Big old master thread (please read)

[Anthony817]

Haha yeah, I meant after you finish your game first! I have been wanting to play yours for a while now. Anyway, you got any kind of update on how you are doing with it and how far along it is? Also, can you give us a screenshot or 2?

[Divagante]

Haha yeah, I meant after you finish your game first! I have been wanting to play yours for a while now. Anyway, you got any kind of update on how you are doing with it and how far along it is? Also, can you give us a screenshot or 2?

im gathering the files from my old computer, next adding the entitites to the bar map thingy while im making my next map, ill post a pic on current work (i gotta start a new thread on that xD)

[Dreammatrix]

The texture size limit is 256x256 normal texture and 512x512 in pvr
Afraid of monsters is a good mod to port but it use a diferent .dll like on paranoia and They hunger, probaly it has new monters and entilities, so if you only copy and paste some things will not works. (When the mod use hl.dll then is only copy and paste)
You need change entilities on maps, edit the qc.files on models to adapt the models, edit scripted sequernces, etc

[Divagante]

The texture size limit is 256x256 normal texture and 512x512 in pvr
Afraid of monsters is a good mod to port but it use a diferent .dll like on paranoia and They hunger, probaly it has new monters and entilities, so if you only copy and paste some things will not works. (When the mod use hl.dll then is only copy and paste)
You need change entilities on maps, edit the qc.files on models to adapt the models, etc

i dont really think the dll are changed, theres not anything diferent in the gameplay, its all within the maps and models, the models is what it will give the more work, but they're simple

and thanks for the texture size correction

[Dreammatrix]

Here are all necesary tools to mod HLDC on just one download:
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

i dont really think the dll are changed, theres not anything diferent in the gameplay, its all within the maps and models, the models is what it will give the more work, but they're simple

and thanks for the texture size correction

You were right Divagante Afraid of Monters use a normal hl.dll, some models are too big probaly need be compressed and 1 or 2 maps are big.
I think this game will run on DC without problems!

[Anthony817]

The HL Tools download on megaupload climbs up to over an hour everytime I try to dl it. and it never finishes, I hate to ask you, but could you try uploading it again please?

About Afraid of monsters, that is fucking awesome!

[NicholasWolf]

i like mediafire alot more, you could make a bittorrent file.

[NicholasWolf]

conversation plz

[Divagante]

i'm quite sorry to bump this thread, but i was cleaning my inbox and i decided to post here some PM's i think that are of greatest interest to those who want to mod hl1:

From Dreammatix:

007 map and texture mirror (they are for modding purposes, they don't run on hl1)
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

From Override:

Quote Originally Posted by divagante
"well override, since i lost my br project ill follow an advice you gave me twice, port a mod instead of creating a mod... so, i choose "afraid of monsters", i think you've heard of it. the reason im mailing you is cause id like to ask you some things before you leave...
1 - how can i "unpack", convert .bsp into .map or .rtf (i think) in order to edit them? i used to use winbsp but it gave me a lot of errors
2 - how can i convert the wad textures into pvr textures?
3 - i havent been able to change speaking sequences (sentences.txt) in the dreamcast. how can i change them then?
4 - could you send me every tool / software you have for dreamcast editing? i know i wont know how to work with much of them, but i cant find most tools cause most sites are in languages i dont speak =S
well, i think that is all... better wishes for your future and ill hope to hear from you once again ^^"

Hey there Divagante-
I am not gone yet; I have been very busy lately.
Good idea to port Afraid of Monsters. I have done this myself, but never achieved a port worth releasing....
To convert bsp2map will always give errors, and is not likely to compile back into bsp.
That is why you need the original .map sources; for Paranoia I contacted Mikhail ( paranoia leader ) and he gave me the .map sources.
I found out that on dreamcast sentences.txt must be named new_sentences.txt. And it will only play a sentence that is 1 sound file long.
For paranoia, I had to merge sound files into 1 to get the new_sentences.txt sound files to work.
To create PVR-Wads:
1.) Extract textures from wads, except '{' transparent textures
2.) Re-size all textures to PVR-compatible resolutions
3.) Convert textures to PVR
4.) Use "Total commander + gaup-pro plug-in" to pack the PVR textures into the WAD
Here are the tools I use for HLDC modding:
HLDC Mod Tools
And ParanoiaDC v.1.0 is coming soon!...

From Override:

Quote Originally Posted by divagante
"hi override, sorry to bug you.. i have the second br test ready to burn, now i got to start seriously... you talked about the pvr textures you guys made, i talked to dreammatix, he said to talk whit you... is it very hard to make my own pvr textures? i know how to fully make pc wad textures... if it doesn't give you to much work, could you explain me? thankx anyway bye!"

Hey-
Sorry I hope I dont confuse you, but I realized I made 1 error in what I taught you:
I said:
2.) Use FatStone image viewer to resize .bmps to their closest DC resolution, must be 1:1, 2:1, or 1:2 aspect ratio, in multiples of 32, 24-bit color.
But that is not quite accurate.
It is not multiples of 32, but rather certain powers of 16.
So 16x1, 16x2, 16x4, 16x8, 16x16 will work;
So 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 are acceptable DC resolutions.
Hope that helps, let me know if you still need help.

From Override:

Quote Originally Posted by divagante
"well, as you sayd i should pm you (kinda like spam you xD) so you could teach me what you know about the mod developing... so, first of all i would like very much you could explain to me how you managed the saves to work on the dreamcast, i tryed so many things and i still dont get it xD"

About saves, its quite simple, but there are un-seen factors.
To make it work, example I will use army.bsp:
1.) Launch console on HL PC, and load the map "map army"
2.) As soon as map loads, pres "Esc" and save the game
3.) Immediately exit to desktop. Enter vavle/save/ and rename the .sav file same as the .hl1 file
4.) Move army.sav into cdrom/valve/save
move army.hl1, army.hl2, and army.hl3 into cdrom/valve/save/dicts
Thats it!
But a problem seems that memory is spiked on DC when it attempts to load, so larger maps may crash when attempting to save.
Or sometimes a crash on changlevel after saving will occur.
This is why you can only save on some maps in the Industry map set on ParanoiaDC beta2.

Quote Originally Posted by divagante
"second... you talked about the compression of the .bsp size... when i sayd screen resolution, i meant the size of the screen, like, the original hl1dc its 640x420 i think, but you can notice that is paranoia B2 even the main menu must be like 800x600, its that just bigger textures or something?"

I tried to change the screen resolution on DC, but it did not work. It is still 640x480p.
What you perceive is better quality textures.

Quote Originally Posted by divagante
"well, im giving you a lot of work for now, lets keep some more spam of myne for later shall we? xD btw, im finishing the textures i need for the first map (a nightmare, something like max payne), and i've been reading to remember all the mapping stuff i had forgotten, i can do everything inside a map again ^^ lol i wish i still can show you a little something of BR before you go xD ~bye"

I dont want to steal your dream, but making a full mod is not easy!
I reccomend you port some existing mods over to DC first, before you try to make your own!
Paranoia had a very large developement team, at least a dozen members, that is how the mod turned out so awesome!
If buzzer had been making the mod himself, it never would have turned out so nice!


-----/--/--/-----

i hope Dreammatix and Override don't get offended for me posting these. best regards

[Anthony817]

Wow, that is more info than I have gotten from anybody else so far!

I really am a smart fellow, I just need the most direct instructions possible for modding this.

I know how to mod PC games like crazy, especially Stalker and GTA games, a lot of text editing I also have under my belt.

What I would like to request, is the most concise way to explain modding HLDC.

Like, what are some good quick and easy mods I could learn to port? I know Operation 1942, and Heart of Evil: Napalm Editon, which btw, the source code was released back in 2007, but I was told by somebody that the bsp's were the same way that 1942 was, and had to be done like Paranoia and have the bsp separated from the texture or something like that.

Anyway, I am wanting to port Heart of Evil. If I have the source files, what do I have to do next?

I am really wanting to get some kind of tutorial, so others and I could start porting mods. Last time I asked, I was told I just drag and drop the files to HLDC, but I have to edit the pak and tell the game what maps to load in the list right?

Sorry if I sounded like I was rambling.

[Divagante]

we can't code mod hldc yet, so were doomed to "patching" it, for now at least. having some cinfiguration files as exception, the hldc uses the pak system (which ive explained earlier in this very thread), so instead of replacing files, you make a new pak as a file patcher with your stuff.

now lets imagine youre porting a mod. the name of the first map is "1st.bsp", but in original hl1 its "c0a0.bsp", and in hldc theres no way to change that value (i think). so, we must change the name to c0a0. but now, all the trigger_changelevel (the entity that makes you from map to map) within the map are going to break and give errors

these are the kind of situations we face as hldc modders, we dont code, we just copy paste and then correct errors, finding clever ways of going around them. everything else, are optimizations (such as pvr textures - they arent mandatory, but god they are helpfull with fps)

either way, be prepared to burn a lot of cds

id like to help you more anthony but im still a dumass at porting, thats why im slowly doing the doccumentations, because its not hard but you need to deeply know how the goldsource engine works. knowing that, youll do what you please with it, including hldc

[Anthony817]

Yeah, I hear you bro. That kind of stuff I am pretty much a noob at too.

[NicholasWolf]

I have discovered that the saves are 3x smaller if you set the date of your dreamcast to 1998. idk why lol.