Forum posts

IAMX - Think of England

Aesthetic Perfection - The Siren

goes back to hermitville

IAMX - Kiss & Swallow (ManX remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e4GQFnKiDw

2008 was hard because I listened to a lot of 2007 stuff when I went back to check lol. And a lot of this is just guestimates.

Best Album 2008:
Ladytron - Velocifero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMynl9QX7g

Best Single 2008:
Ashbury Heights - Morningstar in a Black Car (EP w/ Spiders on it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COtbOoes2dg

Best Track 2008:
InnerPartySystem - The Empty Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKPd8o87E2o
(sexiest video ever)

Most Played Track in 2008:
Bodyrox & Luciana - Yeah Yeah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrfuuHAbp1s
(warning: nudity)

Paged Pool Memory = how much of the page/swap file it will use at max?

Hyperthreading is not multicore, but it shows as two virtual processors- so multi-threaded applications can run better with it. If the option is setting whether the game runs multithreaded, having it on should be better for HT P4's. Though tbh I can't tell a difference with it on or off so it may not matter for me. (In fact, I think it might be there as a debugging tool for certain multicore processors.)

I really wish the TweakGuides guy would do a L4D guide, or at least update the Source one with a section on it. A lot of 'source tweaks' are locked out in l4d, so it's harder to optimize it. I can't believe HDR is locked on- it's a huge performance killer, and the effect is rarely noticeable other than when it is an annoyance.

I moved my swap to a faster SATA drive (different drive from windows & steam), and the load times are a bit better now. Hopefully it's enough to avoid problems online.

First of all, buy this game. It's just so damn fun.

My system is loading levels way too slowly. This results in people being able to join the next map before me, then switch to my team, 'bumping' me in effect. Also, I think it is making the game think I am a 'new' player each map, as I have not gotten some achievements that involve completing a campaign.

I just upgraded my video card from a 6800GT 256mb to an HD3850 512mb, and it's slower now to load up! It's AGP, so maybe loading textures etc. onto the card takes longer? Otherwise, I have 3GB of ram, and the swap file is on a drive separate from Steam & Windows. So it seems like it should load fast as hell. And once it does load, the game runs well. I just don't get it.

Also, what are people finding to be the best settings for performance? I have a 3.47ghz P4, and I'm not sure what the best settings are for me:

Multicore Rendering
Paged Pool Memory

The P4 isn't multi-core, but it has Hyperthreading, so I'm not sure which way to go on the multicore setting. And I have plenty of memory to spare, but is it pagefile space it is talking about? I'd rather set that lower and have it use my RAM. Again, not sure what is optimal :/

Thanks in advance for any ideas...

I wouldn't hold your breath on getting Ep 3 any time soon:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/10/14/half-life-2-episode-3-may-not-see-release-until-2010

Apparently they WILL be releasing new Left4Dead content over time, like with TF2. But that probably won't start until early 2009

There isn't much to spoil. Guess what? NOTHING GETS RESOLVED. Valve makes brilliant gameplay, but the actual story is frustrating :/ At least Ep2 has that epic battle at the end.

Now go make more campaigns for L4D like a good developer, Valve!!

Sounds like a good plan, but don't be too worried about making it like the real city. Real Life locations aren't always that great for gameplay- hallways in games, for example, are usually 2-3 times wider than they would be IRL. Just make sure that gameplay > realism in your work, because 99% of the players won't have been to Glasgow, and won't care how much it looks like it. They just want to play a fun level.

Community mapping projects are normally a nightmare. However, the way a l4d campaign is divided into multiple chapters might make it workable- each mapper does one chapter?

As a huge fan of the show as a kid (I'm 33), I have to say it was the biggest piece of crap I've ever seen.

Basically it's Armageddon/Independence Day/etc.- ie a big dumb disaster flick- with robots thrown on top of it. It's not even a Transformers movie, they just happen to be there. And the poo-poo and pee-pee jokes? I'm sorry, but cartoon was more serious and had a lot more depth.

Hope to hell the GIJOE movie is better.

Blazeeer's textures are great. I think he, Doenerking, and Manah are pretty much gone from the scene- ie their websites are down and whatnot. When I finish my website redesign I might mirror those wads (with full credit to them of course) so other mappers can actually find them again.

Download:
http://www.cryotank.net/stuff/hldm_temple.zip

This is a map of mine that is included in Action Half-Life. I decided to finally finish the HLDM version. If you could, take a look around and/or play it with a couple friends and let me know if it is ready for official release.

Things to know about this map:

*It includes detail textures (r_detailtextures 1 in console to turn them on), so surfaces look less blurry up close. You can especially see it on the floor texture in the larger screenshots linked to below.

*It has a system similar to some stock HLDM maps- you press a button and the central room's door start closing. You have to be inside when they close or you are killed. A small text readout at the bottom of the screen will warn you, and notify when you are in the safe area.

*It has a game_player_equip starting players with a jump pack and magnum. This is to offset the size of the map, and the fact that the stock pistol is garbage imo.

*It has custom everything- sounds, textures, sprites, skybox. And yes, those are cinders/sparks shooting out of the flames. It looks pretty neat in-game.

Annnnd here are a crapload of 1024x768 screenshots. It's a big map with a lot of different rooms, thus the bunch of shots:

The most popular map is awesome, though.

eh you don't use -nowadtextures with -wadinclude xxxx.wad, it's either/or

-nowadtextures includes all textures used in the .bsp. -wadinclude is for people that actually use default textures and don't want to waste filesize including textures already in Half-Life.

The default HL textures are crap for the most part. I avoid them at all costs. And even if you are using a few, it's way easier to use nowadtextures and not have to worry about specifying or sorting wads. So someone downloads a couple textures they already have, who really cares? HL maps are relatively tiny, it's not worth your bother to screw with reducing the filesize .01mb for the .01% of gamers using 56k. I probably have like 12 wads loaded in Hammer at any given time like I want to deal with sorting that out when -nowadtextures will just snag whatever is needed for me? x_x

So it is supposed to be an option, it just isn't enabled yet?

Maybe I can put more in the info area with BBCode in the meantime.

How do I upload more screen shots for a map? The page says you can add them later, but I don't see the option anywhere.

That was intentional- they were two different subjects, so I thought two posts made sense. I wasn't sure if there was a character count limit per post, either, and I do tend to run on and on...

Also, I would try to keep r_speeds below 1000. Even though new machines can handle high r_speeds, and your FPS readout may be high, you start getting "engine lag". Basically, the HL engine isn't designed to handle high-poly environments and it has trouble keeping up with drawing everything (it feels kind of like a high ping).

If you look at the r_speed readout you will see a reading for "ms". The higher this is, the more 'laggy' your map is running (the longer it takes HL to draw everything once, I think..?). After 4-5ms you can start to feel it. I think special effects, transparencies, moving brushes, etc. all probably effect this, not just the wpoly, so keep an eye on it and watch how the map feels when you run around in the more complicated areas.

[edit] I think only most of the textures in the wad I posted above were resized. They also seem to have tweaked the contrast and sharpened them slightly. Anyway, they look better than the stock versions.

If you are going to use "default" Half-Life textures, use these tweaked versions instead:

http://www.cryotank.net/remote/thwc_hl.zip

They are the stock HL textures, but tweaked and sized 'properly' to avoid looking blurry in-game. This explains why:
http://www.cryotank.net/maps/tutorials/hints.html

I can't remember where I got that special wad from, I think someone redid it for a mapping contest years ago. Note that if you switch to those versions of the textures, some will be different dimensions and you may need to re-align or resize them in the editor again. You will also need to include them with the map, just like any other custom texture.

Just a hint, I saw some pretty bad blurry stuff going on in some screenshots

Meh, might as well pimp this here as well

Links to full-size screenshots are below the smaller images.http://www.cryotank.net/stuff/museum_b2c2.jpghttp://www.cryotank.net/stuff/museum_b2c1.jpg

Museum, a map for Action HL and HLDM. Though I am thinking of renaming it hldm_art_gallery. Sounds more upscale, and 'museum' could mean a lot of things.

It's about 98% done- now that I fixed that damn lighting bug. Should finish beta 3 tomorrow- hopefully the final beta before release.

okay, I don't quite get this but I managed to fix it. I took an arch that didn't have any issues and cloned it to replace the problem arches. Then I manually adjusted the textures on the arch to match the surrounding wall textures, but I only selected the arch while doing this.

Not sure what the deal was, but at least it seems to be fixed (for now..)

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments. I'll try to come by more often, not to mention make my maps available here

edit nevermind, you are looking for Source mapping (I think...?)

I can re-check. I generally select all the textures I want align at the same time, then align them all at once like they are one big surface.

I have tried them both as solids and as func_walls, it doesn't seem to make a difference :/

I might try eliminating the light_environment entirely to see if that is part of the problem.

Yeah, the brushes making up the arch of the door are darker. The textures are not misaligned. I marked the corners of the distortion in this one and boosted the contrast to make it more obvious:Open it in the bigger window to see the full size version.

Didn't find any help on Snarkpit so I thought I would give you guys a crack at this one

Having some issues with a lighting bug. I have tried lowering the -chop, removing nearby light entities or adding them, changing the number of bounces, adding ambient light, making the arch brushes entities vs world brushes, and remaking or rotating 180 degrees etc. the arches. No luck.

It seems to only happen with arches that are in a room where light from the sky brush can reach them, though...?That's the bug- you can see a 'ghost' of the arch around the doorway.It is the doorway over to the left that is in the pic, but several others in the map have similar issues.

Here is the map's profile (pics and download of the last beta) on Snarkpit if you want a closer look:
http://www.snarkpit.net/maps.php?map=2775

Any help would be appreciated. Think I'm going to focus on finished everything else on the map since this has me pulling my freaking hair out!