Forum posts

The problem was that I had the x/y cull distance set way too high. I have set it to something more reasonable and everything appears to be working much better. I still haven't tested it with anyone in game with me, but with sv_cheats I was able to place stuff without a problem. I had it set to 2048, it is now set to 512.

Turns out I am on drugs. I think I saw the bullet hits on the other side of the cone and thought they were on the cone. Everything is working splendidly and I am quite pleased with the searchlight.

Is this an NS map?

Hmmm, I suppose even having the beam stationary might be better than no beam at all, that's a good thought, thanks.

The prefab wasn't designed for NS, I would say it is an HL prefab.

Before someone jumps all over me for using a prefab, I'm going to get defensive, and say, I don't care that its a prefab. I'm a newbie mapper, and I could never have done as good a job as this guy did at creating this searchlight.

However, having got that out of the way, I do have a problem with it. Its a func_pendulum that is passable, but the cone is nonetheless stopping bullets, or at least I am getting bullet hit sprites when I try to fire through it. Any suggestions on how I can prevent the cone from stopping bullets or appearing to be hit by bullets?

I also want the searchlight itself to stop bullets. Should I place an invisible func_wall around it?

The mod is NS. Thanks in advance.

Its definitley not the mod, this problem has persisted through at least two versions of the game. I had the problem several months ago and gave up for awhile, or moved on to other projects, and there has been at least one version of the game since then. I also don't have this problem with any other map, so somehow the problem is with my map. I have posted in the official NS mapping forum as well as another mapping forum. Hopefully I'll run across someone that can help me because I must admit, after working on the map for two or three months, and working out all kinds of bugs, only to have it crash on me when it seemed like I was finally finished, I was pretty discouraged...l

I'm hoping someone here has some experience in NS mapping. I'm working on my first NS map, my first map period - actually worked on it for several months and then gave up for a few month, now I'm back at it and very rusty...

Anyway, the map compiles without a hitch, and I can run around it as a single player without any major problems, r_speeds are reasonable for the most part. But when I actually try to play a game, when I place a buildable as the marine commander, I crash. The server doesn't crash, and the alien player is unaffected, only the marine commander client crashes.

Does anybody have any idea what might be causing this. I will compile the latest version tonight and make the source and compiled version available for download either from my server or upload it here if I can, if nobody can give me an idea of what the problem might be before I do this.

Well, I didn't fix it, I just figure it is an NS beta problem. The trigger_hurts aren't overlapping, but there are two trigger_hurts touching each other. Is this the problem, and not the NS beta? Although it seems strange to me that this would be the problem because it is only when I am about to die that the listenserver crashes. I take the damage no problem.

The brush in question is above the func_water, so that you take damage when you fly too close to the "lava".

After testing it again I think the trigger_hurt is working properly, I think there is a problem with dying in NS when you are in cheat mode on a listenserver. I turned on noclip and flew into the trigger_hurt and I took damage properly, it is just when I would have died the game crashed. So I guess I won't post the map after all.

Hopefully I will be able to post the completed map after tonight's compile.

***

You'd think it would be a simple thing to remember to put my damned mouse in its cradle every night when I go to bed, but can I remember this one simple thing? nooooooo...

I'm wondering if it crashed because I was in cheat mode. I think this is something I am going to have to check at the NS forums - damn, forgot to recharge my mouse... again...

I will post the map though in problems again. I'll link to it here. Thanks for the quick response.

I've created a map, and it is almost done, however, I have one major problem. There is a large crevace with lava at the bottom in the middle of the map and I have created two trigger_hurts, one in the lava and one on top of the lava so that you are killed if you fall into the lava, and take damage if you get close to the lava - this is a Natural Selection map so it will be possible to fly close to the lava.

However, I jumped off the bridge into the lava to test the triggers, only the map crashed when I entered the first trigger. I am assuming I did something wrong. I've read the blurb in the entities about trigger_hurt, I've searched these forums for probably at least an hour, I've searched the internet, but I can't seem to find any good answers. What does "master" do, and how does it work? Is it necessary when using the trigger_hurt, or is it only necessary when the trigger hurt can be turned off and on by another trigger of some sort? Does anyone know of a good tutorial for trigger_hurts?

Thanks in advance.

I could have sworn I already replied to this... This is a Natural Selection map. There is no Not-Solid flag on the fun_pendulum.

As for the prefab, I am new to mapping and this prefab was better than anything I knew how to do, in fact, it is still better than anything I would do now that I know how to do it. I might as well use the prefab and give the creator credit rather than creating something from scratch myself which would probably only be a copy that should, by all rights, also be credited.

I downloaded a great prefab from Gamedesign and I am using it in a map. It is a search light that moves. The cone of light is a huge spike func_pendulum brush entity. Its properties are additive and passable. I can walk through the brush, but it stops bullets, so it isn't much use to me, although it looks terrific and I would love to be able to use it. Is there anything I can to to make bullets pass through it?

Ok, I bit the bullet and uploaded the map to the problems vault. I've included all the necessary files, and both the rmf and the bsp. You should be able to simply unzip this into your ns or nsp directory. This is a Natural Selection map.

http://cariad.co.za/twhl/mapvault_map.php?id=1988

Turns out I am still getting stuck on that original brush but it isn't as bad as it was. Tying it to func_wall didn't help.

I guess the next step is the problems vault. I may wait for awhile for that. I'm not sure I'm ready to have the rest of the world see my baby yet.

You should try tying every other brush of the surface into one func_wall.
Brushes cutting each other can cause lots of damage.

I don't think there are any brushes cutting each other, but I will try changing the brushes into func_wall. I reduced the angle of those brushes and that fixed the problem, they are steep enough to still slide down, but the problem seems to be solved. However, now there is a very steep angled brush below that with the same problem. I will try tying it to func_wall and see if that helps.

This might also be caused by the old CLIP hull algo.
Download XP_Cagey's 'p' compilers and use -cliptype precise on hlcsg.

Thank you very much, I will try that, I have Cagey's "p" compilers.

Just out of interest, whats the exact gradient of a brush to make the player start to slide rather than walk?

I think the angle is around 35 degrees.

I'm having a problem with one part of my map. Its a steep surface, and when I slide down it, I get stuck on it. I tried creating a new brush over top of the old ones and changing the angles somewhat, but I still get stuck there. Is there any way to prevent this, or is this a problem with the HL engine? There are no objects nearby to cause obstructions or blockings, it is just a very steep angle. I want players to slide off the brush and fall to their death if they are stupid enough to wander out there, so I don't want to prevent them from sliding down the brush. There are no problems with the map there and I get no compilation errors there.

I just want to say thank you to whoever is responsible for this TWHL site. This has been an amazing resource for me as a complete nOOb mapper, and everyone on the forums has been extremely helpful as well.

Ahh, sorry, I figured it out. I'm afraid I posted on a number of forums about this. I was trying to use a model in the "valve" directory. I thought this was possible, apparrently it isn't. Anyway, when I moved the model from the "valve" directory to the NS models directory, all was well. I am using a custom fgd now, however, with beta NS 3.0, would I be better off to use the fgd included with the beta?

Thanks, I'm using the official NS FGD, I think I saw a custom one floating around somewhere, I will try to get my paws on that one.

Is there any way to see your model in your map before compile?

Thanks for the information. Very helpful. I seem to be getting the message that this isn't a big deal and I shouldn't worry about it unless there are loads of them. I'm going to do a full vis and see if that fixes the problems.

A leaf is a thin piece of herbal cells, usually to be found at the end of tree branches or bushes, mostly green.

Thank you, that is so helpful!!!

But honestly, thanks for the links, and I guess the short answer is that there is no simple way to find a problem leaf... I'm having problems with the infamous, "Leaf portals saw into leaf" errors during compile...

More nOOb questions here. What exactly is a leaf and is there a way to find a specific leaf, like the way you can find specific brushes, in Hammer?

Turns out my whole map was buggy and Hammer started crashing regularly on it. I was trying to join three smaller caves to a larger cave and when I tried to join one at a 45 degree angle things got really ugly with the carving and clipping... I restarted the map from scratch and did things differently and so far it seems to be working much better, not to mention easier...

I've got a problem with two textures, at least I think it is the textures. When I compile my map and look at the textures in the map they look like leaks in the map, you know that sort of mirrory runny texture that looks like you are passing through a star field faster than the speed of light... like a black hole without the blackness...

They are on a quite complex part of my map, it is a cave with three antechambers, and this chamber is set at 45 degrees to the xy axis. Anyway the geometry is very complex there and even though there are no leaks in my map, and Hammer doesn't report a problem, there most definitely is a problem. Not only do I have those strange textures in the game, but Hammer is crashing every minute or so when I have the map loaded.

I have tried aligning the texture to the face of the brush, but that didn't seem to help. I have even tried changing the texture in the hopes that this would solve the problem, then went back to the original texture, but the problem wasn't solved. Is there a way to simply delete the texture and start over again?

Or perhaps the problem isn't the texture at all, although I get the feeling that it is because Hammer crashes most quickly when I use the texture tool.

Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.

Oh, and on an aside, so far I like GenSurf better than nem's Terrain Generator. Being able to generate terrain from a bit map is unbelievably powerful. I know also that I can raise and lower terrain easily in GenSurf, but I've forgotten how to do it....

Well, I figured out what the problem was. I had created the cave with GenSurf, using a bitmap, and the "ceiling" option. When I created it, I was presented with what looked like the top of a cave, but when I tried to add a bottom to it and compile it, I kept getting brush outside of world errors, so I thought that my cave ceiling, was actually a hill.

Anyway, I eventually did a search on the brush outside of world error and figured out that the real problem was that I had the map too close to the edge of the map limits.

There were openings on the sides of my cave as well where the ceiling didn't quite reach the ground, those I tried to cover up by creating rectangular brushes and pasting them over top of the holes, I was actually trying to create a flat brush to do the job. But that looked sloppy to me, then I had an inspiration and deleted the bottom and all my sloppy patches, and instead created a box that surrounded the cave, giving it a neat bottom and sides, with no leaks.

I hate that feeling when you are such a nOOb that you don't even know enough to ask the right question to get help.

Anyway, to make a long story a bit longer. I added my little player spawn point, and a light, and compiled the map, after frigging around with textures for a bit, and hey presto, it worked! I was able to walk around in my first little map - a moment I will surely never forget.

I'm using ZHLT. But I don't know about the GUI...

Ahh, I didn't know about nem. Thanks for the tip, I will do a search.

As I thought, there are no GenSurf forums...

Well I never was much for starting easy... I didn't know that GenSurf had forums, the site looked pretty dead when I visited it, but I will check it again...

Hello, I'm afraid I am the dreaded mapping newbie. I've been doing alot of reading, and getting to know Hammer a bit. However, I have a question. These are newb questions I know, so even if you could point me to the right tutorial, that would be just perfect.

I want to create a large cave. What I did was used GenSurf with "Ceiling" orientation in the hopes that this would create a cave, and I thought this was what it was supposed to do. However, what I got was a hill. I guess what I need to know is how to create a cave in GenSurf.

Either that or I need to know how to add a floor to the bottom of my cave, and delete the box part above. Looking at it more closely I think I did create the cave correctly, however, I'm not sure whether the textures were created inside or outside the cave. Perhaps it doesn't matter, are textures two sided?

Oh boy, I know this is complete newb stuff, but if you could please point me in the right direction, I would be grateful.