Forum posts

I?m with High Voltage, let?s code!!!. By the way ministeve... Yes, we could send maps and then you will spirit them but, will they work on people with just HL installed???. We have to think in those people who just bought the game and never cared about ports or mapping :).
The ideas forum would be ideal too!!!.. I also thought about something... If we are going to make a mod (let?s choose a leader, Andy has the power!!!!!) we should need some resources (using normal HL textures for a non HL environment could be a little annoying)... We could make a resource library (just post the textures to someone who puts them together in a wad file with wally... This someone posts it in the site each week with possible actualizations for all to use it... We could even limit the number of textures per member so we have to be more creative in order to get right results)... But first of it all comes if it will be a mod, if will have any plot or will be just a bunch of maps linked together.

The thing is that Meshuggah sounds good!!!!.. Someone lend me one of their albums, reminded me of Fear Factory with funny time signatures :).

Yeah... Tlax anwered this for me.

Sorry about repeating but, does it really have to be for Spirit??. You know, I can download it and learn how to do some stupid things with it but it may reduce the number of potential users... By the way, have you noticed how this thing is evolving from a bunch of maps linked together to something we will call a mod???.

For the love of god!!!!. How old are you :P????. Does anybody remember when Cliff Burton played in Metallica???. Metallica used to promote bootlegs, you know, the Cliff ?em All video was made entirely from bootleg video shots!!!. Metallica sucks now for they?re trying to play, look and be as System of a Down (these ones don?t suck, you see). Try a new metallica song and a SOD song, it?s practically the same. Even in the videos they?re filmed from below, just like in SOD videos (some sort of reminiscence from greek tragedy where heroes where seen from below as if they were above us???)...
But Metallica did some damn good stuff, like And Justice For All, without Cliff and without bass (yes, I know that Jason Newsted played bass there but, anyone hears it???. I think it was almost removed from the mix in purpose, just to piss him off).
And well... For consolidated artist, they should not care about their music being distributed over the net because they?re rich and famous enough to be promoted and to mantain their current life style but, what?s with those struggling bands?. They just released their first or second album and if it?s not sold the music company (at the end, the one who gives the money to the artist) won?t give them a second chance and they will fail... I try not to download music from small bands due to this sense of guiltness I had (remember, I am a musician too and I want my work to be released and given an oportunity).
Zombie, you say that they?re glad their music is distributed... Well, some are, some aren?t :P. I can assure you that when they put their music on their site they want it to be spreaded but when they don?t and one reads in their interviews that they?re having such a bad time because they are popular but their records are not sold, one should think about it a bit, their future lies in the records companies hands and they only mind the records sold.
I used to think that band earned money from playing in tours and selling albums but that?s not this way... Very good local bands from here use their own money to tour around and they don?t get benefits, but debts (yeah, that?s pretty incredible!!!)... And then comes the album thing but I?m being too boring here, ain?t I???. Just give a little attention to small, fighting bands. They deserve a chance. Download the album and if you really like it, please, buy it so they can keep on working.

I think they do some kind of limited VIS space... For example, you know that world brushes tend to split other world brushes in triangles when they?re connected. If a simple (let?s say 6 faced) brush is connected to a floor brush with 4 sides (imagine a pillar over the floor) the floor will be splitted in 8 triangles (try to draw it in a top view and then draw lines to connect all vertices so they all make triangle shapes... I can?t explan myself nicely, I?d draw it for you if I knew how to post and host pictures).
Imagine now that the pilar is 8 faced... The floor brush will be splitted in much triangles so maybe, to increase Rspeeds you want to put a hint texture surrounding the pillar so it?s run with a separated VIS... Well, I think it?s something like that but don?t trust me.
These HINT textures are included in ZHLT.wad.

But spirit is a little restrictive for those who have not it, ain?t it???. I could download it but most people who don?t know a word about the issue will download the mod and fail to download it simply because they don?t know what Spirit is.
I personally think that the Standard HL engine is enough for our needs. A coder in the team could easyly fulfill our scrpting needs if he makes available the files with new stuff we need... I agree with Kol in most things (he has been here for ages :)) but I think the Spirit thing should be decided by votation.

Maybe your map has a problem that has nothing to do with skyes... Try to make a small box, put inside it a player start and a light. Texture it and give the upper side the sky texture... Run it. See if it works.
If it works there?s nothing wrong with the sky texture so try changing it. It works without the cl_, at least for me.
If it keeps going there is a problem with your map. Post it in the vault then.

Maybe your map has a problem that has nothing to do with skyes... Try to make a small box, put inside it a player start and a light. Texture it and give the upper side the sky texture... Run it. See if it works.
If it works there?s nothing wrong with the sky texture so try changing it. It works without the cl_, at least for me.
If it keeps going there is a problem with your map. Post it in the vault then.

In the 60th vALTITUDE THERE IS A TUTORIAL ABOUT mOD mAKING THAT WILL SHOW YOU HOW.
Sorry about the capitals... I didn?t realise!.

Think it handles Zips too.

The Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood... These ones are really LEGENDARY!!!!... Anyone here digs John Mayall???. For blues lovers is a must-hear, the guy is near 70 or 80 years or something and, well, still has the blues, just like old Gary Moore (reference for all guitar players out there!!!).
Randy Newman???, John Cale?. Got lost 7th. Any reference for me there???. I?m willing to check out anything!!!!. By the way Jester, yeah, much cheaper but one ends up with a sense of guiltness that is very, very unpleasant :(...
And, is there REALLY cheaper to order Cd?s from the net????. I heard that?s quite unsafe, that your order may never get home and things like that. How do you pay them?. Do you own your own credit card???.

I?d like to be in too... But I?m with Kol and Tlax... Some rules, some common themes, some random assignation of levels according to individual abilities, some difficult settings (increasing as maps grow :)) and so on.
Maybe we all should write togheter some kind of story, divide it into chapters and then maps. The rest is all organisation, map testing from all members of the team and a continuous flow of ideas and maps (mailing is a good thing :D)...
If we?re gonna get this thing started we should start with a cense of members, grouping them into small teams linked togheter with other teams and, of course, a plot, an objetive... Don?t you think?.
By the way, we should also try a little question chart with things like "Xen/Earth/Both", "Inside/Outside/Both", to see what we like about maps.

Look also for entities outside the world or for brush entities connected to the void, that is, closing the world.

Hey, this ones I didn?t know... I?d really like to expand my musical horizons as much as possible but there are some problems about that... First, the money :(. As you say, as soon as one gets money he runs to his music store in order to get an album... But albums are really expensive!!!!. Other problem is that you go to the record store and you can never find the album you?re looking for so you end up asking for the Nuclear Blast catalogue (in german, which I can?t understand) or something like that...
To keep on recommending bands I say... Moonspell, portuguese Doom Metal, very emotive, very strong... I love it!.

Hmmm... Something that works for me is to reinstall the whole thing. Uninstall Hammer and then Reinstall it and see if it works... If it doesn?t, well, may be some video card problem. It crashes with any particular message or just crashes?... I had a similar problem (Hammer crashing when saving a file, how do you like that??) and solved it by reinstalling...
If reinstalled and crashes, try downloading it again, just to make sure that is not Hammer the thing who fails and then just blame your computer. Maybe a video conflict?. My girlfriend?s father had a problem with running audio applications and was a problem of 2 applications trying to use the same device. Maybe Hammer is running twice?.

.. Van Gogh cut his ear off.

You?re right Andy, bottles glow when I turn off lights (in HL, I mean)... I thought about a complicated system of func_wall_triggers that changed the thing when you turn off the light. The thing became worse when I wanted it to be breakable so I had to put on a shootable switch, a gib thrower and some multimanager stuff... It was THAT complicated that didn?t want to use it. Anyone who plays the map sees that glowing object as it glows in his/her map, why bother?. Let?s do something playable and forget about little things like these (I fail in doing something playable :().
By the way Andy, how much does increase the size of the BSP if I include the textures in it?. I?m about uploading something and it?s near the 2mb (only the bsps!). I was wondering if it was better to include a wad file in the zip for the player to locate it or if it was better to include it in the bsp... Maybe a batch file could do the installation thing with wads and models (yeah, talked about this before) so, any advantages in incluiding?.
Oh, another thing... For newbies like me, I found that using your own (name).rad file works cool, somehow my advanced compile works with a lights.rad that it?s hidden or included in the code. Using -lights myrad.rad solved the problem of incluiding new texlights...
And I?m moving to bed. It?s 3:55 AM here and I?m pretty tired.
See ya!!!!!.

Another real good band is Old Man?s Child... Heard about their new album?. Maybe I?ll get it tomorrow.

I know... Still I am going too fast... I begun mapping when I joined the site and... Well, shouldn?t I be happy with simple maps until I grow better at this?. You know, is something that comes to mind when looking for complications like these.

Well, Fixed... It came that all floodlit rooms had that glass texture... Just changed it and it works very nice now... I don?t know weheter to post it now or wait a little, fix little errors and sent it then... You know, I spent hours compiling :P... It?s just a beta, shouldn?t be very good, right?...
Nice new avatar 7th... Who?s that :P.
Kol, when I made that map I didn?t know that there was another way of doing things... You know, it was really impressive for me to discover new ways and one thing I like about that bunch of maps is that they really show how my mapping evolved.
And though it works, I don?t know why it didn?t cast light in normal mode... I?ve got just one rad file... Strange.

I?m near... My Glass_bright texture causes to light up areas when in advanced compile...

Thanks Tlax, I?ll try those sites :).

About 415 kb. But since is done from a box and carved and has a sky box and some more EVIL stuff it takes a hell to compile.

So... What I am supposed to do?... I?m thinking about comparing both compile logs since there are no Leaks (it ain?t floodlit) or lights with a value of 0 0 0 0 (well there are lights who start off but, does this mean a thing, it happens also in areas with lights on).
It?s really making me insane but I think it has to be with RAD: everything looks nice with deafult vis and default rad and results dramatically change in some rooms when they are expert... I cannot find a common thing in those rooms but still it works strange.
The map takes 30 min to compile in expert so isn?t suitable to be uploaded to the vault. Any suggestion?. I could upload a zip with pictures of what?s happening and so on, if it can help.

The rest were thrown with my Devel May Cry allegation.

In this case it will never open :P. What about Hint textures?.

I did a little thing... Added red to the ambient and saw all red... Why if I let them all to 0 or near I see much light???.

Simple, anytime I compile my map in expert mode WITHOUT (or with) anything my map compiles correctly but where there should be dark areas there are lighted ones... I checked out lights.rad, the ambient stuff in advanced compile, but nothing...
And if I compile them in normal mode I get the right results... ?Strange?. Sure. I need advanced compile to make full vis so it works faster so, ?What can I do with this problem?.

Here I am... Going to upload the map.

Nono... Wait, as I?m not sleeping tonight I?ll try a little example map :).

Hehe... This is a little more tricky... The trigger won?t block if the teleport sprite is over it, I think. Just try it. If doesn?t work put your map in the problem vault and I?ll take a look.

-To make something happens when a player enters an area you can choose between two different triggers. Trigger once will make something happens only once, that is, only the first time a player enters in the area. That?s useful for triggering an alarm sound, for example, the player enters, the alarm sounds.
Trigger multiple will allow you to make something happen each time the player enters in the area. Imagine you want an elevator to start working whenever the player is near it. Well, you set a trigger multiple there and each time the player approaches, the elevator is triggered.
There is not much science in making triggers work. Just set the name of the entity to be triggered in the TARGET field and we?re done. In the flags stuff you may find useful things. If you tick on "monsters", this entity can be activated by monsters. If you tick "Pushables" it can be activated by Func_pushable brushes and if you tick "No clients" the player won?t be able to trigger it. this may sound stupid but maybe you want something to happen when the scientist following you has passed through a point. Another value to take into consideration is the "Wait for retrigger" field: here you can set, in seconds, the time that a trigger multiple takes to be able of triggering something again. You may want a high value (for triggering along sound) or may want a short value (to trigger lights on and off).
-As for the moving scientist... Well, use a Scripted_sequence. A scripted sequence is an entity that makes someone do something, easy, ain?t it?. Youi can use to make the models play their animations, for moving them around... In fact, most of the complex actions that take place in Half Life are scripted sequences.
In your paritcular case, calculate a route for the movement in straight lines and set a scripted sequence in each one of the vertesex, incluiding the start and the end of the route. Name the first one and put in its target field the name of the second one. Name the second one and put in the target field the name of the third one... And so on. Dont?s set anything in the target field of the last point in the route because the movement is ending there. Name your monster and put its name in the "Monster Target" field of all the scripted sequences... Finally, in the "move to target" choose either walk or run (the one you want) and trigger the first scripted sequence with a trigger once, multiple, or whatever.
Hope this helps.

My map is big, funny and nice... And it has a very big and detailed room surrounded by little rooms, all connected among them and with the big room too... And... It runs slow whenever I look to a closed door.
I read something about Vis Blockers somewhere and thought "Well, this could work, I could block the doors and make the game runs smooth... Well, smooth in the little rooms...
How do I set VisBlockers???.

Errr... That was ME and so ZOMBIELOFFE doesn?t rule. Agree with me in Devil May Cry stuff, Steinin?. By the way, forgot to mention something about my computer: it runs windows 98 with always less than 70% resources available... Doesn?t work nice.

Yeah Kol. Want to participate in our little Death Metal chat???. The first death metal bands came from the Estates, from the coast (I can?t remember which). The wave we?re having now comes from North European countries and believe, they are quite good... Still I miss the old US Death Metal, or the middle 80?s here, when each time a Death Metal band played everyone would go to listen.
By the way, if you want to hear one of the most creative and impressive extinct Death Metal bands from the states try Cynic. Featuring the drummer of Death (yeah, the Chuck Schudilner band... May he rest in peace).

Wow, that looks quite hard but I?d want to see a custom picture in mi mini mod... By the way, I?m about to release a beta for you to test, only one or two weeks (too much compiling time).

Don?t count on me, but count on him ;).

Err... 7th said something about a trigger_hurt with a negative value, although I didn?t check that out.

Errrr.... He?s being redirected to his own former post 7th :D. I think that Rexgregori just want to remind us about the topic... I honestly don?t know how to do it Rexgregory, I could lead you to spanish coding pages but even I don?t understand a thing there.
If you are an experienced mapper trym but if not begin mapping and reeskining and so on, it?s so cool to see the results!!!.

That will be great.

Tlax merit.

Almost impossible to understand in the "F" era (you know, Morbid Angel Albums follow an alphabetic progression "Abominations", the B which I can?t remember, "Covenant", the D I forgot, "Entangled In Chaos", "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh", "Gateways to Annihilation"...), impossible to understand all those Lovecraft stuff there... Mixed with arameo (arameian????) things... All those Gods, Chthulhhu, Absu, Amah-Ushumgal-Anna and so on...
I really dig Morbid Angel, wich may lead to think I am a brutal DeathMetal-Head but, well, it?s just another part :).

What the hell, uploaded a mini map in the example maps vault... Had the time before going (that is, now!!!). Take a look at it, it?s easy.
By the way, the teleports are set without effects so if you want something more complex... ask again.

Hmmm... Gotta go now but drop me a mail (my adress is in my profile) and I?ll pop a little example map. Oh, try setting the Destination in each room away from the teleport brush in that brush so they don?t overlap. Maybe it won?t work but...

Yeah... This should work ir you move your prefabs around... I think it also works if you rotate them. The FIT thing can lead to strange results, for example, if the prefab only displays part of the texture it will be shown entirely, as well as if the prefab features the texture tiled twice, fit will only tile it once (that is, not tiled).
Use the TL button to turn it on and then quit and restart Hammer. It should be left as default.

Tlax is right. That way looks better... As I work without RAD I don?t realise :D.

Still have problems?.

Hmmm... 2 seconds between 2 answers... LOL :D.

Well... As you know, a ladder consists of 2 parts: a brush with the image of the ladder and another with the func_ladder...
Nice, turn the picture brush into a FUNC_WALL (if you haven?t done yet) and in its properties look for the RENDER MODE and set it to TEXTURE. Now, in the FX AMOUNT set 255... You?re done.
With this property, you get the blue color to be rendered completely invisible...
Now you could divide your image-brush-ladder in 3 parts: one for the steps and the other two for the sides, so you can see them in a more realistic perspective... If you need help just ask for an example map :).