Forum posts

Lol. Agree with Tet.

Hohoho! You know I like that shit Archie!
Can't wait. :3

Yeah! Nice one PB!

GameBanana's thread updated with the new changelog*

Totally agree with COOBORKY.

Nice one! I really like the Bounding Box one. :3

Saving images

Lol Archie. xD

Oh, yeah. I forgot about this.

Anyway, an in-editor screen. Looks pretty good :3Are you going to create even the new VHLT tools textures like "BoundingBox", "SolidHint", etc...?

Pretty nice work, Archie. :3

And, why you renamed BEVEL as PRECISE in the texture?

I've found someone on GameBanana that have made a pretty cool prefab using Sledge. :3

http://cs.gamebanana.com/prefabs/6585



EDIT: that guy is COOBORKY actually, lol. He has a different nickname on GB.

Steam Workshop for GS would be incredibly awesome!

Uhm... What about this?

Does it create a potential competition? I hope not.

Lol. You've just noticed now? xD

Oh come on CT. xD

Great news! I'm gonna try it out asap! As always. <3

P.S.: The Sledge's last update on GameBanana has been updated with the current changelog.

oh hello UDK...

Lulz. xD

Archie and Alberto are absolutely correct: Use those scale methods in Hammer 4 ONLY!

Indeed. I never scale any damn thing in Hammer 3... I'm too scared of the results.
Making big detailed brushworks, then converting them as models and scale them, is a perfect technique to have ANY wanted structure without messing up with WPolys and invalid shit.

Damn...

Nice work guys!

Btw, you could convert those tubes in models, and then leave the current brushwork as an invisible func_wall only to make RAD projects its shadows. Using the CapT method in Hammer 4 to prevent any invalid solids of course, just to be sure.

Less WPoly and a bit more Epoly. But probably worth it. You decide.

Wow, that light system would be great, even as plugin. But right now, Sledge should evolve to enough level to do that.

Of course! I just keep throwing ideas at the screen in hope that PB picks up at least one. xD

And yeah, it should be really cool even as an external plugin. :3

The alternative is to fake a lighting system to approximate the results - instead of using the RAD process to generate lights, they are rendered in real time using a custom Sledge implementation. It wouldn't look exactly the same as the compiled result, but it should be close enough so it would still help when placing lights to get a general feel of what the lighting looks like. This is similar to how Hammer 4's "raytraced lighting preview" behaves, if I recall.

This. It would be awesome!

Maybe in the future you'll be able to find someone that can help you achieve specific things like this (maybe via custom plugins?) if you want to allow it, of course.

By the way, thanks a lot PB for your reply.

Welcome mate.

If you need further help with mapping, don't hesitate to submit a thread in this section.

A lot of experienced mappers should be able to help you!

Welcome to the TWHL family.

Ok for this, but what if the map editor renders every light as soon as the mapper adds one to the map? This will make the render time everytimes faster, am I right? Or will it be different because RAD needs to rebuild each light to "renew" the whole map lighting?
If so, how the Unreal Engine can do this? Maybe it's possible to change the editor's rendering mode to a different one, like on a 3D model editor, without using RAD.exe. Just speculating, of course.

Hey there PB.

I was having a friendly discussion with a GameBanana member. As he replied to someone that was wondering if real time lighting rendering could be possible in Sledge:

With the way that source engine does lighting I can almost guarantee you that real time rendering of lights will never happen.

And then I replied:

Well, this could be debatable. As some of you knows, the Unreal Engine renders in real-time every change you do in the editor (CSG process for brushes, and meshes, included). The only thing a Source or GoldSource Engine mapper might be interested in, is the real-time rendering of every light entity (light, light_spot, light_environment, etc.), and of course, shadows.
Now, if we create the basic "hollowed room" with one light entity inside it, this will took 3/4 seconds to compile on Hammer 4 even on a Pentium 4 CPU. As the Unreal Engine does, it renders lights and shadows only if we select the "Build only lights" option (and some of the other ones of course, like "Build all"). And it renders the current light entities (in this case) in the map, so it doesn't takes much time to do it (few seconds) if we select that option everytime for each light we add.
Long story short: a preview of rendered lights and shadows, maybe at a lightmap value of 32 to decrease some rendering time, it should be possible imho (at least on Source). Despite that the Unreal Engine creates the playable map file immediately as the same file is the one we edit in the editor, a different file could be created for the only purpose of saving the lighting preview in the editor (Sledge, in this case), leaving the BSP intact. This could (and should) save a lot of precious time to the mapper. And, I repeat, it should be possible IMHO.

Sorry for my embarassing english btw. I hope you've understood what I wanted to say.

Now, since you are the Sledge's Boss here. Is this possible? Keep in mind that I don't want to be right, I'm just curious. So I thought that asking this to you should be the best thing to do.

Thank you in advance.

Meh...

[Zeeba's COOLification Mode] - Activated.

Though, you could round the window corners a bit imho. Unless you want them like that, of course.
Did you used texlights for the upper wall light textures?
Seems cool enough btw. :3 Nice one Zeeba.

Just had a crash trying to use the model/file browser interface in entity properties. This is replicable.

Same.

monster_generic, cycler and cycler_sprite makes Sledge crash after double clicking the "models" folder in the file browser, and sometimes also by selecting the model.

Does the older versions already had this problem? I've never tested that.

Thanks Alberto for helping to spread the word

It was a great pleasure, PB. You deserve it. Your hard work should be rewarded in some way. No?

You should also create a FaceBook page or a Twitter profile to gain more visibility imho. :3 I can help you doing it, if you want.

A thread that talks about Sledge has been featured in the first page of GameBanana.com!

Link!

Congratulations to Penguinboy!

it does, thanks <:

I'm glad it helped you.
Remember to share some screenies with us if you come up with something cool!

Cry of Fear has new entities because it isn't vanilla GoldSource.
There's an entity called "camera_model" in the Cry of Fear FGD, with these attributes:

Name
Moves with
Model name
Animation 1
Animation 2
Animation 3
Animation 4
Animation 5

I don't know how to use it because I never mapped for Cry of Fear, but I took a look at the FGD some time ago to figure out by myself what techniques the developers used to make specific things (especially the door fading effect and teleport to the other side) since I've played the game several times to study it.
I think this is the answer you were searching but, unfortunately, you can't make such a thing with vanilla GoldSource, except creating a new model and animate the moving bone itself. But as the video uploader said:

"It's possible, but it will be very difficult to see where the camera bone is viewing at."

Anyway, if you really want to do such things, I recommend you to download the Cry of Fear SDK HERE. But remember that you NEED Cry of Fear installed to test your maps with this SDK. Just download it through Steam if you haven't already.

I hope it helps.

But 31 December IS the night before New Year

Yeah, I know. I thought you celebrate the whole day, not only the 31st evening/night (probably I've misunderstood).

My head hurts...

Oops, my bad. I mean "we don't celebrate the WHOLE DAY before the new year, but just the evening/night of it". The same thing I said to Stu.

Sorry but sometimes my english fails. Pardon me.

P.S.: I played the Zeeba's gift for Archie. A performance killer :P, but it has a really damn good design! Some door openings should be reworked, though. Getting stuck on them is really easy.
Oh and, if you're not kidding of course: happy birthday, Ghost129er.

@ Alberto
we use 'eve' as a short for evening.
And New Year, is well.. the start of the new year. Therefore, like Christmas Eve (the night before christmas) we also celebrate New Year's Eve, the night before the new year.
Surely there is a celebration in Italy?

Oh... I thought it was Eve from Eve and Adam, lol. Didn't know that. Thanks for the explanation, Tet.
Btw, we got a celebration for the night before Christmas, but not for the night before the new year. We just celebrate Christmas, the day after, and the 31 December/1 January.

IT: Unfortunately, I don't have much spare time to make something for someone of you guys. But I wish to be able do it for the next Christmas, of course.

Happy new year to everyone once again! <3

Noooooo! I hate myself and my friggin' USB stick! Someone gift me a damn full functioning internet connection! xD

By the way... Sorry for the late reply guys, but my USB stick had got problems, probably due to mobile traffic during the Xmas period and shit, idk. And now I don't even know to who can I give a gift! D:
Ok... In the meantime, I wish you the very best for the new year, and a (late) Merry Christmas everyone. :3

P.S.: @CT: What does "New Year's Eve" means?

Great news PB!

As soon as I can test it, I'll give you additional feedback and bugs report.

Urbeh, Archie: Is ModDB fucking trolling me? D:

And also:Do certain people knows how to vote an "UPCOMING" Mod on ModDB?
Damn, some people minds are full-of-fuck.

Anyway, I'm very happy for your HUGE success guys!

Next task: Steam Greenlight? :3

:3

Oh, ok, got it. Thanks Archie.

I always render my videos at 60 fps at 720p with Vegas, knowing that YouTube doesn't go over 30 fps, but they seems to be much more fluid even if watched at 30 fps. Having also a bad computer, it tooks an hour to render an 8 minutes video at 60 fps at 720p. And that's annoying. <.<
Now, Archie, in terms of quality (final product) and render times: do you suggest me to learn to use After Effects instead of Vegas Pro? Is it better in terms of video quality?
I know I can find these answers by simply do a Google search, but I prefer a fresh opinion by a known person.

Thank you in advance.

Hey Archie, why are you using After Effects instead of Vegas Pro?
I always use Vegas Pro for my videos. Is After Effect somehow better?
Oh, I just create common videos. I'm not really an "expert" video editor (not at all).

Great news PB! Thank you. :3

Oh, what about that old pc that you've ordered for the OpenGL/compatibility tests? It is arrived? Do you need further help with Sledge on my shitty hardware? Feel free to ask, mate!

Yep! Voted for The Core.

Good luck guys!

I have a nice file browser ready to go for that exact purpose (works with PAK and GCF files).

Do you know I love you, right?

A while ago you told me that you hate splash screens (we were on the Sledge thread).

Yup!

Also, this should be loved by DiscoStu, since the spash screen has been REMOVED.

Hey guys!

I just found a new custom version of VHE, take a look at it on GameBanana here:

http://cs.gamebanana.com/tools/5538

Some of these things could be implemented in Sledge.

Post your thoughts, folks!

Dimbark FTW! These screenies are sexy. <3

A more cloudy skybox could be better imho. :3

Welcome to TWHL! I map for GoldSource almost everyday (HL1, CS 1.6 and mods), and I like it more than Source somehow. But consider also what Archie said, of course. He got a good and interesting point.

@platoon:

Oh, ok then. Glad you liked it.

And yeah, I was thinking to make these things like secret areas and such. We'll see if my mind does not betray me on inspiration.

Oh, and about your brushwork, is no that I don't like it. The "func_pendulum" technique for the moving leaves is awesome, but if you go on the second floor and then look down on the ground where the grass is, you can easily see that the grass has been placed by following the grid, and this doesn't give a realism feel and also it doesn't follow the same map style. If you have Day of Defeat, you could easily find a lot of grass, trees and bushes models ready to use in your map. If you want I can modify your RMF with your permission to make you see how your map should look like.
Also, there isn't any entrance to the building, and this is pretty strange imho.
Oh and, have you played my map with "r_detailtextures 1"? If not, you should try it again, it increases the map detail a bit at a cost of some performance.

Thank you for your reply, platoon. I hope to see some more interested mappers during the development of this project.

Playing Cube World!

This game is awesome. Nuff said.

Unfortunately, I'm not working on this project atm because of the lack of mappers and time. And also, I'm not feeling comfortable (not at all!) to work on this map in a hurry to release it in time exactly on the 31st of October, nor I want anyone of you to work with me in a hurry. I am EXTREMELY fincky (if this is the correct word), and I like things done in a specific manner and with professionalism. A map done in a hurry, is a BAD map. Or at least this is what I personally think.

I think I'm gonna make this project more bigger than that, and give to every talented TWHL mapper the possibility work with me (us?) with calm and time. All this for the next Halloween, of course.

Mapping/Modding is not a game, it's pure work and dedication, and it must be respected with calmness and time to ensure that everyone can have the inspiration needed and to make sure everyone can work properly.
And since I don't want this project to go die, I want to offer everyone the opportunity to continue this project in an appropriate way, as it should be. If you agree, I'm gonna move the end date of the project at the next Halloween.
I think one year is enough to create a well done and respectable map, and because of the extremely long time, the chances to make it sensational are so many!
I also recommend to build the map for CS 1.6 instead of HLDM, because it is much more played in multiplayer than Half-Life. Or even for CS:GO if I'm able to buy a new computer at the end of this year or in the beginning of next.

@platoon:

Thank you for your comment and for your suggestions, my friend.
I apologize for the missing models, that's becuase I've done the pack in a hurry due to the lack of time I'm having this time, and I forgot to add those 2 new models I used in my last map edit. Sorry. I'll provide you the 2 missing models asap.

As for the darker ambient and sounds, I was still working on it. I was adjusting the fire light because it's too bright, and I was gonna add the moving fog effect used in Afraid of Monsters: Director's Cut, done with a "func_conveyor" with a fog transparent texture. That should do the trick for the cold/abandoned neighborhood.
If you could be more specific about this: "maybe player can cross windows to reach locked rooms..", it could be helpful.

As for the blood decals, I was testing a specific ambient, and I wanted the players to ask themselves: "What's going on in there!?" - "What happened here!?". And also, the map should have a story that we'll provide to the users in the Readme file and in the description in the download sites (here, GameBanana, 17Buddies, etc.).

I'll check out your work asap! I like the style you used, except for the brushwork grass and trees. For this it would be better to use models imho. And also, the textures I provided aren't converted properly. I was just testing some textures to make the map have a proper horror and Victorian Age look. I need to convert them to indexed BMP one by one and instead of using "Easy Wad Maker" I'm gonna use "Wally" for better quality, of course.
Thanks a lot for your suggestions and for your comment again, platoon! I appreciated a lot!

@Berto!

Well... THIS is the time to propose this cooperative work like an official community project (not contest, since no one is competing with anyone)!
Who knows: this could turn into an horror MOD if we want...

@Everyone:

Suggestions are still appreciated!
Sadly, I didn't seen too much replyes to this thread, and that's why this project can't be finished in time this year, and also because of the last contest "Floating Island", people here were too busy with that. So this project has not arrived at the right time, unfortunately. But since, as I said, I don't like to see this project going to die, we can still do this!

I want to thank everyone that were/are interested in this project, and I really hope we can do this thing toghether. Working with you will be such an honor.

P.S.: Sorry for my english... If I could express myself so well in english as I do in italian, I would obviously do less mistakes and I would explain myself better!

And now, back to mapping, folks! <3

Strange, I have a CFG file, not an INI file : And I also got my own one, and for larger maps which uses a lot of textures from different wads, I use the "-wadautodetect" cmd.

Yeah! I love surf maps! :3

I didn't see anything in the maps folder when browsing in hammer.

That's because I didn't included any RMF in the pack. You should just play the map on HL. I will provide the RMF just if who's interested in working in this project (you and maybe Rimrook for now) agrees with the theme and type of map. If you're gonna tell me that my current work fits the theme well, then I'm gonna provide you the RMF and you can start build something.

I'm a source mapper, never done goldsource or HL-1. :c

As Tet says: is pretty much the same thing, just a bit easier to build in it. You just need to download the right things, such as a modified version of VHE which supports models and sprites render in the 3D view, and the latest version of the Vluzacn's ZHLT, which is a modified version of the Zoner's Half-Life Tools (FGD + Compiling tools such as Rad, Vis, Csg, Bsp. Like on Source). The bad thing is that you have to set up the program manually. Or you can simply download the Half-Life SDK on Steam (I've never tried it, but it should be easier to set up).

Hope it helps.

- double-clicking on an entity in the 3D view loads its properties

THIS! Like on Source.

I'm not quite sure if the compilation settings are right

PB said that for now the compiling process has to be reworked, for now is basic. You have to use a compilator to compile your maps. A good opportunity to use Muzz's Compilator.

And, I don't know if this was already mentioned or if it's already present. But, is it possible to have the 3 grid views not rendered in Software renderer but in Direct X or OpenGL?