Forum posts

Good evening everyone

Is there a decent tutorial on how to set up Sledge anywhere? I haven't mapped in GoldSrc in over 10 years but would like to try out that program as Hammer is acting pretty dodgy in 2019 on a Win10 setup. Searched the forums but didn't find anything for setting up Sledge.

When I attempt to compile the map in Sledge, I get a pop-up error:I've added the fgd, bsp, csg, vis, rad etc to the build tools but I'm not sure what it is missing.

I ended up solving this myself and got it working! I answer all of my own questions (and more) for anyone in the future who has this issue.

1. Is the sv_downloadurl correctly setup? Do I need another forward slash at the end? Does having the http:// on or off matter? The www?

No, it is not set up correctly. Yes, you need a forward slash at the end. Without it, it will not work. Yes, it matters if there is an http:// at the beginning. Without it FAST DL will NOT work. No, the www. does not matter (in my experiments, this may vary with other users and how their content is hosted).

According to my folder structure, the proper method is:

sv_downloadurl "http://darktreemedia.com/hldm/valve/"
or
sv_downloadurl "http://www.darktreemedia.com/hldm/valve/"

The http:// is required, as well as the trailing forward slash ( / ) at the end of the URL. The www. did not make a difference.

NOTE #1: When testing out how to format your URL, be aware that you must shut down Half-Life completely to change server settings. You cannot just disconnect, leave hl.exe running, change settings in the config file, and run it again. You need to flush the cache and restart Half-Life for your new server.cfg / listenserver.cfg to take effect.

ALSO, both the server AND the client must close out of Half Life to reflect those settings. My major problem was when I was testing out what URL to use, I used the wrong URL structure first, and then tried various sv_downloadurl settings without either closing the half life program on the server end or the client end.

NOTE #2:
I was curious if the original folder needed to match the game, like cstrike, valve, dod, etc. My conclusion is that the sub-folder you use does not matter. I switched my subfolder structure from .root/hldm/valve/ to just .root/hldm/ and it works fine.

2. Is that the only lines of code I need for HLDM to direct connections to my website to download files?

Yes. sv_downloadurl, sv_allowdownload, and sv_allowupload were the only three lines of code I needed for it to work, and those values were correct.

3. Do I need server.cfg or only listenserver.cfg?

For my tests I had duplicate information in both the server.cfg and the listenserver.cfg. After I got the sv_downloadurl working, I tried alternating stripping out all of the info from server.cfg, and then from listenserver.cfg.

My tests showed I needed both. Without all of my information in the listenserver.cfg, sv_downloadurl did not work. When I flipped it and stripped out all of the information from server.cfg, but left all of the info in listenserver.cfg, got mixed results. The files did not download as fast for the client... but they downloaded faster than if I didn't have it.

My conclusion for fast results was to duplicate the info in server.cfg and listenserver.cfg. My understanding of how much is pulled from server.cfg over a listenserver.cfg is limited, and further research would need to be done for more conclusive results.

Bottom line is I duplicated the info to both files so Half-Life can pull what it needs to from either config file.

4. Does this command work only with dedicated servers and not listen servers?

Well I think I answered that already. I am running a listen server and sv_downloadurl seems to work perfect!

5. When players enter my server and the my server-side initializes, will clients not download maps from my website server if they aren't already in compressed form (.ztmp)?

As far as I could tell, client side resorted to the "trickle" style downloading from the server if the only uploaded files to the webhost were the .ztmp files. I don't know if GoldSrc recognizes .ztmp files if not originating from the server, so players will be downloading full uncompressed files from the webhost. The resource (.res) file might need to be edited to reflect the new .ztmp extension, but I did not check into that. The download times are plenty fast and I am not concerned about bandwidth at this time. Would be nice to be efficient, but I could not get this to work.

6. Do my server-side files need to reflect the "valve_downloaded" change?

Nope.

OTHER THINGS OF NOTE:

I read that if your web server is secured with Basic HTTP Authentication, use the format http://<username>:<password>@<domain>/<custom_content_directory>
well, I believe I have basic http authentication, and I did have to type out any security information into the config files.

I also read that you'll need to CHMOD your folders with 705 permission (via cpanel, plesk, FileZilla or any other management tool). Not sure about this though. My folders all have 705 permission by default. It might be worth looking into if you are having problems.

The banner.gif that used to show up with content hosting no longer displays, even when properly placed in the /gfx/banner.gif folder. I believe this functionality was removed as early as 2005.

Hope this helps someone, somewhere in the distant future's past!

Hello TWHL,

I want to externally host custom maps on a webite I own, but I can't seem to link it correctly to my listen server. The maps just keep getting downloaded from the listen server itself (very slowly) instead of the external website.

I have these lines in listenserver.cfg AND the server.cfg:

sv_downloadurl "http://www.darktreemedia.com/hldm/valve"
sv_allowdownload 1
sv_allowupload 1

1. Is the sv_downloadurl correctly setup? Do I need another forward slash at the end? Does having the http:// on or off matter? The www?

2. Is that the only lines of code I need for HLDM to direct connections to my website to download files?

3. Do I need server.cfg or only listenserver.cfg?

4. Does this command work only with dedicated servers and not listen servers?

5. When players enter my server and the my server-side initializes, will clients not download maps from my website server if they aren't already in compressed form (.ztmp)?

Here is where my maps are located on the server, go ahead, click it. You can see how the structure is set up and if it is valid/correct:
http://www.darktreemedia.com/hldm/valve/

I've been researching all day, using the googles, searching forums, and trial and erroring without any success. Many threads in forums have people saying this works and that works, nice tutorials and step by step processes. I Can't seem to get it to work. As far as I can tell, as soon as someone connects to my server, it autocreates the compressed .ztmp files and then the player has to wait minutes while they download the compressed custom sounds, maps, models, etc.

What am I doing wrong? If what I say is all correct... AM I doing anything wrong? Has the method changed since I did this back in 2005? For instance, the compressed files are now .ztmp, when they used to be .bz2. As far as I know that should affect this problem. I also noticed that custom content is downloaded on the client side into valve_downloaded folders, and that the Half-Life game is now in the common folder beneath Steam instead of your username.

6. Do my server-side files need to reflect the "valve_downloaded" change?

Thank you ahead of time if any of you have insight into this!

Hi everyone!!

I would like to know if there is a way to enable or control health regeneration in the Half-Life 2: Episode 2 engine. I am making a mini-mod but want to have health regeneration in the style of Portal.

I do not want to have a large brush that is constantly giving me health, as that is rather tacky.

Any help or direction for me to be led in would be superb! I searched the forums, but alas, nothing...

Hay I've almost finsihed my map for the compo.... are we still accepting submissions for the map a puzzle compo? It's still Oct 28th in my timezone. I swear.

He just bought Ep1 and wants to talk about it! This is a perfectly healthy topic for general banter

To esmajor: Why didnt you have Ep1 already?!

anything you pay for in london is probably going to be twice as much as it would be in the new york store.

They don't HAVE what I need in New York. Maybe I didn't specify that. I contacted them. The only place I have found to have the leggings is that one specific store in London.

Wow, I can't believe I readed all that **.

Yeah, I can't believe I TYPED all that **.

is 18 and over for credit cards an american thing? guess I should get out more

Don't be offended, Skals. I just don't deal with paying underaged people. I think there's like a law against having credit cards 17 and under.. therefore, how would I pay you

Delays? What delays. I see no delays.

Anyone over 18 who lives in London?

Ok, so like, theres a Japanese line of clothing called Uniqlo. some of you may have heard of it. They have a viral marketing campaign with catchy music. check it out here:

(warning, fast connection recommended)
http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/

The website just features music, and dozens of random high definition streaming videos of female Japanese dancers dancing to music. It goes in intervals of 5 seconds. 5 seconds of clock/music ... 5 seconds of hi def video showing off their clothing. It is quite artsty and completely tasteful. Everything worn in the video is available form Uniqlo retailers. Theres nothing specifically original or amazing about their clothes... but the ad is so damn catchy, and at the end of each hour, the color scheme changes, and something random happens...either a 30 second hd clip, a close up of a clock hitting the next hour, or something. It's addicting, and I bookmarked it to check when its about 2 minutes or so before the end of the hour to see the dance routine or whatever they have planned. Wow, I'm completely ranting... but I divulge.

So, they have one store in the USA. Its in New York, New York. I live in the US, but according to Google maps, I live a little over 2,500 miles (4,100 kilometers) from New York, so fuck that. Their online website is really terrible and offers about 5% of their actual products. Like seriously 5 shirts and a couple pants.

However, there are FOURTEEN Uniqlo retailers in and around London. they also have an epic website which offers 95% of their clothing. Now, For me to use their online website, I have to LIVE in the UK to purchase items.... I shopped, added shit to my basket, went to checkout, and in the address, all I could choose was UK. Yeah. Lame. Lets go back 5 days though.

I needed a proxy who lived in the UK to pick up or have the item(s) shipped to their house, so that they could then ship the items to ME.

Proxy. N. [prox-zee]. An agent or substitute authorized to act for another person.

So, I asked here if anyone lived in London. I asked on some Style forums. I researched ebay, googled for Uniqlo proxies (the folk who are willing to act as courier between me, in the U.S. and the retailer, who is in the U.K.)

Short story long, the items I wanted, because it took so f*****g long to find a proxy and get shit goin, the items became unavailable online. sold out. So, in my efforts to get these clothes I want, (by now, I am more on a mission to get these clothes just to prove I can get them because if I get them I'm epic) I purchase a calling card from NobelCom so I can start calling all of the Uniqlo retailers in London to see if any of them have this product left. So I stay up till 4AM (which is when stores in the UK are opening) and I begin my middle-of-the-night calling. I'm jittery and excited because its fun to call foreign countries. I realize, as the other end is ringing... that maybe they don't speak English in London. I panic, but remember that is Paris, I think. Of course they speak English in London, you fucktard! anyway, Its hard to understand their English, but they have a couple pair in stock of what I want. I call 6 more locations, and they either cant understand ME (which is fucking hilarious because I work at Domino's Pizza, so I have to deal with Spanish people on the phone whom I cant understand, and now the coin is flipped) or they are out of stock.

So anyway, I found a guy who lives in Bournemouth, who is gonna call the store I called and see if they can ship it to him... he doesn't live close enough to London to just do that, but I'm fucking serious, if I don't reserve these things, they are gonna be gone unless they are ALREADY gone.

SO! Here is the name and location of the store in London:

UNIQLO Bromley
Unit 5, The Mall
Bromley, Kent BR1 1TR

Tel: 020 8460 6075

the product I want is women's "HEAT TECH LEGGINGS"
in colour BLACK or DARK GREY ... if those colours are not available, any colour will do, as long as they are size small. It is for my gf. She's always cold, and loves the Uniqlock website and would be really surprised if I got them. she has no idea I've done any of this, lol.

I have found someone who is gonna try and order them to his house... but if one of you LIVE in or around London, or know how to get to this store and want to call and see if they still have a pair and want to reserve a pair and go buy them for me, that would be awesome. of course I would pay you an agreed amount to carry out this task as my hired proxy.

As a side note, that would be epic if I made all of this up to get one of you to buy these $10 pair of black trousers for no reason. But I didn't, I promise. Those leggings will be MINE!!!

... who's up for the task? ...

I'd say penisjuice has about 5 minutes before he's banned, given he registered 1 day ago and is linking pornography websites.

Goodbye, penisjuice. You will not be missed.

this makes me a SAD panda.

For a Christmas gift for my gf? I would. We Americans. Not known for our smarts.

So I have a strange question... does anyone here live in London or around London? There is a store there that has a clothing product I can only get there...

Compo 26 results are the BMS release of compo results. aka vaporware

Yes. It seems as though there is a 40 char limit on thread headers.

I didn't see any answers to this here, and I won't post a tutorial since I didn't figure this out myself, but I'm posting this here to help out some people who are interested.

Anyway, the default texturing within the Orange box hammer is very low res... the letters are almost impossible to make out on the trigger brushes, etc.

To fix this, do the following:

1. Use GCFScape to open "Steam\SteamApps\base source engine 2.gcf" and locate bin\dxsupport.cfg

2. Extract that file to SourceSDK\bin\orangebox\bin\

3. edit the file and change the line
"ConVar.mat_picmip" "2"
to
"ConVar.mat_picmip" "-1"

4. Save. Restart Hammer

I should clarify. Right now you have the 5 most recent posts from forums. Why not the "5 most recent forum posts AND map comments"? Meaning... not five from each, but 5 combined.... It wouldn't make it any larger... it would occupy the same space...

but if you feel it would update too often (with forum posts + map comments, which I dont think it would)... you could change it to be the most recent 6 posts/comments... and have each section cut off after two lines instead of three. You wouldn't be losing that many words, since the character cutoff is right in the middle of the third line anyway.... you could compact enough space to fit one more post/comment on the front page without losing any space at all!

I actually would rather see the most recent comments on maps equally or moreso than something that says "lol" in reponse to a topic I don't even know what is about. But if someone says "Wow! Great map blah blah blah" I would want to click on that comment and be interested. Its nice to keep up on what maps are hot and are not here at TWHL.

Recent forum posts on the front page should extend to recent comments on maps as well

2 cents:

-Stating whether or not you are a beginner or not is a bad idea. It's way too subjectional from person to person what a beginner and intermediate are. If you want to further specify what you can do, you should just state it in your journal. If you're an "advanced" mapper, prove it in your maps profile.
[edit] This was a reply to a suggestion apparently from about a year ago[/edit]

-There should be a link to your profile from every page. Maybe have it next to the logout icon. You currently have to do this in two steps: Your Control Panel >> View your profile. I don't think it would clutter up much to add an extra icon or another line of text doing this.

-speaking of the logout icon, it looks like a person, which makes me think its a profile button. the logout person button should be a touch more obvious that is it's function

-In your maps profile, on the page that lists all your maps... if you don't want to enable a small two/three line description preview under the thumbnail, it should at least be able to show what game it is for (HL2MP, HLSP, CS, TF2, etc).

Im going to fix those problems and finish polishing it,then submit it to the Vault.

Hehe... upon further inspection, it seems the only missing textures are the water textures.... you may either be using a custom texture for the water or it is just my computer.... can anyone else confirm or deny if they can see water when they play? Also, if you wanted the soundbyte "silent hill 4 soundtrack - 14 - pulsating ambience.mp3" to play, I'm pretty sure you to rename it so that there are no spaces... maybe not. Either way, it doesn't play when I play, so, you might need to embed the track into the BSP or include it in the zip ^_^. Quite the mysterious map :))

Yay! Thank you thank you! I see now the other entries have their name built into the BSP as well as "compo entry 26" in one way or another... sorry... I'll know for future submissions how to properly submit a map :). First compo entry ever!

Also, good work on your map, Imus. Lots of seemingly nodraw areas throughout though where you can see into the void, but there might have been a glitch on my end somehow. Got through all all of the puzzles except the last one (I think its the last one)...

The all black room you fall into at the end, I unnavoidingly died from fall damage because I had 4 life when I jumped in.... and it autosaves just before you land... so I had like a split second to go into the console to load 'god' before I splatted... also, after the last yellow grid comes at you, I avoided it, but then got stuck in that black room with the 4 blue lines... I couldn't find any exit by searching the walls.. .crouching, jumping, or walking along them to find the exit. I finally noclipped to the opposite side of the room... opposite of the 4 blue lasers, and I wound up in an all white room, triggering text basically saying I found the end. I loaded the game and tried to find the exit again to get to that white room without cheating but couldn't find it... I may decompile it and look in hammer where the exit is... might try one more time

That aside I liked the visuals and it had some fun puzzles! Good 20 minute romp.

I worked off and on all month on this... and since I finished it ON Nov 2nd... I'm hoping it can be considered!! If not, here is the link anyway.. an early work in progress of a much bigger idea... needs lots of fixes and additions, but here is the beta completed version for the compo

http://darktreemedia.com/users/darktree/files/barrel_destroyer_b1.zip

Enjoy guys! I'll submit to the vault in a bit with a pic...

yeah no probs, i just thought op4 fell under HL, being the same engine and all

You're right, Nine. It IS the same engine. So why not rip the models, textures and sounds from op4 and embed them into your BSP's? You won't have the barnacle gun, but you can get the same feel.

Hey guys, just lettin ya know there's a Portal boss mapping compo at the pit for all those who are interested!

http://snarkpit.net/forums.php?forum=1&topic=8188&0

$30 Steam purchase for the winner! Click the link to find out more :]

Hello new site

I said it once and I'll say it again. I vote for single player ^_^.

I can't offer free forums, but will offer unlimited free filehosting at my site. PM to inquite

For those of you who don't want to wait for Fileplanet Downloads I have the entire trilogy hosted at my site:

http://darktreemedia.com/users/blackwidowgames/theyhunger.htm

If you haven't played it, DL and play now....it rocks.

CB4 - Straight Outta Locash

Hey yo! I made a ytmnd......just thought I'd post it here.

http://katzchair.ytmnd.com

Um....if you don't know Dr. Katz or Alice in Chains, it may be of no humour to you :p. Thanks for clicking!

that video was pwnage

The fact that you HAD to have a 3D skybox was kinda over-the-top...but...hey.....rules is rules....

One entry? Ugh............I very much would like to see another source mapping compo here...they are far and few in between. I would very much like to see the next compo and see the result(s) of this one!

Weird Al - It's All About the Pentiums
Len - Steal My Sunshine
Mark McGuinn - Mrs Steven Rudy
Alabama - Dixieland Dellight
Adam Sandler - Ode to My Car
Bowling For Soup - 1985
Gorillaz - Dare

I tried going to everything....

but I primarily just type in:

twhl.co.za [ENTER] :

Hey All. Dunno if this is just me or what, but I cannot access TWHL in anyway, shape, or form through Firefox. I even added an excepetion to the cookies list to make sure. If I search for twhl on google, it wont link to the site, either.

I'm sure there are other Firefox users out there, so what's up?

Here is the text on the error page that comes up when trying to access this site:

Redirect Loop Error

Redirection limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page. This may be caused by cookies that are blocked.

The browser has stopped a connection because the site is redirecting requests to itself in a manner which prevents it from ever completing.

Haha....none taken....

...and just wondern...how do you know you're the skinniest...and I'm the fattest? Should I sweep my house for hidden cameras?

HrnyGoat:

The reason there are no fat guys on this site is because we're all geeks. ;o! Geeks = skinny, usually tall nerds.

Trapt:

Ya fat people are all dumb cause the fat gets into their head and kills off all the brain cells.....

I am indeed a fat person. Maybe not morbidly obese, but I AM pretty fat/overweight. Thus, there are fat people here

This is easy:

For HL: They Hunger 1, 2, 3
For HL2: BM:S (Black Mesa: Source.....unreleased, but whatever...it is HL1 revamped for the source engine....gonna b kickass)

I completely concur with Mercenary in saying HL mapping is better. With HL you can map for either DM OR SP. For that reason soley, HL mapping is less restrictive than CS. That isn't to say any is BETTER, per say, but there is definately more you can do with HL mapping.

I am not too concerned about a Gordon model specifically. In HL1, it just took a model from the DM model folders to display movement, supposedly. Is there a way to pull models from HL2DM to do the same for a SP map? (or any models for that matter) I am sure there must be a possibility in showing your own player model if it can be done in HL1.

Thru tricky camera work maybe?

Like 3rd person view? :

func_decal did it. func_wall is pretty much onsolete I guess.

Not necessarily, you just see your multiplayer model. Can just as easily be the G-man or a zombie.

Is there any way to incorporate a DM model for gordon in HL2? Instead of nothing? Obviously the movement and gunfire is all there...no way to substitute nothingness for a model? Seems highly unlikely since it could be done for HL1....I am talking about SPs, btw....not DMs....

VMEX (google for it)

In my map I have func_walls, func_breakables, and func_buttons. the walls and breakables leave NO decal whatsoever when whacked or shot at (like with a pistol or a crowbar). Also, when I shoot them with a crossbow, the crossbow also isn't there...With my func_button....it DOES leave impact marks from when I hit ti with a crowbar and shoot it with a gun....but with the crossbow, it doesn't show the bolt OR the decal.

Does the only thing the cross bow leave a mark in is world brushes?

Here are a couple recordings from the pit just before its recent fall:
SnarkPower made this page in 48.948 seconds
SnarkPower made this page in 94.78 seconds

It's sad.

Also....

Before it went down lep posted a message in sp style

Wtf is SP style....