Forum posts
Actually, I think it's a DirectX 9 related issue. I run a GeForce 4000 MX too, and it has a hardware support of DirectX up to version 7, and I have the same issue. Updating to a video card that supports DX9 in hardware is the solution I think would work - a Radeon 9600 XT is a good budget card with such a functionality.
Hey, guys!
I'm making a 16th century-esque galleon ship, and I really want to make it move on a thruster system to propel it through the water. I know this is possible because i've done it in Garry's Mod. However, I want to have permanent thrusters installed on the bottom of the ship OUTSIDE of GM, in the original map I made. However, I don't know how. Has anyone figured out how to get controllable, stationary (as in, not being removed from the thing they are attached to) thrusters? If so and if you could share some insight on the subject with me, I'd be most appreciative. Thanks!
I'm making a 16th century-esque galleon ship, and I really want to make it move on a thruster system to propel it through the water. I know this is possible because i've done it in Garry's Mod. However, I want to have permanent thrusters installed on the bottom of the ship OUTSIDE of GM, in the original map I made. However, I don't know how. Has anyone figured out how to get controllable, stationary (as in, not being removed from the thing they are attached to) thrusters? If so and if you could share some insight on the subject with me, I'd be most appreciative. Thanks!
Been there too, but I will check again. Gigabyte doesn't have a very user friendly download page...
Great, I'll try that. You'd think the thruster entity itself would be a little more self-explanatory...
I want to make a toy rocket outside a building in my level (The little ones that kids build at summer camp), and I want to have its thruster turn on and make it fly straight up.
My problem is, there's no good tutorial on them to my knowledge, and of course, Hammer is no help. I don't understand the entity properties, so if anyone can explain it better to me (and I'm not trying something as ambitious as the canisters in Garry's Mod, I just need it to fly up) I'd be most appreciative.
My problem is, there's no good tutorial on them to my knowledge, and of course, Hammer is no help. I don't understand the entity properties, so if anyone can explain it better to me (and I'm not trying something as ambitious as the canisters in Garry's Mod, I just need it to fly up) I'd be most appreciative.
Hey, a gaggle of fellow GeForce 4000 MX users! I was afraid I was the only one - and yes, it's our card's fault.
...underpowered budget 3D cards unite!
...underpowered budget 3D cards unite!
Parent it to vehicles (just outside of the vehicle entity's perimeter) for some barebones, chase camera fun (for those who aren't willing to read the other method mentioned in the Snarkpit Advanced tutorial).
It's not a fatal problem, I have it too and it doesn't affect anything once you compile the map. Just don't let the non-texturing get to you and you'll be just fine. BTW, does ANYONE know the location of some AMD Duron chipset drivers? I have searched all over the web, even AMD's site (Which is confusingly worded) and I cannot find a driver update. Otherwise, I'm all up to date on hardware.
Care to expand on that, Habboi? What you were saying may just solve my own problem - I need to find a way to manipulate bodies using the gravity gun, but it doesn't appear in the level! If you could elaborate on env_global, I would be most appreciative 
I completely understand what you are trying to accomplish, Snarfblat. I myself have tried multiple attempts at replicating such horrible failures as:
1. Helm's deep, complete with the castle and 10000 itcthyosaurs.
2. The Dairy Queen where I used to work, down to the last condiment container.
3. My old high school, including openable lockers.
4. My house (which is possible in HL2)
5. Sea World...don't ask.
6. My hometown...fastest. crushed. dream. ever.
7. The U.S.S. Enterprise, with slight design deviations.
8. The tower of London (the entire thing).
9. The Cathedral of Chartres (my most recent flop) which takes about 35 minutes just to load the outer walls with no details added to them.
Notice a recurring trend? Big = disaster. Now, don't go getting discouraged (I'll leave that to Hammer). My suggestion is to make skillful use of custom textures (i.e, have a photograph of the area you can't afford to model on a brush JUST beyond a door at the edge of your level) and clever level changes so that you switch between levels in a way that seems natural. I call it Potemkin modelling (you'll have to research that if you want to truly understand its significance): you're making an area that looks out at another area that looks like its there except it's a "painting" (a texture), but you actually can walk there by going to the level change that takes you to your real version of it. Once there, you look back at where you came and see a "painting" version of it, again using textures. It's tricky, but you can break the Theatre into sections that way.
Got all that? I know it seems confusing, but in practice it works (although it does take a while). Happy mapping!
1. Helm's deep, complete with the castle and 10000 itcthyosaurs.
2. The Dairy Queen where I used to work, down to the last condiment container.
3. My old high school, including openable lockers.
4. My house (which is possible in HL2)
5. Sea World...don't ask.
6. My hometown...fastest. crushed. dream. ever.
7. The U.S.S. Enterprise, with slight design deviations.
8. The tower of London (the entire thing).
9. The Cathedral of Chartres (my most recent flop) which takes about 35 minutes just to load the outer walls with no details added to them.
Notice a recurring trend? Big = disaster. Now, don't go getting discouraged (I'll leave that to Hammer). My suggestion is to make skillful use of custom textures (i.e, have a photograph of the area you can't afford to model on a brush JUST beyond a door at the edge of your level) and clever level changes so that you switch between levels in a way that seems natural. I call it Potemkin modelling (you'll have to research that if you want to truly understand its significance): you're making an area that looks out at another area that looks like its there except it's a "painting" (a texture), but you actually can walk there by going to the level change that takes you to your real version of it. Once there, you look back at where you came and see a "painting" version of it, again using textures. It's tricky, but you can break the Theatre into sections that way.
Got all that? I know it seems confusing, but in practice it works (although it does take a while). Happy mapping!
I was wondering, is it possible in Half Life 2 to make a multi-brush model in Hammer (for example, a candelabra on a stand) that reacts to the manipulator as one single, physically represented object? I want to make a church-like castle area where you can pick up things like that and chuck them at zombies, but my copy of HL2 hasn't come in the mail yet (GRRRRR...Canada Post, I'm lookin' at you 
) and I obviously don't have access to the SDK. So, can building them from scratch using brushes and then turning them into one whole physics entity work?
Thanks in advance.
) and I obviously don't have access to the SDK. So, can building them from scratch using brushes and then turning them into one whole physics entity work?Thanks in advance.
I disagree about not carving, guys. I've developed a technique I call Non-Destructive/Firewall Carving, and it takes care of most carving problems one can come across. I'll write a tutorial on it soon, but it really is very simple and it saves your brushes from becoming fragmented to heck.
I suppose that gets at the root of my inquisition - I wanted to know if HL2 would run it more efficiently. When modding large levels, my goal is to keep the load time under five minutes (I've been at 22 minute load times with another crazy level - I may post it one day so you can see the insanity) so yes, there is something that needs to be said for simplicity. But in the mind of a fellow ambitious modder (me), do you not agree that striving for full scale replicas is the most desirable (however inefficient)?
Perhaps I worded my description of the compiling process a bit strongly - I DO know that it probably would have loaded if I had given it enough time, but it was going too long for it to be reasonable, so I pronounced it dead (in terms of its value as a map).
I have therefore concluded that replicating the Chatres cathedral in its full extent is beyond the normal reaches of Half-Life 1 and probably 2 (although I question how City 17 is possible while a HL1-quality building is not), so I will perform the suggested modifications that Steinin has recommended and simplify it somewhat. I invision cropping it at the end of the main hall (where those two smaller halls cross with it in the middle) and bringing the pointed end to that point. I also will probably end up closing the front end up from 3 doorways to 2, which will cut down the entire contents of the level by 1/3.
Lastly, and this is a tip for anyone making castle-like maps, I'll definately be using custom textured rectangular brushes with blue backgrounds for flying buttresses instead of modelling them (if that would be even possible). It will definately save on polys and I can actually make them look accurate (they'll be made using actual flying buttress images, after all).
In any case, thanks for the advice everyone, and once I am finished with the final product I'll have the map up for distribution.
Perhaps I worded my description of the compiling process a bit strongly - I DO know that it probably would have loaded if I had given it enough time, but it was going too long for it to be reasonable, so I pronounced it dead (in terms of its value as a map).
I have therefore concluded that replicating the Chatres cathedral in its full extent is beyond the normal reaches of Half-Life 1 and probably 2 (although I question how City 17 is possible while a HL1-quality building is not), so I will perform the suggested modifications that Steinin has recommended and simplify it somewhat. I invision cropping it at the end of the main hall (where those two smaller halls cross with it in the middle) and bringing the pointed end to that point. I also will probably end up closing the front end up from 3 doorways to 2, which will cut down the entire contents of the level by 1/3.
Lastly, and this is a tip for anyone making castle-like maps, I'll definately be using custom textured rectangular brushes with blue backgrounds for flying buttresses instead of modelling them (if that would be even possible). It will definately save on polys and I can actually make them look accurate (they'll be made using actual flying buttress images, after all).
In any case, thanks for the advice everyone, and once I am finished with the final product I'll have the map up for distribution.
It didn't say anything - there isn't anything physically or technically wrong with the map - it just got overloaded and went into Not Responding mode. I assume that's because it's so large and it couldn't handle it. What I want to know is if HL2 can run it when HL1 obviously can't.
Hello, one and all!
In anticipation for making the jump to Half-Life 2 in a week or so (when I buy it, of course), I've started working on a very interesting level - at least, to me. It is a to-scale replica of the Cathedral of Chartres, a real-life building that would make an excellent multiplayer level in HL2, complete with the added novelty of the buggy and the fast zombies (you can do a google search and get pictures of it, I think). Knowing the problems that porting old maps into Source can cause (my friend has shown me all the horrors) I am using the old Hammer to make only brushes for the level.
Things were going fine until I completed the perimeter and then tried running it. Simply put, Hammer died. I think that it is simply because HL1 is so limited in terms of huge structures, so I want to see if I'm right.
Would anyone who owns Half-Life 2 and the SDK be willing to give my map a go? It's all ready for you, you just have to convert it and run it (don't worry about textures, I just want to see if it actually will load). It would be most appreciated, I assure you. Here's the link - sorry it's so long, but I was pressed for time:
http://groups.msn.com/HalfLifeMapRoom/documents.msnw?fc_p=%2FChatres%20Cathedral%20HL2%20Test%20Level&fc_a=0
Just copy it to your address bar and it should take you to the online folder I made with the file in it. Don't worry, Sir Laguna is just another user name I use. In any case, please feel free to try my level out and see if it runs, and please report your findings back to me!
In anticipation for making the jump to Half-Life 2 in a week or so (when I buy it, of course), I've started working on a very interesting level - at least, to me. It is a to-scale replica of the Cathedral of Chartres, a real-life building that would make an excellent multiplayer level in HL2, complete with the added novelty of the buggy and the fast zombies (you can do a google search and get pictures of it, I think). Knowing the problems that porting old maps into Source can cause (my friend has shown me all the horrors) I am using the old Hammer to make only brushes for the level.
Things were going fine until I completed the perimeter and then tried running it. Simply put, Hammer died. I think that it is simply because HL1 is so limited in terms of huge structures, so I want to see if I'm right.
Would anyone who owns Half-Life 2 and the SDK be willing to give my map a go? It's all ready for you, you just have to convert it and run it (don't worry about textures, I just want to see if it actually will load). It would be most appreciated, I assure you. Here's the link - sorry it's so long, but I was pressed for time:
http://groups.msn.com/HalfLifeMapRoom/documents.msnw?fc_p=%2FChatres%20Cathedral%20HL2%20Test%20Level&fc_a=0
Just copy it to your address bar and it should take you to the online folder I made with the file in it. Don't worry, Sir Laguna is just another user name I use. In any case, please feel free to try my level out and see if it runs, and please report your findings back to me!
Unfortunately, that was a no-go. I tried various transparency settings and configurations but the effect was still the same, only worse (the blue was visible, whereas the original black was not). Does anyone remember seeing a non-transparent sprite when playing the actual game? Furthermore, do you think Valve would answer this sort of a question (perhaps I'm getting too hopeful here)? I'm going to see if I can get answers from VERC as well as here on TWHL, so please, if you have any suggestions, continue to post!
I'll give that a try right now - I had been pondering whether I would be relegated to texture-people because of the "blue screen" advantage, and I didn't know it might be possible in sprites. I'll let everyone know if it does work.
I did as you said (setting the render mode to additive and fx amount to 255) but it produces transparency throughout the entire sprite, which - considering these sprites are of people - isn't good. I have a population of ghosts in my level at the moment, and I would like to change that. As an aside, the sprite tutorial on this site doesn't address this particular problem, so unfortunately it isn't of use. My image has a black background, I assure you, so I don't understand why it is still see-through. Mind you, it's less transparent than the 3D textured view in Hammer makes it out to be, but it could still be improved (I have a person standing in front of a fireplace, for example, and I can see straight through their waist and clearly make out the burning logs). Any suggestions? Are all sprites doomed to eternal transparency?
....My fellow HL mappers...would you believe that there are two, IDENTICALLY NAMED programs called Sprite Wizard? One is for Half-Life, and the other is for..graphing calculators. Guess which one I was attempting to use.
Well, now that I have the working program, I have another problem that I'm sure will be much easier to resolve. My people sprites appear in the game perfectly, only that the surrounding area of the sprite that is supposed to be invisible...is not. I have experimented with the transparency settings in SpriteWiz, but all I have been able to do is make it so that I can see other sprites through a particular sprite (oddly enough, brushes cannot be seen). Does anyone know how to make it so that the unused area of a sprite are invisible?
Well, now that I have the working program, I have another problem that I'm sure will be much easier to resolve. My people sprites appear in the game perfectly, only that the surrounding area of the sprite that is supposed to be invisible...is not. I have experimented with the transparency settings in SpriteWiz, but all I have been able to do is make it so that I can see other sprites through a particular sprite (oddly enough, brushes cannot be seen). Does anyone know how to make it so that the unused area of a sprite are invisible?
I have done so...more times than I would like to admit to. I did have it coming up to a small white window once, but the way the manual says to format your images (something to the effect of "8-bit*1") is very confusing and I don't understand what it means. Has anyone learned what it is trying to say?
I do try my best to communicate as clearly as possible - as Claudius is reknowned for saying, "brevity is the soul of wit"!
In any case, Sprite Wizard - when opened - goes to a windowed DOS prompt for about 1 second and then disappears. Also, the documentation is confusing - what kind of format/size should my images be? I really could make no sense of it all. Am I doing something wrong, perhaps?
In any case, Sprite Wizard - when opened - goes to a windowed DOS prompt for about 1 second and then disappears. Also, the documentation is confusing - what kind of format/size should my images be? I really could make no sense of it all. Am I doing something wrong, perhaps?
Hello there, everyone!
This is a first-time-caller, long-time-listener type of deal. I truly need the insight of fellow mappers in dealing with a sprite issue I've been facing. You see, I'm creating a level in which I want to have people standing around that, of course, just stand there silently. I also want them to always face you so that the 2D effect isn't too obvious - thus why I want sprites. However, I've been doing extensive research and I cannot find a SINGLE program or tutorial that adequately describes the process of making custom sprites. Keep in mind that I have tried Sprite Wizard, to no success.
Your input would be most appreciated, and I thank those who reply in advance.
This is a first-time-caller, long-time-listener type of deal. I truly need the insight of fellow mappers in dealing with a sprite issue I've been facing. You see, I'm creating a level in which I want to have people standing around that, of course, just stand there silently. I also want them to always face you so that the 2D effect isn't too obvious - thus why I want sprites. However, I've been doing extensive research and I cannot find a SINGLE program or tutorial that adequately describes the process of making custom sprites. Keep in mind that I have tried Sprite Wizard, to no success.
Your input would be most appreciated, and I thank those who reply in advance.