Forum posts

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-03-10 16:30:12 UTC
in Desert Eagle Replacement Model: Try it o Post #264058

@pepper:

Yeah, I've been experimenting with getting phong and cubemaps working simultaneously this week. It's weird, though, because it doesn't seem to work in Episode One; in Two, they work just fine, but in One, the gun only renders the Phong shader. Also, I can't get the engine to use separate masks for phong and cubemaps; it forces me to use the mask in the normal map's alpha channel, which is irritating. That said, the gun looks 100x better with both shaders working instead of just one or the other. I haven't made enough changes to the gun to warrant an other release, but as I make progress on its world model, I'll host what I've got.

I'm surprised you think it's prettier than the Counter-Strike Desert Eagle

. I think I've made its diffuse color a little too dark and there are still a few small quirks with its reload animation, but I'll probably change that as work on the gun comes to a close. Thanks for the comments; I'll keep chuggin' away!

EDIT: Oh, also, I'd like your opinions on the position of the gun. I feel like it's too far from the player's view, so it appears to be too small to be a Desert Eagle. I'm wondering if I should just move it closer to the player's view.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-03-08 18:03:54 UTC
in a mod done by young ones... Post #263967

1) Click me.
2) Do what it tells you
3) Wait
4) ???
5) PROFIT

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-03-04 02:12:25 UTC
in Display L4D Director's Status? Post #263718

A friend of mine asked me earlier today if there was a way to display what the AI director was thinking, and now he's got me curious. Is there a console command to display what the status of the Director, sort of like +showbudget? I think it'd be really interesting to see how it measures each player's 'stress level' and to see what it does in response to it.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-03-02 22:32:33 UTC
in Name the Map ! Post #263617

Merle Dandridge as Alyx?

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-02-21 16:17:01 UTC
in Now Playing: ... Post #263088

The Lonely Island - Jizz in my Pants

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-02-08 13:28:42 UTC
in Rooms: Source! (co-op) Post #262434

Damned if I can get my head around lighting in this bloody engine. If its not too dark its too bright.

Try messing with the "Constant" line in the light's or light_spot's settings, instead of just the "Brightness" line. I took a look at cp_well the other day and the last control points for either team are lit almost entirely by a single pair of light_spots with Constant set to 2000, save for a few other small point lights and the skybox.

(Of course, I don't know if Goldsource has the constant setting already. You could know this already and I could be an idiot for pointing it out.

)

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-02-06 19:45:21 UTC
in Question about Skins Post #262383

Why didn't you do that first?

Yes, world and model textures function exactly the same; VMTs and VTFs. The only difference is in the .VMT's code, but since you're only modifying the texture itself, that isn't something you need to worry about. Extract the texture and change it as needed.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-02-04 17:43:55 UTC
in Desert Eagle Replacement Model: Try it o Post #262332

Updayt:

Added basic sounds to the reload animation

I don't think they really match the beefyness of the gun, but they add a lot to the feel of it when you reload. The sounds came from freesound.org (I was actually surprised at how decent they came out from a source like that), but if any of you know of other sources I can choose from, let me know!

Ze link!

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-02-01 14:51:18 UTC
in Desert Eagle Replacement Model: Try it o Post #262227

Well if you say that, then that's at the top of my list of things to fix!

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-29 21:58:28 UTC
in Desert Eagle Replacement Model: Try it o Post #262133

@Urbeh:
You're more than welcome to use the model in a mod. Just remember that all the content is made by me except for its fire sound. That came from SMOD.

@Strideh:
I was having some weird issues with getting both shaders working simultaneously. The phong mask is in the alpha channel of the normal map, which means that I need a separate file for the specular mask, but it will refuse to use that mask if the model is using a normal map, and I have no idea why. If I can get both working, I'll definitely use them, but unless you have some weird trickery up your sleeve, I can't figure this out.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-29 19:17:48 UTC
in Desert Eagle Replacement Model: Try it o Post #262118

Howdy, y'all.

I've finally gotten my Desert Eagle replacement model completed to a presentable level. It replaces the .357 model in any of the Half-Life 2 series of games, so give it a spin and tell me what you think!

Shots of the gun in various environments:

I'm particularly interested in your opinions about the texturing. I chose to go with cubemapped reflections instead of phong reflections because I think they're more metal-like, but I'd like some more opinions on that before I call the texturing "finished". Comments on the animation are also welcome.

Sadly, there are no reload sound effects (because I can't find any suitable ones), but I did include the .357 fire sound from SMOD, so it should feel a bit more beefy to shoot than the .357 is. If you all have any suggestions on sounds I could use, you're more than welcome to let me know!

Also, there is no world model replacement at the moment, so you'll still see the .357 model lying around the world, and a Desert Eagle when you pick it up. That model is next on my agenda.

LOLWUT A LINK!?

Enjoy

EDIT: Shucks, the thread title got all flubbed. You all get the picture, anyway.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-21 21:43:08 UTC
in Episode Two Mapping: noob questions Post #261819

Hammer doesn't differentiate between model textures and world geometry textures when you're browsing for them. It just loads up every single VTF it can find and lets the user decide what he wants to do. If you try to use a model texture on regular world geometry, though, you'll get some crazy lighting issues, so don't use them. Some model textures can be applied to brush-based entities without error, though.

Just use specific filters when searching for your texture and you'll be fine. The skybox textures themselves aren't used on the sky brushes, but the skybox tool texture (search filter "tools") is what you'd use on sky brushes to let the 2D skybox show through.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-21 21:33:42 UTC
in Diablo II Post #261818

I was hopelessly addicted to it when I was 13. It sucked up so much of my life.. I feel like I've had arrested development because of it.

I was so concerned about getting hooked again that I threw the CD in a microwave and fried it. What a relief.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-11 00:07:50 UTC
in Source textlights (lights.rad) Post #261374

:rly: Lighting in Source isn't dynamic. That's what RAD is for in the compile process. The flashlight and light_dynamics are dynamic, yeah, but any other form of lighting isn't.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-08 01:00:37 UTC
in Episode Two Mapping: noob questions Post #261258

Just make sure you ask Google first.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-04 22:07:48 UTC
in Rooms: Source! (co-op) Post #261117

We should definitely keep this sort of thing going, too. Great time-wasters are great.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-04 14:25:05 UTC
in New Year Resolutions Post #261091

My resolution is to complete a map by 2010. That's it. Enough of this modeling bull.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-03 20:33:07 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #261044

Yeah, looks great. My only complaint is how the sprites for the lamps in the first screenshot are clipping through the ceiling brush.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-01 22:13:28 UTC
in New Year Hour Post #260953

I booted on two occasions last night, then once right after breakfast this morning. Now I feel great!

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2009-01-01 00:10:22 UTC
in EP2 --> CSS model error Post #260905

Are you loading the models in the model viewer, or actually testing them in-game?

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2008-12-26 20:00:15 UTC
in Christmas Present Post #260635

Wish I could say the same. My dad was downsized at work, so all my Christmas gifts came from my relatives this year. $200 total isn't shabby in the slightest, though, especially being unemployed myself.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2008-12-23 18:59:30 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #260503

Yeah, I've been working on a skin since I posted the YouTube video, and I intend to skin it myself, even if someone else makes one. I've tried skinning countless models before this one, though, and I can never do them any justice

. You're right about practicing to get better/faster at it, I'll admit.

It's modeled in XSI, but I can always export the gun in .OBJ or some other format that can be read by any modeling program.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2008-12-23 18:11:01 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #260499

Just throwing the request out there... if anyone would be interested in skinning my Desert Eagle, that would be awesome. I can skin it myself, but I've never been much of a texture artist, and I don't want this left incomplete because of a shitty texture job.

It's fully UV mapped, and if any of you are familiar with modeling apps, I can export the model so you can use the UV data to figure out any parts of the UV map that aren't recognizable.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2008-12-18 17:25:52 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #260220

Definitely adequate animation, though you could give reloading a bit more finesse and power.

Yeah, I'll agree with you on that. I'm only somewhat pleased with the result, but I sort of wanted to turn the animation out quickly so I could get to skinning the weapon. I think there needs to be a little more of a jerk in the weapon overall when the clip is fully inserted and when the slide is kicked forward. It's sort of agrivating, though, when it takes you 3 days to get an animation like this to look half-realistic.

With recoil that significant I can't imagine how it could return to its original position that fast. It probably shouldn't have as much vertical travel, that kind of distracts me.

It looked okay, but now that you've mentioned it, that bothers me too

. I think having the view-kick added into the equation makes that problem more apparent, because in XSI, it looks picture-perfect. Admittedly, the fire animation still feels wrong because the gun swings back to a 'ready' enough position so quickly that if feels like you should be able to fire it faster than the game will allow. I'll probably lengthen the fire animation to give the gun more time to swing around and such.

I didn't want to base the animation on the Desert Eagle from Counter-Strike because I didn't want it to be a clone of that gun. I did, however, base the fire animation's timing on the 357's fire animations somewhat closely, so maybe I need to break farther away from that. I may rework both animations eventually, but for now my next task is to skin the gun.

Thanks for the comments! Expect to hear more from me about this. And yes, Captain Terror, I've been animating for some time now.

RotatorSplint

Posted 15 years ago2008-12-18 00:28:31 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #260186

I don't remember if any of you remember this old thing:

Well check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BVMPuFNSqA

I'm pretty pleased with the animation; let me know what you all think.

Oh, and if you've been on the IRC, you've probably seen this:

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-11-13 17:39:53 UTC
in Left 4 Dead Post #258488

@raver: Have you played on the Expert difficulty too? It can get pretty intense ;o. Trapt/Strideh/Penguinboy/dewdle can vouch for that.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-10-13 19:29:37 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #257015

Sotimage XSI.

Just a single point-light in the scene with a slight blur in the shadowing and an ambient occlusion pass. It wasn't quite how I had pictured the result, but I liked how the backround floor transitioned from light to dark, which made the model itself pop out, so I kept it.

Roughly 3000 triangles in the end. Not suitable for a prop model of its size, but it still looks awesome. Thanks for the comments!

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-10-12 11:29:54 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #256962

Yay! Fire hydrant!

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-09-27 14:37:02 UTC
in Alpha channel on XSI Post #256226

In renders, yes. In the viewports, no.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-29 21:11:07 UTC
in Now Doing: ... Post #254730

:<

Who said my life was original?

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-29 20:55:16 UTC
in Now Doing: ... Post #254728

Did your mum, then ate a Klondike Bar, then turned on my computer.

All in 5 minutes.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-24 17:44:16 UTC
in Computer is Skipping? Post #254497

I feel so inadequate with my shitty WMP 10 and nothing else

In any case, if you have the spare parts lying around, Rim, try swapping out pieces of hardware and see if the issue persists so you can tell if it's hardware-related or not. That is, of course, if cooling it properly doesn't work.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-24 01:06:53 UTC
in Excluding materials Post #254428

Lal Grimmeh.

No problem, ATDestroy.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-23 23:49:39 UTC
in Excluding materials Post #254421

When you open the texture browser, look for the "Keywords" text field at the bottom and enter "tf" into it. That'll show only the textures that belong to TF2, although it'll take a few moments (for me, usually 30 seconds or so) for Hammer to load all of them.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-21 01:12:14 UTC
in Cubemaps - "Can't load vtex.dll&quo Post #254215

Try looking for vtex.dll in <SteamName>\sourcesdk\bin\ep1\bin (or the Orange Box equivalent), deleting it, and letting Steam replace it for you.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-10 04:38:00 UTC
in Genuinely fantastic Post #253523

There must not be very many mega-Christians out there who know CSS because every single one of these sites we manage to find end up being ass-ugly.

AMIRITE?

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-08-07 16:09:58 UTC
in Genuinely fantastic Post #253430

ZERO CROSSES.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-30 15:14:17 UTC
in Shearing a texture: Is is possible? Post #253190

G'day y'all.

My issue is this: I have a stairway in a map of mine and a texture that I want to use on the walls. The problem is that the wall texture doesn't tile vertically, so instead, I want to shear the texture across a rhombus-shaped brush that will be the wall of the stairway. I've seen this done in the last stage of pl_goldrush, so my question is: How is this done?

Thank all yee kindly.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-28 15:40:33 UTC
in Decompile Protection Post #253082

Why, right here, of course!

http://www.twhl.co.za/vault.php?map=4128

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-28 11:25:19 UTC
in compile error Post #253070

Are you using custom water textures? That sort of error appears when a water texture doesn't have a texture for the bottom side of the water plane.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-21 00:41:06 UTC
in Mirror's Edge Post #252772

I hope it's a long game. And I hope EA doesn't make it the buggy pile of crap that BF2 is.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-16 14:43:29 UTC
in Connectivity Issue with Servers Post #252566

For the past month, I've been having this persistent connectivity issue when playing on any server that's starting to get incredibly annoying.

At intervals of roughly 45 minutes or so apart (though that varies at times), my connection to the server will freeze and I'll have to disconnect from the game. The bizarre part is that my internet connectivity is still fine and the server is still talking to my computer. I won't be able to move, fire, talk, etc., but for 3 or 4 seconds after it begins, I can see everyone else moving and shooting, can hear voice chat and hotkey chat, and can see damage indicators. After that, everyone freezes in place, but I still hear voice chat and see damage indicators. It'll sit like this until I get dumped to the menu screen with a 'timed out' message.

Ordinarily I would blame it on my router, but that seems to be working just fine (will wonders never cease). Halp!

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-16 11:13:17 UTC
in HL3 concept art Post #252561

http://www.twhl.co.za/forums.php?thread=15533

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-11 17:49:36 UTC
in Usable Valve or Wheel ? Post #252396

Well I don't know how, but if I were you, I would just decompile one of Valve's maps that uses it and look at how they set it up. I know that one of the parking garage maps in Episode One has a door rigged up like that.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-09 19:14:41 UTC
in Weird Issue With Windows and Microphones Post #252334

Well shit, it did it again. I did some poking around last evening with no luck, and I came back to my PC this afternoon (no reboot and I didn't mess with any other settings), and it's just fine again. I don't get this at all.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-08 21:17:46 UTC
in Weird Issue With Windows and Microphones Post #252271

So I was using Skype to voice-chat with some of my friends from school, and all was fine. Suddenly, Windows started looping the audio output from my computer through the mic and my friends could hear themselves and all the crap going on on my PC at the time, without me telling it to. I was wearing headphones, so I knew it's not any issue with the microphone picking up the speakers. Also, the microphone still picks my voice up, but very faintly; not anything that you could make out.

This is the second time Windows has done this, and the last time it was solved, I had no idea what actually did solve the issue (rebooting didn't work, but it suddenly stopped after about an hour of fidgiting). Why the hell is Windows doing this?

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-07-03 14:14:11 UTC
in Door problem Post #252083

Doors can be triggered to open, and there are a number of ways you can do that. First, you can create a brush, covered in the trigger texture (Just search for "trigger" in the texture browser), and tie it to a trigger_multiple entity. Be sure the door is named, and in the trigger's Outputs tab, add and output that targets the door and, "OnTriggered," opens the door. When you walk through the trigger, the door will open. The same could be done with a func_button entity, as well.

You can also make the door open with the "Use" key by checking the "Use Opens" flag in the door's properties' flags tab.

To get the door to open by simply walking into it, go to the door's properties, swap to the flags tab, and look for a flag that reads "Touch Opens." This is usually on by default, so I find it weird that it didn't work for you on the first try.

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-06-29 02:31:07 UTC
in Albums That Never Existed Post #251947

This is fun

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-06-28 18:01:48 UTC
in Albums That Never Existed Post #251941

RotatorSplint

Posted 16 years ago2008-06-23 19:09:05 UTC
in When was the last time you opened Hammer Post #251791

I find that seeing all those 5-minute maps in my maps folder demoralizes me. Instead, what I do is delete/not save all my crappy experiment maps so that all I see when I browse for a map file are the real works of art, no matter how few there may be. It's a huge psychological boost for me if I see a single well-built map on my hard drive instead of 25 failures.

I think an other factor to consider is one's ability to get ideas down into the editor with speed. When I get an inspiration to model a gun, I can model quickly enough that even when the love of the gun sputters out, seeing the progress appear in the 3D view keeps me going. If I procrastinate in starting, though, because I can't decide which part to start first or how to shape a particular set of faces, I can get fed up pretty quickly. Seeing progress is just as important as having inspiration to begin with, and that holds true with any form of visual design.

RotatorSplint