Forum posts

Well, i've just preordered Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

Win.

A cycler_sprite, like the name suggests, is specially made for sprites. Use a cycler instead.

True. Valve maps do it all the time.

Is this that AVIkit shit that I messed around with for 3 months but never got to work?

Well, it works in Steam HL, but it won't start in WON HL (client.dll read error).

If you tried it with WON HL, try it with Steam HL instead.

You can find the example mod, source code and documentation here:

http://randomnine.wootfu.com/project.php?p=18

No Spirit, it's a mod with video playback coded in. Not done by me though.

(May contain L4D2 spoilers)

Click me! (wmv, 17 mb)

HD video of the Ares I-X launch:


(Direct Link, QuickTime movie, 1080i 185 MB)

Luckily for you, i've recorded the launch and uploaded it to YouTube, but its still processing.

Until then, here's a video by NASA: http://mfile3.akamai.com/18566/wmv/etouchsyst2.download.akamai.com/18355/wm.nasa-global/ksc/ksc_102809_ares_launch.asx

Perfect launch!

Dammit. If the launch was'nt postponed, i would've missed it, because im at work at the time of launch. I think.

Im having trouble figuring out the launch time in the Netherlands, where i live. All this EDT, GMT, PM, AM and all that bullshit confuses the heck out of me. Anyone know what the launch time is in the Netherlands?

Indeed.

Check out this awesome photo's of Atlantis and Ares I-X:Also, check this out:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569143,00.html?test=faces

Personally, i'd like to see this happen. According to that article, the first launch of this so called space plane is scheduled to lift-off April 2010.

---

Last month, The U.S. Government Accountability Office said that the design of the Ares rocket is unsafe and dangerous.
The rocket could slam into the launch tower during lift-off at high wind speeds, resulting in total devastation on the pad.

I don't care what anybody says (outside TWHL) about L4D2, im excited about it and im getting it. In fact, it's already payed for. Free baseball bat for me!

Visual Basic is almost completely useless

If you're talking about the old Visual Basic (6 and lower), then yes, but Visual Basic .NET is great!

If you want to give Windows Forms Applications a go, try C#. C# looks a lot like C++. You can also create Windows Forms Applications with Visual Basic .NET, this language is much easier to understand.
I can help you getting started with Visual Basic .NET.

Ares IX on Pad 39B:

Lol, that sounds impossible for me. I think I'd need a ton of code just to make a window ! What about buttons etc...

You think wrong.
Creating a form (window) with buttons, labels, checkboxes, radiobuttons and whatnot, doesn't require a single line of code. The only code that you'll write are the actions and events when you interect with those controls.

For example, to show a messagebox to the user when you click a button:

MsgBox("Hello!")

This is the case with Visual Basic .Net and C#, don't know about C++ though.

Maybe you should try making a windows form application of it.

Launch pad 39B has a new resident.
For the first time in more than a quarter century, a new rocket stands tall on Pad 39B.That's kinda weird looking, really...

10 months of hard work stuffed into 5 minutes and 45 seconds: Watch the video on YouTube

Ill post more pics soon...

Ares-IX rollout to launchpad 39B is today! And i have to go to work. :/

Ah yes, Switch, i remember now. C# also uses Switch.

Good stuff, Tito.

To everyone:
Always wanted to know what happens during the last few hours before lift-off?
Want to know what its like to sit in the shuttle cockpit during lift-off? Not affraid of flipping tons of different switches in the cockpit?

You can experience it with Space Shuttle Mission 2007, the newest and most exciting Space Shuttle Missions Simulator available today, designed to provide the experience and excitement of the NASA Space Shuttle missions in extreme detail.

From launch to in-orbit missions and landing, every button, command, and action replicates the authentic experience of mission sequences in beautiful detail.

Watch the Shuttle launch from the KSC VIP location or from the cockpit. Follow through the SRB and External Tank separation, Orbital Insertion and preparations for performing the mission.

Goto http://www.space-shuttle-mission.com/ for more information.

Want to give it a try? There's a demo available!
Get it here: http://www.excitingsimulations.com/FTP/vmwoe487g0mnw9485fw/SSM2007-DEMO-Setup.exe

The fully functional demo allows you to run STS-1 - the maiden Shuttle flight - from launch to landing. If you want cooler missions - Deply Hubble, ISS, space-walks, MMU etc. then you must of course purchase the full version.
You'll get on-screen instructions on what switch to flip, what button to push, etc.

Seriously, give it a try! Space Shuttle Columbia ready for launch on STS-1

Striker, if you have a long if statement, its best that you replace it with the Select Case statement. I don't know the C++ equilevant of the Select Case statement, but it sure does make your code more "readable".

As you may know, the space shuttle program is nearing its conclusion. With just a handful of shuttle flights remaining, the last shuttle flight is to be expected in 2010. Then Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour are officially retired.

What's coming next?

The answer: Project Constellation.With Project Constellation, NASA wants to return to the moon and begin preparing missions to Mars. And of course, deliver supplies to the ISS as well as crew members.

The launch vehicles (the rockets that will carry loads into space) are Ares-I and Ares-V.

Ares-I:Originally dubbed the Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), Ares-I is the rocket that will carry the astronauts into space. The crew compartment is known as Orion which will jettison from the rocket like it did during the Apollo program.
A Shuttle-derived launch architecture was selected by NASA for the Ares I. Originally, the vehicle would have used a four-segment solid rocket booster (SRB) for the first stage, and a simplified space shuttle main engine (SSME) for the second stage. An unmanned version was to use the five-segment booster, but with the second stage using the single SSME. Shortly after the initial design was approved, additional tests revealed that the Orion spacecraft would be too heavy for the four-segment booster to lift, and in January 2006 NASA announced they would slightly reduce the size of the Orion spacecraft, add a fifth segment to the solid-rocket first stage, and replace the single SSME with the Apollo-derived J-2X motor. While the change from a four-segment first stage to a five-segment version would allow NASA to construct virtually identical motors (albeit with some interchangeable segments), the main reason for the change to the five-segment booster was the move to the J-2X.

Ares-V:Ares-V is the Cargo Launch Vehicle or CaLV, designed to hoist payloads and supplies into space and to the ISS.
The solid rocket booster on Ares V will be an improved version of the current Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, but with five and a half segments instead of the current four segments
Ares-V will eventually launch the Altair Lunar Lander:Until the first manned launch of Ares-I, NASA is currently building the Ares-IX, a fully functionaly Ares-I launch vehicle, but with a mockup crew compartment and emergency escape tower, to simulate weight.
As of right now, the Ares-IX is complete and ready for rollout to launch pad 39B scheduled on October 20th.

To support the Ares-I and Ares-V, both launch pads (39A and 39B) require hardware modifications. With the space shuttly still flying, pad 39B has been deactivated since 2006 and is already undergoing modifications to support the Ares-IX and future Ares-I and Ares-V rockets. Pad 39A is kept unmodified to support the shuttle until its retirement in 2010.
Because the Ares rockets are taller than the shuttle, and the fixed service structure, NASA already build and installed four large lightning towers on pad 39B, as seen here:The large towers on the pads known as the Fixed Service Structure and Rotating Service Structure will be deconstructed and removed from the pads.On the right, the FSS. On the left, the RSS.

A new Mobile Launcher Platform is also being constructed that will carry and support the Ares rockets. It will also carry a new fixed service structure, pretty much like they did in the Apollo ara.
The entire stack (MLP, Ares-I/V and service structure will be rolled to pad 39A or 39B using one of NASA two Crawler Transporters.A Crawler Transporter.A Crawler Transporter carrying space shuttle Atlantis to one of the pads.

For Ares-IX, the mobile launcher platform that currently supports the shuttle will be used to support the Ares-IX, which is a unique event, as a new MLP is constructed for Ares.
As for launchpad 39B, the Fixed Service Structure and Rotating Service Structure still exists when Ares-IX rolls to the pad, which is a very unique event as well, as both pads will have the FSS and RSS removed.

This is what it will look like:The launch of the Ares-IX Test Flight is schedules for October 27th. You don't want to miss it, for first time ever since STS-1, the maiden space shuttle flight in 1981, a new rocket will prepare for launch on launch complex 39, with shuttle hardware still present.

The Ares-IX test flight mission will last two minutes, as the mockup crew compartment and emergency escape tower will be lost in the ocean after jettison.
As always, this event is aired live on NASA TV.
Don't have NASA TV on your local cabel provider? Watch NASA TV on the NASA website: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=public

Im excited!

Go Ares!

These all work in 7 flawlessly except for the infamous 3D view bug where you can't select anything, but that goes for Vista and all new video cards as well.

Well, as far as i know, that bug only happens with Ati cards, and i have a NVidia card now. Can i consider myself lucky?

I can upgrade, but im not really looking forward to it. I still want to map for GoldSource, and im affraid HL1 and Hammer wont run on 7. They both run perfectly fine on my current Vista system, and i've heard that if it runs on Vista, it'll run on 7 as well, so that at least there's still hope.

Can you humor me and post a screenshot of the terrain from your compile?

I did. The only issue is this:The rest of the terrain around that building looks fine.

Well, time for bed.

I can already tell you that this:does not occur on my end, but this:does.

Also, i turned out that some displacement faces of those brushes don't line up with one next to it. Hard to explain. Basically, one brush had a power of 2, while the one next to had a power of 3. I believe this is probably one of the culprits of the problem.

Ill make some screenshots tomorrow to make the point more obvious

I also think that Source doesn't like overly stretched displacement surfaces.
Ill experiment tomorrow.

Edit:

Check it out:See those vertices marked red in the 3D window and marked yellow in the Top grid window? They don't line up with vertices of the brush next to it, because one brush has a power of 2 and the other power of 3, as seen here:You want to keep the power the same for every adjacent displacement brush to prevent seems to appear during alpha drawing.

However, the above did not fix the problem, but check out what happend when i temporary remove the middle building:

With building:Without building:So i guess that some of the surrounding buildings are causing somesort of facesplitting, making shadow and light distribution go haywire on displacement.

As for these:I have no idea what is causing that, those displacements look fine to me.

That's all i can do for now.

Good luck!

Map is looking great btw!

Thanks man, that certainly is usefull information.

My goal is to establish a space port in my region (what else can you expect from a space guy!)

Annoying Source is annoying.

If you don't mind, i'd like to have a look at the vmf file and try to fix it for you.

Why don't you just map all that.

Then maybe you can help me. Im never able to get a decent sized city, i run out of many pretty quick because there's always more outcoming than income.

The game is hard.

After that dissapointment know as Cities XL, i've decided to play some Simcity 4 again.

Anyone else playing it? I know Rabideh does...

Its annoying, because i was totally gonna buy this game.
Also, it appears many users suffer from issues like not being able to register their game, not being able to update their game and not getting any support from the developers.

Check it out: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=742

I already did a rat map of my room, buts horribly outdated. Ill run it through to make some improvements.

Edit: Ugh. I don't like it. Best to completely remake it.

Because you have to pay a monthly fee for Online play.

I found out about this new city simulation game yesterday, and as a city simulation player like myself (think SimCity), it got my attention.

It's pretty much like SimCity, but it doesn't play like SimCity.
You start by looking at an Earth-like planet. You'll have to decide where you want to begin building your city. This is important later in the game, as you can actually trade goods with neighbouring cities. In Multiplayer mode, those cities are actually controlled by other player from around the world. This is interesting, but requires a monthly fee.
When you've find a suitable location for your metropole, you can start laying out zones, like in SimCity. There are Residential zones, Commercial zones and Industrial zones. You can specify which type of Residents, Commerce or Industry may build there.
Once you start growing, you can build highways and railroads and connect to other cities.
And the best part is: the zoom level. You can zoom all the way in to street level (think Google Street View). You can also fly around like noclip mode.
This has serious screenshot making potential.

All the information above is from the many video's i've watched on the official Cities XL site: http://www.citiesxl.com/

Here some screenshots:Edit: Fuck it, im not going to get this game.

Interest.Lost = [blue]True[/blue]

Yeah how did you manage to eliminate that error? Plus the "too many visible entities" seemed impossible for me to fix, even after combining multiple func_walls into one, all over the map! = )

All i did was turning some very small detail objects into illusionaries, their cheaper than func_walls.

I also remade some detail objects because some brush shapes were made using two or more individual brushes, while the same shape and look could've been achieved with just one single brush.

And finally i applied the BEVEL texture to unseen faces of brush entities, especially to the water stream brushes.

All that apparently fixed that memory leak error.
Seriously, what horrible job it was.

Don't feel bad, Nefarious!

Increase the texture scale on large surfaces.
If you also have very small detail objects in your map, like small pipes, func_illusionary those. Don't overdo it though.

Note that incorrect useage of HINT brushes actually increase wpolies and thus r_speeds.

Ehm, even the old WorldCraft 3.X fgd should have the env_bubbles entity code, so my guess is that psilous is doing something wrong...
Like i said before, the env_bubbles entity is the only BRUSH based entity, which means that its not listed in the point entity list. You'll have to make the brush, and tie it to the env_bubbles entity. It'll show up in the Class list as the only env_ entity.

Use the env_bubbles entity. Note that unlike any other env_ entities, this one is actually a brush entity.

I don't think WON HL "knows" how to play mp3's from the media folder, as the soundtracks of Half-Life are played from the Half-Life CD.
Steam HL probably received an update that allows it to play mp3's from the Media folder.

Im not really sure if the above is correct though.

If you still want commentaries to work under WON HL, you can just convert those mp3's back to wavs and put them under sound\commentaries or something like that and then use ambient_generics to play them.

It works fine for me under WON HL. Commentary does'nt however. Ill try Steam HL now.
Edit: The heck! Commentaries work under Steam HL. For me anyway, that is.

Crap, i've just uploaded the mod for CT to final test before he uploads it for the public, so he has to fix that splash thingy himself.

I've also fixed the following:

Readded missing rad file for Muzz's/Atom's map
Fixed misaligned texture in JeffMod's second map
Fixed dissapearing face in Rimrook's map
Fixed "Too many entities in visible packet list" error in all maps
Some minor optimizations in Nefarious's map (that was a sucker!)

So w00t, its almost here, people!

Soyuz lifting off and Vista:

I've received the latest build of the mod, but there are a couple of issues:

1.
[image removed]
I spawn outside the first map.

2.
[image removed]
That's pretty badly textured.

3.
[image removed]
Are you supposed to see that?

4.
[image removed]
And that?

640x480 textures? those are the only thing i can thing to cause it to crash....

That's the problem. 512*512 is the absolute max. Higher resolution textures crash the game.