Forum posts

My machine that tosses all salads very woughly

-80 Gigaflops processor(like a kajillion of your earthling Ghz chippies)
-Super-secret OS(I could tell you, but...)
-Super-Jiggy Bus(speed and technology classified)
-ATI 900000000 50 GHZ
-40 Gigaflops ?ber RAM
-HDD not needed, but I have Jiggy Raid 9000
-Media Drives unecessary, as my system is the repository of all information
-SuperJac - Plugs into the back of my head, so me need no headphones, keyboard, mieces, joystick, monitor, nor any othe perry farrels, but I have this huge movie screen thingy for people who don't like to plug in.
-Shoots laserbeams.
-56k modem that has that thingy where you can still recieve calls while online.

Meees? Lol! More proof of the collective consious or unconsious or something. I got that song too, but my playist is pretty extensive, or more accurately, I download all willy nilly.

The Avalanches - Since I Left you(Stereolab Remix)

I tried a couple of things, but no dice. Interesting problem though.

I speak Yankee, Canadian, and sometimes baby-talk with my Doggy. I understand Ebonics, and Gang somewhat too.

"Mannnnnnnnn ima 'bout a bussa-bussa-bussa-bussa man! --from the Gijoe PSA's. The one with Wild Bill on the motocycle...so funny. Check it, and the othe classics if you haven't at:

http://www.chickenmcnugget.com/video/gijoehuh.htm

"Shieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!" GI JOEEEEEEE!

[bright and woughly] Lolz. Nobody's ever called me [blinky]that[/blinky] before...AWSOME![/bright and woughly]

Erik Satie - Gymnopede #1

Ooooh, that 'F11' thingy is cool! Never heard of the previoulsy.

ZL: 568340957822 New Critical Objects!

Soul Coughing - I Miss the Girl

Clicky 'Links' to your left under 'Site Stuff', or google 'Valve ERC'.

Me agrees. I love building prefabs--argh<slaps self>--, i mean props, which I actually enjoy more than building enviroments. However, I also realize the best prop in the world doesn't mean much without a decent level to put it in.

And your right, once you become confident with VM, It opens up a whole new universe of design capabilities.

[rambling because too much caffiene]-8(6.v1.3 Addendum Visigroups). Are--Visigroups, naturally--Paticularly useful for those itty-bitty, teeny point-based entities that can easily become 'lost' in the fray. Also, it's prudent to group objects and brushes that work together like a tracktrain and path_corners, or env_beam and info_targets. This makes it easy to locate, move around, and of course make disappear any and all of these groups.[/rambling because too much caffiene]

-7(6.v1.2 Addendum pertaining to 'The Importance of VisiGroups'). The 'Mark' button is your very-good friend. Click on any visigroup you've created--you did this by CTRL-selecting a group of objects and/or entities and clicking the red, dotted box tab, on the top middle of your Hammer screen--Inside the 'visigroup' box on the right-middle of your Hammer screen. Now clicky the 'Mark' button. Presto! Now, wherever in the huge mess of worldbrushes, brush, and point-based entities, your group will show up in bright red. If the group is set as visible, you've hit 'apply' and still, nothing shows, that group has been deleted, and is now longer valid. Click 'purge' to clear it, or 'edit' to manually delete.

I know I've rambled 'bout this a bit, but I just can't get over how useful these are, and if your not utilizing them, you should reevaluate your CPU.

Spamming = fun.

Oh, oh<nods in apology for not reading>. Kool Idea.

Oh right<apologizes for not reading>, use 'face properties' to scale, align, and rotate the textures so they match up.

The Rolling Stones - Give me shelter

In the 'Find' box, on the upper right of this page, type in 'func_door', change the 'in' box to 'Tutorials' and click 'go' tab. Read Atom's tutorial on Doors.

The Turin Brakes - Painkiller

-1. Brush up from time to time. If you don't use certain features of VHE all the time, you may forget the details of something, like some weird entity property you always forget to set. When you first started mapping, you prolly read lots of thing you didn't understand completely. I've found picking though old tutorials very useful.

-2. For heaven's sake, use 'face properties' to apply, align, scale, and rotate your textures. This little window is your good friend. Also, when browsing for a texture in a really big wadfile--like Half-Life's--set the 'size' value on the lower left to '32?32'. Much faster IMHO, 'cause you can see more textures at once.

Cool, but bittersweet...it's the last one <bows head>. I still prolly won't use it 'cause I fear change.

Oh cool, didn't know that. Ooooh that gives me an idea... Thanks 7th!

Search the forums for 'TWHL mix' or 'I got an idea.' The next coop coming up is under 'I got an Idea 2' under 'maps 'n mods.'

Hey did you guys ever see the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode where Mastershake and Meatwad were forced out of their home because of all the popup ads? Verrry funny and very relevant to the topic. If only Frylock had used Mozilla...

lol....my hands aren't free, I'll just a use the old crotchal region to slow'r down.....OWWWWW...OMG...AHHHHH...!!!!!

Holy crap, for those of you that may not be aware, If you're retexturing, whilst rescaling lots of stuff at a time, there is another way than CTRL-selecting a bunch of stuff and then adjusting face properties.

At the bottom of the face properties window click the 'mode select' and choose 'apply texture and values.' In this way, you simply click on anything to be changed and magically, it is done! Much easier this way IMHO. I never bothered to see what that little mode box did before!

Hrny:That one is no joke. It's the DXM and mixed with alcohol that creates the danger. In large amounts of each it becomes a potentially deadly nerve toxin. Google it and see.

Indeed. When you have a nasty, conorted space to make, using primitives-namely spikes and wedges--with flip and rotate, you can make virtually any shape.

In the same, when you reach a point that requires that level of sophistication, sometimes it's easier to reevaluate the design that brings you there.

Most times you can be liberal with, and simplify your design without sacrificing the overall appearance. One simple example I can think of is using a square brush with a round texture to give the appearance of a wheel, without making it out of triangles--like the rail wheels in de_train.

There are many 'tricks' to doing things in hammer without actually doing them. And texturing is an amazing art form in and of itself.

MonkeyChow: Please trust me on this, anything is better than IE. With IE i used to have to run things like Spybot and AdAware everyday. With firefox, I almost never have to do that anymore. IE should be IllEgal!

Lucky4's is exactly correct. A great property to avoid seeing the door interlope with the frame on a sliding door. Also a great effect if you want to simulate a malfunctioning door.

On the func_door settings upper right, click the dialog arrow and select 'up'.

The following are some important and useful mapping tips and techniques i've learned during my time at TWHL, and through my own experimenting. Please feel free to share some of your own.

10. Start small and compile often. When I first started mapping, I made this huge thing complete without compiling once. Needless to say, it wouldn't even compile, and was so messed, i deleted it and started againe. Complete a couple things, compile, try the map, and repeat. Building a map in smaller, more managable chunks has saved me much time and misery.

9. Number nine sort of goes together with 10. Build all your basic architecture first--avoid all entities, doors, lights, etc at the beginning stages. Get the r_speeds, views and layout in order, and then, start adding entities. This will save you compile time and head trauma.

8. Research. A short time spent on research saves hours of time building, and then rebuilding something. Even If you think you're sure about the details of what your planning to do, take 2 minutes first and google for some reference pics. I definitely learned this lesson the hard way...

7. Use Vertex Manuipulation, not Carving. I mapped for almost 6 months before I even tried to use the VM tool. I just used cubes and wedges for everything. Don't fear the VM, but one suggestion. After you VM a complicated shape, hit 'ALT-P' to toggle the 'check for problems dialog'. This will save time, and help teach you what you can and can't do with VM.

6. For big complicated, or 'busy' maps, use Visigroups and the Cordon tool. One of the first things I do when starting a new map is hit the little red 'hide selected objects tab, to hide the outside walls of my map. this makes it easier to focus on what i'm working on at the moment, instead of things peripheral. Cordon tool saves much compile time on huge maps. Don't leave home without it!

5. Take your time and brush things as precisely as possible. Do not allow brushes to intersect. When it's impossible to make a clean connection between two brushes--like some weird angle stuff--leave the edge a unit away. To facilitate this, zoom to the smallest grid size and carefully line them up. Evil practices like Carving routinely created brushes that are off grid. Stay on the Grid! Trust me on this.

4. Use CTRL-M to rotate brushes, and check with 'Alt-P' after rotating complex shapes or groups of them. Don't use the clicky thing to rotate. Also, after rotatin, hit the VM tab and line up those corners on the grid. Keep it clean.

3. Hold CTRL and click to select multiple brushes or de-select one. Use CTRL+g, u, w, t to group, ungroup, change entity back to world, and tie entity to brush respectively. Click on a brush and hit ALT+ENTER to view it's entity properties. Click a brush while holding shift key, drag the brush somplace else and unclick to quickly copy a brush. I use these constantly.

2.Take time to read tutorials and posts to expand your mapping know-how, and try not to fear the unknown. You will save time and minimize misery, if you take a little time to learn about new things, rather than agonize over doing them willy-nilly later. You can almost always find the answer to a problem by googling/experimenting. Asking lame questions that you can easily right yourself is just unecessary. If you've spent some time trying to right something, but just can't, then post a question.

1. Try to help others when you can. If someone posts a question that seems obvious, try to remember that it isn't obvious to everyone, and nobody knows everything. Try to remember the time when you started mapping, and how arcane some aspects of the editor and the engine were, when you were a nebby. If a post makes you angry, then simply don't reply to it. Posts made in anger are always regretted.

Happy Mapping!

I like to use goombas in the 'gib model' attribute instead of wood or MREs or the like. Crates are ok if you're in a whorehouse, distribution center, supply depot...but they don't belong at the diner, or in the middle of the river, and what not. If you have a space ship, use ultra-modern storage conatiners, not HL crates in true willy nilly fascist.

If you find yourself in a situation where the use of a crate seems appropriate, make them look pretty. Add some hazmat labels, or make it look opened or broken, or something different than the original texture.

Personally, I put goombas as the gibs for the crates. This seems break up the tension, in an otherwise scary map. This one time, my friend Mark suggested I use some palm tree mdl instead of goombas. Needless to say, I was tempted to direct rage towards his general direction. Instead, I just pretended that he didn't really suggest it. After-all, there is no use in making a juhunga out of something, that is, unless a full juhunga is warranted.

Happy Mapping!

Yeah, I'm happy with the performance of v253-17, so i'll stick with it. At least until the final version is released. HL1 Forever!!!

Dead milkmen -- Not Crazy

I give up

Urbandictionary.com has some great stuff too!

It's not offensive, but here--a HL mapping site--is not the place for it. Even if it isn't your intent, your AV implys political conservatism. Not that that's a bad thing

The PL's are overtly political, which I'm surprised so few complain about.

I'm not suggesting outlawing political AVs, It's just my opinion they're inappropriate.

[sarcasm]Bush Rules!!!!![/sarcasm]

Rileymo, I understand your point of view, but by saying 'they don't understand correctly' your adding fuel to the fire. Your AV qualifies as an offender too BTW

Now somebody go into problem maps and fix my damn Mobius Strip

Open CS, Click 'Play CS', then 'Lan Game', then 'Create Game'. Then choose your map, team, etc.

Open Half-Life, click 'Console', type:

map <MAPNAME>

with no extension.

Select all that you want to transfer, Hit the 'Create Prefab' tab, and give it a name.

When ready to paste, click on 'categories', then the subgroup where you saved it and click 'Insert Original Prefab'.

In this way, you will be albe to transfer the entire selection with all their entity properties, to any map you'd like.

Here we go againe... I must say that 'proudly' any thing regarding politics has no place in this forum. Somebody please say you agree. Political and Religious views are very effective tools to divde a community such as this.

Thanks Unbreakable, I was always curious how that worked. I always just modified lights.rad each time, but your way seems much better.

Something like a TWHL top-twenty?

7th: We're not complaning, just discussing possiblities. This is a forum, after all.

ZL: You're right, it would be a lot of work, but not as much as you think.

Stuff for the supposed Map Showcase could be hand-picked by the 4 or 5 same veterans, that are faithfully there rating the maps anyway--You, Seventh, Rabid, Andy, Habboi etc. Your doing the work already, why not create a section of the vault that when a user checks it out, he can be reasonably sure he's going to see something spectac.

Just a thought.

2 things.

For one, I like the idea of creating a new 'juror' class, that does not moderate, just rates maps. Could also give the moderators the choice to judge, if they opted.

Secondly remove the rating ability from all sections of the vault, except the map showcase. Goes without saying that 'utter crap' would never be displayed in the showcase, as it would be 'eviscerated' quickly by the judges.

Perhaps limit the rating to moderators only.

Are you running in Open GL or software mode. It's weird, some but not all of my maps will not show see-through in software mode. Always works in Open GL, though.

Does Spirit have something for this?