Forum posts
Oh, GTM. Wow. I still have all those on file.
I'll raid my TWHL shenanigans folder later and see what I can dig up.
I'll raid my TWHL shenanigans folder later and see what I can dig up.
I've been paying $100 for brand new retail games for as long as I can remember. It's always been that way over here, so Steam prices are like a gift from the gods.
That being said I still chuckle whenever I look at Activisions prices.
That being said I still chuckle whenever I look at Activisions prices.
Name them.Not a game, but Futurama, which you've also said you have no intention of buying. Also Glee, because I feel like embarrassing you.
I want the GameCube version and I can't find it. Same as Thousand Year Door. As for all the other emulated games I have, I own all the original cartridges. I'll happily admit to that piracy, I'm not going to sugar coat it.I get that, but it's besides the point. You've done it yourself, but every time someone mentions piracy you ride in on your moral high horse to make us feel bad.
Having said that, paying exuberant prices on eBay doesn't help the industry at all.
What gives?
Twilight Princess for emulation. And I can name other examples before that.
You have money, a Wii and an eBay account, so there is no excuse! I'm not innocent myself, but I'm not hypocritically judgemental about it either!
You have money, a Wii and an eBay account, so there is no excuse! I'm not innocent myself, but I'm not hypocritically judgemental about it either!
The real problem here is why the heck is Ant judging people for pirating when he's done it himself! Recently! You're no better than the rest of us, Ant!
If you say that you have to game, no matter what, then you have serious issues.Then I have serious issues. I'm a gamer. It's what I do.
Pre-ordered Half-Life 2 Collectors Edition, and eventually lost the box.
Also Bioshock (mistake!), Uncharted 2, numerous other PS3 games, Orange Box retail, Portal 2 on Steam, and I can't think of anything else.
Doesn't exactly count, but I snagged the Limited Folio Edition of the Uncharted 2 artbook before it sold out. It was way too expensive, but awesome.
Also Bioshock (mistake!), Uncharted 2, numerous other PS3 games, Orange Box retail, Portal 2 on Steam, and I can't think of anything else.
Doesn't exactly count, but I snagged the Limited Folio Edition of the Uncharted 2 artbook before it sold out. It was way too expensive, but awesome.
2001: A Space Odyssey and Akira.
The Antlers - Two
In my head.
In my head.
Cast Away, Lost in Translation and Am?lie (yes, I watched a quirky French romantic comedy). All good movies.
Not many other people would.I disagree. It would probably weed out some of the crowd who keep complaining about the devs taking their time, too, despite doing this unfunded and in their own time. But it's a hypothetical, so who cares.
Whatever we do, it won't happen for a while. This thread was created to get your opinions on our ideas for the future of the site.
I can already tell you that our plans for the site redesign have changed a fair bit as a result of the feedback here. The renaming of the site isn't in any way a given at this point. If we can keep the name familiar and get a suitable domain, then it's win-win for all of us.
When the time comes we'll probably be rolling out another thread with our revised ideas and getting your opinions on those, too.
I can already tell you that our plans for the site redesign have changed a fair bit as a result of the feedback here. The renaming of the site isn't in any way a given at this point. If we can keep the name familiar and get a suitable domain, then it's win-win for all of us.
When the time comes we'll probably be rolling out another thread with our revised ideas and getting your opinions on those, too.
I'm not really against it, but I'd judge them on a case-by-case basis. I'd want a good look at just how much effort they put into it first.
If, for example, Black Mesa ever decided to go retail, then hell yes I'd pay for it. Dear Esther I have no problem paying for when the time comes. They Hunger: Lost Souls... I dunno, the screens don't show an awful lot of custom work in there, I wouldn't want to pay for a mod that's still mostly all Valve's content.
If, for example, Black Mesa ever decided to go retail, then hell yes I'd pay for it. Dear Esther I have no problem paying for when the time comes. They Hunger: Lost Souls... I dunno, the screens don't show an awful lot of custom work in there, I wouldn't want to pay for a mod that's still mostly all Valve's content.
From what I've seen, that's what attracts people here. That's what makes TWHL appealing. That is our strong point right there, and you're suggesting getting rid of it.You're acting like we intend to destroy everything we already have on these engines. They will obviously be the largest focus, as we already have everything here dedicated to them. We don't honestly expect an abundance of new content to flow in for other engines, we're not that foolish. What then is the harm in simply expanding the site to accomodate other options, should people choose to use them or not?
Example:
Interlopers added a subforum recently for the small amount of users there who have been experimenting with the UDK. Funnily enough, it's had no negative impact on the community.
Air - Le Voyage de P?n?lopeJust listened to it, now I do too. Amazing song.
I have an obsession with this song.
Jeffrey Tambor - [Arrested Development #28] - All You Need Is Smiles
I say the more the merrier, you know? Why should the site be pigeon holed to one single thing or one engine. Like you said, if it has an editor then maybe you should try and include it. Everyone can benefit from some sound advice sometimes even if they are different engines. Level editing is pretty much the same no matter how you cut it; even the 2D stuff.Definitely. A lot of older engines still have a fanbase. 2D work would be awesome, too.
Don't laugh, RPG Maker is the bomb! Gotta love the Japanese!
Instances are like prefabs in L4D2 mapping, a wealth of instances makes mapping damn enjoyable. I spend a lot of time making them myself so a place to upload them would be awesome.Agreed. I've been using them a lot lately, they're just so damn handy.
WorldCrafters speaks more of the people and who they are.
I like WorldCrafters personally.....So do I, something along these lines would be nice. Ideally though, I would love to keep the name, but it's not going to make a lot of sense calling ourselves TWHL after expanding the site.
Just brainstorming here, but what if we use the TWHL name as a legacy for the Half-Life sections of the site (forums, tutorials, vaults etc)?
So what other games were you thinking of supporting? All valve games or broader?Broader. I'd love for people to start posting UDK work on the updated site.
No need for that, Skals.
Got my film/tv/music/games wallpapers on shuffle this month.
Other monitor has the same pic, as always.
It works well, Rotator. The overheating thing really annoyed me at times in the first game. And you're never really short of ammunition for your main weapons.
Playing Dead Space 2 now, it's like the first game on crack or something. Just nuts. They should fire their scriptwriter though, the dialogue mostly just consists of "fuck!" and "shit!" with a few words thrown in either side of it.
Playing Dead Space 2 now, it's like the first game on crack or something. Just nuts. They should fire their scriptwriter though, the dialogue mostly just consists of "fuck!" and "shit!" with a few words thrown in either side of it.
Man, you guys have been kicking ass in this thread.
I wish there were landscapes around my way as nice as what I'm seeing here.
I wish there were landscapes around my way as nice as what I'm seeing here.
Ooh the wonders of macro photography. Sometimes I wish I had a macro lens.Ditto. Have you got any cheapy macro/close-up filters, though? I got a 4-pack (+1, +2, +4 and +10) and you can stack them up, highest first, to enhance the effect. They do a pretty decent job, all things considered.
You have to be dumb to say that parallax mapping is awfulOuch!
You're welcome to enjoy it, but as someone who has seen it/used it in many games, it's more distracting than immersive. Textures should not distort and stretch all around you for the sake of a gimmicky 3D effect.
The best examples of parallax mapping are when it is used in smaller areas as opposed to whole buildings and world textures. FEAR, Fallout 3/New Vegas, and GTA4 simply use it on decals, and that is as far as it should ever go.Oh god the decals in FEAR.
You'd think you just shot the wall with a howitzer, not a shotgun.
Default. They use it extensively in the Antlion caves.
Rimrook: it would look a lot better if the textures were higher resolution. They also use DXT5 compression on them because of their memory budget, and it's noticeably artifact-y on bumps/ssbumps.
Rimrook: it would look a lot better if the textures were higher resolution. They also use DXT5 compression on them because of their memory budget, and it's noticeably artifact-y on bumps/ssbumps.
Heh. I think between us we've given him a pretty good explanation, I completely forgot about the AO.
EDIT:
D'oh. RotatorSplint beat me!
Did I really take half-an-hour writing this post up? Damn that's lazy.
NERD NOTE:
Technically it doesn't generate shadows for whatever direction you face light at it, because it only stores shadow information in 3 directions (one in each colour channel - R G B), and blends between each of them. But that's not important.
Look at this example from Left 4 Dead:
You can see that some bricks stick out more than the others and are also casting shadows on them. It's subtle, but it's much more realistic than the old technique, which would only highlight the edges of each brick.
This is what that brick texture looks like before the ssbump (and some other effects) are applied to it in-game:
Crazy, huh?
I hope that explains it a bit better.
D'oh. RotatorSplint beat me!
Did I really take half-an-hour writing this post up? Damn that's lazy.
I thought ssbumps is unique in that whatever direction you're looking from, and using any type of lighting, the bump will still be visible.The biggest difference between normal bump maps and ssbumps is that the original one will only highlight textures, while ssbumps will highlight and cause them to self-shadow. The higher parts of the the height map will cast shadows on the lower parts, simply put.
NERD NOTE:
Technically it doesn't generate shadows for whatever direction you face light at it, because it only stores shadow information in 3 directions (one in each colour channel - R G B), and blends between each of them. But that's not important.
Look at this example from Left 4 Dead:
Before this you would normally fake some lighting on the original texture (that's the diffuse) so it looked more realistic in-game. You don't have to do that now because ssbumps can take care of it.Probably the best feature they offer is the lack of any need to paint any actual light into the diffuse.Don't understand this. Can you explain better please?
This is what that brick texture looks like before the ssbump (and some other effects) are applied to it in-game:
I hope that explains it a bit better.
I don't see what so-called special feature ssbump offers, as it does practically the same thing. Only it is smoother, looks better(less cartoony like the "normal" bumpmap), and as Valve says, it's faster to render.You pretty much just stated why it's a better technique. More for less.
Personally, I find parallax way too ugly, especially for the performance cost. It looks okay only as long as you stay still, once you move and actually see the way the texture distorts and stretches, it's completely jarring and hideous.
Valve's time would be better spent giving us phong support on brush/world textures. City17 managed to do it, so can Valve.
Stopped playing Double Agent because it's poo.
Playing Dead Space now and really enjoying it, despite some hilariously bad ragdoll effects.
Playing Dead Space now and really enjoying it, despite some hilariously bad ragdoll effects.
Wouldn't making source have extra maps kind of be slightly unfair?Us moderators wouldn't be stupid enough to compare the quality of Goldsource textures to Source textures when reviewing the entries. Have some faith in us, come on.
Obviously the engine itself is superior, but I feel that that's slightly unfair if two identical maps made with identical textures will look significantly better in source, which might detract from the rating of the goldsource map.
OhEmGee I want to make the wad and since I won't be using them, you know they'll be totally awesome because that's just the kind of luck I have! I'll even convert them to source format so everyone is happyThey would have to be made for Source originally. Meaning at least 512x512 and normal and specular maps where appropriate. Porting Goldsource textures to Source is almost entirely pointless.
Anyway, if we choose this competition, we'll need a bit of time to get stuff in order.
Uh, Skals... this whole thread has been about the next competition.
100 textures is a lot! In order for a competition requiring single-wad/single texture set to be a challenge shouldn't it have few textures? like, say, make a map with only a set of wall, floor, ceiling, and trim/glue textures or something?Definitely, 100 is ridiculous.
The textures will have to be made with Source in mind originally, too. That means normals/ssbumps, and spec maps (if necessary) need to be made with the diffuse. Easiest part is shrinking them down for the WAD, heh.
A small set with a couple of walls, floors, ceilings and trims is the best bet. But... what theme?
EDIT: I should mention that we already had something in mind for this competition, a quick and easy one. It might be worth keeping this idea for the next one, give us some time to have the textures made up.
The dynamic lights that point_spotlights use are pretty expensive. Too much so, considering how basic and ugly they can be. A better solution would be using an env_projectedtexture. along with the point_spotlights (dynamic light left off).
Revised rules/notes:
[i]
[i]
- Build a room, or two (or three!) if you like. It doesn't have to be a room, either, just as long as it is a confined space with an entry and an exit.
- Custom materials and resources are fine, so long as you're willing to, or have permission to include them. If you want to use custom particle effects, we will have to use a custom particles manifest for the whole project.
- Custom resources should be, if possible sorted into subfolders something like this: materials/rooms_username
- Some kind of gameplay would be nice, it can be puzzles, combat, or whatever else you can think of.
- There are no restraints for what type of sky or light_environment settings you use, I can always throw rooms into seperate maps.
- Since all the older Source games have been ported to the OB engine, that's our base. Episode Two, to be exact.
- If your room doesn't compile normally, I won't spend much time trying to fix it up! Make sure your entries work.
- We'll be arranging the entries in no particular order. If you have more than one entry they might not be played right after each other.[/i]
That's because you live in a desert where nothing happens.Are you Trapt?
I'll repost 'em. The Goldsource Rooms didn't get a dedicated page, and it worked out fine.
I'll revise the rules from the first page later today. Don't know if we need a dedicated page, the thread serves the same purpose.
Man, for a bunch of geeks, you sure are crazily opposed to technology.I can use the internet on my phone, but I never do. I've never felt the need to jump on the internet while I'm out and about. We're not opposed to technology, just technology that's worthless or overpriced! Frankly a lot of today's stuff falls into those categories.
Yep.
So, you want all custom textures to have the map name included?Not in the filename, just a subfolder in the materials directory, so we can distinguish what belongs to who. It'll help when it comes to compiling the whole lot into a mod.
How about custom models? My custom models sit in their own folder anyways so I don't see the real need in changing it.I guess so.
I am all up for sorting but some may find this problematic if they don't know how to manipulate, move, and rename textures.Kind of goes without saying that if they know how to make textures for their room, they'd know how to save 'em in the right location, doesn't it?
If they're using a downloaded pack, I see no reason to rename it or move it, other people might be using it too.
Pretty much, Trapt.
Might be worth sorting them all by author, though. Something like:
materials/rooms_trapt/yadayada.vmt
models/rooms_trapt/yadayada.mdl
Might be worth sorting them all by author, though. Something like:
materials/rooms_trapt/yadayada.vmt
models/rooms_trapt/yadayada.mdl
I think everyone should build an entry and exit hall into their room, it'll smooth the process over. That is unless they want the player to be teleported in.
One thing though, maybe we should add a requirement or at least a suggestion that each room must have some gameplay(combat or puzzle of some sort)?Fair enough, I think. Both my old rooms had some for of gameplay (one was combat, the other platforming).
Also, total freedom to make more than one entry. They'll be jumbled up, in no particular order. I want this thing to be lengthy!
Reviving this due to recent interest.
How about a show of hands for anyone interested? I still have my old entries.
How about a show of hands for anyone interested? I still have my old entries.
Got: some crappy old Sony Ericsson
Want: nothing else!
I only need something that calls out and can send text messages, and it does that. I leave all the bells and whistles to my other devices.
Want: nothing else!
I only need something that calls out and can send text messages, and it does that. I leave all the bells and whistles to my other devices.
To be honest, the movement in HL2 is a little annoying. He moves a lot slower than in the original, and the sprint function is stupidly short.
I like games that don't take themselves seriously, but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be a good game too. GTA and Fallout 3 are both awful games in my eyes, silly writing and dumb situations aren't going to save them.
I like games that don't take themselves seriously, but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be a good game too. GTA and Fallout 3 are both awful games in my eyes, silly writing and dumb situations aren't going to save them.
I'm with Ant. I think the GTA games are largely overrated sandbox shite that lost their appeal after Vice City. Rockstar just throw a heap of half-working crap into a bowl and tell you to have fun instead of building a proper game with some actual focus and drive.
Come to think of it, it's the same with Bethesda.
Come to think of it, it's the same with Bethesda.
Awesome. I read they're thinking of trying a different genre for their next game. If they put as much effort into it as the put into survival horror, it can only mean good things.
EDIT:
Finished Chaos Theory today, moved on to Double Agent. I remember it being scrappy on the 360, but it's even worse on PC. A terrible port of an already dumbed down game. Why did Ubisoft ruin this series. :<
EDIT:
Finished Chaos Theory today, moved on to Double Agent. I remember it being scrappy on the 360, but it's even worse on PC. A terrible port of an already dumbed down game. Why did Ubisoft ruin this series. :<
I think Source can only render one camera display by default.