Forum posts

because people who speedrun are obviously doing it on their first playthrough

It is indeed. It's a light_spot casting through a SOLID rendermode texture with its HLRAD opacity set to opaque. The concrete texture is scaled to 0.50 which creates a higher resolution lightmap grid, and therefore more defined shadows.

Ah I see, that's quite a neat trick. No matter what I do though I can't seem to get the shadow to be as smooth and defined as in your screenshots, maybe you should make a tutorial or something on how to do this, I'm sure more people than me would find it interesting.

Archie, is that standard Goldsource? If so, how'd you manage to get such a smooth shadow casted from the railing with transparent texture? A light_spot with some special compile settings or something?

Fair enough. Just so there's no confusion, I don't mean both tools should be operable at the same time, just that if you enter vertex mode on a brush and then switch to the camera tool, the vertices would still be visible, but not adjustable.

Or how about adding support for mind-reading, so that Sledge knows exactly what we want to create, and then it just maps everything for you automatically?

Seriously though, good work. Installed it on my laptop and all the hotkeys seem to work as they should, although I'm not at home right now to test on my desktop I guess it should work properly now.

Don't want to sound entitled, but will you consider implementing some more of the suggestions I mentioned previously? Particularly being able to see the vertex points while using the camera tool, hide the vertex mode toolbox, and changing the behavior of the clipping tool a bit. Perhaps even add an option in the settings for switching the behavior of the clipping tool to that of Hammer? For stupid people like me, who find the three-points clipping tool currently implemented kinda confusing.

Also, while testing Sledge on my laptop, I stumbled upon a graphical/rendering oddity when creating an arch, sphere or torus brush... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nD6bHBgnkI

The laptop (an Asus G73JH) specs are:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel i7 Q 720 @ 1.60GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 1GB VRAM driver 8.753.2.0
6GB RAM

Finally, a minor annoyance: when holding down space and left-clicking in the 3D view to move around, if there is something where you mouse-click, it will be selected.

Hey Penguinboy, how would you feel about maybe adding support for other games somewhere down the road? I'm thinking specifically about the original Quake, there's still a small but thriving enthusiast mapping community for that game (much like with Half-Life), and I think a new, feature-rich level editor would be very welcomed there as well. And seeing as Goldsource was derived from the Quake engine, there might not be much in the way of compatibility issues or workload (not that I would know anything about that though).

Certainly, here you go: http://pastebin.com/s98dYznU (and in case you wanted the .vdf file itself: http://www.sendspace.com/file/86z2jd )

One thing I noticed after reassigning my keys is that "Shift" got changed to the norwegian equivalent "Skift"... don't know if this is of any importance, but if it is, one would think that changing input language would have worked too.

Anyway, here are some more thoughts/suggestions:

Sorting:

• it would be nice if it was possible to copy texture names somehow, either from the texture browser or the texture application tool (or both) - for instance in the texture browser it could be possible to highlight and copy the texture name that appears at the bottom when you select a texture. This could come in handy e.g when using vluzacn's texturelight entities, as you won't have to look the texture up again and type in the name manually

• maybe have an option to sort entities either alphabetically or by fgds (kinda like sorting through wads for textures)

Camera tool:

• kinda annoying how, when using the camera tool, new cameras are placed by just left-clicking, as this can lead to accidentally creating new cameras when one is just trying to select a previous camera; would prefer Shift+Left Mouse for placing cameras (this could maybe be a customizable hotkey as well)

Vertex/Camera tools:

• when in vertex mode, it should be possible to select the camera tool without exiting vertex mode, check how this works in Hammer if you are unsure what I mean: you won't be able to use both tools simultaneously, but the vertex points are still visible when using the camera, which is really helpful when one wants to place/point the camera precisely (especially with the yellow/orange "middle" vertices)

• an option/hotkey for hiding/showing the toolbox that appears without exiting vertex mode would be great, as it can be kind of obstructive

Clipping tool:

• unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem possible to cycle through the different modes (cut away one side/cut away the other/keep both) either by using the tool hotkey or any other way, so one is forced to delete the eventual unwanted "leftover" brush manually

Viewports:

• perhaps have an option to adjust how far the camera moves when using the mouse scrollwheel in the 3D viewport

• the "Forward speed" setting under the 3D Views settings tab seems to always reset itself to 1000 units/sec

• maybe an option for mouse sensitivity in the 3D viewport?

• if there isn't one already, perhaps a hotkey that enables the user to cycle between what the current 2D viewport should display (side/top/front)? (Tab key in Hammer), also: perhaps the viewport labels should have a solid background color or something, as they now take on the same color as the grid - when I changed grid color to light gray, the labels became hardly visible

• Sledge doesn't seem to save the viewport configuration (which viewport displays top/side/front) when exiting the program, which it should (or at least the user should be prompted to or otherwise have an option to save it)

Bug(?):

• the Torus tool, when using the "Rotation height" function, seems to create invalid solids no matter what

Holy wow, you work fast! Don't have much time to check everything out right now, but from the quick look I took, I love it! Hotkeys didn't work for me (again), but after reassigning every key, they worked perfectly - quite odd, but hey, it works! Also loving the camera tool, snaps to current grid size and everything! Thanks!

Quick "bug" reports though - there is no hotkey for the camera tool (Shift+C in Hammer) and it doesn't seem possible to assign one either - and some hotkeys are, by default, assigned to several actions (like Ctrl+H for both "Ungroup selected objects" and "Hide unselected").

I'll delve deeper into things in the coming days, I'll be sure to report back with any bugs/suggestions. Keep up the good work!

No problem, it's the least I could do to show my appreciation for the project and to help out the development. Thanks for your quick response!

I had completely forgotten about the Hammer help file so now I was prompted to reacquire it (couldn't find the file by itself so had to download and install Hammer 3.4 again just to get the help file... bleh) - didn't realize one could cycle through camera views with PageUp/Down. Funnily enough I didn't even know one could place multiple cameras (or place a new one if the original was deleted) by Shift+dragging until tonight, about five minutes before I made my post here

Also didn't know it's possible to use Ctrl+F to split faces when in vertex mode - after spending 15 minutes on fiddling around with it, it seems to allow brushes that would previously be considered invalid after manipulating them, but I don't know how useful (or buggy) this is in practice. Is this already implemented in Sledge?

Finally decided to check this out after seeing that you've added the camera tool (as that is quite important to me), and after having a quick look at the program, there's definitely many things I really like, however I've stumbled upon a problem that pretty much prohibits me from using it to any proper extent - none of the hotkeys appear to be working for me, for instance pressing Shift+B doesn't select the brush tool - same goes for all the other hotkeys. I don't know if this is because I have a keyboard with special norwegian characters (æ, ø, å), which also means that some of the keys function in different ways than "standard" keyboards (to make a "?" results in a "_" etc.). Usually I can switch between input languages by pressing Alt + Shift, but this doesn't seem to do anything in Sledge. As such, I haven't really been able to explore much of the program yet, however I do have some input and suggestions (hopefully I haven't missed something obvious and as such make a fool of myself here):

• Aside from the fact that none of the hotkeys appear to be working for me, the "Hotkeys" tab in the Settings panel is empty, and it doesn't seem possible to add any custom hotkeys? Is this something you intend to add in a future version? This is something that would be greatly appreciated, as I'm used to e.g enlarging and shrinking the grid size with Alt+S/Alt+A in Hammer, don't know if these hotkeys currently do the same in Sledge.

Viewports:

• I LOVE the fact that you can change background/grid color for the 2D views - having a slight tan color (much like the one on this forum) is much easier on the eyes than the white on black/black on white color schemes from Hammer. However, as far as I can tell, you can't set a separate color for the 3D view?

• I'm missing any mention of which viewport is what (front(y/z)/side(x/z)top(x/y)), as well as being able to change the 3D viewport to wireframe/flat/textured, from Hammer. By the way, would you happen to know what the default FOV of the 3D viewport is in Hammer?

• Another feature I'm missing from Hammer is when something is selected, it displays the dimensions of the object(s) in the lower right corner (where the zoom/grid size etc. is displayed)

Texture browser:

• I love how you can actually choose which wad file you wish to browse through without having to exit the browser, as well as being able to display the textures in different sizes. However, I'm missing the "1:1" size from Hammer, which is quite helpful.

• When clicking on a texture (once, to select it), at the bottom it says "Name" and "Size", but nothing is actually displayed here, most important of which would be the texture dimensions.

• The white border around the textures: would you be able to create an option to have it removed/only displayed on the particular texture that is selected? It is kinda jarring.

Texture application tool:

• Bug report: if changing the FOV of the 3D view (in this particular case I used 90), sometimes you can't select a face (when using the texture application tool) that you should be able to select. See image: http://i.imgur.com/pgEqZWS.jpg , if I want to select the top face I have to click at where the blue dot is; clicking on the red dot (or just below the blue one) will instead select the front-most face.

• I really like how you can set separate functions for left/right click when using this tool, that should be pretty useful!

Camera tool:

• As I mentioned in the introduction, this tool is quite important to me, due to how useful it can be when one wants to be very meticulous with texture application. However, in Sledge it doesn't actually seem to do much: when selecting it, all it seems to do is to in the 2D views, display where the camera is pointing in the 3D view; and it appears that all you can do with it in the 2D view is to move it around, and not actually move the "pointer" (very technical term, I know). It also doesn't seem to snap to grid. I think how the camera tool functions in Hammer is pretty much perfect: you can place it accurately on the grid as it snaps to grid size 1; you can place several cameras (or if you accidentally delete it, place a new one) by holding down Shift and placing one in the 2D views; you can move the "pointer" freely around and move both the camera and the pointer simultaneously by holding down Ctrl+dragging. I think the only problem is that it only snaps to grid size 1, and not the current grid size, so if you could be able to implement that (and all the features of the tool found in Hammer) then that would be greatly appreciated!

Whew, this turned into a motherload of text. Sorry if it seems I'm whining a lot, because honestly, from what I've seen so far, I think you're really on the way to making something truly spectacular here, there's loads of things I like - for example, I LOVE how customizable everything is (would be fantastic if there were even more options for customizing) - and if you can implement some new features/some missing from Hammer, as well as fix bugs (yes I realize it is still in alpha), then there should be no reason to use Hammer for Goldsource mapping anymore I believe. Also, sorry for making so many comparisons to Hammer all the time, but as that is what I (and I guess most users here) am most used to working with, I think it would be a good idea to implement most of the features/functions of that program into Sledge - if this happens, Hammer would become pretty redundant I believe.

Last but not least - great work! Looking forward to future versions.

Don't mean to intrude but I actually wrote a tutorial on how to create something similar a couple of months back, maybe someone will find it useful: http://www.half-lifecreations.com/forums/index.php?topic=1977.0

Hey, I don't mean to hijack the thread but I figured it's not worth creating a new one as this one is kinda relevant...

I'd been looking forward to giving Trinity a proper go after having the last version that was made public (v3.08f) sitting on my computer for some time, only to find that on second map load (i.e walking through a changelevel trigger or loading map from the console for the second time), the mouse cursor shows that the program seemed to be working (with the spinning circle-thing next to the cursor) for a couple of seconds, then the mod would just quit without any error message. I'm fairly certain this only started to happen after the last Half-Life update a couple months or three back. It's weird too as everything works fine when I load any map for the first time, it's just on any second map load that it crashes. Also, any older version of Trinity (before the shadowmaps were introduced) don't have the issue. I guess maybe Valve modified the rendering engine somehow and this messed something up, but I don't have much programmering experience so I can't tell for sure, nor how to eventually fix it.

Posting this here as maybe someone has more knowledge/experience with Trinity, as I guess the author doesn't support the older versions anymore.