretending to be the Ice cream Woman. Also, Cazadors piss me the hell off.

Strange, he seemed to be okay with it after I talked to him about hats.
I'm doing my second playthrough now, and in a break from tradition, my secondary character isn't evil! Pics to come as soon as I have enough.