kodan50 on 9/5/2007 at 16:38
Quote Posted by Navyhacker006
Complicated? How so?
This is all speculation, but I'd assume placing and linking them in Hammer would be a relatively painless procedure - entity portal[0] goes on wall-face b[0], entity portal[1] goes on wall-face b[1]; portal[0] -> Properties: Exit == entity portal[1]. For example.
Far easier than trying to get a door just thin enough to work while still looking right. And the perfectionist in me knows just how hard that can be. In a similar vein, trying to figure out why Hammer insists on mirroring my textures is proving annoying.
I thing I found my helper :p
If I make the map work on Hammer, then can you put the doors in? You seem to have enough knowledge on how to do the process... Id love to see what you can do!
Oh yeah, and I think the poll is unanimous, looks like I'm mapping the secrets as well... I want to have doors on them, so that people cant see it easily, so its not just a big spoiler. I might put a few in tonight.
kodan50 on 5/6/2007 at 05:50
I suppose I should post something ..
First off, I am still alive. As you know I had to do some optimizations because of the size of the level, I had to remove the high-res potentiality from the level, rework a few textures, move some walls, rebuild small segments of the level, etc... Im just letting you know that I am still working on the level, very little at a time. After having to optimize everything, ive not really been feeling the mood to map, so im pacing myself to get it done. Ive had a couple mapping sessions on it, about an hour each, and once I complete a couple more textures, then I can finish the next segment and release another portion.
I've also been working on the sounds of objects and the timing of the doors. I think that I am fairly accutate from how the game plays out.
Eventually Ill get around to updating the web site .. I kind of been spacing that off, because ive been busy at work, and doing some Halo 2 mod work, but hopefully this weekend I should be able to get a good 4 hours into finishing the next release for everyone. Ive still been too lazy to put in the secret rooms, so this release is still secret free... Sorry..
Anyone have any suggestions on level layout, textures, map quality, or just want to complain? Im open to suggestions that can help make the map better.
Bjossi on 5/6/2007 at 16:52
I thought the project had died, good to see you are still working on it. :)
But why are you experiencing problems regarding size of the level? SS1 had this big levels and it is a 1994 game. :erm:
kodan50 on 5/6/2007 at 19:13
The issue with the size of the level is relevent to the textures I was using...
To put it simple, when Half Life renders a level, it has a vis map, this map is light levels at every point in the game, this vis map controls the light reflects off walls, and controls where shadows are in relevence to the game geometry, from points where lights are relevent. This vis map is limited to a hard 65,550 (?) patches, each patch is determined by the size of textures from in the game, the smaller the texture scale (like, a 128x128 texture will have a larger scale than a 256x256 texture will on a single wall of the same size) the more patches are required. The size of the level vs the amount of large textures are what determines that patches.
In order for me to correct this, I had to shrink each texture back to its 128x128 glory, this redused the patch size of the vis matrix by about 4x, but that also removed the HL1's possibility for high-res textures, this there will only be available on the HL2 remake once the textures are available. Once the texture size is dropped, then each wall that has a texture then has to be rescaled, or you get 4 of the same textures in place of the one, very very ugly. This is where the delay was, I had to resize each wall, that is what really killed the project, I should have researched it first, but what is done is done.
Bjossi on 5/6/2007 at 19:17
That sucks, I know from my own experience how texturing can be a bitch sometimes. But if that is done and dealt with then you can keep on creating the level. :)
ZylonBane on 5/6/2007 at 19:48
At least the CCP won't have this problem-- all the "128x128" textures are actually 256x256 textures scaled up from the original artwork, all ready to have high-res art dropped in.
Hemebond on 6/6/2007 at 07:08
Quote Posted by kodan50
To put it simple, when Half Life renders a level, it has a vis map, this map is light levels at every point in the game, this vis map controls the light reflects off walls, and controls where shadows are in relevance to the game geometry, from points where lights are relevant.
A VIS map does affect the lighting (RAD). It simply calculates visibility between portions of the map dictated by geometry, portals, BSP and entities. Newer engines, like the Doom 3 engine, no longer use VIS data, relying instead on portals and other optimisations.
Quote Posted by kodan50
In order for me to correct this, I had to shrink each texture back to its 128x128 glory,
What was the problem again?
kodan50 on 6/6/2007 at 17:18
Quote Posted by Hemebond
What was the problem again?
I wanted high-res capability for HL1, that was the problem initially, and not having high-res textures is the solution.
Quote Posted by icemann
See if you`ve just used the Halflife 2 engine in the first place rather than being stuborn, you wouldnt have this little issue.
I have both in the project, and I guess if it doesn't bother anyone else that the textures looks like crap, then I will release a HL2 version as well, and a "How to install" tut for those who do not know how to do so. I will make a seperate "mod" installer one day when I learn how...
Unless someone here wants to do it for me? :)
Bjossi on 6/6/2007 at 17:37
It will bother me a bit, considering the point of the project is to remake SS1 with updated graphics. I don't know if it's just your computer being the bottleneck, or lack of high-res textures, but you should definitely try your best to go high-res with the HL2 version.
