Half-life 2 Cut Content - Is it me or dose the cut content look better than what we got? - Games

[QUOTE=Snood_1990;46106073]Couldn't you technically 'teleport' the player with a smart transition to an identical scene of the city with the skybox/model etc changes.[/QUOTE] Yes you could, this is another way I was thinking about achieving the multiple scene changes. The problem with this I think is that you wouldn't be able to use the 3d skybox for all three since there's only one 3d skybox. At least this is my understanding of it, and in reality I think it would be more effective to just use a single model with multiple bodygroups/textures instead of a few different models. For example: To teleport the player to 3 different scenes would require 3 times the number of brushes/models etc. Using a single scene with model bodygroups would require just 1 version of the whole scene.

Wall of text incoming... [QUOTE]So far what's the planned route of levels and locations are you guys gonna use? Also are you guys searching for voice actors? I think I can do Samuel :P[/QUOTE] Well, we don't want to say too much, but the way we are setting our story up is to try to encompass as much interesting content while not making it feel like a 'guided tour' through HL2's development. Some of the way the levels are set together will be like what you find on the HL2 wiki, but we always try to find some logical connection between them first before resorting to it. As for voice actors, we actually had a response thread going on the main page of our mod about it. We aren't looking very hard at voice actors at the present time due to our dialogue still being a heavy WIP, but once it's fairly close to being done we'll likely start searching for some. [QUOTE]Would be nice if you guys can get some input from Valve; emailing Marc Laidlaw is a good start.[/QUOTE] We did email him, actually. The response wasn't exactly the most insightful or informative response ever written, but it still did contain some interesting information on how at least Mr. Laidlaw views the leak (or the "stolen beta" as he refers to it). He also had answers (some pseudo-answers as well) to some of our questions but for the most part they were unimportant. [QUOTE]The Steam Greenlight page says you're recreating it based on the earliest of stuff, which means organic Citadel and Vertigo skyscraper right? But wasn't the first pass of HL2's storyline...began with Gordon boarding the Borealis to C17? And proto_docks, which is assumed to be a prototype map for that first pass, is using the rare clamp Citadel instead. [/QUOTE] Well, yes, we are going for a lot of older content and ideas for the mod, especially Victor Antonov's concept work, but not all of it is going to be the extremely old stuff, as some of it just isn't as interesting as others. Don't worry though, when there are multiple variations of things (like the citadel, certain maps, etc.) we try to look at all the interesting and good gameplay possibilities that each present and try to expand upon them when necessary. For instance, I don't think that I'll be spoiling too much by saying that we've redesigned the Citadel lately to be a synthesis of several different designs, as the organic version was a little bit...questionable looking. :P [QUOTE]how's the recreation of Citizen 17 going?[/QUOTE] So far we haven't really been working on recreating it yet, as most of our recent time has been spent re-doing some older models to make them look more original to our mod. By older models, I mean ones that we've made, not ones copy-pasted out of the leak, we won't be doing much of that I hope. [QUOTE]I talked several times with Boker about this thread in fact, although he refused to appear around here.[/QUOTE] That's Boker for ya'. Some of our team members aren't as vocal as the others, which can be a pro or con, depending on how you look at it. Usually I'm the one to answer things, but sometimes they chip in as well, which is nice considering I don't know everything about mapping and coding and whatnot.

[QUOTE=Milkyway M16;46108455]The problem with this I think is that you wouldn't be able to use the 3d skybox for all three since there's only one 3d skybox.[/QUOTE] Why not use a sphere model with the texture skyboxes at the 3d skybox, and then you call the model to switch the texture?: [video=youtube;g5YtVXbBQmU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5YtVXbBQmU[/video] [video=youtube;RDbNStp0Ez4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDbNStp0Ez4[/video] [url]http://css.gamebanana.com/prefabs/5660[/url]

[QUOTE=AmbientNoise;46108479]We did email him, actually. The response wasn't exactly the most insightful or informative response ever written, but it still did contain some interesting information on how at least Mr. Laidlaw views the leak (or the "stolen beta" as he refers to it). He also had answers (some pseudo-answers as well) to some of our questions but for the most part they were unimportant.[/QUOTE] Just curious, can you post a screenshot of that email?

[QUOTE=Snood_1990;46106073]Couldn't you technically 'teleport' the player with a smart transition to an identical scene of the city with the skybox/model etc changes.[/QUOTE] Yes, that'd be possible [QUOTE=Milkyway M16;46108455]Yes you could, this is another way I was thinking about achieving the multiple scene changes. The problem with this I think is that you wouldn't be able to use the 3d skybox for all three since there's only one 3d skybox. At least this is my understanding of it, and in reality I think it would be more effective to just use a single model with multiple bodygroups/textures instead of a few different models. For example: To teleport the player to 3 different scenes would require 3 times the number of brushes/models etc. Using a single scene with model bodygroups would require just 1 version of the whole scene.[/QUOTE] You're going to have the biggest headache ever with the model lighting in Source, so this isn't a feasible solution really. You could probably modify the 3d skybox entity to stop rendering and start rendering in another place. I think that'd be a solution. I might try it out this weekend. [QUOTE=Maestro Fenix;46111323]Why not use a sphere model with the texture skyboxes at the 3d skybox, and then you call the model to switch the texture?: [url]http://css.gamebanana.com/prefabs/5660[/url][/QUOTE] In the first video. Notice how the lighting remains the same for all skies. The same thing happens in the second video but you can't see because the ambient lighting is changed using multiple light entities. When you compile a map you bake lightmaps into it, meaning you can't change the shadows dynamically. Admittedly this is what Helk did for Hostile Planet, however I honestly don't recall how the lightmap stuff is done. [video=youtube;SzygBMHoHMM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzygBMHoHMM[/video] Biohazard's implementation doesn't use lightmaps as far as I remember. [video=youtube;JYiVkHEzThk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYiVkHEzThk[/video]

[QUOTE=Milkyway M16;46108455] For example: To teleport the player to 3 different scenes would require 3 times the number of brushes/models etc. .[/QUOTE] But it wouldn't, if you are copy and pasting the same scene multiple times you are making the teleport redundant. Its exactly like a seamless level transition you import only the visible brushes to the next destination, not them all. [QUOTE]The problem with this I think is that you wouldn't be able to use the 3d skybox for all three since there's only one 3d skybox.[/QUOTE] Might be a good place to toggle the rendering of the brushes themselves in the skybox considering they are all func_detail in the first place. [sp]rip displacements[/sp]

I guess you could bake the lighting in the model texture and make displacements like that. Same goes for everything else in the 3d skybox, its a lot of work though.

[QUOTE=Sally;46116691]But it wouldn't, if you are copy and pasting the same scene multiple times you are making the teleport redundant. Its exactly like a seamless level transition you import only the visible brushes to the next destination, not them all. Might be a good place to toggle the rendering of the brushes themselves in the skybox considering they are all func_detail in the first place. [sp]rip displacements[/sp][/QUOTE] Not sure what you mean by this. [QUOTE=ProZak;46116806]I guess you could bake the lighting in the model texture and make displacements like that. Same goes for everything else in the 3d skybox, its a lot of work though.[/QUOTE] How would you do this? Why would it be a lot of work?

I'm working on a mod that will feature fixed up E3 2003 and 2002 maps (the latter will most likely include all maps except for e3_terminal and e3_ship). Generally, I'm aiming to remain close to originals, which includes recompiling all prop models, changing AI code to make it work as it should with maps and making minimal changes to original maps aside of fixing them. Some of the weapons have been ported from beta but those are not the main focus right now. AFAIK, nobody's actually fixed up AND released any E3 2002 maps for retail HL2 aside from MI with their e3_terminal and buggy e3_depot. Screenshots and videos will come later. Mod is currently unnamed since I can't think of a good name for it. :v:

[QUOTE=Milkyway M16;46118222]Not sure what you mean by this. How would you do this? Why would it be a lot of work?[/QUOTE] Baking ambient occlusion for a model's texture (I assume that's what Scart is referring to) is quite easy.

[QUOTE=Snood_1990;46123994]Baking ambient occlusion for a model's texture (I assume that's what Scart is referring to) is quite easy.[/QUOTE] But incredibly painful for meshes that use tiling textures unless source supported meshes with multiple UV channels, right?

In the case of changing the colors of the grass or maybe event the sky, here's my idea: You might be able to use some sort of color modifier (like in gmod) to modify the hue of the scene, and have neutral grass/sky colors. This could allow the appearance of said items to change at will, with Hammer inputs But of course, I have no idea how it would be implemented or created. (so that makes the point moot)

[QUOTE=Jackathan;46126157] But of course, I have no idea how it would be implemented or created.[/QUOTE] It's obvious that you don't. Otherwise you'd know that Episode 2 has a thing called "color correction" and it can be used exactly as you described, very easy to use and completely legit (one wouldn't even need to code). In fact I used it in Dark Interval for my Intro attempt. The CC could get a bit costly at times though.

You don't need color correction or color modifiers, textures can be swapped with proxies or skin groups on models.

[QUOTE=PikaCommando;46111647]Just curious, can you post a screenshot of that email?[/QUOTE] While my laptop doesn't have any screen capture mechanism, I can still transcribe what he responded with here. I'll explain a little after the email. "Hi Kyle, there's not much help here, I'm afraid. Whatever connectivity you're seeing there is going to be mainly imaginary, but that's fine. Do what makes sense for your project. Many of the things we built did not connect at all. Story fragments and unfinished maps are places to work out momentary ideas, obsessions, 98% of which will never work or add up to anything, or carry any kind of meaningful meaning...to make things even more tenuous, none of those maps had any gameplay in them, which means they were doomed in whatever state they were in. The good bits were developed into what we shipped. The fragments in Raising the Bar are just curiosities really, like woodshavings on the floor of a carpenter's shop...everything but the thing itself. For instance, I have no idea what we were thinking with the "chip"...and without an inventory system, there wouldn't have been any way to do that. It's very easy to write something like this in prose, but almost nothing that gets written down that early in development ever gets into the final product. We went through many different ideas for plots and locations. As for the stuff in the stolen alpha, none of that was meant to be seen so it doesn't occupy any place at all in our concepts. Good luck with your project, and make of all this what you well." And yes, he misspelled "will", but who cares? Maybe he was focused on writing for Ricochet 2, hopefully it'll be worth the weight. ;) When he mentioned the "chip", he was replying to a question we asked regarding the story fragment for Weather Control regarding a chip that would be given to Gordon by Captain Vance. Needless to say, I don't think the whole "chip" thing will be part of our mod as a player inventory system sounds rather tedious to deal with and would likely break the immersion factor as well.

I imagine the chip would just be something similar to Alyx's emptool thing and that Gordon wouldn't carry it at all. Then again, I can't actually see it serving any real purpose.

[QUOTE=AmbientNoise;46128474][wall of text][/QUOTE] That may be one of the largest responses there's been from a Valve employee about the leak in recent years. [QUOTE=AmbientNoise;46128474]While my laptop doesn't have any screen capture mechanism...[/QUOTE] Assuming you're using windows: [url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/take-a-screen-capture-print-screen]alt+printscreen[/url] with the window open, then paste into your favorite image editor. or the [url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/snipping-tool]Snipping Tool[/url] (search in the start menu), then save it and do whatever.

[QUOTE=crazeeweegeman4;46128881]That may be one of the largest responses there's been from a Valve employee about the leak in recent years. Assuming you're using windows: [url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/take-a-screen-capture-print-screen]alt+printscreen[/url] with the window open, then paste into your favorite image editor. or the [url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/snipping-tool]Snipping Tool[/url] (search in the start menu), then save it and do whatever.[/QUOTE] Didn't know about the screen capture ability, thanks for telling me that. Also, yes, it is a rather lengthy response, although he did gloss over a question I asked about how Gordon was supposed to leave the Air Exchange. There aren't any maps that show an exit that I've found, they all lead into the main reactor room but never lead out. I try to base the story on what the team can find on the maps and in concept art/story fragments from Valve, but this part of the voyage has nothing. I also have a hard time believing that "98%" of the leak maps were "places to work out momentary obsessions", as there are many, especially in the early levels, that seem to lead right into one another, such as terminal directly being linked to industrial, and construction to the consul plaza, and etc. They were also worked on by different mappers, which would also partially invalidate that claim. However, I don't think it likely that Laidlaw was heavily involved in the mapping as much as general story writing, so I can understand if he didn't know everything about how the development process was conducted. Nevertheless, his response was interesting.

I find certain skyboxes/background textures/whatever you call it in the leak to be quite attractive. I'm not sure if some of those made it into final, but what are you guys' favorite unused sky background? Also, considering how there's no Weather Control maps, is it possible that you are supposed ride the plane/chopper from a secret underwater hangar in Kraken Base and ride out the sea like an old spy movie? PS: Since I can't find any HL1 cut content threads around, what do you guys think the "device which means the difference between victory and annihilation" in the summary file is? And since there isn't any HL1 cut bosses listed in RtB, I assume Nihilanth will still be the final boss except you will fight it from the inside out.

[QUOTE=Sally;46125746]But incredibly painful for meshes that use tiling textures unless source supported meshes with multiple UV channels, right?[/QUOTE] What meshes use tiling textures? :v:

Hey, does anyone know where I can find the old Combine soldier animations?

[QUOTE=AmbientNoise;46129330]email[/quote] Perhaps he was more or less recalling his maps he had done, specifically nether and hazard

[QUOTE=Sally;46134591]Perhaps he was more or less recalling his maps he had done, specifically nether and hazard[/QUOTE] Speaking of hazard, was that just some weird thing from Marc (like a lot of things) or did it ever have any meaning in the context of the game?

[QUOTE=PikaCommando;46129952]I find certain skyboxes/background textures/whatever you call it in the leak to be quite attractive. I'm not sure if some of those made it into final, but what are you guys' favorite unused sky background? [/QUOTE] I'm a big fan of sky_c17_01, it's real pretty. And it's kind of disappointing that Valve didn't leave some of their old skyboxes in the retail version for mappers to use, but that's their decision.

[QUOTE=Sergeant Stacker;46136010]I'm a big fan of sky_c17_01, it's real pretty. And it's kind of disappointing that Valve didn't leave some of their own skyboxes in the retail version for mappers to use, but that's their decision.[/QUOTE] And when they did, they had the huge irreversible pink X slapped on them. Sky_spire01 is one of my favourites. It was used for demo_arctic, and I believe it was on some of Citadel maps?.. not sure.

[QUOTE=Cvoxalury;46136257]And when they did, they had the huge irreversible pink X slapped on them. Sky_spire01 is one of my favourites. It was used for demo_arctic, and I believe it was on some of Citadel maps?.. not sure.[/QUOTE] Speaking of which, I gave de-X'ing sky_c17_05 a 2nd attempt somewhat recently, I like to think that it came out better than it did last time. [IMG_thumb]http://media.moddb.com/images/members/1/860/859977/proto_citadel_skybox0001.jpg[/IMG_thumb] I'm not sure whether or not any of the WC's Citadel maps use sky_spire01, but it might be the successor to sky_c17_05 since some citadel maps use that. I still weep for the lack of sky_vert01. The only indication of what it looked like is in this environment map texture that's in the leak. I've been wanting to resize it but that goofs up the image quality. [img]http://i.imgur.com/74oExLM.png[/img] RIP

[QUOTE=AmbientNoise;46129330]Didn't know about the screen capture ability, thanks for telling me that. Also, yes, it is a rather lengthy response, although he did gloss over a question I asked about how Gordon was supposed to leave the Air Exchange. There aren't any maps that show an exit that I've found, they all lead into the main reactor room but never lead out. I try to base the story on what the team can find on the maps and in concept art/story fragments from Valve, but this part of the voyage has nothing. I also have a hard time believing that "98%" of the leak maps were "places to work out momentary obsessions", as there are many, especially in the early levels, that seem to lead right into one another, such as terminal directly being linked to industrial, and construction to the consul plaza, and etc. They were also worked on by different mappers, which would also partially invalidate that claim. However, I don't think it likely that Laidlaw was heavily involved in the mapping as much as general story writing, so I can understand if he didn't know everything about how the development process was conducted. Nevertheless, his response was interesting.[/QUOTE] Protip: puush lets you select an area of your screen and uploads it for you, too.

My [I]new [/I] friend and I were looking through the leak's environment maps and we found a full skybox from the Borealis Sea environment map. I made a panoramic pic of it, so have a look. It's probably the missing sky_hyper01. [img]http://i.imgur.com/FqFbn1B.png[/img] But unfortunately, since we can't have nice things, here's how it looks ingame. It's probably because the textures are 128x128, but I think that's [I]completely outlandish[/I]. [img_thumb]http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/532873149607891067/EE4F0708F492EC35F28E602043D883C69B765FE5/1024x768.resizedimage[/img_thumb] Any of y'all know how to resize a picture without goofing up the quality?

[QUOTE=BoxBuilder999;46133536]Hey, does anyone know where I can find the old Combine soldier animations?[/QUOTE] [url]http://scart.slkandy.com/files/CombineSrc.zip[/url] This might be it, I can't remember and I'm at work so I can't be bothered to check. Let me know if its what you want. [QUOTE=Sergeant Stacker;46137482]Any of y'all know how to resize a picture without goofing up the quality?[/QUOTE] What you see on NCSI or whatever isn't possible in real life. You can't just expect regular resize functions to come up with new pixel data. [video=youtube;Vxq9yj2pVWk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk[/video]

[QUOTE=Sergeant Stacker;46136291]Speaking of which, I gave de-X'ing sky_c17_05 a 2nd attempt somewhat recently, I like to think that it came out better than it did last time. [IMG_thumb]http://media.moddb.com/images/members/1/860/859977/proto_citadel_skybox0001.jpg[/IMG_thumb] I'm not sure whether or not any of the WC's Citadel maps use sky_spire01, but it might be the successor to sky_c17_05 since some citadel maps use that. I still weep for the lack of sky_vert01. The only indication of what it looked like is in this environment map texture that's in the leak. I've been wanting to resize it but that goofs up the image quality. [img]http://i.imgur.com/74oExLM.png[/img] RIP[/QUOTE] Wow man, that's gorgeous. Just like the concept arts. [IMG]http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091223233036/half-life/en/images/6/62/Citadel_wide.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091007131340/half-life/en/images/d/d8/Citadel_tiles_night.jpg[/IMG] Apparently Valve likes this one so much the final version is pretty much the same thing but recolored. [IMG]http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090803135931/half-life/en/images/2/23/Citadel_View.jpg[/IMG] Does anyone know where the city ground map is taken from/located in?