Building levels in Blender (half-life 1) Created 10 years ago2014-11-11 14:44:45 UTC by ninja defuse

hello!
is it possible to convert a blender geometry into a working half-life 1 map? i know that on of the most important things is to triangulate faces then i should export the model into an .obj file, so far in the map editor it works fine and without geometry errors... but the walls are tiny i would like to know if this works before i setup compilation tools

I don't see why not. Can't you just make the model Not Solid, and then clip it out in Hammer?

Is the lighting preserved when you convert blender models to GoldSrc?

My plan would be to "grow" a slight pyramid on the opposite side of every face, in most cases you would end up with tetrahedrons and then you should be able to smoothly import it in VHE. I've never done but this I think I've seen a Quake .map export plugin for Blender once.

Lighting can be preserved if you bake the lighting onto the textures.

It's possible for sure. The main problem would be the lighting as GoldSrc models gets enlightened just by the model's origin. Even if the lighting is baked onto the textures, you'll still notice the black/dark zones in game on the model if a light entity points at the model's origin (which is something awful.)
So the best thing would be:

• Export the model as ".obj"
• Import it into Sledge as it has an .obj importing function
• Save it as .rmf
• Fix/rebuild those brushes you don't want to be triangulated or those ones that you don't want as tetrahedrons (to possibly decrease wpolys in game.)

I've made the opposite thing a while ago because I wanted to make a 3D skybox as a model. So I've basically built everything into Hammer and Sledge, compiled, opened the .bsp into Crafty, exported the whole map as .obj, imported into kHED, fixed some things and added Groups and Smoothing, compiled as .mdl, done.

i will be continuing my researches
i would like to use Blender 3d to create a cool mountain or a cave...

That one is cool ninja!

Did you already complied it? How much wpolys?

I tried ferociously to do that a while ago. Does it compile without any issues?

That's awesome did you get it to work?

You could also use Twister to make your GS displacements AND/OR do the displacements in Hammer 4, and den convert them using Twister

Bruce/alberto: Would the lighting look normal with the textures baked and fullbright in the game?

Did you already complied it? How much wpolys?

so far the compilation progress stops on hlvis.. i think it is because of wrong grid setup in Blender 3D... i mean that a lot of brush vertices are positioned like that: x = 0.974, y = 0.951 z = 1.241... and half life doesnt like such madness

It depends on the light brightness. Of course, baked textures could help to cover the problem, but it could still be visible from different angles and with a bright light source nearby. I don't recommend fullbright.
A good idea could be cutting the same model into pieces and compile them separately, hence it can have multiple origins to point light entities at them (multiple cycler_sprites in this case.) Being farther from each other and from the light source too, the light fading effect could be better and more natural instead of a single big model, which would be enlightened everywhere with the same intensity.

But despite all this, what you really need is a proper test map (even more than one) with different versions of the same model(s), because you can never know how a model will look like in game with a specific light ambience, color and brightness. Remember that every model on GoldSrc receives the same light color (the nearest light source entity), so that could be a problem and could compromise the map's quality and realism if not carefully controlled.
Multiple compiles are needed for sure by the way.

Sorry for my english as always. I've tried to explain that as best as possible.

so far the compilation progress stops on hlvis.. i think it is because of wrong grid setup in Blender 3D... i mean that a lot of brush vertices are positioned like that: x = 0.974, y = 0.951 z = 1.241... and half life doesnt like such madness

You should try to snap the vertices on grid manually then (yeah I know it's annoying, but do it for science! :D)

EDIT: Sorry for double posting. ç_ç

@up
i am reading about grid snapping in Blender 3D at the moment

i am reading about grid snapping in Blender 3D at the moment smile -

Good catch!

Have you set the Blender grid as the Hammer one? That could help a lot actually.
I've done that with kHED by the way, and my models' selection boxes fits perfectly in the Hammer grid indeed. :3

oh shit! something is compiling!!!

edit: i think it works perfect! tested on a new map beucase the last one was snap grid buggedi am going to build more detailed map in Blender 3D and i will see

Whoa that's awesome Ninja, well done! I want to try this now...

Oh my god. It never occurred to me that you could convert a model made in a 3D modelling program into proper brushwork that would compile. That would be really friggin' useful for Goldsource.
Does the model import as one brush, or is each face separate?

Every brush have triangulated faces, and it import as multiple brushes (grouped I think).

And yeah, I already use that technique on some of my maps, Jeff. And I can assure you that is awesome and a good time saver. :3

i have heard about a software tool called "nem's generator", the thing does mountains, caves, displacemnts for Half-Life 1 but i haven't found it pretty controllable in the overall usage
in my troll opinion Blender 3D brings easier utility to create a cave u want to archive but the are a lot of problems with scaling and grid snapping... its just a random crap

ps. excuse me for my viking language