Forum posts - TWHL: Half-Life and Source Mapping Tutorials and Resources

Oskar Potatis

Posted 2 months ago2019-12-17 20:33:41 UTC
in Hidden gems / Underrated games? Post #343470

Have to agree, Duck Game is a blast playing with friends in the couch. The Jackbox Party Pack games are fantastic in that context, too.

The number #1 game that hasn't and isn't getting enough attention is in my opinion Grand Theft Auto 2, specifically the multiplayer mode. I don't know if the popularity of its successors overshadowed it or what happened because it's soooo fun to play online, even today. It's free and with GTA2 Game Hunter it's not hard to find a game if you have a little patience. Tiny Town is my favourite map

Rainbow Six 3 is underrated as a LAN game. It's FUCKING difficult and unforgiving, and that's what makes it good. Trying for two hours to get more than a few meters into a bank at the beginning of a map with your friends...

As for single player games.... Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars, an old point-and-click action adventure game. It was very well received at the time of its release but now is largely forgotten. It has aged very well. The characters and dialogue are hilarious and loveable. I can't recommend the "Director's Cut" version. Go for the original version if you want to try it out.

Broken Sword trailer

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 2 months ago2019-12-17 20:16:27 UTC
in Proposal: A community code of conduct for TWHL Post #343469

Yeah, that looks perfect to me. Good job

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 2 months ago2019-12-05 23:17:23 UTC
in Proposal: A community code of conduct for TWHL Post #343434

Potato seems to be arguing for tolerance of intolerance, which is a dangerous way to go.

No, I am arguing for the complete opposite. I am arguing for tolerance of diversity, because all speech is offensive to someone. What's offensive or not is completely subjective. People are still getting killed for the offense of supporting gay rights, or the offense of saying maybe there isn't a God.

Suggesting that offensive shit shouldn't be disallowed because some people (often the same people) are shitheads is a bad idea.

I agree, which is why I am not saying that. "Shitheads" (I don't like that term) and people who have strong feelings about things (which is almost anybody, really) get offended by innocent, well-intended, friendly comments. It's not uncommon. Read the comment section of any news site. To ban offensive comments is to ban innocent, well-intended, friendly comments.

Inclusivity is not about allowing absolutely everything and anything onto the site, it's about ensuring that people are treated with respect and dignity. If your opinions and beliefs go against the concept of inclusivity, then maybe TWHL is not a place you want to be in.

I agree completely. Intolerance is the one thing a tolerant community or society can't tolerate if it is to stay tolerant.

I think the mods are capable of telling whether something is being said in good faith.

Again I agree. Which is why the code of conduct shouldn't contradict their common sense and tolerance.

Pretending to not understand the spirit of such a rule should ring obviously hollow.

If that's aimed at me, I suggest you reread my comments. While the spirit of that rule is excellent, its wording is terrible. It needs to be clear and unambiguous, because what else is the point of a formal code of conduct?

Offensive doesn't mean intolerant. It just means someone gets upset. And some things are worth upsetting the narrow-minded about: ideas like tolerance and acceptance.

I should also add that there are avenues for vibrant political discourse. Maybe a Half-Life level design community is not the best venue for such things.

You're saying we don't need a Politics section in the map vault? 😉

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 2 months ago2019-12-05 16:27:07 UTC
in Proposal: A community code of conduct for TWHL Post #343426

I wasn't refering to whatever went down on Discord (I wasn't there), but I think I see your point. I think my angle, as you put it, works, since we have moderators that at least I trust to be able to separate hate (or intolerance based in emotions) from disagreement. And if one of them fail at that job, there are others.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 2 months ago2019-12-05 15:20:33 UTC
in Proposal: A community code of conduct for TWHL Post #343424

Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, [....all of this section]

Point 2 was in reference to this. It's problematic to not be able to say offensive things related to those topics. Tolerance, acceptance and respect is offensive to some people (for example: recognising the marital status of a married homosexual couple when there's a conservative Christian listening). And some topics are so sensitive that people are offended by differences of opinion even when everyone has the best of intentions and tries to be respectful and considerate (for example: the topic of gay men's blood donations). Even the covenant itself could be considered an example of

Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, [....all of this section]

if read by someone unreasonable.

Perhaps a distinction needs to be made between comments that offend, and comments that intentionally harm or are unreasonably inconsiderate

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 2 months ago2019-12-05 11:28:15 UTC
in Proposal: A community code of conduct for TWHL Post #343422

I like most of it, but I have four concerns
1) It's very long. Few people are going to read it.
2) With a big enough audience, any well-intended comment is offensive to someone. To ban offensive speech is to ban all speech. Talking about Taiwanese as a nationality is offensive to many Chinese and pretending that it's not a nationality is offensive to Taiwanese. Are we just not allowed to talk about Taiwan as a country? The intent behind the comment and the care for other people that the commenter displays should be what matters.
3) "Jokes that resemble the above, such as "hipster racism", still count as harassment even if meant satirically or ironically." See 2). Hipster racism is harmful, but genuine jokes about racism are not, even if they loosely resemble racist commentry.
4) Not permitting "*simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like "hug" or "backrub") without consent*" is just ridiculous. If someone is hurt by an innocent virtual hug, it is up to them to let people know they don't like it. It's like having to ask people for permission to say "good morning"

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 2 months ago2019-11-22 19:28:23 UTC
in Half-Life: Alyx Post #343392

Moo! I tried a Vive once, but that was with a program for visualising linguistics research data at uni. Was pretty cool and felt decently natural, though a bit pixely but that might have been the software's fault. Couldn't complain about the responsiveness

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 3 months ago2019-11-21 23:03:38 UTC
in Half-Life: Alyx Post #343374

What better excuse than this, I bet we'll see a few more old timers show up.

They should release games more often, then

Wait, we already knew that

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 3 months ago2019-11-10 13:54:37 UTC
in half-life still updating with necessary features Post #343337

It has been a critical part of HL death match to the 0.5% of players who take the game very seriously. To the rest of us, it's an annoying bug.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 3 months ago2019-11-09 21:11:00 UTC
in half-life still updating with necessary features Post #343334

By all appearances the amount of development time Valve is willing to put into improving Half-Life and GoldSrc is very limited. It's great and unexpected that they're even doing anything at all after all these years. Since Hammer has good alternatives in Jack and Sledge I think it would be a waste of that precious developer time for them to work on Hammer.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 3 months ago2019-11-05 02:24:43 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #343308

What is it you're building with that, Admer?

Looking good, Windawz

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 3 months ago2019-11-03 00:10:12 UTC
in TWHL Tower 2 Post #343294

That pistol looks a lot better than the normal HD one

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 4 months ago2019-10-09 21:09:09 UTC
in The Core Post #343201

"My little Half-Life mod finally has a release date!" (Q3 2020)

Glad to hear it

Looking forward to playing it

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 6 months ago2019-08-16 22:51:27 UTC
in bad coding needs help. Can´t create counter inside weapon code. Post #343033

It's difficult to diagnose without knowing when, how, and where this code is executed.

May I suggest you put in code to write messages whenever the relevant functions are called. You could have the messages include the values of the of the variables. This should help you follow the flow of the code and figure out what's happening.

By retardant I assume you mean delay? A retardant is something that inhibits for example fire.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 6 months ago2019-08-10 14:54:13 UTC
in https://valvearchive.com/ Post #342988

I have now

Interesting project. I think I have some files to contribute

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 6 months ago2019-08-01 10:07:33 UTC
in What's new for HL1 in 2019? Post #342948

Vluzacn's compilers are a must. Sledge is great when it works, but unfortunately it often doesn't in my experience. I may have to give JACK a try someday, with so many people recommending it.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 6 months ago2019-07-27 23:21:19 UTC
in Firefox & Chrome addon: TWHL Shoutbox Notifications Post #342920

Glad to hear it, you two 🙂

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 7 months ago2019-07-09 19:35:02 UTC
in Competition 38: The Whole Splash Life (Mini) Post #342850

Thanks for explaining. I might make something stupidly simple just for fun if I find the time

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 7 months ago2019-07-09 16:07:09 UTC
in Competition 38: The Whole Splash Life (Mini) Post #342848

Zeeba-G makes a func_vehicle map... Urby I think you can award the first prize right now

Out of curiosity what did you do to make it float but not able to access the beach? Add a box under the seafloor to the boat? Because that's what I would have tried

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 7 months ago2019-07-09 07:05:19 UTC
in Competition 38: The Whole Splash Life (Mini) Post #342846

Func... func_vehicle?

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 8 months ago2019-06-10 17:44:57 UTC
in E3 2019 Post #342721

Wow. I guess I'm lucky I'm not a fan because I'd have a hard time not getting upset seeing that "Commander Keen" video. You have my sympathy. I hope Valve never does anything like that with the Half-Life series

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 8 months ago2019-06-02 01:07:53 UTC
in Firefox & Chrome addon: TWHL Shoutbox Notifications Post #342683

Great! I have no thoughts of taking it down, I'm just curious

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 8 months ago2019-06-01 22:05:24 UTC
in Firefox & Chrome addon: TWHL Shoutbox Notifications Post #342680

I'm curious to know if anyone (other than me) is still using this, and if anyone stopped using it and if so why

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 10 months ago2019-04-08 08:43:52 UTC
in Turning ladders on and off ? Post #342431

What might work for you is to instead of using func_ladder, you create an extremely thin staircase, with each step being 18 (=the default value of sv_stepsize... actually you might have to make it 17, don't know) units tall and 1 pixel deep. Then turn that into a func_wall_toggle. If you think it looks ugly, you can make it invisible and combine it with a func_illusionary that is the visual representation of the rope, which you then hide/reveal with two env_render entities.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 10 months ago2019-03-29 12:35:18 UTC
in Brush distortions when using rotate Post #342364

I tend to keep brushwork untransformed and rotate it by turning it into a func_rotating and giving it pitch yaw roll values. Not optimal in terms of resource use, but it works no matter what tools you use.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 11 months ago2019-03-13 01:33:57 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342245

Did you increase the memory limit to >6GB?

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 11 months ago2019-03-08 01:15:13 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342183

I am experiencing lag spikes when playing on the server every other second or so no matter where in the world I go (including the Nether). I have cut the power to my machinery and farms to rule them out, and it may or may not have improved things (I'm keeping it off for now), but I'm still experiencing lag spikes. I remember getting some before, but things seem to have gotten worse lately.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 11 months ago2019-03-06 02:46:04 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342167

I wouldn't mind helping you out next time we're on the server

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 11 months ago2019-03-05 17:08:00 UTC
in The Core Post #342162

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 11 months ago2019-03-04 04:26:45 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342136

Thanks for taking a look, Solo. I think I'll get rid of my Powered Spawners and use Mob Duplicators instead to avoid this happening in the future. They're better anyway since they're much easier to manifacture.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 11 months ago2019-03-03 05:44:46 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342122

I'm having some problems with an unknown large number of skeletons having spawned in my basement for some inexplicable reason. I can't kill them. They don't do anything. But they make the game lag whenever I look in their direction (even when I can't see them). They are very near where I used to have a spider Powered Spawner, which may or may not be related (I moved it and turned it off for now). If anyone has any ideas of how to get rid of them, please let me know.

@Muzz: Could you maybe try using the command /kill @e[type=skeleton] when you are in my lower basement? I read that it should kill all the skeletons. I'd appreciate it. How come I haven't seen you in the game, by the way?

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 11 months ago2019-03-01 21:54:26 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342113

I am building an autonomous manufacturing plant in my basement. It requires no player interaction and produces all the resources it needs.

On the left: crafters, furnaces, alloy smelters, etc. On the right: containers for ore and other minerals

So far the most complicated thing it constructs is a simple redstone furnace, but it should be fairly simple to expand to more complicated things now. The completely automated production of a redstone furnace requires, amongst a whole bunch of other things: a cactus farm, tree saplings, an atomic reconstructor, a water pump, and hoes. It sounds like the start of a strange Olsenbanden/Jönssonligan film (Scandinavians will know what I'm talking about). I think I want to autocraft some decent solar panels next. I'm using way too much energy building up buffers of metals and items.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-21 18:28:24 UTC
in Firebot problem Post #342066

The only things worse is finding a thread with "nvm fixed it"

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-17 16:17:16 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342051

Thanks!

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-16 22:49:17 UTC
in TWHL Modded Minecraft Server (Final attempt) Post #342044

Maybe I'll join you one day when I'm bored. Haven't played Minecraft in years. Could you whitelist PotatisInvalido, please?

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-09 08:22:59 UTC
in mod icon Post #341996

It writes them in the required order, which is the reverse order of most TGA files, but the same order as most image files of other formats in my experience. By default most simple image formats keep rows of pixels top-to-bottom. It seems TGA is the exception, though has the capability through certain header fields to store pixel rows top-to-bottom, too. My tool does this, and this makes the icon display correctly in Half-Life as well as anywhere else like Steam.

You're correct that the direction bit (1<<5 in byte 17) should be set, there's also bytes 10-11 which should contain the height as a 16-bit little endian integer, having the same values as bytes 14-15. https://github.com/oskarlh/hltga/blob/master/scripts/index.js#L29

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-08 10:46:35 UTC
in ep2 - make chopper take damage Post #341990

Hi!

I don't know much about Half-Life 2 and the Episodes, but it seems the requirement for the damage to be from rockets or airboats is hard-coded: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013/blob/master/mp/src/game/server/hl2/npc_attackchopper.cpp#L3473

I think you're right in your line of thinking, sounds like the only thing that could work other than custom code

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-05 01:18:00 UTC
in Tool to find error codes for failed LoadLibrary calls Post #341966

99% of computers use pirated oses

Certianly not true. The vast, vast majority of computers are factory-made and come pre-installed with a legal copy of Windows. If you don't want to buy, sure, I understand. Doesn't mean it's better to use old outdated software than modern pirated software that receives security updates and has a more secure architecture. Rather something that may possibly be compromised from the start than something that's guaranteed to be open to infection.

i dont see how win xp is any less secure than any other os

Microsoft has stopped releasing security updates. So the difference is, when an exploit is discovered for Windows 10, an update is released and the system is made secure within days. When an exploit for Windows XP is discovered, nobody gives a fuck, because nobody is supposed to be using a 17-years-old version of Windows anyway.

I am still running XP and never have had any virus warnings...

Having viruses and getting virus warnings are entirely different things. Viruses can go undetected and some viruses alter anti-virus software.

You must only have to keep you antivirus updated and never visit "extrange" or suspicious web sites.

Or browse the web (perhaps to pirate software or watch that weird porn you probably love). Or play games online. Or plug in a USB stick. Microsoft isn't releasing patches against Spectre, Meltdown or any of the other attacks that don't require you to do anything weird. Windows XP is abandoned.

If you don't want to use Windows 10, get a Linux OS or OS X or FreeBSD. You may already be part of a botnet without knowing, and contribute to attacks against innocent websites, companies, organizations, government agencies and even small countries. Update your software, folks.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-04 15:20:48 UTC
in Tool to find error codes for failed LoadLibrary calls Post #341958

You really shouldn't be using Windows XP anyway. It's an insecure, outdated, unsupported system that makes your computer an easy target for people who run botnets that threaten everyone.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-04 15:09:40 UTC
in mod icon Post #341957

I wrote a script you can use if you don't want to install GIMP. Just drag and drop a PNG, GIF, SVG, JPEG, WebP, or TIFF (ironically enough not TGA) onto image_to_hl_game_tga.bat and it will create a game.tga which works fine with both Half-Life and Steam. Let me know if you have any trouble using it. If you want to try different image dimensions, edit index.js (the const width and const height lines).

https://github.com/oskarlh/hltga/releases
Remember to add icon "game" to your liblist.gam if you want it to show up in Steam.

Edit: Added to the wiki

Edit 2: Turns out compression works (even Half-Life's valve\game.tga is compressed), the information on Valve's wiki is outdated. Also, the file can have any reasonable resolution, but should be 32x32 if you want to use the same file for Steam's game list.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-03 22:16:28 UTC
in mod icon Post #341949

No idea, unfortunately

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-02-03 17:38:09 UTC
in mod icon Post #341947

Here's how to save the image correctly using GIMP:

Then add icon "game" to your liblist.gam. The icon will then display correctly both in Steam and the Half-Life window header / taskbar icon.

The "Origin: Top left" option is what does it. I guess the technical reason is that either Windows or Half-Life (whichever is responsible for interpreting the TGA) doesn't care about the part of the file header that says which order the pixels are in. So we need to use the expected order.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-01-23 19:34:11 UTC
in Half-Life: Why has there been no spiritual successor? Post #341809

You could compare it to painting. Some artists can make fantastic art with just their fingers. But you can't deny the importance of the paintbrush.

Similarly, the Doom engine is excellent. For Doom. Not for Battlefield, not for Half-Life, not for a lot of fantastic games, not even Quake. Half-Life can not even be made in the game engines of the early 1990s without changing either the engine or the game so much it's no longer the same.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-01-23 18:34:54 UTC
in Half-Life: Why has there been no spiritual successor? Post #341806

If you make a great game using an ill-suited engine, it's a great game despite the engine. If you have an engine and tooling that's a good fit for what you're creating, you're more likely to succeed in creating something good. Game engines (and the associated tools) matter a lot.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-01-23 15:17:59 UTC
in Half-Life: Why has there been no spiritual successor? Post #341801

An engine has absolutely no bearing on a games quality

It does, depending on the kind of game and what you're trying to create. What made Crysis special? Do old FPS games feel immersive anymore, now that we've been spoiled by more realistic graphics? One of my absolute favourites is Deus Ex. Maybe the second best game I've ever played (Life is Strange is special to me). But I'd like it a lot more if it wasn't so damn ugly and bug-ridden. And not half of the ugliness can be blamed on the artists or even the programmers. The core technology is outdated: look at the lighting, the physics. And if you've played it, you know the Unreal AI isn't a good fit for that kind of game. The game suffers because of these things. That it's still such a great game according to so many people is an achievement, but it could probably be even better if made with today's modern tools. But of course, that's just speculation.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-01-23 12:56:50 UTC
in Half-Life: Why has there been no spiritual successor? Post #341796

I'm going to have to disagree with you. While you can certainly make a fantastic game in any decent game engine that's flexible enough, the limitations of some engines simply don't let your realize certain visions. You can't make something like GTA in the GoldSrc engine or even the Source engine without jumping through hoops that take -a lot- of time away from the creative process.

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-01-01 20:15:04 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #341533

Don't be sorry! I don't understand it, but you do whatever makes you happy 🙂

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-01-01 17:47:28 UTC
in Post your screenshots! WIP thread Post #341531

The geometry looks great, but some of the textures are very pixelly

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2019-01-01 15:53:07 UTC
in Interesting article on Quake engine visibility calculations Post #341529

Thanks for sharing! Good read

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy

Oskar Potatis

Posted 1 year ago2018-12-29 09:17:11 UTC
in getting number of sprite frames on server Post #341520

Can you provide a piece of example code? It would save whoever decides to look into this some time

Oskar PotatisIt's never too late to give up. Happily lazy