Big old master thread (please read)

[NicholasWolf]

Anatomy of a Half-Life(DC) disc Link

HL gldsrc mapping tutorial Link

HLDC Tools Link
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if it goes successful to how I want, maybe it can be stickied even though there really isnt anything to sticky? anywho

can someone post a master diagram of the whole half lif e dreamcast disc? what i mean is, say the models folder, and it has different sub sections, what do all those mean, and what do the files in that section do? same thing for sounds, images, textures, text, etc, i think you know where I am getting at. A whole explanation of everything thats inside that disc. Especially hl.exe.

i hear about this sdk someone is trying to build to be more moddable but is about 99% complete. howabout it goes open source? that would be sure to at least speed up things and probably pick up some new members.

id also like in this thread (from a post or two) every single possible program that can modify the dc half life game (model editors, level editors, sound editors, converters, etc.)

all in one thread, stickied, and esily accessible, ready to find, and easy to program for the dreamcast.
easy as 1,2,3.

does that make sense?

[Anthony817]

I totaly agree! We need everything in 1 place so newcomers can see what tools they need for making mods.

Divagante's mapping tutorials should be number 1, along with any knowledge that Override, Dreammatrix, and Moi can give. They know more about it than I, so it would really help me to learn it if I visualy see it in diagram form and whatnot. I am a visual person, so I guess I learn it by someone showing me how to do it.

Map making tutorial links.

Half Life 1 mapping tutorial thread

[Divagante]

lol, i thinked of ansering that question in one tut nicholas xD i'll do that when i can

also, i don't want to sound self-centered, but i think "the concept of modding" i made should be read first off all.

[Anthony817]

Yeah I was going to link that here to him but I forgot.

[NicholasWolf]

ok. well later on once we have enough material collected on this thread, ill make a directory of everything in order.

[Dreammatrix]

id also like in this thread (from a post or two) every single possible program that can modify the dc half life game (model editors, level editors, sound editors, converters, etc.)

When i have some time, i will upload a hldc toolkit with all necessary programs to mod hldc

[Anthony817]

I think that will be the best thing you can do for Half-Life Dreamcast modders! Good idea man!

[Divagante]

can someone post a master diagram of the whole half lif e dreamcast disc? what i mean is, say the models folder, and it has different sub sections, what do all those mean, and what do the files in that section do? same thing for sounds, images, textures, text, etc, i think you know where I am getting at. A whole explanation of everything thats inside that disc. Especially hl.exe.

Sure Thing! Let's start with the (pirate) pc version:



Inside the folder you install HL1 in, there's a folder called "valve", that's where hl1 is. Also, for example, the folder "cstrike" would be counter strike, "dod" day of defeat, and so on with the mods. This is the folder thats matters. In the pic i put all the folder that have things you can mod if you dont have codding experience. Let's get on with it then:

/VALVE itself ---> note that ".wad" texture packs go here

/GFX ---> various grafical data files go here, to note skyboxes pics

/LOGOS ---> logos you graffiti in HLPC - multiplayer go here

/MAPS ---> maps go here (single and multiplayer)

/MODELS ---> models for players, weapons and everything else goes here

/OVERVIEWS ---> overviews of HLPC multiplayer maps go here

/RESOURCE ---> note that the HLPC main menu background goes here

/SCRIPTS ---> addons go here (you really need coding for that)

/SOUND ---> every sound from footsteps to background music goes here

/SPRITES ---> sprites folder, from explosion sprites to muzzles, etc

Simple as that. Now for the DC version:



The Dreamcast has two main folders "Barney" (for blue shift) and "Valve" (for hl1). You can make two completelly diferent games using that distiction, because the disc has two game folders, not a hl1 game folder and a mod folder. Basically, you have two half lifes in the same disc.

All the folders (except for the "save" folder) shown on the pc version are compressed within the "PAK0.pak" file. Then you can edit pak0 or add paks! This is the tricky part.

For example, you have "pak0.pak", "pak1.pak" and "pak2.pak".

pak0.pak ---> files A B C -
pak1.pak ---> files A B - -
pak2.pak ---> files - B - D

The DC would read the paks sequencially, like this:

reads pak0 ---> adds files A B C
reads pak1 ---> replaces files A B
reads pak2 --->replaces file B and adds D
result ---> A (pak1); B (pak2); C (pak0); D (pak2)

Also note that the .wad texture packs goes in "barney" for blue shift and "valve" for hl1.

And i think that fuffils your request good sir ^^

[Anthony817]

Excelent man! That pretty much explains everything in detail. I think the pack files part might mess me up, but I do have experiance with installing PC mods, but never had to mess with packs.

Next, can we make a list of potential mods that could be ported, that don't need their maps remade or anything?

It seems the mods I want to try porting are all not possible, Heart of Napalm, Afraid of monsters, Operations 1942, et cetera.

[NicholasWolf]

i believe this can view the .pak's

ok now that weve got the anatomy of a half life dc disc, i shall figure out some way to make a directory on the main post and add the mapping tutorial to it too.

[Divagante]

half life 1 ports that don't have codding envolved can be directly ported, the only thing you may need to change are the textures cause of their size (max 128x128 i think), but you can also .pvr them, and they can be bigger.

afraid of monsters is a long time idea for me, since its a straight up port, almoust copy paste

[Anthony817]

Well, why don't you try to port it in the future if you were wanting to do it before? I think it would be a great thing to port if it is a simple copy and paste like you said, "almost" meaning what?

[NicholasWolf]

is it possible to delete the barney folder?

[Divagante]

(nicholas)
1 - you'll need two pak tools, one to unpack and another to pack (at least its how i managed to do it so far) ill post names when i come to the pc (im on my phone)
2 - even if erasing barney folder didnt give an error, it still appears in the menus, at least it serves you as a dummy file

(anthony)
i really want to finish hlps first... how can i help the community if i end up leaving everything half way? one thing at a time. all in all AOM is on to-do list, but im getting pretty interested in mapping for 007

[NicholasWolf]

so is there a way to have it not show up in the menu? i havent played paranoia or any of those other games so i wouldnt know if they were there. im guessing the menus are still orange and blue?