kodan50 on 1/9/2008 at 18:47

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So, we are comming into the beginning of September, so I thought it would be a good idea to update handful of people here who care with the status of my project.

I know those of you who don't like the intro screen wants to see something else being used. I'm not a graphic artist at all, so my options are really limited. I thought of taking a good screen shot of something in game and using that. So, the screenshot that I am going to use is one off of the intro animation.
http://www.anyon.150m.com/HShock/files/TriOp3.gif
I want to make three flavors of this screenshot. One which is 4:3 ratio, which would crop out the lot of the right side of the picture, leaving only the station and the shuttle. One which is 9:16 for widescreen, and one that is 10:16 for those of us with slightly off resolutions. The problem thus far is the 10:16 ratio loads the 4:3 ratio image, and skews the image a bit. While I perfect making Source load the bloody image, does anyone have any qualms with this picture, or have any suggestions on how to improve on it?

The second update that I am working on is correcting the direction of the level. When I first started, I forgotten that I turned the orientation perspective of the level backwards several projects ago, so the geometry is backwards. I am still correcting it. No ETA on how long it will be. For the next release though, I am using the original level geometry. No good letting this go to waist for now.

I determined the best way to solve the paper-thin doors is to simply place two func_illusion blocks next to each other, with all sides as a null texture, and the two touching walls with the texture I want to appear paper thin. In respects with the doors, and how to properly make the frames animate, I am using 6 small doors that open at a different speed. This is controlled by two texturetoggle entities, and a button that not only controls when the door opens and closes, but keeps the door 'solid' when the door is closed. If anyone knows some mapping suggestions on how to make doors open without the aid of 16 entities, please let me know. Currently, I am at 60+doors @ 16 entities, giving me something like ~960 entities. Source will eventually give me error messages that I have too much crap in the level and that some of it needs to be removed. I am trying to avoid splitting each level into multiple chunks, if I can at all avoid it.

Also, I am trying to enable more than one camera at a time. This can be done with the source code, but the only tutorial is for an older verison of the Source code, and doesn't work on the newer updated code. I need someone who is proficient in coding to help enable multiple camera angles. I got as far as making the network variables in the camera specs, I just need Source to render the camera's view to the texture with the same name as the string in the RenderTarget network variable. Credit will be given to said coder, and should also be able to impliment an inventory subsystem, an E-mail/Log subsystem, and know how to change the GUI displays with stuff like overlays, pallet alterations, and even using code to play animations on the screen. I suppose it would be easier to ask for a good coder who loves System Shock enough to know what kind of modifications will need to be made to Source for it to properly portray the complexity of System Shock. The coder should be able to communicate regularly, and be able to make suggestions on how something should look, but respect whatever direction I want the project to go. I promise not to make your life hard though, I am reasonable person to work with.

I hope other people notice that music snipplets that play are based on the place where you are. The sound changes depending on where in the level you go, and the changing of the tunes is gradual through the use of a sound system that isn't "Played back", it is "composed back", which gives the ability to change its playing instruments and alter the sound that way. Crap, that sounds hard to impliment, especially if we are stuck with static WAV files. Icky. I am also considering this into the project, because it will be a very important part of the game to have the music play as close to the original as I can get it.

Also, I fixed the gugly looking texture problem by converting the textures to an uncompressed texture, which also makes it a bit bigger. The plus side of course is that this should solve a lot of the texture anomalies that I kept getting, such as discolored switches and stuff. I will work over the next few weeks on redoing all the textures, so that all the textures look correct.

I think that, for now, about covers it. If anyone is able to help me with the Source release, it would be appreciated, since a one-man project takes a long friggin time to complete...

Oh yeah, HL1 is not going to be updated for some time. Consider it officially suspended until further notice.

You can download the latest version at (http://www.anyon.150m.com/HShock/files/Half-Shock%20Source%20-%2009-01-2008.rar). While you could look at this as a release, it is more of a backup of the current stuff. I added some stuff and removed some stuff. The only real point of this release is the textures. But whatever. The next release should have more. For now though, it doesn't.

Trance on 2/9/2008 at 21:07

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read, please

icemann on 3/9/2008 at 12:03

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Any screenshots of the new progress? And great to finally hear of some news.

zombe on 3/9/2008 at 19:10

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Well, if nothing else - it is already nice to just look at :D

Heh. Can't get ss1 out of my head ... just recently installed it to my new PC ... right next to crysis. The darnedest sight i got to tell.

kodan50 on 11/9/2008 at 05:48

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You are total awesome. I really appreciate it!