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Penguinboy
I may or may not be as busy as Archie is suggesting, but I plan to pick up work on Sledge this year once I'm done with TWHL4 and the cricket season is over.
I deleted a post that was linking to pirated software.
Just a reminder that we do not encourage piracy of any software on TWHL and you should avoid discussing it. We're usually pretty lenient on most rules but absolutely don't post links to pirated software on the site or you will be banned. Use common sense, people.
The SDK from Github compiles fine with express editions of VS, which are available for free from the Microsoft website. You don't need to buy (or pirate) anything.
Just a reminder that we do not encourage piracy of any software on TWHL and you should avoid discussing it. We're usually pretty lenient on most rules but absolutely don't post links to pirated software on the site or you will be banned. Use common sense, people.
The SDK from Github compiles fine with express editions of VS, which are available for free from the Microsoft website. You don't need to buy (or pirate) anything.
Video tutorials/walkthroughs would be cool! Youtube videos will be easily embeddable in TWHL4, so if you want to, go ahead!
I sort of like the idea of longer build videos, but to be honest, I don't have an hour spare to watch something like that personally. If you can reduce them to 5-10 minutes I probably would though!
I sort of like the idea of longer build videos, but to be honest, I don't have an hour spare to watch something like that personally. If you can reduce them to 5-10 minutes I probably would though!
I'm not 100% sure, but I've never compiled HL with anything aside from MS VC++. You might need to grab the express edition of VS2008 and try again.
I enjoyed it, but by the end I was pretty bored of the puzzles. I think if it was about 3/4 the length I would have enjoyed it more at the end. Still a pretty cool game.
Google's "Material Design" could probably be considered one of the more "modern" designs that's popular at the moment.
Yep! Also, that's a lot of tabs!
For me it's probably gameplay, focusing mainly on originality or creativity. For example, using the existing HL tropes to create some novel gameplay mechanic that hasn't been seen before. Or the reverse, creating a typical HL world and then introducing something that subverts your expectations.
In most games my biggest want is for an interesting story, but for mods it's different. I've never been particularly interested in fan fiction, and that's what most mod stories are in my opinion. A mod needs some other way to get me interested, and the easiest way is through gameplay. Looking nice helps, but if it doesn't have interesting gameplay backing it up, then it's just boring.
In most games my biggest want is for an interesting story, but for mods it's different. I've never been particularly interested in fan fiction, and that's what most mod stories are in my opinion. A mod needs some other way to get me interested, and the easiest way is through gameplay. Looking nice helps, but if it doesn't have interesting gameplay backing it up, then it's just boring.
Generous mum! That's a pretty good build, I've been eyeing off the GTX 960 myself to update from my 570. While it's true that building it yourself is better in most ways, you can usually upgrade these pre-built ones fairly easily. When you want a new GPU, you just put a new one in.
The only thing I'd change in that setup is to use an Intel socket/CPU instead of AMD, and probably start off with 16GB RAM. RAM is super cheap, no reason not to have 16GB these days.
The only thing I'd change in that setup is to use an Intel socket/CPU instead of AMD, and probably start off with 16GB RAM. RAM is super cheap, no reason not to have 16GB these days.
@TJB: Not any reason that I can remember! It's back in there for the new site.
@Striker: Laravel isn't as big as some other PHP frameworks and definitely not Spring, but it's fairly large. To do new stuff (such as PDFs), it's a matter of finding a library and adding it. Sometimes a library will have a Laravel wrapper, and sometimes you just set it up yourself. You're right in that Composer is just PHP's version of something like Maven. You can easily use Laravel and most other PHP frameworks without an IDE, but I use PHPStorm which is commercial, and based on IntelliJ.
@Urby: There's no schedule on reviews now, which should work better. Reviews can be added to maps the same way comments can.
@Striker: Laravel isn't as big as some other PHP frameworks and definitely not Spring, but it's fairly large. To do new stuff (such as PDFs), it's a matter of finding a library and adding it. Sometimes a library will have a Laravel wrapper, and sometimes you just set it up yourself. You're right in that Composer is just PHP's version of something like Maven. You can easily use Laravel and most other PHP frameworks without an IDE, but I use PHPStorm which is commercial, and based on IntelliJ.
@Urby: There's no schedule on reviews now, which should work better. Reviews can be added to maps the same way comments can.
Yes! Youtube videos are embeddable, and reviews can be done by anybody (they don't need to be posted by a MOTM moderator). It'd be great to see more video reviews! (Text reviews are fine too 
)
)I'm hoping that shifting the tutorials to the wiki section in TWHL4 will let us add more tutorials.
You can change you name, but you can't change your user id! I wonder how many dice rolls it takes to get 5749.
@Stu: I'm not actually sure if the database will even store that properly, even after the data is migrated. The current collation is latin1 after all.
Also, will it still be mandatory to have a screenshot in a map upload? Can there just be a "no screenshot uploaded" image to fill in instead?You still need a screenshot to upload a map, though technically you can go in afterwards and delete it to get the 'no screenshot' image. I really don't want 'no screenshot' stuff in the vault though.
Holy crap! That soon? Don't overdo it, man.Don't worry. TWHL4's release date has slipped 5 years and has been re-written from scratch 3 times. Realistically, the 2087 date will probably slip to at least 2265.
You should add a big red button that says a random swear word every time you press it, and underneath is a scoreboard of people who've pressed the button the most, and it resets each week.Only if the button can randomly ban Dimbark 10% of the time!
Is TWHL 4 running on an off the shelf framework or your own ?Off the shelf: Laravel. It's far too much work to try and maintain your own framework, that's why the last attempt at TWHL4 failed.
Will TWHL4 still be orange?Mostly white with orange accents.
Will we still be on the "most-recent post" edit system, or on a "any post any time" system?The first and last post in a thread is editable. Any post less than an hour old is editable.
How different is this TWHL4 to the TWHL4 I got to play with a couple years back?Entirely different. Remind me to send you a link to the beta.
As for suggestions, have you considered adding a random texture spread feature to the face editor and also adding a tile-to-fit option?Funny you should mention that: That feature is planned for TWHL5! Coming 2087!
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Unicode support! Emojis are the future!
Added Stu's request to filter the vault by user. TWHL4 filtering in action.
Oh, definitely. There's no way anybody would design something that looks like this in 2015 
I know that's a common thing on some sites, but I don't like the "log in with <thing>" type functions. I used to think it was a good idea, until I got burned by Google turning off their OpenID service. It's a lot of work for me to keep up to date with API changes, and if the provider goes down, you essentially lose access to your account. Better to keep access to the site inside its own database. If TWHL goes down, well, you won't need to log into TWHL anymore
It's a good point, definitely worth thinking about. If we're just talking about a single forum thread, a lot of that stuff comes free by making the first post editable (which it will be). I guess it'd be nice to have a fancy way to upload images and post updates or something, but you could always manually assemble gallery/updates/downloads sections in a post using BBCode.
I still want to have a little bit of control over competitions, but I think adding more compo admins would be a good start. The 'community vote' judging type will make stuff easier too (like we did with the 30 brushes compo). I'm certainly in favour of adding competitions more frequently (mini comps too).
Projects is an idea that has been kicking around since I worked on TWHL3. I'm not entirely convinced it's worth the effort, because it'd be like a crappy imitation of ModDB. Maybe some way for someone to make a page for the project (wiki style) and link to their ModDB page? I'm not sure, but it won't be in the first release of TWHL4.
Projects is an idea that has been kicking around since I worked on TWHL3. I'm not entirely convinced it's worth the effort, because it'd be like a crappy imitation of ModDB. Maybe some way for someone to make a page for the project (wiki style) and link to their ModDB page? I'm not sure, but it won't be in the first release of TWHL4.
@Potatis:
Not willing to spam the shoutbox with that kind of stuff, but a comments stream on the front page might be worth thinking about. I'm not sure about notifications yet (via email/PM/subscriptions/etc).
@Stu/others:
Related to my replies: The new BBCode lets you do quotes like this, I'm so sick of typing [ quote ] all the damn time so I'm looking forward to this:
Not willing to spam the shoutbox with that kind of stuff, but a comments stream on the front page might be worth thinking about. I'm not sure about notifications yet (via email/PM/subscriptions/etc).
@Stu/others:
Marking uploads as mods would be really neat.Good idea.
Related to my replies: The new BBCode lets you do quotes like this, I'm so sick of typing [ quote ] all the damn time so I'm looking forward to this:
This is a quoteThis is a nested quote
Thanks, keep 'em coming!
@Stu:
Filtering is much easier to do in the new interface.
@Potatis:
@Jessie:
@Stu:
Wouldn't it be better if in this case, "latest map" would also consider maps that were recently updated even if they were old enough not to show up on this list?Good point
I have a little problem with the current criteria for picking the top-rated maps. Right now, if you go to the map vault and sort by rating, it will sort by average rating. So if you have a map with 738 5-star ratings and 1 1-star ratingMinimum 5 ratings to appear as a top map in both versions of TWHL
Things like the time of the upload probably don't matter that much on the general listMost dates have been replaced with "X days ago" labels with the full date/time when you hover over it
More sorting and filtering options. Such as by uploaderMaybe, might be difficult to get a user filter in, but I'll see what I can do
[sort by] date, last update, download countThe (well-hidden) advanced vault filter already has most of these sort options, but I'll add last updated date to the list of options.
Filtering is much easier to do in the new interface.
map download was delivered with the map's name as the filenameWill do the basic version of this as discussed in the shoutbox
Including if I fix an eight-year-old misspelling?Yes. The point is to try and encourage people to edit stuff. Wiki is replacing tutorials and a bunch of other stuff, it needs exposure.
A more visible notification for private messagesYes.
@Potatis:
2MB is rarely enough and we've already lost a lot of externally hosted maps.See first post. Increased to 16mb.
@Jessie:
I think I suggested something about tutorials a while back, but I've forgotten what it was. Oh well.Moved to the wiki, so anybody can add/edit them now
I'd like to see a better way to implement community competitions (mini-compos, if you will), though I can't really think of any way to do it.Probably by adding more competition admins, or by creating more. Two compos can run at once in the new site.
You might find it hard to believe, but TWHL4 is real, exists, and is coming soon to a server near you! I've been developing the new version of TWHL (aka TWHL4) over the course of this year and it's getting close to "finished" - meaning that the current features of TWHL (aka TWHL3) will soon be implemented in the new site. So let's talk about new features.
Let me first explain a few changes that TWHL4 will have in terms of functionality and content:
So that's what's already there. Now I want to ask you: what do you want to see in TWHL4? Suggestions about features or content both welcome.
Let me first explain a few changes that TWHL4 will have in terms of functionality and content:
- Universal BBCode - the same BBCode will work in comments, forums, wiki, vault, and everywhere aside from the shoutbox. There's options for lists (bullets, numbers, nested), tables, youtube embeds, images (with optional alignments), headings, font size/colours, and some other cool stuff. The syntax is a combination of BBCode and something I've invented which is loosely based on Markdown.
- Live shoutbox - the shoutbox is now a JavaScript widget that docks at the bottom of the page, basically like a Facebook chat. It refreshes every minute. It can be minimised or disabled if you don't want to look at it.
- Automatic MOTM - MOTM is automatically created every month, instead of requiring someone to manually do it. The MOTM will be chosen from maps in the 'completed' section that were posted in a month, and the winner will be the one with the highest rating. Each MOTM will be two months behind to give people time to vote (e.g. October MOTM will be posted on December 1st)
- Reviews - because MOTM reviews won't exist anymore, the review system has been merged into the comments on vault items. Any user will be able to add a review. The regular star-based system is still available.
- Vault - maps are the first thing you see on the home page, right at the top. The MOTM and the latest map come first, then 5 top-rated maps and the 5 most recent maps. There's separate sections for models and textures, and potentially applications and tools. The upload limit has been increased to 16MB.
- Vault - YOU CAN ADD MORE THAN ONE SCREENSHOT TO YOUR MAP!
- Wiki - Several sections will be merged into the wiki: tutorials, the VERC archive, and most of the static pages (servers, about us, etc). Wiki edits will get prime coverage on the front page.
- Competitions - I'll be trying to get more regular competitions running. The new system makes it much easier to have competitions that are judged based on a community vote.
- Private messages - PMs are now threaded and the discussion can include more than one person. New people can be invited to an existing PM conversation.
- Accounts - users can now reset their passwords via email
So that's what's already there. Now I want to ask you: what do you want to see in TWHL4? Suggestions about features or content both welcome.
Decompiling a map won't give you something that's reasonably editable, so unfortunately you're not going to get very far with bsp2map. Your best option is to clean up the decompiled result as much as possible, and then use it as a reference to rebuild your maps from scratch. The entity data from bsp2map can be used, but all the brushwork will need to be rebuilt.
Do NOT use brushwork from decompiled stuff in your final maps - the brushwork created during decompilation is ridiculously inefficient and will cause tons of issues with high compile times and lag in-game.
Reminder to everyone to back up your files! With tools like Dropbox and Google Drive, it's ridiculously easy to set up a simple online backup. Offline (e.g. USB drive) backups are important as well. Do it now!
Do NOT use brushwork from decompiled stuff in your final maps - the brushwork created during decompilation is ridiculously inefficient and will cause tons of issues with high compile times and lag in-game.
Reminder to everyone to back up your files! With tools like Dropbox and Google Drive, it's ridiculously easy to set up a simple online backup. Offline (e.g. USB drive) backups are important as well. Do it now!
The sparks that @2muchvideogames mentioned are due to the spirit code doing that when a debug flag is set. The sparks happen when an AI doesn't have a schedule to run. The problem is that nobody documented that debug mode, so they compile their final release without removing the debug flags, and they get the sparks. The code for the AI sparks is here.
Spirit is a cool tool but as everybody has said, it has plenty of other issues just like the sparks. There's a lot of undocumented stuff, and just poorly built stuff. It doesn't help that the file structure of the HL SDK is pretty terrible. I always think that it'd be a cool project to pull in spirit and the 2.3 SDK and re-implement the code in a more sensible (but still compatible) way. But who has the time to do something like that? Not me!
Spirit is a cool tool but as everybody has said, it has plenty of other issues just like the sparks. There's a lot of undocumented stuff, and just poorly built stuff. It doesn't help that the file structure of the HL SDK is pretty terrible. I always think that it'd be a cool project to pull in spirit and the 2.3 SDK and re-implement the code in a more sensible (but still compatible) way. But who has the time to do something like that? Not me!
I've been told that picking a favourable time for Aussies is unfair to everyone else, so best choose a time that's more appropriate for Europeans, because most TWHLers live closer to those time regions.
Also, cheating and matchmaking aren't a problem for a community hosted event such as this. Though I can understand not wanting to buy a game just to play with the TWHL community twice a year.
But I was using military formats and UTC to avoid ambiguity 
Basically if it's "AM" in the GMT zone, then it's a good time for Aussies. I think that 1000 GMT on or so would work pretty nicely for most of the Europeans, and Americans can get shafted this time!
That's just my suggestion, anyway - if a different time is chosen, the Aussies will just need to deal with it, I guess
I have it on good authority that Archie has no trouble getting drunk in the morning, so you don't even have worry about having to listen to him sober.
Basically if it's "AM" in the GMT zone, then it's a good time for Aussies. I think that 1000 GMT on or so would work pretty nicely for most of the Europeans, and Americans can get shafted this time!
That's just my suggestion, anyway - if a different time is chosen, the Aussies will just need to deal with it, I guess
I have it on good authority that Archie has no trouble getting drunk in the morning, so you don't even have worry about having to listen to him sober.
Please choose a different time of day this time! Aussies want to play too and getting up at 6AM is impossible
Starting between 0000-1200 UTC is best for us!
Starting between 0000-1200 UTC is best for us!
There's no proper full screen functionality, but pressing F5 will maximise the 3D view. You could also create a custom view window and set the layout to 1x1, and maximise that window.
Only if you want it to be, it's fine to create a "normal" shooting-style action map as well.
There's no restriction on what kind of gameplay it is. If you wanted to do a traditional run-and-gun style map, then that's fine, but other people might want to make complex entity setups or novelty maps that don't have any shooting at all. In the case of my map idea, having more than one player in the map would break the sequence that I have in mind.
Yeah, I have an idea for a map, but it'd only be a short novelty map that only really works in single player.
Same as last time, I'll try but will probably quit without doing anything.
Yeah, I was thinking that having a "transition room" would make things easier, and gives people a good starting point to work from. It wouldn't need to be very complicated, just a room with an entrance door and an exit door, and a changelevel landmark/trigger in the middle. Everyone puts one at the start and end of their map. It'd make Urby's job a lot easier at the end, too.
What's the plan to stitch the maps together? Is there a template start/end room or will it just be basic teleports between maps?
Ugh, post massive walls of text to pastebin or something, please.
It's really hard to tell without seeing what other changes you've made, I can't see any obvious problems in that file, but there's missing components (from other files) so I can't be sure.
My recommendation would be to start again from an unmodified copy, then make very small changes one at a time, and compile after every change. That makes it a lot easier to know what change was wrong so you can investigate and find the problem.
Start by adding the weapon class because that's the first step (e.g. you can't add the gun to the HUD until you have finished the gun). A lot of the time it's easier to copy the code from another weapon to start with, you might want to copy the code from the handgun to use as a starting point.
My recommendation would be to start again from an unmodified copy, then make very small changes one at a time, and compile after every change. That makes it a lot easier to know what change was wrong so you can investigate and find the problem.
Start by adding the weapon class because that's the first step (e.g. you can't add the gun to the HUD until you have finished the gun). A lot of the time it's easier to copy the code from another weapon to start with, you might want to copy the code from the handgun to use as a starting point.
If you post the code in your beretta.cpp file, I might be able to locate some the errors. But I would recommend you learn how to do object-oriented C++ first, because the SDK code uses it a lot. You need to learn more about C++ programming if you want to make progress.
There is a good introduction here: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
You should read them all (and also write simple some code yourself so you can experience it yourself), but if you want to skip some, the most important sections you should read are:
There is a good introduction here: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
You should read them all (and also write simple some code yourself so you can experience it yourself), but if you want to skip some, the most important sections you should read are:
- Basics: "Variables and types" and "Operators"
- Program structure: "Control Structures" and "Functions"
- Compound data types: "Arrays" and "Pointers"
- Classes: Everything
Okay, looks like you have some syntax errors in your 'beretta.cpp' file, but I think there are other problems as well. It's hard to tell without seeing the code. You should try to find a more detailed tutorial to follow.
Do you have much experience with C++ programming? If you haven't done a lot of programming before you are going to have a lot of difficulty making changes to the SDK, you might need to find someone else who can help you with coding new weapons.
Do you have much experience with C++ programming? If you haven't done a lot of programming before you are going to have a lot of difficulty making changes to the SDK, you might need to find someone else who can help you with coding new weapons.
Hide the warnings and post the errors only, the errors are the important things you need to look at, and the HL code has hundreds of warnings that you can safely ignore. I'll remove your previous logs because they're making the page really long, use something like pastebin to post log files please
Yeah, that make sense. I don't know how brush-based entities translate into BSP geometry. Point entities should be ok though.
That seems incorrect, as far as I know the entity data can easily be perfectly extracted from a BSP, whereas the brushwork will be absolute trash because reversing the CSG process isn't really possible. The ripent tool that ships with VHLT builds can be used to pull entity data from a BSP. I doubt that a decompiler would ignore entities when they're so easy to extract from a BSP.
Please document anything you learn When I have time I would like to add a basic Goldsource coding guideline to TWHL's wiki, any info is useful!
When I have time I would like to add a basic Goldsource coding guideline to TWHL's wiki, any info is useful!I know how you feel. I've searched for any general information guides on HL programming, but the only things I can find are useless copy/paste "tutorials". If anybody knows any HL programming guides, I'd love to know about them! There's nothing I can find even on the basic stuff, like client/server messaging, adding new entities, locating objects, AI scheduling, or any general architecture information.
It's all really specific stuff like: "make your gun glow in the dark: just paste this code in this file!". It's annoying how inefficient this stuff is - instead of someone writing some useful documentation, everyone's trying separately to read Valve's terrible code and trying to figure out how it works.
I haven't done a lot of HL programming, but for adding new weapons, the only thing I can suggest is: copy the weapon that's "closest" to the one you want to make, and then start modifying the code from there. But that's not very useful advice
It's all really specific stuff like: "make your gun glow in the dark: just paste this code in this file!". It's annoying how inefficient this stuff is - instead of someone writing some useful documentation, everyone's trying separately to read Valve's terrible code and trying to figure out how it works.
I haven't done a lot of HL programming, but for adding new weapons, the only thing I can suggest is: copy the weapon that's "closest" to the one you want to make, and then start modifying the code from there. But that's not very useful advice
I agree with your final conclusion, but the risks have always been present in every piece of closed-source software and every service that you use. This doesn't change with Windows 10, it has just been made more obvious due to recent leaks from American government agencies.
It's good that more people are becoming aware of just how pervasive social data-mining has become, but pretending that there's no other option is misleading and ignorant. Linux has been around for a long time, and because it's open source, you do have the opportunity to control exactly what's going on. However, the trade-off is that Linux is not user-friendly, and it has some massive gaps when it comes to interactive software.
Everybody needs to analyise the circumstances and work out what's best for them. I don't particularly care what operating system you use, but spreading misleading paranoia is not something anybody should do. Do your research, and apply logic instead of jumping to a conclusion without considering all the facts.
It's good that more people are becoming aware of just how pervasive social data-mining has become, but pretending that there's no other option is misleading and ignorant. Linux has been around for a long time, and because it's open source, you do have the opportunity to control exactly what's going on. However, the trade-off is that Linux is not user-friendly, and it has some massive gaps when it comes to interactive software.
Everybody needs to analyise the circumstances and work out what's best for them. I don't particularly care what operating system you use, but spreading misleading paranoia is not something anybody should do. Do your research, and apply logic instead of jumping to a conclusion without considering all the facts.
Did a quick Google and got: "This is undocumented Half-Life magic."
The actual flags information is hidden in the GS engine, and there doesn't appear to be any documentation in the SDK or game code.
This is the best information I found, it's from the Xash3D project, so I'm not sure how many are supported in vanilla GS:
I've seen references to the 512 flag in HL models. It seems that you should use this flag for large monsters, such as the tentacle.
The actual flags information is hidden in the GS engine, and there doesn't appear to be any documentation in the SDK or game code.
This is the best information I found, it's from the Xash3D project, so I'm not sure how many are supported in vanilla GS:
#define STUDIO_ROCKET 1 // leave a trail
#define STUDIO_GRENADE 2 // leave a trail
#define STUDIO_GIB 4 // leave a trail
#define STUDIO_ROTATE 8 // rotate (bonus items)
#define STUDIO_TRACER 16 // green split trail
#define STUDIO_ZOMGIB 32 // small blood trail
#define STUDIO_TRACER2 64 // orange split trail + rotate
#define STUDIO_TRACER3 128 // purple trail
#define STUDIO_DYNAMIC_LIGHT 256 // dynamically get lighting from floor or ceil (flying monsters)
#define STUDIO_TRACE_HITBOX 512 // always use hitbox trace instead of bboxI've seen references to the 512 flag in HL models. It seems that you should use this flag for large monsters, such as the tentacle.
Regarding privacy, I've heard that it's been over-exaggerated a bit (as is standard for the Internet, I guess). Apparently all of the areas where it touches the 'net are very easily identifiable and you can turn them off via the regular settings. The "privacy issues" are simply features that search the web and connect to certain accounts if you choose to log in. If you're worried about something more underhanded than that, you shouldn't use Windows (or any other closed-source OS) in the first place.
@Archie: The official word on maximum RAM in Windows 8 standard is 128GB. It's probably safe to assume that they won't go backwards.
Like most others, I'll be waiting a while before I shift across.
@Archie: The official word on maximum RAM in Windows 8 standard is 128GB. It's probably safe to assume that they won't go backwards.
Like most others, I'll be waiting a while before I shift across.
I don't know how the compile tools decides what "number" a brush/entity is (for error reporting purposes). Does anybody know?
Sounds like you might have configured the game incorrectly, the models should load.
The speed of the compile tools won't change regardless of what editor you use, but the compile parameters might. The presets in Sledge use the "-low" flag which makes the tools use a lower CPU priority so the rest of the computer is still usable during the compile. If you want to change it, just create your own custom compile profile.
The speed of the compile tools won't change regardless of what editor you use, but the compile parameters might. The presets in Sledge use the "-low" flag which makes the tools use a lower CPU priority so the rest of the computer is still usable during the compile. If you want to change it, just create your own custom compile profile.