Half-Life Updated (custom SDK) Created 3 years ago2021-01-13 21:05:33 UTC by Solokiller Solokiller

Created 3 years ago2021-01-13 21:05:33 UTC by Solokiller Solokiller

Posted 9 months ago2023-06-27 12:34:07 UTC Post #347653
I'd suggest asking for help on the Discord server, they can help you with that.
Posted 9 months ago2023-07-23 18:33:11 UTC Post #347724

Progress on the Unified SDK

SDK Changes

  • Added checks to prevent entities with class none from becoming hostile to player (e.g. if a scientist is killed near the G-Man the G-Man is marked as suspicious which makes him hostile. He'll try to attack the player but, lacking weapons, resorts to stalking the player like a Terminator instead)
  • Prevent allow_follow being set on script entities
  • Added check to prevent level changes from breaking if they are too close to each-other in relative space. The game will instead notify players who touch broken level changes that the level change is incorrectly placed
  • Reduced size of fixed size containers to optimize memory usage in sentence system
  • Use lookup table to get sounds to speed up lookup
  • Eliminated unnecessary conversion from sound index to name and back again when starting sounds
  • Clamp health before conversion to int when showing entity info (prevents entities with huge health values from showing up as having negative health)
  • Properly set scientist head when using random head setting to prevent other body groups from being changed
  • Fixed allied human grunts continuing to fire for a few seconds after killing the last enemy in an area

C# Changes

  • Update env_spritetrain sounds when upgrading maps (same as func_train)
  • Added hack to install default config.cfg file with correct key bindings
  • Added MapUpgraderDocGenerator: converts XML documentation generated by C# compiler for the MapUpgrader.Upgrades library to Markdown for use in documentation

Asset Changes

  • Added polygons under bigrat paws
  • Create valid sequences for unused HD zombie sequences
  • Added test maps to test level changes being too close to each-other
  • Added studio property to a few entities in fgd file
  • Added files used by prototype scripting system

Broken level change detection

If you go through a level change and you're touching a level change immediately after loading into the next map then all level changes will break. This has been fixed so that the level change responsible is instead disabled and a warning is shown to make this clear:
User posted image

Memory and performance optimizations

The new sound system had some performance issues that have been fixed:
  • The memory used by the client-side sentences list has been reduced by about 3/4th from 2 MiB to just under 600 KiB. This was done by reducing the size of the fixed size buffer used to store sentence names and the list of sentence words. For names and word counts that exceed the buffer size additional memory will be allocated. The new buffer sizes were chosen based on the minimum, maximum, average and median counts for both to minimize waste of memory
  • Sound lookup on the client side was too inefficient due to having to compare sound names against every sound used by sentences before regular sounds precached by the server were checked. This now uses a lookup table to dramatically reduce lookup time
  • Sounds and sentences started on the server side are no longer converted from an index back to a name and then back to an index again, which eliminates the need to perform a lookup altogether
These were the only outliers in SDK code that showed up when checking the game with a performance profiler. Most of the game's CPU time is spent in the engine which can't be analyzed more thoroughly due to a lack of access. Memory usage is pretty good with no notable outliers.

Prototype scripting system

The prototype Angelscript-based scripting system has been made available in the Git branch nonfunctional-prototype-scripting.

This prototype implements a number of features that can be used as a starting point for a more complete and functional scripting system:
  • Plugins and map scripts
  • trigger_script
  • Event System
  • Scheduler
  • Call functions from C++ using helper functions and types
  • Entity APIs
  • Custom Entities
  • Per-Entity User Data
  • Console Commands
A more complete overview is included in the documentation. The documentation explains the concepts behind these features, how they work and where the design can be improved.

I updated the prototype to include all changes made to the project and i added a couple more features i thought people might need an example for but as noted in the documentation this prototype is nowhere near ready for use. You'll need to put in a fair amount of effort to get it working.

As i noted in the Closing Thoughts you should evaluate other scripting languages to choose the right one for the job. Angelscript is powerful but that also makes integrating it into a program difficult, and when something goes wrong (and it will) you'll need advanced level C++ knowledge to understand what's happening.

Documentation and changelog

I've added documentation for as much as i can. The documentation covers everything from new features, new, modified and removed entities, tools, scripts and prototypes.

I've also added a changelog listing all changes made in the Unified SDK project (not including changes made in the Updated projects): https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/blob/master/UNIFIED_CHANGELOG.md

The changelog is about 13 A4 pages when exported to PDF.

The main documentation readme acts as a hub for the documentation to allow navigation to the documentation and links to other projects related to this one.

Potential Upgrades

Remaining open Github issues have been moved to a "Potential Upgrades" project. I've also added issues from my TODO list to this project.

These are issues that could be worth investigating and cover bug fixes, API changes and new features. They are by no means required to be added at any point, they're just things that are worth investigating.

Remaining work to be done

  • Update changelog to include all changes (mostly complete)
  • Write documentation for all new features (mostly complete)
  • Review all changes (done)
  • Stress test the four campaigns and fix issues that show up (second test done)
  • First release candidate build
There are a couple things left to be done before development is wrapped up, mostly testing the four campaigns again to check for any issues worth fixing.

I'd like to thank malortie for helping to get the project ready for release. He's done a lot of good work on the project and helping to test the game. The project would not have gotten to this point without him.
Posted 8 months ago2023-07-30 18:28:50 UTC Post #347738

Half-Life Updated release candidates released

Half-Life Updated, Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated and Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated release candidates have been released:
Half-Life Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-updated/releases/tag/HLU-V1.0.0-RC001
Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-op4-updated/releases/tag/HLOP4U-V1.0.0-RC001
Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-bs-updated/releases/tag/HLBSU-V1.0.0-RC001

Notable changes for all games:
  • Fixed tripmines not detonating if placed on breakable and a save game is loaded
  • Fixed func_friction not working properly in multiplayer
  • Fixed Gauss gun sometimes settting player uranium ammo to -1
  • Fixed user interface coordinates and sizes being incorrectly adjusted for resolution
  • Fixed player weapons still receiving input when starting to use a func_tank
  • Fixed alien slave beams staying forever if they exist during a level change
  • Fixed limit in world weapons (e.g. Hand Grenade) respawning at wrong time if server is near edict limit
  • Fixed Human Grunts dropping weapons again if the game is saved and loaded while the grunt is dying
  • Fixed mouse movement during map load affecting initial view angles
  • Fixed being able to break scripted_sequence by +using friendly NPCs to make them follow player
  • Fixed potential incorrect facing in scripted sequence
  • Fixed Egon not stopping its attack animation if the attack button is held down and ammo runs out
  • Fixed scientists crashing when speaking fear dialogue when enemy has been removed
  • Disabled fall think function for weapons when the player picks it up to prevent possible double-pickup which removes the weapon and crashes the game
  • Disabled jump sounds while player is frozen (e.g. trigger_camera, trigger_playerfreeze)
  • Fixed node graph code incorrectly flagging node graphs as out of date if an outdated graph exists in a search path other than the mod directory (e.g. a graph in halflife_updated_addon/map/graphs)
Notable changes for Opposing Force:
  • Force Pitworm animations to interpolate to fix stuttering movement
  • Implemented snow footsteps and impact sounds, changed snow material type ID to O to match Opposing Force
  • Added missing EXPORT to a few Opposing Force entities
  • Fixed M249 using wrong spread in singleplayer when standing still and ducking
  • Fixed Capture The Flag items crashing on respawn
  • Fixed Health Charger recharge time not using the correct value in Co-op
  • Fixed Desert Eagle laser position not updating when holding down reload button
  • Fixed Voltigore creating beams on death connecting to wrong entity
  • Fixed ropes breaking at high framerates
  • Fixed allied human grunts continuing to fire for a few seconds after killing the last enemy in an area

Progress on the Unified SDK

The first release candidate is available: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/releases/tag/UNIFIED-V1.0.0-RC001

SDK Changes

  • Disabled following by default for monster_generic
  • Create smell sound when spawning client-side gibs so NPCs can comment on it
  • Only allow monster following if it's actually a monster (stops entities inheriting from CBaseMonster from being +USEable)
  • Removed json_debug cvar (redundant, server commands require rcon access)
  • Updated documentation & changelog to fix some issues, add remaining code changes and make them easier to navigate

Asset Changes

  • Fixed Spore Launcher spore appearing on the side of the screen when reloading
  • Fixed HEV sounds playing when taking damage in Opposing Force

The future of Half-Life Updated and the Unified SDK

With the first versions of these projects coming close to completion a plan for post-launch support is being worked out to allow these projects to continue receiving updates.

I previously announced that the three Updated projects would be archived upon the release of version 1.0.0. Some have indicated a desire to keep updating them afterwards to incorporate changes from the Unified SDK, so i've been working out a way to handle this.

So far i've been managing these projects mostly on my own, merging in changes contributed by others as needed. The Git repositories are part of my Github account, and i can add collaborators to allow direct commit access.

To allow the community to support these projects we've created a new Github organization called TWHL Community

The Updated projects as well as the Unified SDK and others i have on my account will be moved to this organization to allow development to continue there. Github will automatically redirect existing links to the new locations so everything should keep working as before, though links will still be updated for clarity.

Members of the organization as well as collaborators added to the individual repositories can commit to these repositories and merge pull requests.

The move of these projects to an organization managed by TWHL makes these projects officially an extension of the community and should allow development to continue as long as the community remains active. It also ensures that projects referenced by tutorials on the website remain available.

Remaining work to be done

  • Update changelog to include all changes (mostly complete)
  • Write documentation for all new features (done)
  • Stress test the four campaigns and fix issues that show up (third test done)
  • First release candidate build (done)
  • MIT license all community-written Updated & Unified SDK code
With the release of release candidate builds for all 4 projects most of the work is now done. Some small changes may still be made to wrap up some work and fix issues but everything's ready for testing now.

This means no more large changes are going to be made for V1.0.0. Stability, correctness and performance are the priority now.

If anybody wants to try them out, just download them and follow the instructions. Report bugs and other problems on the issue tracker for the relevant project. Make sure to provide as much information as possible.

Thanks and have fun!
Posted 8 months ago2023-07-31 15:57:06 UTC Post #347740
I've said once but I'll say it again, I'm absolutely floored with the amount of consistent effort you've put into this project 25 years after the game's release. This is awesome.
awkook awkookaka vhetutor
Posted 8 months ago2023-07-31 17:33:27 UTC Post #347741
Thanks, i do my best :)
Posted 8 months ago2023-07-31 17:37:18 UTC Post #347742

Map Decompiler beta 9

Map Decompiler beta 9 has been released: https://github.com/SamVanheer/HalfLife.UnifiedSdk.MapDecompiler/releases/tag/V0.9.0.0-beta009

Changes:
  • Renamed executables to user shorter names
  • Increased plane hashes array size to match BSP file format's MAX_MAP_PLANES limit
  • Fixed plane normals being rounded incorrectly resulting in some map geometry being misshapen
  • Updated Sledge.Formats libraries to latest version, upgraded code to match library changes
  • Updated Serilog, Newtonsoft.Json and SILK.NET.Maths libraries to latest versions
  • Upgraded to Avalonia 11.0.2, upgraded code to match library changes
  • Replaced deprecated file and folder dialog code with StorageProvider API
I'm waiting for this bug to be fixed before releasing Release Candidate 1. This bug causes the text in the top right corner to become invisible until clicked on after changing the theme from Light to Dark or vice versa.
Posted 8 months ago2023-08-02 14:10:03 UTC Post #347748

Map Decompiler beta 10

Map Decompiler beta 10 has been released: https://github.com/SamVanheer/HalfLife.UnifiedSdk.MapDecompiler/releases/tag/V0.10.0.0-beta010

Changes:
  • Added Windows version requirement to README
  • Added failsafes to prevent empty or invalid configuration files from crashing the program
This fixes the program failing to start if the configuration file is empty, which some users have experienced.
Posted 8 months ago2023-08-03 23:47:53 UTC Post #347755
So even with all these changes to the code, there's still no way to bring back gunshot impact sounds for the player's bullets? And a cvar to enable / disable bhop cap would be very welcome for someone like myself
awkook awkookaka vhetutor
Posted 8 months ago2023-08-14 11:23:43 UTC Post #347771
So even with all these changes to the code, there's still no way to bring back gunshot impact sounds for the player's bullets? And a cvar to enable / disable bhop cap would be very welcome for someone like myself
I've added a cvar sv_allowbunnyhopping to control the bunny hopping limiter. That can be used to allow unconstrained movement speed.

I haven't actually managed to bunny hop to see if it's possible to accelerate but the code that limits it won't execute so it should work.

Gunshot impacts aren't possible without removing weapon prediction. This is because the impact sounds are handled by client side events, and those events can't detect corpses.

The reason why corpses are undetectable is because the client operates on the list of solid entities that's also used by the player physics code. This list is populated with entities the client is told about by the server but it explicitly filters out some entities, corpses among them. They are quite literally invisible to that part of the game.

Unfortunately there's no way to detect this so it's not even possible to let the server handle it.
Posted 8 months ago2023-08-14 18:13:52 UTC Post #347772
Gunshot impacts aren't possible without removing weapon prediction.
Ahhh I see. That's a darn shame, I loved that sound lol. And you're once again an absolute legend for adding that bunnyhop cvar. I made a video about your unified SDK btw, just released it today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzvoI6nFvf8
awkook awkookaka vhetutor
Posted 8 months ago2023-08-15 11:53:47 UTC Post #347773
Ahhh I see. That's a darn shame, I loved that sound lol. And you're once again an absolute legend for adding that bunnyhop cvar. I made a video about your unified SDK btw, just released it today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzvoI6nFvf8
That's nice. Thanks for making a presentation of what the project does.

I should stress given some of the comments that this is an SDK first and a mod second, intended to allow others to build on it.

Once the project has moved to the TWHL Community organization people can add more features if they want to, like Decay features and map support but that's out of scope for V1.0.0.

Mr Floyd is currently making a Decay solo campaign mod so they can ask him about possibly porting the campaign but that's not something i have planned myself. The asset sources are going to be made available at some point so it should be possible for anyone to do that.

I've fixed the invisible mouse cursor issue that several people have reported. The next release candidate will have that fix along with a couple others.
Posted 8 months ago2023-08-20 10:12:57 UTC Post #347789

Map Decompiler beta 11

Map Decompiler beta 11 has been released: https://github.com/SamVanheer/HalfLife.UnifiedSdk.MapDecompiler/releases/tag/V0.11.0.0-beta011

Changes:
  • Added checks to log a proper error if BSP version is not supported
  • Show messagebox if any errors occur when saving settings (e.g. file is read-only)
  • Reworked parallelization to improve throughput when decompilation takes a while
  • Fixed job time elapsed being incorrect
This should improve CPU core usage without causing any performance issues. Testing shows that decompiling 125 maps takes 31 seconds with beta 10 and 29 seconds with beta 11.

If you encounter any issues with stuttering or freezing do make sure to let me know.
Posted 7 months ago2023-08-26 13:50:59 UTC Post #347795
Now that we have a Release Candidate, are you feeling confident enough to greenlight modders beginning work using the SDK, provided they update to 1.0.0 once it's fully tested and released? I recently started getting the urge to play around with HL1 mapping again and I'd love to use the functionality you've added.
Notewell NotewellGIASFELFEBREHBER
Posted 7 months ago2023-08-26 17:47:53 UTC Post #347796
I'd hold off for a couple more weeks. We're still testing things and fixing bugs.

There should be another release candidate in the coming days to make all of the fixes available.
Posted 7 months ago2023-08-26 18:48:17 UTC Post #347797
Works for me, I still need to figure out if what I wanna make is a feasible workload and do the preprod on it.
Notewell NotewellGIASFELFEBREHBER
Posted 7 months ago2023-08-31 20:44:46 UTC Post #347817

Half-Life Updated release candidates released

Half-Life Updated, Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated and Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated release candidates have been released:
Half-Life Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-updated/releases/tag/HLU-V1.0.0-RC002
Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-op4-updated/releases/tag/HLOP4U-V1.0.0-RC002
Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-bs-updated/releases/tag/HLBSU-V1.0.0-RC002

Notable changes for all games:
  • Fixed hand grenade model not animating
  • Added cvar sv_allowbunnyhopping to control whether the bunny hopping limiter is enabled
  • Fixed mouse cursor being invisible in VGUI1 menus when raw input is enabled
  • Fixed RPG being flagged as unusable while a rocket is loaded
  • Copy delta.lst when building client or server to ensure mods have correct delta.lst file (defines networking properties for data types)
  • Fixed item history HUD not resetting the vertical position used for new items added to the list when loading save games
  • Fixed Gauss gun dealing full damage when saving and loading right after starting a charged shot
  • Prevent breakables from spawning multiple items when destroyed by gunfire and explosives at the same time
  • Properly fixed mouse movement in main menu affecting in-game angles
Notable changes for Opposing Force:
  • Fixed electrified wire damage being frametime-dependent causing players to die almost instantly at high framerates
  • Fixed func_tank_of and other OF tank entities firing many attacks at the same time at players if they hide behind obstacles for a few seconds
  • Fixed Geneworm not lighting up its eyes

Progress on the Unified SDK

Release candidate 2 is now available: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/releases/tag/UNIFIED-V1.0.0-RC002

SDK Changes

  • Fixed incorrect attribute order on a couple functions
  • Optimized debug & project info huds to avoid unnecessary memory allocations
  • Fixed third person view not using correct camera offset
  • Set Drill Sergeant accessories bodygroup to blank
  • Added Natvis types for Schedule_t, CBaseMonster & CCineMonster to make it easier to debug NPCs and scripts using the Visual Studio debugger
  • Move mouth when playing regular sounds as well as when playing sentences
  • Fixed not being able to select weapons if they do not have sequential positions in the weapon bucket
  • Hardened HUD code against missing configuration data
  • Added check to prevent out of range access in entity classification code
  • Fixed func_tank entities not respecting persistence and not being able to switch targets properly if target is behind cover
  • Fixed func_tank and other tank entities firing many attacks at the same time at players if they hide behind obstacles for a few seconds (same fix as in Opposing Force, applies to regular tank entities here)
  • Make sure loader NPC stops playing looping sounds on death
  • Fixed rats having alien gibs instead of human gibs
  • Fixed turrets and tanks continuing to target players after enabling notarget
  • Fixed baby voltigores using adult sized gibs
  • Fixed Baby Voltigores playing attack sounds at wrong pitch
  • Fixed Hornet gun not playing attack animation when firing after recharging the only available ammo
  • Implemented cvar change callbacks to simplify syncing cvar changes with other systems
  • Added cvars sv_infinite_ammo & sv_bottomless_magazines to override skill variables
  • Made crosshair color separately configurable

C# Changes

  • Removed classname validation on map load to allow TFC's flagrun map to load (contains an entity with an empty classname)
  • Missing game content is now logged as a warning instead of an error
  • A missing Half-Life Uplink installation is no longer logged as an error or a warning
  • Fixed Osprey falling through the ground and reverting to the flying animation in ofboot1 after loading a save game
  • Fixed Op4 func_tank entities using persistence keyvalue (func_tank_of entities do not use this keyvalue and act as though it is set to 0)
  • Added missing wav extension to sound in of6a5 (portal sound when Geneworm arrives)
  • Removed redundant chaptertitle key from ba_power2
  • Fixed bullsquids in of5a2 not playing eat scripts (Xen area reached via Displacer)
  • Fixed grunts in ba_outro having wrong body groups

Asset Changes

  • Reverted the LD Opposing Force Crowbar model to the original model
  • Fixed Snark viewmodel fidgetnip animation leaving the left hand in an awkward position at the end of the animation
  • Use correct hud sprite for Opposing Force scanline digits
  • Fixed scientist portal animation cutting off dialogue due to sounds played on voice channel (affects c3a2d, final Lambda Core level)
  • Fixed deadhaz.mdl helmet submodel including Gordon's head causing his glasses and ponytail to clip through the helmet
  • Added crosshair color setting to cfgs, added player_setcrosshaircolor to fgd, updated test_sethudcolor with tests for crosshair color

Remaining work to be done

  • Update changelog to include all changes (done)
  • MIT license all community-written Updated & Unified SDK code
Thanks to everybody for testing these out and giving feedback, this has allowed a lot of issues to be fixed and improvements to be made.

The documentation has also been updated to include new additions.

These releases are mainly bug fixes but in the Unified SDK a few new features were added based on feedback:
  • The infinite ammo and bottomless magazines skill variables now have associated cvars to override the skill settings
  • Crosshair color is now independent of hud color and Blue Shift's crosshair color now matches the original game's color (blue was harder to see as well)
All projects are feature complete so no new features will be added. These were added because they are simple enough and somewhat required for the existing features to work well.

Do remember to follow the installation instructions to ensure that all game assets are installed and upgraded properly so as to avoid glitches and bugs!

There are some more changes that will be made for a third release candidate but nothing involving bug fixes at this time.

Try out the new release candidates and let me know what you think!
Posted 7 months ago2023-09-20 13:40:53 UTC Post #347866

Map Decompiler beta 12 released

Map Decompiler beta 12 has been released: https://github.com/SamVanheer/HalfLife.UnifiedSdk.MapDecompiler/releases/tag/V0.12.0.0-beta012

Changes:
  • Remove collinear points immediately to avoid merging faces into concave shapes
This fixes the Face-To-Brush decompiler generating bad brushes sometimes.

For example in ba_canal2:

Before:
User posted image
After:
User posted image
The cause of this problem was that collinear vertices (vertices that lie on the same line, like a triangle whose vertices are all in a straight line) were removed after faces were merged. The face merging algorithm (which dates back to the original Quake 3 codebase) assumes the 2 faces don't have collinear points so this sometimes resulted in concave faces being created which level editors can't reconstruct properly.

This problem could also result in some brush faces in the .map file having NaN values.

Thanks to almix for reporting this issue.
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-07 12:36:07 UTC Post #347998

Map Decompiler beta 13 released

Map Decompiler beta 13 has been released: https://github.com/SamVanheer/HalfLife.UnifiedSdk.MapDecompiler/releases/tag/V0.13.0.0-beta013

Changes:
  • Fixed not being able to decompile HL Alpha maps
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-12 19:14:38 UTC Post #348026

Half-Life Updated release candidates released

Half-Life Updated, Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated and Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated release candidates have been released:

Half-Life Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-updated/releases/tag/HLU-V1.0.0-RC003
Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-op4-updated/releases/tag/HLOP4U-V1.0.0-RC003
Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-bs-updated/releases/tag/HLBSU-V1.0.0-RC003
Note
Drown recover damage handling was broken during the period of October 9 through November 5. If you cloned the source code during that time, make sure to update to include the fix for this problem. If you need to know what to change you can view the fix here (i'd suggest using Git to get the update instead): https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-updated/commit/7fbccedbd9d2adc115f8f6e61dcd58858c0f5b3c
Notable changes for all games:
  • Fixed save game system not saving arrays of EHANDLEs if the first half of the array contains null handles (mainly affected Nihilanth's spheres)
  • Fixed player gaining health when drowning with god mode enabled and recovering health after surfacing
  • Fixed human grunts continuing to fire for a few seconds after killing the last enemy in an area
  • Fixed crash when +USEing NPCs that have just exited a scripted sequence
  • Fixed talk monsters resetting other talk monsters' dying schedule if they are both killed at the same time
  • Fixed RPG laser turning on when reloading immediately after equipping the weapon
  • Reverted weapon selection using weapon IDs to prevent the game from malfunctioning when delta.lst is missing
  • Added sv_load_all_maps & sv_stop_loading_all_maps to help automate node graph generation
Notable changes for Opposing Force:
  • Fixed Male Assassin Snipers not tracking their last shot time properly causing them to fire the Sniper Rifle as if using full auto
  • Fixed torch and medic grunts, male assassins and shock troopers continuing to fire for a few seconds after killing the last enemy in an area
  • Fixed Gonome crashing the game if the player dies while being damaged by Gonome's chest mouth
  • Save and restore allied grunt repel entities to ensure spawned NPCs have correct properties
  • Fixed Desert Eagle laser turning on when reloading immediately after equipping the weapon
Continued in next post ==>
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-12 19:14:51 UTC Post #348027
<== Continued from previous post

Progress on the Unified SDK

Release candidate 3 is now available: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/releases/tag/UNIFIED-V1.0.0-RC003

SDK Changes

  • Reworked tripmine entities to use separate world model
  • Don't allow executing sv_addbot with no parameters
  • Added ITEM_FLAG_SELECTONEMPTY flag to weapons that regenerate ammo to always be selectable and never show as red in hud history
  • Truncate yaw using cast to int instead of floor to match engine behavior (fixes NPC navigation in some maps)
  • Fixed ambient_music not being triggerable in radius mode
  • Added keyvalues to set barney & otis corpse bodygroups
  • Fixed code analysis warnings when combining format result with string_view in ternary
  • Speed up sv_load_all_maps, automatically load first map & print more info, more consistent and robust behavior and added stop_loading_all_maps command to stop this process
  • Build portable binaries and workaround gcc bug to allow the Linux version to run on architectures that are missing the C++ runtime version used by the game and to avoid problems with std::regex
  • Additional fix for op4loader sound looping bug to stop looping when the NPC is removed
  • Boosted volume to match original engine by multiplying by **8**

C# Changes

  • Adjusted MaxRange (far Z clipping plane) in c2a2a to fix graphical issues
  • Fixed Alien Slaves in ba_canal1 waiting for 5 seconds before attacking
  • Added upgrades to fix issues with barney, otis & scientists in specific levels (skin color & equipped weapons and items)
  • Don't delete node graphs, update timestamps instead so graphs will be loaded from disk
  • Updated third party dependencies and updated BSPToObj to account for changes in the vertex order used by Sledge library
  • Add upgrade for bell1.wav sound and pitch so the bell sound sounds like it does in the original game

Asset Changes

  • Added separate tripmine world model
  • Added scientist_cower models
  • Reverted changes made to viewmodel animations to match the original games
  • Updated test maps to account for code changes
  • Fixed HEV suit sentences playing in Opposing Force and Blue Shift
  • Changed event id for sounds played by scientists that shouldn't affect the mouth so scientists don't "talk" when a beep sound plays
  • Add polygons to loader accordion spine
  • Added hlu_technology_demonstration map (unfinished, only contains a zoo of various NPCs and NPC models at this time)

Framerate issues in the GoldSource engine

Some people have reported issues that occur when playing at high framerates (100+ FPS) or when using cvars like host_framerate to manipulate the framerate to run very high.

This game was developed on machines that ran the game at about 20-30 FPS and everything was designed around that. The engine doesn't compensate for high framerates correctly in some cases and some game code also lacks proper compensation. Some of these issues have been fixed but the game will never work properly at high framerates because the render framerate is tied to the simulation framerate.

The engine was also designed to run at a maximum of 72 FPS, as seen in Quake 1's source code: https://github.com/id-Software/Quake/blob/bf4ac424ce754894ac8f1dae6a3981954bc9852d/WinQuake/host.c#L494-L522

GoldSource lacks this limiter but it still won't work properly. The recommended framerate is either 30 or 60 FPS. 100 FPS generally works but in specific cases like elevators there might be glitches like NPCs taking damage, dying or getting gibbed due to getting stuck. Higher framerates will be more prone to glitches.

Modern engines typically lock framerates or decouple the simulation framerate from the render framerate to avoid these issues, unfortunately this can't be fixed in a mod without re-implementing the entire physics engine.

NPC navigation issues

Users reported NPCs having problems navigating in specific areas. Known occurences include We've Got Hostiles in the area after the first elevator and a soft-lock that sometimes occurs in Lambda Core level A, where the scientist holding the shotgun fails to move to the button to open the door.

This was caused by an engine function that was re-implemented in game code to allow for better optimizations.

The faulty code looked like this:
float VectorToYaw(const Vector& forward)
{
    if (forward[1] == 0 && forward[0] == 0)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    float yaw = atan2(forward[1], forward[0]) * 180 / PI;

    if (yaw < 0)
    {
        yaw += 360;
    }

    return yaw;
}
The fixed code looks like this:
float VectorToYaw(const Vector& forward)
{
    if (forward[1] == 0 && forward[0] == 0)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    float yaw = static_cast<int>(atan2(forward[1], forward[0]) * 180 / PI);

    if (yaw < 0)
    {
        yaw += 360;
    }

    return yaw;
}
The lack of a cast to int caused yaw angles to be calculated slightly differently compared to the engine.

Casting to int and then back to float causes the value to be rounded. The exact behavior is compiler-specific, in Microsoft's case this is equivalent to calling std::round: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-language/conversions-from-floating-point-types?view=msvc-170

Without the cast no rounding is performed and yaw angles will be slightly off, in some edge cases like those mentioned above this can cause NPCs to get stuck.

Finding the cause of this is 99% finding a reproducible case of the problem happening. The Lambda Core occurrence didn't always happen, but the We've Got Hostiles one did.

Once that was found it was a simple matter of using version control to pinpoint which change introduced the problem and then finding the exact line of code. Comparing against the engine's version showed the missing cast.

This bug highlights the importance of being precise when recreating existing functionality, as well as making good use of version control. Without version control finding the cause would've been a lot harder.

sv_load_all_maps command

The sv_load_all_maps command has been modified a bit to deal with an engine bug that causes the game to crash or shutdown partway through loading all maps.

This command is mainly intended to be used to automate generation of node graphs but it can be used to gather error logs for each maps as well, or to automate testing of scripting systems using map-specific scripts if your mod has that.

A related command called sv_stop_loading_all_maps has been added to stop this process if necessary.

Node graphs

Node graphs are now bundled with mod installations instead of requiring them to be generated when a map is first loaded. This should make the first-time experience a lot smoother.

New repositories in the TWHL Community Github organization

A few new repositories have been added:
  • HalfLifeSDKHistory: Contains each Half-Life 1 SDK release's source code as individual commits to allow viewing changes made in each update. There are also branches for the multiplayer version (lacks AI code) and a branch showing the difference between the singleplayer and multiplayer versions
  • OldValveReleases: Contains modding files released by Valve, mostly old SDKs
  • SlackillerDownloads: Contains files hosted on the old Slackiller modding website
  • VHLT-V34: Contains the source code for VHLT V34 along with branches that remove disabled code paths for easier viewing. Also includes a copy of the VHLT V34 tools for completeness sake
Continued in next post ==>
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-12 19:15:00 UTC Post #348028
<== Continued from previous post

A new UI

I've looked into integrating RmlUi to determine which challenges are ahead in that area. I've experimented with replicating the look of the HUD in HTML, but so far i haven't been able to reproduce the exact method used which involves using a grayscale image colored with a specific value and whose alpha value is affected by the saturation of the color.

All of my findings are included in the Github issue: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/issues/453

If there is a way to replicate the HUD's exact appearance in HTML then it probably won't work in RmlUi since it will likely depend on CSS features that RmlUi doesn't (yet) implement.

Until it's possible to render the HUD in RmlUi it isn't worth trying to integrate it into a mod.

I've also done some investigation work into how modern engines handle UIs to see if any of them provide their UI toolkits as standalone options that can be integrated into an engine this old.

My findings are as follows (not an exhaustive list):
  • Unreal engine: Uses Unreal Motion Graphics, a tightly integrated toolkit that depends on other Unreal features like blueprints to function.
  • Unity engine: Uses UGUI, a GameObject-based toolkit. Totally dependent on the engine to function and written in C#.
  • Godot engine: Uses Godot UI, a tightly integrated toolkit that builds on Godot's class hierarchy.
  • Source and Source 2 engines: Use Panorama, a tightly integrated toolkit that uses a web-like development stack using XML, CSS and Javascript. It integrates with the engine to allow features like particle systems and model rendering to be embedded in the UI itself. Panorama's XML is not strictly HTML; it's very similar but is an evolved form of VGUI (it uses `Panel`s just like all VGUI versions).
Panorama is the closest to RmlUi in functionality but like all toolkits listed is tightly integrated into the engine.

This integration allows engine functionality to be used in the UI but precludes integration into other engines. None of these toolkits are available for standalone use, and even if they were they all use modern graphics APIs which makes integration even harder.

All of these toolkits are optimized for use in games, which means they update and render once a frame.

Another alternative is Chromium Embedded Framework 3 (CEF3), used to implement the UI in various desktop applications like Steam, Discord and Visual Studio Code (using Electron, a desktop application framework built on top of Chromium).

Chromium is designed to power web browsers; its architecture is designed around this use case. In practical terms this means Chromium uses subprocesses to perform tasks to prevent a browser tab from freezing the entire application, to prevent one tab from using exploits to read another tab's memory and other security and performance-related issues.

In part because of the use of subprocesses Chromium uses a lot more memory. Steam for instance uses around 470 MB of memory when running idle in the background. Discord uses 315 MB. It's possible for Chromium to use more memory then the rest of the game combined.

Chromium renders frames on its own, out of sync with the application. It's possible for Chromium to render more frames than your application needs, but also less, and probably lagging behind which can be a problem in a real-time environment like a game.

Additionally since pages are handled by subprocesses exposing Javascript APIs to UI logic isn't as cheap as it is with toolkits like RmlUi and Panorama. Half-Life's UI code accesses game state and in some cases modifies it as well which is complicated by the need to also communicate with the main game process.

GoldSource uses CEF1, an older single-process version of Chromium to render the HTML-based message of the day in Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat. It's been out of support for 10 years and can't even display the official Counter-Strike website due to a lack of support for modern secure connection technology. This integration is limited to rendering frames for display in VGUI2; it can't allow interaction between a website's Javascript and the game itself.

There aren't many cases of games using Chromium for their in-game UI. Here are some articles and discussions that covers the subject in more detail: I couldn't find any references to games that actually use Chromium but i have seen discussions about it in passing before.

A couple mod teams have attempted to integrate Chromium into mods before (GoldSource and Source) but it has always led to failure due to the problems listed above and overall technical challenges involved with such a complex framework. If you really want to use it, you'd better prove it can be done properly first.

Based on my findings i'd say trying to integrate a new UI toolkit is a waste of time unless you can guarantee these things:
1. You can replicate the UI in HTML exactly as in the original without performance issues
2. The toolkit of choice can be integrated into a mod and works properly on Windows and Linux and when using the OpenGL and Software renderers (Software mode support can be dropped if needed, but for the Unified SDK in particular it's not an option without a major version change)
3. The implementation runs well in general and on older systems in particular. Given that Steam is dropping support for older platforms due to CEF as well this isn't a major challenge but Half-Life players tend to use older systems

Remaining work to be done

  • MIT license all community-written Updated & Unified SDK code
  • Move projects to twhl-community organization
  • Add any required documentation on development process that is currently missing
I've run through all of the games again to test for any remaining issues. A handful were found and fixed and are listed above alongside fixes found by others.

This just about wraps up all work for V1.0.0. Everything that can be done in a reasonable timeframe has been done, all major issues have been dealt with and the last full test shows the games are working as expected. Once the remaining work listed above has been completed all projects are ready for a V1.0.0 release.

However, the full release of V1.0.0 will have to wait until after Valve has finished what they're working on to avoid having to release a patch in case there are any problems. People have noticed activity in a new password-protected branch that indicates the games are being updated with better controller and Steam Deck support.

No details are available so to avoid potential problems V1.0.0's full release has been delayed until these changes have been released by Valve. Given that controller support is implemented in the client dll which is part of the SDK this will likely mean mods will have to update to get the same changes.

That's probably meant to release on the 25th anniversary which is a week from now, so it shouldn't be a very long delay.

Once all of that stuff is sorted out all three of the Updated projects and the Unified SDK will be part of the twhl-community Github organization and will be maintained by the community.

The map decompiler will also be moved over after i've double-checked all of its features and the text color bug in Avalonia has been fixed.

Half-Life Asset Manager V2.0.0 will also receive a full release shortly once all of the above has been dealt with after which i will begin working on V3.0.0 which aims to replace the graphics code with modern OpenGL and to hopefully provide a fully functional Linux version.

I'd like to thank everybody for helping to develop and test these projects and hopefully they'll be fully released soon for everybody to try out and play with!
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-17 19:09:26 UTC Post #348054

Half-Life 25th anniversary version released

Valve has released the 25th anniversary version of Half-Life which has slight changes in how the filesystem interface works which causes all mods based on recent versions of Half-Life Updated to crash. I've identified the problem and i've pushed a fix to a separate branch: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-updated/tree/dev-anniversary

Until Valve releases a new SDK all projects will remain as-is. Use the steam_legacy branch to run mods. You can access it by right-clicking Half-Life in Steam, opening Properties and going to the Betas tab:
User posted image
Make sure to change Half-Life's branch even if you're trying to run another game like Counter-Strike because all GoldSource engine games and mods use Half-Life's engine files. Once you've switched it make sure Half-Life is up-to-date (you may need to launch it or press the Update button) and then you should be able to run other games/mods.

Once the SDK has been released i'll update the SDKs to work with the new version.

Note that there are some bugs in the new version. There is a noticeable (half second) delay in sound playback so they'll probably be fixing bugs before any SDK updates can be expected.

Please don't report mod crashes as bugs on the Half-Life Updated issue tracker because it's currently out of our hands. Check the Half-Life issue tracker and search before you post.
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-18 05:20:50 UTC Post #348056
Im glad you noticed the delay in sound playback as well. Drives me nuts. Also, can you believe it, they added bullet impact sounds for the player! :D
awkook awkookaka vhetutor
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-18 13:40:06 UTC Post #348059
Yeah, they used the solution i mentioned to someone a while back. I never got around to applying it myself but it'll be merged in once the SDK update rolls around.

I do wish they'd make the anniversary edition a separate game as that would've avoided all of the problems. No need to switch branches, no broken games and mods and each game can be ported one at a time. And then a separate game/tool/app on Steam for mods to use to decouple game fixes from the mod version of the engine.

There must be a reason why they did it this way but it's causing a lot of headaches.
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-18 13:59:42 UTC Post #348060
Well this really threw a wrench in things but at least we got a proper update to Half-Life for modern systems.
Wibble WibbleThe true citizen enjoys Half-Life but uses discretion
Posted 5 months ago2023-11-19 18:14:52 UTC Post #348065
Today's update fixes the problems that broke Half-Life Updated and mods derived from it. I'm going to wait until they've released an SDK update before i touch anything since it'll be a while to stabilize everything.

There's a test branch for Opposing Force which means it'll receive an update soon as well. Expect the same for all GoldSource engine games to fix issues with the new engine update. I'd expect the SDK update to come after all games have been updated and fixed so it'll probably be a few weeks.

Until then use the steam_legacy branch to develop, test and play mods.

In case i don't have time to deal with the SDK update, here's the procedure for merging changes into Half-Life Updated:
1. Fork the newest version of the Half-Life 1 SDK
2. Make sure all files use UTF8 encoding (should hopefully be done by Valve already, but check first) and commit any encoding changes
3. add the .clang-format file from Half-Life Updated and format all files (script in the Unified SDK or a Visual Studio extension can do this among other tools). Needed to avoid massive amounts of merge conflicts caused by whitespace and newline changes
4. Commit formatted files
5. Add fork as remote to Half-Life Updated
6. Use git fetch to update remote info
7. Merge the commit that formatted files
8. Resolve merge conflicts; there will likely be many. Some changes are technically out of scope for the project like the game balance changes, i'd exclude those changes or make them conditional based on cvars (the Unified SDK uses configuration files for those changes so it'll need to be updated there instead)
9. Commit merge and push

That should cover it. I'd recommend using a separate copy of the source code to avoid messing up the one people normally use for development. Use a Git GUI like SourceTree, it makes things a lot easier.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-01 14:28:57 UTC Post #348131

Map Decompiler RC 1 released

Map Decompiler RC 1 has been released. See this thread for more information: https://twhl.info/thread/view/20625?page=1#post-348130

Further updates will be posted there from now on.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-11 23:35:41 UTC Post #348202
Is there a way to utilize the HUD changes Valve did for the 25th anniversary update? What I mean is have the compiled .dlls be able to read hud.txt and realizing the difference in resolution (currently I seem to only be able to use 640 sprites and below)

Or is it best to wait for whenever Valve decides to update the HLSDK?
User posted image
I have not coded in over 10 years and I certainly never touched C++ at that. You think this is going to be fine? This is in the hud.ccp for example.
User posted image
Tried this one, and it seems to work. But the HUD doesn't update consistently when going to lower resolutions. At least most of the time. Like I can go to the lowest possible resolution and everything is very large, but at the same time I go to something like 1080p or 720p it'll update, but only specific resolutions.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-12 12:21:02 UTC Post #348214
You'll need updated config files in the sprites directory as well, and there are probably other code changes required to account for the increased sprite size.

You're probably better off waiting for them to release the updated SDK. Stick with steam_legacy until then.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-12 12:27:07 UTC Post #348215
The config files have been updated too. And it does scale up and down but for 1440p it's using the 4k HUD when it's supposed to use the 1280 sprites.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-12 13:30:28 UTC Post #348216
Sounds like maybe ScreenWidth is a larger value than expected? This is why it's better to wait for the SDK update, the anniversary update is essentially an open alpha test at this point. Without that updated code it's a guessing game.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-12 15:57:39 UTC Post #348217
I fixed it with
else if (ScreenWidth < 2560) to else if (ScreenWidth <= 2560)
User posted image
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-12 16:51:45 UTC Post #348218
You can probably sidestep the problem altogether by making it configurable. You can add cvars to the Multiplayer Advanced dialog, a simple list setting a resolution index should do the trick.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-12 23:02:02 UTC Post #348220
Might be an interesting way to allow players who want smaller hud (or bigger).

I've been attempting to add an alternate function to the satchel to mimic the way it works in the latest patch as a toggle-able feature (cl_satchelanniversary)
It works quite well BUT it seems to only work in a multiplayer session. Where would one make weapon function differently independently of multiplayer or not? The files are satchel.cpp

I'm trying to re-introduce the chainsaw crowbar bug as a toggle-able feature as well (sv_turbobar)
Though when turned on it's chainsawing EVERYTHING, not just corpses as I want it to do. But it's pretty damn funny.

Otherwise everything else is working super. I really like this SDK
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-13 14:34:24 UTC Post #348229
It works quite well BUT it seems to only work in a multiplayer session. Where would one make weapon function differently independently of multiplayer or not? The files are satchel.cpp
Weapon logic runs on both the client and server. Adding a cvar that only works on the client side will cause inconsistencies.

You can do per-player settings by marking the client cvar with FCVAR_USERINFO. This is how the model cvar syncs with the server (see CHalfLifeTeamplay::ClientUserInfoChanged for an example). You can then check the userinfo buffer on the server side and the cvar on the client side to make it behave as desired. But while it will work the user info buffer is pretty small and a long cvar name like cl_satchelanniversary is expensive to put in there.

The simplest way to implement such a setting would be to put it in each player's physics info string just like the long jump module does it, and then checking that on both sides. Of course that would then be a server setting, not a client setting.

The difficulty in having per-player settings in this engine is why changing that was a bad idea to begin with.
I'm trying to re-introduce the chainsaw crowbar bug as a toggle-able feature as well (sv_turbobar)
Though when turned on it's chainsawing EVERYTHING, not just corpses as I want it to do. But it's pretty damn funny.
Making the crowbar only chainsaw corpses requires the bugged logic to be added back exactly as it was before. The Unified SDK already has this as an option so you can see how it was done there.
Posted 4 months ago2023-12-13 14:56:52 UTC Post #348232
Thanks a lot for this info, I am still learning all of this and you've been a great help. I will look into this.
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-15 14:30:48 UTC Post #348447

Half-Life Updated and Unified SDK released

Half-Life Updated, Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated, Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated and the Half-Life Unified SDK have been released:
Half-Life Updated: https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-updated/releases/tag/HLU-V1.0.0
Half-Life: Opposing Force Updated: https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-op4-updated/releases/tag/HLOP4U-V1.0.0
Half-Life: Blue Shift Updated: https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-bs-updated/releases/tag/HLBSU-V1.0.0
Half-Life Unified SDK: https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-unified-sdk/releases/tag/UNIFIED-V1.0.0

Notable changes for all games:
  • Updated build and installation instructions
  • Disabled GCC optimization that prevents mod dlls from unloading after engine calls dlclose on Linux
  • Implemented Valve game directory detection check to prevent incorrect use of mod dlls
  • Fixed third party libraries possibly not being linked to when building Linux server dll
Notable changes for the Unified SDK:
  • Updated nonfunctional scripting system and networking system branches to a more recent version of the SDK
  • Added note about adding HL Uplink maps to packages
  • Reverted "Boost volume to match original engine" change to fix audio problems related to volume being too high
  • Updated documentation to explain FastDL behavior

Valve game directory detection

Mods made with these SDKs will no longer run when used to replace the game dlls of Valve games. This check was added for a couple of reasons:
  • VAC may detect the modified dlls and ban you
  • Players might think Half-Life Updated refers to an updated version of the game that can replace original dlls (it can't, it's an updated SDK and is not compatible with original game dlls at the network protocol level)
I wanted to add a check to detect the use of incompatible server and client dlls to prevent cases where this happens by accident. There have been cases where people tried to make a mod and accidentally combined an updated server dll with the original Half-Life client dll which won't work.

Unfortunately there is no way to properly add compatibility checking that has no edge cases. It should really be implemented in the engine with a way to report which mod a dll belongs to and which version it is, which is a fairly complicated thing to implement.

VAC currently does not appear to ban players using modified dlls but that can always change in the future. I'm accounting for the possibility that VAC is made stricter for Valve games only and not mods and thus preventing players from getting VAC banned in error.

The check is easily disabled in code so there is nothing that can be done to prevent people from making custom builds but you are doing so at your own risk.

FastDL behavior when using the Unified SDK

I tested what happens when FastDL (HTTP downloads using the sv_downloadurl cvar) is used with the Unified SDK. Since the Unified SDK generates and precaches a JSON file every time a map is loaded it's required to download this file every time.

I assumed this would require special handling on the web server side but it turns out the engine's behavior and the code written for the JSON file is already working perfectly fine.

The client will download the file when it reconnects to the game server after downloading all files from the FastDL server. To avoid a bogus error message printed in the console the web server should have a dummy file which the client will download but the file is ignored and deleted automatically by the client when it reconnects.

Notably clients will only ever use FastDL to download files once per map per server per session. This means that if you launch the game, connect to a server using FastDL running, say, crossfire with custom content you'll download that content with FastDL, but if the server then changes which custom content it uses for that map and reloads the map you'll download that content from the game server directly instead.

This continues to be the case until you either restart the game or use the httpstop console command to clear the list of maps which have been downloaded using FastDL.

The documentation has been updated to clarify this behavior.

Licensing information

I've sorted out the project licenses as best I can.

The main repository continues to use only the HL SDK license since the MIT license permits sale of work which isn't really compatible there. It's hard to separate the parts that fall under the MIT license since pretty much all of it is specific to this engine so i've left it as-is to keep it simple.

The assets repository uses both the MIT and HL SDK licenses, with the readme specifying which directories fall under the HL SDK license based on whether they contain anything originally made by Valve.

The C# tools repository is all MIT licensed since it doesn't contain Valve's code. The Map Decompiler is GPL V2-only licensed since it's based on the Quake 3 SDK which also has that license.

In effect this means you can use all 4 projects to make your own mods, use the assets in your mod and distribute them. As long as you abide by the Half-Life SDK license you're fine.

Remaining work to be done

  • MIT license all community-written Updated & Unified SDK code (done)
  • Move projects to twhl-community organization (done)
  • Add any required documentation on development process that is currently missing (done)
And that's it! All work for V1.0.0 is done.

I stated before that I was going to wait until Valve updated the SDK to integrate their changes. I decided to go ahead with V1.0.0's release because it looks like Valve will take a while to continue their work on Half-Life 1.

There has been no visible progress on any Half-Life 1 games since December 22. I assume this is because of the holidays and because they're working to update all games at the same time and avoid destabilizing the public versions, but this is based purely on assumptions.

There are still work-in-progress changes in the public build such as missing localization changes and of course the SDK update which they announced so I'd expect to see some updates at some point in the future. It would be helpful to know what's going on but I don't know where we can ask for information about this so that's all I can say.

Even without the SDK update these SDKs will work with the anniversary version. You won't get the changes and fixes that need to be made in the SDK itself but you can run mods just like you can under the steam_legacy branch.

I've made Github issues tracking work that needs doing to integrate the SDK update as well as adapt the Unified SDK to work with the anniversary version (the map upgrades need reviewing since some maps were changed). Hopefully Valve released the SDK update soon so this process can be completed.

I've also added a list of contributors to the project README files. If you contributed to these projects and your name isn't listed (or is using the wrong name) then be sure to let us know so we can correct that.

With the release of V1.0.0 all 5 projects (including the Map Decompiler) have been moved to the twhl-community Github organization. It is now up to the community to continue the development of these projects.
Make sure to update links to the repositories to point to the new locations! Especially Git repository links since clients may not accept redirects!
I've provided as much information as I can in the documentation and issues to help with this process. I hope that people can integrate the SDK update when it arrives and continue to update the projects as needed.

In the Unified SDK's case V1.0.0 is more of an initial version to start with; I fully expect people to continue expanding on it and change things as needed.

Special thanks to malortie for helping to develop the Unified SDK. Your help has been invaluable.

That just about wraps up everything. Thanks to everybody who helped make these projects a reality, and I hope people make awesome mods with them!
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-16 14:51:46 UTC Post #348450
Thank you for all the updates youve done so far!
Tarek TarekA literal dumbass who uses Hammer++
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-17 18:15:03 UTC Post #348456
I don't fully understand the unified SDK, is it just a compilation of the fixes of all other 3 repos (HL, OF, BS) in one, or is it something entirely different?

Which one should we be using for modding?
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-20 17:11:31 UTC Post #348486
Thank you for all the updates youve done so far!
You're very welcome.
I don't fully understand the unified SDK, is it just a compilation of the fixes of all other 3 repos (HL, OF, BS) in one, or is it something entirely different?

Which one should we be using for modding?
The project readme explains what it is: https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-unified-sdk#half-life-unified-sdk

As for which SDK to use, that's entirely up to you to decide. This SDK has a bunch of features added to allow playing all 3 games in the same mod so if you have need of those features you can use this SDK. Given the complexity of some of these features it's recommended to have a good understanding of C++ and software development if you intend to make a mod with it.
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-21 16:10:16 UTC Post #348488
Well, of course the first thing I did was to read that, but I still couldn't understand it, that's why I asked... :roll:

So essentially the USDK bundles the fixes of the base game plus the expansions in one solution in case someone wants to make a mod that uses e.g. stuff from vanilla HL and Opposing Force at the same time, right? Plus CMake support.

I guess I just couldn't think of a use case example for it.

Anyway thanks for your work, I'm using HL:U currently, at least until Valve release their updated SDK.
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-21 19:49:00 UTC Post #348489
So essentially the USDK bundles the fixes of the base game plus the expansions in one solution in case someone wants to make a mod that uses e.g. stuff from vanilla HL and Opposing Force at the same time, right? Plus CMake support.
Yes, but it also adds a couple new features like a new sound system with increased limits. It's basically an expert SDK for when you want to go beyond some of the engine's limits but it'll require a good understanding of C++ to deal with any potential problems.

For most people i'd expect it to be a toolbox they can take things from for their own needs.
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-22 15:05:05 UTC Post #348490
Could I use the SDK to make my maps? or would that be unnecesarry
Tarek TarekA literal dumbass who uses Hammer++
Posted 3 months ago2024-01-23 19:35:03 UTC Post #348491
You can make maps for it just like you can for any Half-Life mod. You'll want to make a copy of the mod directory with a name for your own mod to do that though since the default isn't really meant to be used for such a purpose. That will allow you to make changes to game assets as needed.

I looked into the problem where CMake 3.28 (latest version at this time) can't generate project files. It appeared to be a problem with vcpkg at first but it turns out to be a problem with CMake itself. I've reported the problem and i'm working with them to get this fixed ASAP.
Posted 2 months ago2024-01-25 15:42:49 UTC Post #348492
So, from now on it's up to TWHL to keep updating the projects, right? Do they have plans to implement the fixes to the updated SDK that Valve is supposed to release some day?

Will you contribute further, or have you become tired of developing this project? (I guess I would, it's a lot of work what you did).
Could I use the SDK to make my maps? or would that be unnecesarry
You don't need the SDK to map for HL. Only if you want to develop new functionality that goes beyond the current HL code. Some mods do this, but not all, most stuff I can think of can be done in Hammer with proper use of entities.
Posted 2 months ago2024-01-27 19:07:21 UTC Post #348497
So, from now on it's up to TWHL to keep updating the projects, right? Do they have plans to implement the fixes to the updated SDK that Valve is supposed to release some day?
I created issues to track this work:
https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-updated/issues/233
https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-unified-sdk/issues/543

If and when Valve releases the update anyone can integrate the changes and make a pull request to merge the changes.
Will you contribute further, or have you become tired of developing this project? (I guess I would, it's a lot of work what you did).
I've more than accomplished my goals with the work i've done, it's time to let others manage things. There are other SDKs that also offer improvements and features, so there's no shortage of people to make something like this.

The problem in CMake preventing the project from extracting vcpkg dependencies has been fixed. Version 3.28.2 will work properly and should release in a week or two.

I've updated the documentation to warn about the affected versions, and i've also made it clearer that the project requires certain knowledge to get started: https://github.com/twhl-community/halflife-unified-sdk#half-life-unified-sdk
Posted 1 month ago2024-03-20 09:07:12 UTC Post #348666
Hi there Solokiller, I know the Steam Versions of Half-Life is the Updated SDK's Priority but I wonder do you know if anyone on the Forums (Or other Half-Life Forums) have done Something Similar to the Unified SDK for the WON Versions of Half-Life? (I'm specifcally using V1.0.0.9 Which has this CD Case - https://www.mobygames.com/game/2728/half-life-game-of-the-year-edition/cover/group-2289/cover-28113/ for 2 Mods I'm working on even though most WON Compatible Mods i've seen online seem to Target the Last Update [V1.1.1.0])

I'm also wondering can I ask Questions in regards to Models on Here or if any of the Other Members that help out with HL:Updated Could point me in the Right Direction in regards to Coding or other Stuff?
Posted 1 month ago2024-03-20 15:18:16 UTC Post #348667
Unified SDK wont be able to use WON Versions of Half Life as far as I know, so you wont get a version probably. as for the Models and stuff, just ask your stuff in the GoldSrc Forums
Tarek TarekA literal dumbass who uses Hammer++
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