Forum posts

You could use a trigger_changetarget, place one for each path that the player can take.

understood, and that WAS my original plan, but again, theres multiple places you can run while chased, and the gman cube cant follow multiple paths at once, all i can see is a sweeping kinda fake ai, where it runs around the map, but then again, id prefer to have it CHASE the play rather than mindlessly slide around the map, also, thank you for the mini-tutorial, but i already know how trains work (for the most part), may check out the article if theres any way to fire a path while its on a different path.

@Admer456 said:
They knew about good principles, they just didn't really have the time to apply em. Between 1996 and 1998, the game spec changed so rapidly and so much, nobody could really keep up. Game code is very patchy, very volatile, and rapidly evolves. It's simply like that by nature.

Oh, it explains.

@Admer456 said:
It is possible you were getting errors because you were casting to CBasePlayer and not CBasePlayer*. This is just C++'s value and reference semantics. In C#, a value type is a struct. In C++, a value type is anything that isn't a pointer. So you were trying to, essentially, convert a reference type into a value type there. Possibly, I'm just guessing.

Sorry for asking without clarification.
I used a static cast like this:

if (pOther->IsPlayer())
    player = static_cast<CBasePlayer*>(pOther); // invalid type conversion

Have no idea why it gives an error. I read that this may also occur when inheritance is private, but it's public in SDK code.

And dynamic cast like this:

player = dynamic_cast<CBasePlayer*>(pOther); // the type in a dynamic_cast must be a pointer or reference to a complete class type, or void *

I believe I've already indicated that I need a pointer by using an asterisk. At least, when I used dynamic_cast multiple times trying to cast from CBaseEntity to CBasePlayer through the inheritance chain, it worked fine with all classes but CBasePlayer.

I also know the differences between these two methods, I tried both just in case, but thanks for the explanation anyway!

By the way, your code:

@Admer456 said:

if ( pEntity->IsPlayer() )
{
   CBasePlayer* player = static_cast<CBasePlayer*>( pEntity );
   ...
}

Is just like the one I used and caused the same error (invalid type conversion). The only difference is that I changed pEntity to pOther (since I used your snippet in the entity code), however, it does not look like the reason.

You cant turn the gcube into a func_train, and use path_corner to create a simple trayectory. If you want the gcube to kill the player, set the damage to something like 300 (so the player gets gibbed).

Yeah, after a few days working with SDK, I'm starting to think that guys from Valve didn't know about any good coding practices or principles back in 1998.

They knew about good principles, they just didn't really have the time to apply em. Between 1996 and 1998, the game spec changed so rapidly and so much, nobody could really keep up. Game code is very patchy, very volatile, and rapidly evolves. It's simply like that by nature.

but I also want to ask how to get CBasePlayer from CBaseEntity

if ( pEntity->IsPlayer() )
{
   CBasePlayer* player = static_cast<CBasePlayer*>( pEntity );
   ...
}

It is possible you were getting errors because you were casting to CBasePlayer and not CBasePlayer*. This is just C++'s value and reference semantics. In C#, a value type is a struct. In C++, a value type is anything that isn't a pointer. So you were trying to, essentially, convert a reference type into a value type there. Possibly, I'm just guessing.

Rule of thumb: if you know an object is of a certain class (e.g. via IsPlayer or checking pev->classname), you use static_cast. static_cast will throw if the cast fails.
If you don't know what object a class is, and you wish to "ask" it, you use dynamic_cast (a bit like the is keyword in C# but simultaneously it's an as)

You may then write a few utility methods into CBaseEntity too, as an example:

template<class T>
T* As()
{
    return static_cast<T*>( this );
}

template<class T>
T* TryAs()
{
    if ( Is<T>() )
    {
       return As<T>();
    }

   return nullptr;
}

template<class T>
bool Is()
{
    return dynamic_cast<T*>( this ) != nullptr;
}

Usage:

if ( pEntity->Is<CBasePlayer>() )
{
   pEntity->As<CBasePlayer>()->DoPlayerSpecificStuff();
   // or
   CBasePlayer* player = pEntity->As<CBasePlayer>();
}

Oh, and... I don't know, maybe I should create a new thread for a new question (sorry if I do :3), but I also want to ask how to get CBasePlayer from CBaseEntity.
I tried both static_cast and dynamic_cast, but they failed with different errors. I also tried to cast step-by-step through the inheritance chain (CBaseEntity -> CBaseDelay -> CBaseAnimating -> CBaseToggle -> CBaseMonster -> CBasePlayer, if I'm not mistaken), and it still gives an error when trying to cast CBasePlayer from CBaseMonster. I (again) have no idea what causes these errors, so I am asking here.

Thanks! All worked. Thanks for the link too, I found a lot of interesting articles about working with HUD/VGUI there.

Also, for those who will find this thread when searching for the same question and encounter the same problem - Tried to create a message with a bogus message type ( 0 ) in my case popped up because of a message name longer than 12 characters (I somehow skipped it in tutorial 😅).

@Admer456 said:
And yes, gHUD is the HUD singleton. It represents the clientside as a whole, almost a bit of a god object I'm afraid..

Yeah, after a few days working with SDK, I'm starting to think that guys from Valve didn't know about any good coding practices or principles back in 1998. Otherwise, they could at least use folders to group files and make working with code a little less hell. Or, maybe, it wasn't possible in C++ back then... I don't know for sure, so I won't judge.

well, im thinking that its going to be a ton of paths, along side a ton of triggers to activate that path, but that wouldnt work very well, and i dont know how to code.

Alright, what is your entity setup, then?

i cannot post the map as of now, as currently, it is nowhere even NEAR the mapping process. and yes, it is a func_train (as of now)

Day of defeat from version 8308 and later have an error "Message name too long: ScoreInfoLong" which leads to unknown havoc, sometime it make clients crash and exit, it happen more often when using Strikebot or sturmbot make game unplayable.

Hey there, why did you made this post?

Sketch of a beta hornet gun.

Nevermind - found some information: https://web.archive.org/web/20071025113437/http://tf.valve-erc.com/kbase.php?id=24

As for flTime and others, that is the absolute time (in seconds) since the client started... something, I am not 100% sure if it's since joining the server or starting up the game altogether, but it's likely the latter.

And yes, gHUD is the HUD singleton. It represents the clientside as a whole, almost a bit of a god object I'm afraid..

Also, the HUD is redrawn every frame no matter what, it's an immediate-mode GUI as opposed to a retained one. So if you changed some colour variables, and they are being referenced in the HUD code, no worries, it'll auto-apply.

Yeah, HL already does this in plenty of places, e.g. to send damage information to clients. What you're describing is a Remote Procedure Call / RPC, and Half-Life implements it exactly via "user messages".

It's a manual, tedious process, but fairly simple to follow:
Serverside: declare a global message ID (inline int gmsgMyMessage) and register it, i.e. link it to a name: gmsgMyMessage = REGISTER_USER_MSG( "MyMessage", -1 ), the last number saying how many bytes are sent in this message, -1 if unknown
Clientside: declare a HUD function and glue it to said message name with some macros, like DECLARE_MESSAGE and HOOK_MESSAGE

Here's a guide for that.

I'm trying to figure out how to enable the flaginfo option to my TFC map, but I'm unsure how to address the 'Item 1 no. for flaginfo (display_item_status1)' attribute. Is there any documentation that guides you through what exactly can be inputted to enable flaginfo or maybe a guide to the full attribute options for info_tfdetect?

Thank you

First of all, I'm not a C++ programmer. Despite this, I have a lot of experience with C#, so after two days of working with the Half-Life SDK, I learned the main differences. However, for more experienced developers, some of the things I’ve done may seem odd or even wrong. I don’t mind if someone points them out. :3

What I want to achieve is to add the ability to change the HUD color by firing a map entity, because sometimes the player will be playing as different characters. After reading this amazing tutorial, I created a static class called HUDManager with static fields defining the RGB values, as well as a static method to change these values. I modified the UnpackRGB() method to use the values from this class, and so far, it has worked with the default values (though I haven’t yet tried to use this method at runtime).

After a few more hours spent reading the SDK code and tutorials, I created an entity class, linked it, and... suddenly realized that entities are defined and declared on the server side, while my HUDManager is on the client side. So now I need a way to call a client-side method from the server.

I found this tutorial on temporary entity messages, which seems like what I need (or at least something very similar). However, it doesn’t fully solve my problem - none of the constants defined in const.h (from hl_cdll) seem to help.

I also found a file called UserMessages.cpp in hldll, which seems to use the REG_USER_MSG method. This is a macro for g_engfuncs.pfnRegUserMsg, which I presume, based on the file name and the comment above enginefuncs_s, is an interface to an engine function of the same name. Since the engine’s code is not open-source, I can’t dig deeper to verify if this is the function I need. That’s why I’m asking for help.

Some possibly useful information: I’m using the Half-Life Unified SDK, and my mod is intended to be entirely single-player.

I feel like this might be a very basic question that's already been answered somewhere, or there may be a tutorial about it that I just haven't found yet. Forgive my dumb C# brain xd

Oh, and if I’ve already posted this… I assume that after changing static variables of HUDManager at runtime (which I haven’t yet tested), I’ll need to manually redraw the HUD to apply the new colors. My second question is: how can I do this? I found the gHUD variable in cdll_int.h, which I assume is the main HUD variable on the client side? The CHud class (to which gHUD belongs) has a Redraw method with two arguments: flTime and intermission. What exactly does flTime refer to (specifically the m_flTime variable, which is assigned in the Redraw method)? The comment says it's "the current client time," but the current time in what context and in what format? m_flTime is used in so many places that I can’t quite grasp its meaning.

hello

Can you post the map? And is it a func_train?

let me explain, im trying to make this sven-coop chase sequence where you get chased by a giant gman cube, but the problem is it cant just follow some path nodes or anything like that, because theres multiple ways you can go, so im gonna need help with it, this is the thing that chases you by the way.

Ah Shit. I thinked is possible in some way

New release https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/releases/tag/featureful-2024-09-26

A new concept called Visuals allows to change the render parameters of some effects without changing the code. Visuals can be edited in the templates/visuals.json file. For example, you can change the color of vortigaunt's beams or the sprite used by a bullsquid's spit projectile.

Currently the list of supported entities is incomplete but it will grow with each release.

Read the wiki article on visuals

Opposing Force doesn't hide the HL1 playermodels, those are included in the playermodel dropdown in options.

Games like Ricochet and Counter Strike uses nomodels "1" in liblist.gam as DaSalba said, and players instead choose playermodels elsewhere.
You'll need to code some GUI for the players to choose your mod's playermodels when using this, though.

Perhaps nomodels?

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Liblist.gam#Options

https://twhl.info/wiki/page/liblist.gam#Key/value_pairs_that_work_on_Steam_GoldSrc_only

I've got the program installed, but when ran it says that I don't have 'libaudio.so.2'.
So I tried installing libaudio via pacman, and it doesn't seem to exist.
Is there anything I can do to get the program working?

Amazing work, loving the hazy atmosphere!

I've had the same issue with Windows 7 recently. It worked for almost a year past the official EOL, but not since about a week ago. When I start Steam, it freezes, and my computer with it.

I'm guessing some recent update probably created for the first time an actual technical dependency on Windows 10 and it stopped working for good on older OS. Mine still works on Linux. If yours does too, then it's probably just the OS.

A few days ago I was blocked in the Steam community for 14 years, for a comment. Then with the support we all resolved, and I was unblocked, but then, after that I can no longer launch the Steam client. The computer does not display any message about the current state of the client, just the usual loading, and that's it - silence. Before all this, the client worked fine, even considering the fact that Windows 8.1 is no longer supported by Steam. If anyone knows what to do - please help

☝ Seconding the above. Freeslave had done a fantastic job indeed. 💯

May I recommend to use featureful SDK instead. It uses plenty of the SOHL features but adds all Opposing Force stuff on top including new mapping possibilities to make our lives as mappers easier and it even brings new coded monsters to the table.

https://github.com/FreeSlave/halflife-featureful/wiki

Do somebody know how to Force the HL player model to not show in the multiplayer Settings in mods that come with their own models, like Ricochet, Wanted, Opposing Force?

You can likely use the "I need help with something not listed here" > "Contact Steam Support" link to appeal to the support team, but if you were banned from the actual Steam Community (not an individual group) for such a long period, I wouldn't hold your breath.

I wrote to Steam Support about this. I'm waiting for a response. I sent all the necessary data so i can confirm my ownership of the account.

I guess consider what you commented and why and learn from that.

Yes. But the ban came to me completely spontaneously. I didn't have time to do anything, especialy. I haven't been active in steam in terms of games and comments for about 2 months. And therefore it can be assumed that the ban was false. And it unlikely that for a simple comment, i could be banned for 14 years.

Thank you, downloaded the correct version and it's now working.

In one of the comments, they say they will make a more technical follow-up video. So, we might find out.

My guess is that it's maybe a particular combination of Half-Life SDK and reverse-engineered CS 1.6 code.

Edit:
Author says in one of the comments:

It is a hybrid server that runs both mods so both HL and CS clients can connect.

This is gonna be interesting.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGK2xrkyQXc&lc=Ugz3qi1OPHXOKYCwXRN4AaABAg

Hey look at that, how they can do it? Then how we can do it ???

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithCommunity

You can likely use the "I need help with something not listed here" > "Contact Steam Support" link to appeal to the support team, but if you were banned from the actual Steam Community (not an individual group) for such a long period, I wouldn't hold your breath.

I guess consider what you commented and why and learn from that.

I was blocked in the steam community for 14 years. I will be blocked on January 19, 2038.
I was blocked for a comment I wrote. For what is the question for the ages. So if anyone knows how to ask for steam support, please write the options in the comments. I won't wait until my 30th birthday.

Firstly, JACK doesn't do any compilation, it just calls the compile tools that do it.
Secondly, compile logs and their error messages are humanly readable. You do not need any special expertise to read them, let alone depend on strangers online to read it for you.

Now check your compile log, and compare the map name that the compile tools see with the map name in the console error message you posted earlier.

Here is the compile logs too
compile logs

The console shows the text "map change failed: 'haz_sector_offices' not found on server."

If you want a sound to loop you need to edit it to have either a cue/marker point at the start and end. You would need to look up how to do this in your chosen audio editing software: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Looping_a_sound

When you say 5.0, do you mean Spirinity 0.5.0? A mashed together version of Spirit of Half-Life with the Trinity renderer? I've never worked with Spirinity, but I believe it's the same principles as Spirit. Everything in the download should go in its own mod directory in your Half-Life directory. That's it. Restart steam and it should appear in your games list. NOTE: I've just done this setup myself and got the same errors as you when attempting to run any map out of the box. Then it crashes to desktop... That seems terribly stable.

I'm afraid I've reached the end of my ability to help here. I don't care for these kinds of engine mods or renderers and I'm not going to waste time learning their quirks and solutions.

I downloaded 5.0... How should it have been installed?

Hmmm. That sounds like an issue with the installation then, rather than your JACK setup. Spirit is either a bit or a lot of a mess depending on the version you're using...

No, also the same loading error happens when I try to load any other spirit map.