Posts by e-freak

So I've been doing some props for a recent project I'm working on with fellow mapper penE and just two days ago compiled this lovely plughole for Source-Engine (Ep1 Version):

[Blocked Image: http://www.abload.de/img/zwischenablage0244e.jpg]

So as you can see there's a little Problem with oppacity. The end of the model (the grey to black part) shines through all the other surfaces although they all share the same VTF/VMT and there's no code in the VMT that could tell the Model to behave anything like this. There's an Alphachannel on the whole thing to get that slime part at the end possible and for a fence which is in the plughole (which you can't see because of the oppacity error).

Any idea on what could be causing this?

(Just fyi: The Model is "part" of this texture (remake): [Blocked Image: http://xs323.xs.to/xs323/08021/out_wall6.jpg])

Found the solution after reading the (whole) Valve Dev Wiki second time:

Isntead of $translucent you have to place $alphatest into the VMT which is not as precise as the $translucent shading but therefore has less bugs with multiple alpha-overlays in one model.

[Blocked Image: http://www.abload.de/img/zwischenablage026s5.jpg]

(somehow the alpha reading is now back to 1 bit it seems but i'll find a fix for that hopefully)

And the demo is released as well - rocks

Wesley Tack is working on that game afaik. Looks promising!

they work the very same way as normals do. You use red for left right refraction and green for up/down. Not sure what the blue channel does (most probably zoom)

-snip-

he looked better before he was horny...

Just got the mail from Doug Lombardi:

Quote

VALVE ACQUIRES TURTLE ROCK STUDIOS

Leading Content and Technology Company Adds California Studio

January 10, 2008 - Fresh off the success of The Orange Box, the 2007 game of the year award-winning collection of new games heralded as "the best value in gaming history," Valve Corporation announces the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based development house behind one of 2008's most anticipated games, Left 4 Dead.

Valve was founded in 1996 and has grown to become one of the game industry's leading technology and content creators, with a portfolio of over 20 million games sold worldwide. The merger of the two companies extends Valve's development team and provides the company with a new studio in southern California.

Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead joins a growing list of Valve's game properties which includes the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat series of games as well as Portal, introduced as part of The Orange Box.

"We have been seeing very strong growth with Steam and Source, our content distribution and development platforms, up over 150% over the last 12 months. Given our expectations for Left 4 Dead and our long-standing relationships with members of the Turtle Rock team, this was an easy decision. It also gives us a base from which to expand our development activities in the Los Angeles area," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.

"Left 4 Dead fills a long-standing demand gamers have had for a coop first-person action experience, and it will also help Valve's expansion into the console market," added Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing.

"Valve has had great success bringing in projects and teams such as Team Fortress and Portal. As I spent time working and talking with the creators of those products over the past several years, it became clear that this was the right next step for myself, my colleagues at Turtle Rock, our customers, and our products," said Michael Booth, founder and CEO of Turtle Rock Studios. "We are excited to be a part of such a visionary and forward-thinking company."

Founded in 2002 by Michael Booth, Turtle Rock Studios is the creator of Left 4 Dead, named one 2008's most wanted titles by many of today's leading game-enthusiast publications and Web sites.

For more information on Valve, its games, or the Steam platform, please visit http://www.steamgames.com

About Valve

Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington with offices in Irvine, CA. The company's portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life®, Counter-Strike®, Day of Defeat®, Team Fortress®, PortalTM and Left 4 DeadTM. Valve's catalog of products accounts for over 20 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of PC online action gameplay. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies, such as the SourceTM game engine and Steam®, a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. For more information, please visit http://www.valvesoftware.com.

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First: The Facial Animation looks better in Source - don't know why exactly but the choreography of the different parts in the face just works better there.

Second: As much as these are awesome models, they are just proof of how talented the artists are but I somehow dislike how they are rendered in cryengine - they look like plastic (especially: this guy and he as well)

have you seen a real dead tree some time in the past? They usually b-r-e-a-kk sharp and not so soft and on a hell of different height levels. Additional Oaks are "Roundrooters" - they develop roots in two directions - once down and once to the sides so they can last storms for a very long time and are often the victims of boars who dig between the side-roots and eat the acorns. So my tips for improvement (of an already good model - don't get me wrong there): Wider roots, more splitting on the top and some edgier breaks up there.

Found a Fotography of mine of an old tree:

[Blocked Image: http://www.abload.de/img/klein007vmv.jpg]

Quote from Psyshokiller

The readme says you applyed to ID. How did it went?

woot - if they don't take you with the best looking level on theyr own engine out there they must be some kind of strange in the head

Not so much Deathmatch Multiplayer but Arena for Sin Episodes

http://steampowered.com/v/index.php?are ... lish&cc=US

First off: Source does not work with WADs anymore!

Second: As you mentioned your self is Counter-Strike Source within the Engine-Ranking of Episode 1 while Portal is in the Source07 Engine-Version and whereby uses the VTF-5 (or 6 i'm not sure) Format while Episode 1 uses VTF-4 - so basically: not compatible, even if you would link the Portalcontent via the gameinfo.txt.

Soooo: There's still a way: Get yourself via Google or Forumsearch the VTF-to-ep1-tool and extract with GCF-Scape all the textures you need and change them to old version with above told tool. Buuuuut: you know this is not legal (to share content of one game to the other) but Valve tolerates in most cases.

My tip: Get yourself a decent 2D-App and have a look why these textures are so awesome. Then you create them yourself. Or for the lazyhalf: Wait another ~6 months until Valve patched the old Sourcegames to the new Engine Version and link the content then via gameinfo.txt - that way you would make sure no one without portal can play the level (which means you didn't do anything illegal)

nowadays they call it fortress forever - wrong there!

Quote from zaphod

• - Forward thinking.

No wonder they're heraldic motto is "With eyes open turn forward"

Quote from Taylor

Valve said TF2 was going to be realistic... it isn't going to be anything like TF even if it does see the light of day

Sorry for OT but I clicked acciedently on page 1... o_O

sry but your doubts made me laugh. i think most of the core gameplay was initialized in something like Alpha 1 (ofc nothing finished or optimized)... guys - black mesa is coming but it takes it time...

Quote from Warby

but really when it comes to across the board great art and game design "over time" i think the price has to go to valve !

Yeah the thread title is pretty much everything to say: Rockstar has decided to join Steam and is offering the Max Payne Series, the whole GTA Series, Manhunt and Midnight Club Series at Niiiiiiiice Prieces.

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php ... lish&cc=US

Whole GTA Series for 18€ (like 25$) and May Payne I and II for 9€ (something like 15$) or the whole Rockstar bundle for 36€ (like 54$).

the turnface of the medal: we germans are f*cked again because the US-Versions of GTA are indexed as is Max Payne I and the US-Version of II as is Manhunt so basically: Until they have Post-Age-Verification you can not buy one of the games...

Different Engine Versions and a stricty parting SDK?