Dranore

You'd be wrong there actually. If you match the scale it looks the same. The difference being that when it renders it cuts them up more and HL isn't so great with the higher r_speeds. It also lacks the bump/normal mapping unless your using a mod... but it is actually possible to match the look. I can post screens if you don't believe me. -Dranore

What is the hard limit on texture memory for a HL map using Zoner's tools... the default is 4mb... but how much higher can it be set and run? Just curious. I'm playing with making a map using HL2 rez textures in HL... well less than 512x512 of course as that's the limit... but... anyways. If someone knows that'd be keen. -Dranore

A simple 'Happy Birthday' would surfice. -Dranore

It's my birthday! I R 21. Not that any of you really know me that well here... but I thought I would share. And if any are feeling notably generous on hearing this joyous news... Help Buy Dranore HL2 For His Birthday! hehe... :wink: -Dranore

Single player maps should push the limits a bit more it terms of "looking next gen"... there's enough footage out there for you to make that call yourself. I'll be damn pleased to have the upgrade to HL. -Dranore

Maybe I don't get it... but I happen to like texture lights alot too... I understand that there are better entity lights... but in reality some "textures" are self illuminated (ex: signage), and even light textures themselves make sense to be self illuminated... So there are now Light_Omni's and Light_Spotlight's? Can either type be dynamic? Are the perameters for controling the look of the lights the same? -Dranore

I've had that happen before... and I ended up reinstalling windows before long anyways... :\ Not that it's much consolation... You might try installing it to a different drive/directory and see what happens... uninstall the other first and make sure nothing is left... I don't think Hammer uses registry keys... but you may wanna check and delete them if any are left... Unfortunately random crash issues are so specific to the user there isn't really a good way for the average user to have any idea why. :\ -Dranore

Hehe... I don't mean sources of light, I mean lighting in the Source engine. I had a few questions about lighting. Since meshes now encompase alot of details, like I would surmise, such as light sources (light fixtures, etc), can models cast light via their texture or any other means? If no, then I assume entity lighting has increased in usage. If so, have they changed at all? Do they have any new perameters? How do they work? Differently from HL? Thanks. -Dranore

Yes, they said that. But they also said HL2 was gonna be done Sept. 30 of last year untill the last minute. I figure the tools will come out around the same time as the game if not a little later. Probably late November. You can do brushwork in Hammer now. Just read the other thread (Brush vs. Mesh) and Zaphod already explained what should be brushes and what should be meshes. -Dranore

You enter to win a contest, but if you don't win something like this, who cares? So you spend time making a texture and you don't win. It's not the end of the world and you have a nice texture as the end result. I see nothing wrong with that conceptually. If you can't be bothered to make something if you're not positive you're going to win, then you way to pretentious for your own good and shouldn't even bother reading such a thread. As for my texture, well shadows would be cast by the engine... so I didn't want to add too much of that. I'd probably do some more tweaking before calling it finished. Also... if this is for an October competition... we're a good week into October now... and there doesn't seem to be any support for the idea. Too bad too. I'd like to see what people came up with. -Dranore

Neverwinter Nights is an obvious choice. RPG with real time combat. -Dranore

Quake, Alice, Anachronox, Deus Ex, Castlevania, Earth Bound, Smash Brother Melee (sans the Donkey Kong rap), Wipeout (all PC versions and Fusion - you can actually download newer versions from the guys website that are better quality than originally released ), the Sonic games have had some great tracks as well, Burn:Cycle, and I guess that's all I can think of at the moment. Though I'm sure I'm forgeting some things. And Gameboy sounds are awesome. Anyone who says otherwise can bite my shiny metal ass. -Dranore PS - The guy who did music for the first two Wipeout games goes by ColdStorage... you can find his stuff there - http://www.coldstorage.org.uk/

Steam Gold... depending on the price... way too much good stuff included to go with CE. Valve is playing a power card, and they can offer alot more for alot less if they are so inclined. -Dranore

Only one comment on my texture? :single tear: -Dranore

I liked it better before you retextued it. :\ It was more thematically consistent. And the lighting was more blah the second time round too. I really like the original though. It reminds me of Alice for some odd reason... probably the odd floor... which I really like btw. Definitely keep the checkered floor. -Dranore

Another question, OT I guess, but it's still Source related. I read that textures need to be powers of 2. Is that an iron-clad rule? If not, what is the effect of breaking the rule? A somewhat related question, lets say you have a 512x512 unit set of brushes. You can either make it one brush with a 2048x2048 texture or 4 brushes with 4 512x512 textures. In that situation, what would be the wiser choice. That's more of a general question has to how Source handles geometry and textures in relation to performance I guess. Thanks again. -Dranore

doh! ::facepalm:: -Dranore

Oneday someone will discover a way to make cheap shiny things. I will kiss his feet. What about specularity? Does Source allow specular maps? -Dranore

Do the "cheap" versions still reflect models? :\ Or are those just a cubemap? -Dranore

It's not that unrealistic. There's a quake retexturing project. Within a given timeframe perhaps... but by NOT making a site for it... it facilitates the not getting it done aspect... It takes Wally a bried matter of time to batch dump all the wad images to jpg's. -Dranore

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm not an NS player. But the first shot is sweet. I like the architecture. It's really nice. And I personally like the color decisions. That's me though. -Dranore

I'm gonna go against the grain and infer you don't need to make it darker. I mean... In terms of NS maps... every map is pretty/very dark with sparce lights that make it look like Alien... not that there's anything wrong with it... but I see no problem with trying something different... with that said though, I'd be very judicious with how you light. If you're gonna go with a brighter lighting scheme, be consistent and thoughtful about it. My two cents anyways. Then again, I don't really plan NS... so more the opinion of someone looking at the map in and of itself rather than "what it's suppose to be." It looks very unrealish the way it's lit now. -Dranore

Please for the love of Source, make a webpage for these textures and the ones that havent' been done yet. mapcore.net/hlretex/ or something... seems like a worthy use of webspace to me. -Dranore

It's possible that it might be passable... depending on the situation. I figure I've gotten about all I'll get for my specific situation. So I figured I'd open up the discussion to other areas as well. I guess I'll start it by outlining some scenarios/locations and some of their trappings and make some suggestions for logical obstructions as well as other concerns. Some will have been mentioned before. Situations: Wartime/Disaster - This has alot of applications. Can literally mean war, riots, martial law, etc. as well as any variety from natural disasters or even alien invasion. As mentioned you can destroy buildings, blockade roads, use crowds of people, you could even make a maze of people concievably, emergency vehicles, military convoys/troops, enemies can create baricades from anything. This is a situation that can apply to any location from terrestrial to interesteller. Allows alot of flexibility and provides alot of plot building tools as well, as such it's used alot in games. Locations: Nature - Jungles/Forests/Mountains/etc. These locations provide an infinite variety in terms of coming up with things to block a player. On the otherside, it's also extremely unrealistic to uses some of these scenarios in such a way as to limit player movement too much. Nature isn't usually full of dense foliage that's unpassable. Creating small ponds and bushes to hinder a players movements are poor excuses to halting a player's desire to explore. Developers still do this all the time, sadly. Established paths in nature tend to be as direct as possible, except with traversing terrain that requires otherwise. So to belivably control player's actions I think requires alot of care. Players have come to accept that the affore mentioned lame obsticles are in fact obsticles. A silly situation, but again, hardware constraints have created this nesscessity. This thread is more speaking in the theoretical of the nature of games to come. STALKER is a great example of really attempting to treat nature realistically and I applaud them openly for it. The ability to traverse terrain openly and explore without using much in the way of lame obstructions is a fantastic leap forward in terms of game design. That's not to say there aren't situations where you want more control, but I'd argue that Nature isn't the best location to have such events occur. Industrial/Factories/Spacestations-ships/Military Facilities/Complexes - This is a very commonly used scenario that allows alot of freedom. Theses sometimes sci-fi locals allow for creation of envioronments that operate under a fictional logic that allows sundry routes and gameflow that seem natural while often seeming logically random. My problem with these locals is that traditionally they aren't laid out in a way that reflects how such facilities would actually be constructed. Usually key areas make sense, but the random factory/machine bits inbetween often would make the place look like it's geometries hub... a very unrealistic structure indeed. They "alliviate" this by including inaccessible doors that infer that your missing out on some massive closet space that isn't worth exploring... or they create a situation where access is controlled in such a way as to keep you from having access within the construct of the plot. This is all well and good, but it doesn't really deal with the fact that structures often time make no real sense in the ways their constructed. Doom3 is a recent title that does alot of this crazy scifi meandering without any realism in terms of how the structure might actually be built. You can make an argument here, as the Mars base in the game is actually farily "filled out" but it's still not a mirror of what such a location would actually be built like, even under those conditions. I think that creating plot devices for prenting access to areas is much better than the bizzare meandering that often exists here. At least infer the spaces exist. Space ships are often treated even worse and are usually just a large mass of inexplicable rooms that have no real "purpose" even within the construct of the game. That's all I'll add for now. But feel free to add you own to either of the catagories above or even add more to what I've said. If you start something new, please actually write something about it as opposed to just naming something and moving on. Thanks for the replies. -Dranore

I have a different suggestion altogether... I have the Altec Lansing 621's... they're not THX... but they're realllly good speakers. I did alot of research before I took the plunge on speakers, and I haven't been disappointed. Just as much power as a 2.1 Klipsch set (200 watts), but it's something different. I personally think they sound better despite the lack of THX moniker that you pay for. There is a 4.1 (5.1 too?) set by a different moniker as well. Not sure of the exact model number. At the time I was also considering a Midiland 8200 set. All I can say really is to do some research. There are lots of reviews, don't just buy Klipsch or whoever's just cause everyone's like... "OMFG SO 133+!" There are some really nice computer speakers out there that aren't discussed much in gaming communities and lots of sites review them. So read up! EDIT: On checking they don't make the 621's anymore. Too bad too. They are however still availible from certain places. They're really nice speakers. If you don't believe me there are many many reviews online that agree with me. -Dranore