Tutorial: Half-Life directories Last edited 3 months ago2024-09-17 17:03:02 UTC

The Contents of the pak file

This tutorial will examine the different parts of the pak file and give a brief description of what each of them are for. Here is a list of the parts of the pak file this tutorials covers:
gfx
maps
models
sound
sprites
credits.txt
default.cfg
language.cfg
skill.cfg
titles.txt
valve.rc

The gfx directory

Contents of the env directory
This folder contains background images in two formats: .bmp and .tga. When you choose the skyname for any map with a background, Half-Life automatically looks for the suffixes bk(back), dn(down), ft(front), lf(left), and rt(right) and combines them together to make a seamless background in Half-Life. A visual guide to the sky textures available in Half-Life can be found at VERC: Half-Life Skys.

Contents of the shell directory
This folder contains the headings and backgrounds for the Half-Life menu interface. You can read more about setting this feature in Tutorial: Setting up a Mod: Part 3 - Game Strings.

The maps directory

This folder contains the games compiled .bsp map files. The maps folder also contains a graphs folder and it contains .nod files. These files are the path files that are generated when you use info_nodes.

The models directory

This folder contains the monsters and weapons of Half-Life in .mdl format. The player folder has characters you can choose from for multiplayer.

The sound directory

The sound folder contains a folder corresponding to each monster in the models folder and a few misc. folders such as ambience, buttons, and doors. These are used for background sound and button and door sound effects. The sound folder also contains two .txt files: materials.txt and sentences.txt. This files can be edited to give textures different sound when you walk or jump upon or shoot. The sentences.txt files can be edited to change what grunts, security gaurds, scientists, etc. say, in what order, while doing what.

The sprites directory

The sprites folder contains files in .spr format. These are 2d images used for the hud logos, explosion and fire effects, bubbles, tracers, teleportals, laserbeam effect, crosshairs and more. It also contains a .txt files for each weapon. These files control how much ammo guns can hold, what crosshair to use, damage, speed, etc.

Credits.txt

This file simply contains the names of all the people who created Half-Life and is accessed at the end of the game.

Default.cfg

This file is contains the controls that will be restored if the user activates the 'Use Defaults' under the Controls>Configuration on the main menu.

Language.cfg

When I open this file it reads: sv_language 0. I assume because they expect you will use the English language and the 0 represents that somehow.

Skill.cfg

When you open this file it says // DON'T MESS WITH THIS. at the top. That's probably good advice. I think this file controls the hitpoints of monsters in Half-Life for the three different skill levels: easy, medium, and hard.

Titles.txt

This file contains all of the on-screen titles and their effects in Half-Life and the hazard course. For more information on editing this file, see Tutorial: Titles.txt.

Valve.rc

This file is mentioned and explained in further detail in the last part of the Making A Mod tutorial series.