The Oculus [WIP]

[Srgnt Rehab]

I'd give it a try if you PM me the map
I'll group it so if you disslike it you can just delete it

Edit: Why does the smile always look like the creeper smile to me?! MSC smilies sometimes...

 

[Crow]

http://www.filedropper.com/cavespls
Make sure you click on this button and nothing else.
You'll have to enter a code.

The giant null-textured box is the bounds to stay in. Though, you can go as far down as you'd like.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to contribute, as I am going to use any extra space I have for caves, as long as I don't reach some limit

 

[Crow]

Also... I tried the fullmoon skybox, and to be honest, while I like the angle the moon offers for the light environment, I hate the clouds. I know, its pretty picky, but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to this stuff. The clouds are too bright. I'm not going to worry about it till I more or less have the map finished.

Though... it's much easier to get the skybox lighting right early when the map is not too complex and the compile times area reasonable.

 

[Srgnt Rehab]

Thanks for the box, quick question though, what texture are you using? I cannot find this rock_cliff1 :|

 

[Crow]

oh... um. just replace it with any old rock texture you've got. I dont think it'll matter.

 

[Srgnt Rehab]

Another question, in these caves, could there be signs that at some point people have gone through them? leaving behind man made things such as torches, boxes, ropes, broken ladders etc. ???

 

[Crow]

a little of that is fine. the cave is pretty secluded though.

 

[Crow]

isn't there like a brush I can use to tell the engine to only render a certain part of the map, so I'm not doing the whole damn thing every time I make some little change?

 

[jon50559]

There's the Cordon tool, which sections off a piece of map to compile. Other than that :dunno:

 

[Thothie]

Cordon tool works.

If you're using Nem's Compiler, you can tell it to only compile only visible objects, hide the rest of the map, and just seal off the area with big black boxes, or whatnot.

Granted, easier is usually just to skip the HLRAD phase. The map will run full bright, but take a lot less time to compile.

Another method is the "low quality" compile option, setup an alternative compile batch file with the following params:
HLVIS -fast
HLRAD -nopaque -bounce 0 -smooth 5 -chop 256 -texchop 256 -nolerp -notexscale

Probably still not as fast as just skipping the HLRAD entirely, but it'll give you a lit map - the lighting will be a bit shoddy, but it'll be more or less representative of the final product. Wpoly count will be higher due to the cheaper HLVIS as well.

 

[Crow]

Alright, decided not to hi-jack that other dudes thread.

What's strange is the original post in this thread is gonzo. Dunno whats up with that.

I may actually need some help getting my hammer set up again, as well as the batch compiler tool. Maybe someone can Skype with me, cause last time I tried it I just got frustrated and gave up . I have too many awesome things that should not go to waste

I should be working but now I'm getting all hot and bothered. Did I read somewhere that vulcan has a newer version of the compile tools?

I also thought I saw someone mention something about valve messing with the engine? Bring me up to speed here peeps.

 

[Thothie]

Alright, decided not to hi-jack that other dudes thread.

Now yer just confusing me.

What's strange is the original post in this thread is gonzo. Dunno whats up with that.

There was a lotta fragmentation of threads when we transferred the forums over to a new server set. Seems the science isn't exact on that.

I may actually need some help getting my hammer set up again, as well as the batch compiler tool. Maybe someone can Skype with me, cause last time I tried it I just got frustrated and gave up . I have too many awesome things that should not go to waste

I'm hardly home, so ya may as well just PM me - I'll get a notice either way. I think ye can find my Skype via the old MSN name - not sure.

I should be working but now I'm getting all hot and bothered. Did I read somewhere that vulcan has a newer version of the compile tools?

Jes

I also thought I saw someone mention something about valve messing with the engine? Bring me up to speed here peeps.

Long story short, they f*cked us, and they f*cked us hard. You'll have to reinstall Half-Life, MSC, and the betapack. Take into account that your Half-Life folder is no longer under your user name, but under common. (So MSC is now at: Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life\msc instead of Steam\steamapps\<username>\Half-Life\msc) Also suggest deleting/archiving your older Half-Life folder.

If yer lucky, it'll work without further modification. Otherwise, see the lengthy thread of pain. :\

 

[Crow]

Oh lovely. Why would they bother changing something like that ?

 

[Thothie]

The story I got (from an insider) is that Valve fired most of their old Goldsrc programmer crew and hired a new, smaller, crew at a lower rate (including some former AMX/metamod coders), and had some people from other departments pull double duty to compensate. The newer crew has to come up with projects to justify their department's continued existence (it being in jeopardy), so they make radical, but meaningless, changes, because at the same time they don't want to make any real changes that might cause the engine to start down an upgrade path that may lead it to start looking like Source.

The leads of the current crew also don't understand the motivations behind the previous, veteran coding crew's systems (like, for instance, that GCF's lead to better optimization, and that user directory based installs allowed for better per-user customization and flexibility.) As such, they undo rather fundamental systems, that seem cumbersome to them, just to make it easier for them to see what they are doing.

This approach did allow them to port the game to Linux (sorta), but the modifications to Windows had little to nothing to do with that, and were more about the new crew switching over to methodologies and newer hardware libraries they were more familiar with, backwards compatibility and third party mods be damned.

None the less, they have been trying to fix some of the damage they've done, even if they ignore some fundamentals, and the mitigations we've come up with on this end seem to be helping as well... But yeah, it's all a royal pain. It seems most of our regulars have worked things out, one way or another, and hopefully we'll be able to get things working for the remaining folks by the next patch.

 

[Crow]

Hmm, well that is frustrating. Think they'll ever muck it up so badly that is just outright breaks ms:c, unfixable style?

 

[Thothie]

That's always been the long standing fear, and they nearly did it this time. Hopefully all the hate they got and trouble they went (and are going) through should make them think twice about what this engine is actually most often purchased for these days. (Protip: It ain't playing Half-Life.)

 

[Crow]

Got my hammer set up without too much fuss. The texture memory limit makes me angry.

I've forgotten all the little tricks that make things easier though

No matter, I shall persevere. Now I just need to figure out how to use nem's batch compiler again XD