Forum posts

Found:

http://www.moddb.com/games/half-life-2/tutorials/how-to-create-a-waterfall

Thanks guys, once I knew it was deffinatly a particle effect it wasnt too hard to find.

Hey guys,

Wondering how Valve's boys did this:

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5751/ep2outland11a0000.jpg

I have been searching the net and through the ents and so on in the SDK and cant find anything remotly like it. Anyone know how they got this waterfall effect?

I considered a camera - but I would prefer the interactivity of the player being sat in the car while they drove through, being able to look around. Also a camera would mean having to teleport the player - which isnt that hard.

Right now I will settle for an answer to my dilema. - If you can give me instructions onto how to do what I have described with cameras then please do.

Hi all,

I have a source issue (HL EP2 SP) I was wondering if anyone had an answer too. I know its possible (its done in Ep1) but I am not sure how to do it myself.

Basically I want a map to load and the player to start in the Ep2 jeep. The player will be locked in at this point and have no control - not even the ability to get out. The car will start and drive foward through several physics objects - note the car doesnt actually have to drive, I could just drag it foward and play a driving sound.

Once through the objects the car will come to a stop. At this point the player will be ejected from the car and the car will cease to function so player cant get in.

If anyone knows how to do this or knows of a tut that will help please speak up.

• Thanks

No it isnt, thats the first thing I checked.

No errors, everything's compiled fine. I'm compiling with HDR and I noticed that when I activate "building_cubemaps 1" the HDR (in game) turns off, could this be part of the problem?

My only other thought is that it could be a leak (although leaks have never stopped me building cube maps before). I've looked the map over and searched for a point file but there was none (hence no leaks AFAIK).

I'm stumped on this one guys.

Although I did hear once that you should compile, build cube maps and then compile again with HDR on. Could this be the way foward?

] building_cubemaps 1
] buildcubemaps
maps/Tycell_british_operation_subway_a1 is not writable!!! Check it out before running buildcubemaps.

This is a direct quote from my console in game when I try to build cube maps for my SP HL2 EP2 map.

I have no idea why it does this. I have searched the map for leaks but can find none. Anyone got any ideas why I cant build cube maps?

Hmm.... could very easily make it a DM map... Add in a few new routes here and there... Anyone else think thats a good idea? Not too sure myself.

Just to let you guys know this project is being mothballed.

My main reasons are the critisism - not to say it was bad, no, infact it helped a lot. From various people looking at the work I hear a lot of "Its very like HL1 and doesnt have the feel of HL2 very much." This is true.

So I am mothballing the idea, sorry guys. There will be a spin off I am working on ATM, should be a bit of fun and the map will probably wind up used for somthing else.

I'm going to have to play with source a bit more to get a "feel" for HL2 style of maps and not HL1.

No, not that portal thingy Urb.

I'm talking about this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDI_DK1qO28

That is what VALVe have coined a "portal Storm". I say its just a pretty effect which lasts only a few seconds and acts as a trigger for more pretty effects (bridge collapsing).

As I said I already did. Ruined city, burning rubble, smashed stuff everywhere. Imagine Silent Hill but with ruined buildings, winds and lightning. Its so easy to do - I was especially proud of the lightning effects I pulled off though. Basically cycled through four different sets of effects, some with just sound, some with big red flashes and I even had some which shook the ground but removed them because it was a little OTT for the setting I wanted (horror).

So yeah, I can and have pulled of ALL of what I wanted to see in a portal storm. Apart from the actual teleporting portal effects, I just used beam effects and some teleport and kill commands to make stuff look like it was being portaled all over the place. It still looked good though, I might host and link the map if your interested in seeing what I did.

I wasnt expecting some super graphic amazing looking visual but a storm which enveloped the area and lasted (longer than five seconds) would have been nice. Like fog so you couldnt see very far with lightning flashes and perhaps scripted bits for the portals themselves. Sounds of high winds, electrical equiptment going on the fritz - It wouldnt be that hard to pull off. I made a map pretty much as I just described ages ago as a concept for portal storms in a ruined city with Red lightning and such.

Ah well, perhaps its possible to get different types of portal storms so I'll perhaps be able to use what I want in maps anyway with a little explination.

Not sure exactly which forum this should go in but I figure this one because its to do with level design.

Ok so basically I was really dissapointed with the "Portal Storms" VALVe made in Ep2. From my perspective it was simply a pretty looking large explosion with no real perpose other than to knock down stuff (like the bridge).

When I first heard the term "portal Storm" I pictured a really powerful massive storm front with devistating green lightning, thick cloud, rain and things being randomly teleported (essencially chaos).

What do you guys think of the portal storms? Do you like them or like me do you think they could have been better?

I get the impression this is the phychological experiment. The effect of a young female upon younger males asking for their help and offering rewards in return kinda thing. Probably for a laugh (to see how many people are like "omg omg I will! I will!" or an actual test to gauge how deprived of femininity the internet culture is.

Whatever anyway. No offecnce anyone its just what I thought when I read the thread.

Its just it seems way too perfect. Young collage girl pleading for help, offering money etc. I mean what are the odds?

If its genuine good luck to you and the guy you paid and only did half a job is a bastard, should have seen it though to the end especially if you paid him.

Out of curiocity;

• Surley if the map is meant for an experiment then you would want it to be functional and not visually stimulating?

• If you did want to give it a theme would you have a sterile hospital like them (as it relates to a testing place of sorts) or would you have it Portal Themed where the place is an actual construction (trying to be true to life).

• How would you pay the ?25?

I'd happily make this map for you myself but it seems you've already got a small army of volenteers. GL

Hey guys, new screens below. This is the latest work on the first map. This basically now marks the main part of the map as done (but yet to be polished), and only the big final area battle remains. Man what a haul!

This is the latest work on the ceter of the map. You'll be passing through this area at least three times (all different routes) so I've made an effort to get it to look good (even before polish). I'm really happy with the result, its all come together really nicely.This next shot shows the first part of the first puzzle area. This area totally changed when I actually came to make it from what I had in my minds eye. I am happy with the result though, especially as I stumbled accross a model which fitted the fuction perfectly.More of that puzzle area from further back. Not overly sure about this area but it all looks fine in game.This is that large ventalation area I posted up before from a different angle. I was hoping to get more in the shot but it seems the screen shot cut off the top of the screen in game. This is the top area of the center of the map. In game its fantastic with the water far below you, really turned out well.The centeral area from a wider shot. The walkway on the right will be the center peice of the map once I actually do anything to it, at the moment its just a normal brush so you can ignore it for now. Again really happy with the way this has all come together, it looks most excellent.So what do you guys think? Looking better so far? I am really enjoying this, been mapping every day since sunday to get this all up and running (and a little bit before ages ago). The first map is almost out of the alpha stage and into the beta (polish) stage. All I really have to do now is put together the big final battle for this map and stick it on. That and get some voice acting done, put in the enemies etc.

Feedback please.

Yeah, blame the models. :)++ not all cubemaps are in place yet. I map a bit then go through and splash them everywhere.

Ok so didnt get much work done on monday, but got a fair bit done today. New areas of the map are shaping up quite nicley. I've modified the lighting a bit in the first room (white lights) but am still not happy with it (hence no screen). These four screens are of the new areas I've added in today.

This is the final area I added which connects to the Stairwell. I'm happy with the way it turned out in the end even though technically most of that was accidental.A new room you caught a glimps of in the first screen shot. This room took a little longer to set up than the others for reasons I wont go into (play it and find out your self, one day). Quite happy with the result, again, no polish as of yet.This whole area was a complete accident. I realised I needed somthing to connect the stairwell to the V******** O****** ( ) and this is what came out of that. Unfortunatly I was nubish and made the light models physics props (so they dont show) but I'll fix that tommorrow.Another new area. This one WAS planned however and is comming together quite nicley. You may notice (how can you not) the large peice of machinery on the left of the shot. This is a large peice of machinery which moves (spot the operating lever).So, more feedback please. Keep in mind none of these screen shots have any polish at all. I'll be going back through the whole map adding in detail and alike once the layout is done and the main set peices are all in place.

How you guys liking it so far?

Yeah the lighting has improved as the map has progressed, I'm going with light yellows and dull reds with natural light contrasts and dark lower levels.

Should get some new screens up tonight, stay tuned.

Questions:

What is the goal of this.
What do you intend to have included in the final release.
What type of ideas do you want? Level, enemy, weapon?

Are you just trying to take as much from Crysis and put it into source as possible or are you actually trying to sort of re-create crysis on source?

First room still needs some more definition in the lighting though... Something bold.

Please elaborate (which room, how you think the lighthing could improve etc.)

New screen shots of todays work.

As you can see I have taken some advice and altered the HL1 light beams.This corridoor is a WIP, it will have enemies in it later to flesh it out a bit. Still I feel there is more detail that could be added but I am going for gameplay and story with "better than average" visuals, not "omg it looks the sex".More of that same corridoor.This next one looks very dark but remember when your in game full screen with no white internet site boder its a lot easier to see. Also I want this area to be dark and gloomy. I'm quite happy with the result seeing as their are no lights inside this tall stairwell yet you can still see what your doing all the way through.A gloomy dark room mid way up the stairwell. Originally I had a zombine pounding on the glass panel door but removed it as the zombine never broke through and looked a bit silly TBH doing the same 3 second animation for as long as the player cared to watch.This is about mid way up the stair well. Gives you some idea of the feel of the area. Yet to add another floor opening on the far wall so it wont always look quite so bland. The top of the stairwell. Remember this is all WIP but critisism is of course welcome.So what do you guys think? Its all WIP at the moment but I am happy with the results so far. No it doesnt look as good or flash as EP2 but its steady work and the gameplay should be fun. There'll be bonuses for explorative players as well. Not so much easter eggs as advantages.

Anyway what do you think of the new screens?

Ah but see those wrecked buildings have been destroyed for many years. I could have put flames and all sorts in but its meant to be abandoned and lifeless. Fire once went through the building (hence no furniture, paint, items etc).

But yeah, your suggestions are good but not for the look I am going for.

good to see you too Sajo

Yes I know, the yellow light beam has been commented on before. Unfortunatly I have yet to come up with a better way of pulling off the effect - It doesnt look so bad in game when its rotating.

++Hi Urban ^_^ Long time no see.

Alright so I?m looking for one or two level designers to join me in making my mod ?Abbreviated Life Span? or ABLISP for short. I began work on the mod many moons ago and already have a couple of maps half built. Much of the time working on this mod has been a learning curve in the Source Engine, in fact the original first map (which took me some two months of mapping and was rather large) was scrapped because I wasn?t happy with all the mistakes I had made and trying to fix them all would have turn the map into a mess.

Anyway, as I said I am looking for one or two level designers to join me in making this mod. A quick rundown of what this would encompass; four chapters, each chapter is three maps long, each chapter is released episodically. So the team (me and whoever else joins) would make three maps together, polish them and then release them. Currently there are only four chapters planned in detail so far with a big finish at the end of chapter four. Though I hope to complete the mod in total and end up with eight episodes I am waiting to see how one to four go first. Essentially this means a total of 15 maps with the possibility of another 15 if all goes better than average.

A little about the story;

You?re Gordon Freeman, its set after the events in Episode Two; it doesn?t conflict with the Half-Life story line, your ?working? for the G-Man still, no major NPC?s feature. As for the game story itself; you have a brief glimpse of the G-Man, there is a flash of light, and as usual you quickly find yourself knee deep in trouble shortly after. You are sent to help some rebels who have stumbled across an old pre 7 hour war Geo-Thermal plant. You set out to help them set up camp their and soon find yourself roped in to much more than you bargained for with monsters, combine and secret projects.

Well, I don?t want to give the full story away of course and ruin it but suffice to say I have already had some offers from people on IRC who would be willing to join the team. Though with all respect to them I don?t want to make a rushed decision and want to have the best people who will benefit the mod join as the team. This means offering the positions to everyone and then picking the best candidate.

So here are a few screen shots to whet your appetite and give you an idea of the level of quality. They are all WIP of course and I am not looking for the best looking map designs ever made more fun with good game play maps. Screen shots below.So what do you say? Any critisism is welcome, feedback please.

The Half Life Dude:

Basically your mapper, who ever they are, is leading you down the garden path. I would delete anything they sent you and start looking for a new one. As you can see people are very against 'map stealing' and alike. Dont get mad and post in capitals, it will only make things worse.

If I were you I'd give the mapper who sent you this a piece of your mind for lying to you.

Dont worry about it guys - after a little experimentation I have it working nicley.

I used Info_targets, parented them to the func_rotating, loaded them up with the three kinds of env_beam I wanted and then put the whole lot on a timer system to emulate the random strikings.

Looks fab. Maybe I will post a pic later or maybe even the map if I am bothered - bit tired ATM.

Hey guys. Just wondering:

I have a func_rotating with various bits that come off it (and rotate) around a centeral peice. I was wondering if it is possible to make an Env_Beam lightning like effect to come off the bits that stick out and congrigate in the middle.

So that the lightning looks like it is comming off the spinning bits and into the middle of the rotating thing while it is rotating. It gets trickier because there are three points I would like the effect and the beams have to be different colours. If anyone knows how I could pull this off (get an env_beam to hit a specific, moving, target and track it) I would appreciate it.

Its an urban map. Why would there be trees? + that would require a modeler

http://www.websamba.com/tycell/De_Siberia0000.jpg

WIP. This is the T spawn.

I have put "Semi-Sphere" on hold while I make this map for THE CSS clan "Old Farts Club" (OFc).

Find them HERE:

http://www.oldfartsclub.org/x/

A little about the map:

I always felt that the T model "Arctic Avengers" didnt really have a home map so to speak. All the other models had maps which they fitted into well but there were really no proper snow filled maps.

Office came the closest but its still mostly indoor combat and only small areas of snow. This map will be set in (you guessed it) Siberia! Or at least thats the plan at the moment it could change.

Urban based combat (not too much inside how ever) in a snowed in city which has also just come under mortar attack (a few buildings with sides blown off, crates in the streets etc).

The "story" goes that the T's fired mortars into the city to cause everyone to flee, leaving the place wide open for them to rush in and either take hossies or blow the objective (I am still playing with the idea of a DE or CS map).

Comments welcome (though in truth there isnt a lot to look at, just keeping you updated as to what I am doing.

Yeah. Right and wrong is down the the inderviduals opinion greatly, however.

There are "universal laws" of sorts which we can safley assume are deffinatly right or wrong in all cultures. For example, if we landed on an alien planet and started blowing them up, they would consider that wrong, as would we. Because of this we can assume that killing is a universal wrong.

Its not so much a set in stone law, but it follows the general flow of life and the universe if you see what I mean. If you had an alien race that was totally into senceless killing they wouldnt last very long would they? They would all die out (either kill each other or have somone else come allong and kill them). End of species, there for the 'Universe' had judged them, in a way, and they have failed.

(OMG getting deep and off topic or what? :D)

LOL

At first I was thinking "wtf? I dont remember this in HL" hahaha.

Update: Dont worry, the project still continues. Though I have scrapped the old "arena" shape and implamented a new one. The name "Semi-Sphere" still applies though (as you will find out on the last level or two).

I have everything that I need to actually finish the Arena shell now (including all the air locks and such. The main "gates" are done, I just need to put them back together and copy + paste them back into the map.

No screenies to show as of yet (its all in peices). As soon as I have the Gates constructed I will show them in action.

So far the gate testing is going pretty well. When the gates open a combine shield is in place that only allows the units comming out of the airlock to pass. In this way the player + co, ant lions and zombies cant wonder into the air locks and bugger them up (that was my main concern really).

Stay tuned.

I also though some of those names were pretty funny. Sick though, you should be careful. What if somone's sister had just died and they came on here and read that? They would not be best pleased.

LOL! m0pX you need help mate.

Yeah nice work guys.

I suppose you are right.

But that isnt the case. The allies in WW2 didnt WANT to fight. They had to fight. Hitler had some good ideas (radical though they were). His methods however, "Take over the world with force", were wrong. No one should ever use their millitary might to overthrow an otherwise peaceful people.

We were fighting the right fight. The fight for freedom, and for our civilisation to continue freely and unhindered. If Hitler had won there would be no ethnic people left in the world. A blue eyed Blonde haired man would be running the world through propaganda and millitary force. There would be no jews and no other religions other than "the one" religion (whatever that may have ended up being).

No matter what nasty evil bad things people have done, NO ONE has the right to say "your kind does not deserve to exist on Earth any more." We all "got here first", we have to share. Every race of animal on this planet has an equal right to go on living on it until such a time as it can no longer support their existence (sun 'splodes or somthing). Thats why there is always a "right side" to a battle.

As I said, there is always a "right side", but the line between right and wrong can be very thin some times.

Wow I love the Avatar Jahzel!

Where did you get it?

A reminder: This is a thread for MAPPING TACTICS. NOT playing tactics. Please stay on topic.

@ Ant: Thanks! I will check that site out right now.

He pulled himself up onto the platfrom at the top of the ladder, momentarily glacing back at the long slimey dead tounge that hung just beside the ladder. A mix of yellow and red blood trickling down from the wounds he had just infilicted to its body high above. The deafening pounding of somthing un earthly echoed through the metal walls.

Gripping his pistol he quickly resumed his jog onward. Stepping through the only doorway off this platform at the top of the ladder he was greeted with a sight which both excited him and poured fear down his back like a waterfall of sins. A large box with a yellow trim and "Explosive" written on the side of it. He had but a moment to take it in before his attention was called elsewhere.

A man wearing blue cloths, a silver helmet and body armour with "Security" stamped in yellow on the back ran foward. He had his gun drawn and was screaming in anger, dashing foward through a opening onto a raised platorm, pulling his gun up to aim as he skidded to a halt. Clearly violence was to follow shortly, but nothing could have prepared him for what happened next.

A huge black leather bone like claw, twice the size of a man, came flying down into sight. The claw was attached to some sort of tentacle and it even appeared that the connection between the claw and the long snake like body was a head with eyes. The claw peirced the air, whistling as its huge mass came down upon the angered security man's helmet.

The sheer force and mass behind the blow caused unimaginable damage to his body, cracking its way straight through his helmet and slicing his entire body in half, sending a massive spray of blood and bodily fluids splattering all around. The mangled corpse fell in peices to the ground. A peice of ribcage with a bit of lung still attached spun and slid to his feet. He could do nothing but stare in horror as this titanic beast pulled its huge claw from the metal platform where once was stood the man in blue and raised its self back up into the space above.

Frozen in shock the mans heart rate increased as he caught sight of another one of these fearsome creatures, and another next to that. The fearsome hydra seemed to tap the ground around it, as if blind, with its three large heads. Looking for more prey. An ally just before hand had informed him that this creature used its hearing to hunt, not its eyes. His mind began to fall back into focus as his eyes flicked up and locked onto the large rocket engine situated just above the beasts head. This would be a battle to remember.

Oh so we should have just sat down and let Hitler win?

There are always two sides to war. One is always the "right" side, now matter how thin the line is. Usually the defending side.

Or as in the case of HL2, the attacking side - the resistance.

Its good for the people who win the wars, if they are fighting the wars for the right reasons. But you bring up a good point ZL, wars these days are fought for power and money not for the right reaons.

Power corrupts.

Every war is different. You cant take one experiance and apply it to all wars in that broad a sence. For example:

One of my Ex's friends is in Iraq right now, and they are loving it. He says the closest he got to being hurt was when a mortar shell landed about 20 meters away. Then you take other things like the Vietnam war, when the soldiers were having drugs tested on them and stuff, and the warfare was brutal and supremly gurilla.

Warfare is good for those who sieze an easy victory. Only the Casualties and those around them suffer in war.

I have... a serious urge... to hold a lighter under that Santa's beard, step back and watch.

But anyway, one thing I dislike about he christmass holidays is when people go OTT with outdoor lighting and do it wrong. Some stuff with lots of lights looks good but when people have this multi-coloured phychadelic mash of lights on the outside of hteir house that is so big it causes the entire street to to go dim every time they are turned on you start to wonder...

Anyway. Thats about it really, its not even a hate either, just find it annoying some times. Pretty much everything about christmass I just ignore (cept the alchahol, that gets my full attention every time ^^).

Ok. Just as I recalled from mine and ZLs last Counter Strike match (when I showed him my CS_1337_Siege map, check vault) ZL is nearly immortal at CS.

If it had been a proper match with more people (and we didnt only use Long A in DE_Dust2) then I would have taken a much worse whipping.

Hes right, the Mac10 / TMP are very accurate. At least 10 times he pwned me from the other end of Long A with the mac (even when I had an AUG). He showed time and time again that not only is he very good at CS but the Mac and TMP can hold their own. The tactics he gave above are quite serious.

But anyway, this thread wasnt about actual playing tactics. It was about map editing. The tactical layout of maps and such. So lets get back on topic before about 1 million people post variations on the 1 / 2 step owning tactic.

scraps message he was writing out before hand

Apparently ZL is being serious, I though he was joking.

/me starts a CSS server with ZL to test such theories.

Yeah. But this isnt really about wanting to go to war ZL. Its about who you take into war. I think all Males have a lust for warfare, violence and battle.

Counter Strike Tactics in analasis and mapping.

http://www.websamba.com/tycell/De_Dust2%20Tac%20Break_Jpgver.jpg

Here is a little somthing I slapped together. This is a basic level design layout of DE_Dust2 I put together. The text is mainly about game play variables in mapping (mapping for the game play, not the level).

The main perpose of this thread I have in mind is to share knowledge on Counter Strike, to inspire and to further peoples (including my own) understanding of Counter-Strike mapping. I am looking foward to seeing what people like Ant and Rabid Monkey have to say on such matters.

Edit: PS I could throw in a whole load of other CS tactics and mapping notes and pointers but I am interested to hear what other people have to say first.

Hey there. Can't honestly say I reemmber you but I am not a TWHL veteran.

Welcome back. Your comp sounds very nice. ^^

Hmmmm... Not really my style but the video is pretty good. I like the sort of sped up out of step style to it. And also a good solo or two in that song

/agree with WCD