Alien mapping notes.
Merkaba
Digital Harmony Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 22Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester
Digital Harmony Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 22Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">Limitations.</div>I'm keeping this short and <s>sweet</s> sour.
As everyone should know, the level 1 alien (Bob) is able to climb walls, and sit on ceilings. There is a small problem concerning this, due to the way halflife determins the brightness of a model. It takes the brightness setting by looking at the floor directly below it, meaning that if your ceiling is in darkness, but your floor is brightly lit, an alien sitting on the ceiling will also be brightly lit. This, of course, poses a problem. It might only be a temporary problem as it could be that Flay finds a way to take the brightness from the wall the alien is attached to, but for the mean time, be cautioned that dark ceilings and bright floors aren't a good mix.
In various places of Hera, I have pipes/girders running along the ceiling but leaving a 64 unit gap or so above them, so aliens can run along them without being seen, and having the correct light level applied to them. This of course also means the pipe has to be made a func_seethrough (Unless its not a large obtrusion), but that shouldn't be a problem.
Assume this limitation to be temporary, but take caution.
Secondly,
The level 5 alien is a large creature, which means that it can only travel through large corridors. I suggest you try and at the least have a direct route between all 3 hive rooms which is large enough for the level 5 to pass through. Also bear in mind, though, that marines must have at least a 30 second walk between the hives. (unless they have jetpacks/welder, which can be used to open up / take alternative routes, if you do so wish to implement such a strategy in your map.)
I hope this information doesn't affect anyones maps so far. Just a word of caution <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
<!--EDIT|Merkaba|Feb. 08 2002,19:26-->
As everyone should know, the level 1 alien (Bob) is able to climb walls, and sit on ceilings. There is a small problem concerning this, due to the way halflife determins the brightness of a model. It takes the brightness setting by looking at the floor directly below it, meaning that if your ceiling is in darkness, but your floor is brightly lit, an alien sitting on the ceiling will also be brightly lit. This, of course, poses a problem. It might only be a temporary problem as it could be that Flay finds a way to take the brightness from the wall the alien is attached to, but for the mean time, be cautioned that dark ceilings and bright floors aren't a good mix.
In various places of Hera, I have pipes/girders running along the ceiling but leaving a 64 unit gap or so above them, so aliens can run along them without being seen, and having the correct light level applied to them. This of course also means the pipe has to be made a func_seethrough (Unless its not a large obtrusion), but that shouldn't be a problem.
Assume this limitation to be temporary, but take caution.
Secondly,
The level 5 alien is a large creature, which means that it can only travel through large corridors. I suggest you try and at the least have a direct route between all 3 hive rooms which is large enough for the level 5 to pass through. Also bear in mind, though, that marines must have at least a 30 second walk between the hives. (unless they have jetpacks/welder, which can be used to open up / take alternative routes, if you do so wish to implement such a strategy in your map.)
I hope this information doesn't affect anyones maps so far. Just a word of caution <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
<!--EDIT|Merkaba|Feb. 08 2002,19:26-->
Comments
As for the level 5 with my current layout it would take him about 2 minutes at normal player speed from 1 to 3, hes got to go through what should be marine territory though.
Sorry guys, but I don't think I'll be fixing this in the near future, so see what you can do design-wise. If it's a huge problem, I could remove ceiling running if I have to, or look more carefully at the problem. Right now though, we have our hands full with other stuff.
<!--EDIT|Flayra|Feb. 08 2002,13:17-->
This barnicle is clearly getting the light map from the ceiling or something close to it.
<img src="http://www.mumuland.co.uk/ns/map/ns_jewel/clight/cube40034.jpg" border="0"><img src="http://www.mumuland.co.uk/ns/map/ns_jewel/clight/cube40035.jpg" border="0">
// take light from the ceiling
It looks like its a special engine effect <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> so where pretty lucky - but it means bright flours and ceilings with dark walls are still a no-no <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> as if anyone would design their map like that(goes of to cry)
Flayra your a god.
How does HL handle flying creatures? Nearest face?
The special effects for rendering models are set by an 8bit flag of which EF_INVLIGHT defines a bit, there is no bit to set so the model will be lite to the nearest face <!--emo&:(--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('><!--endemo-->
This may be all wrong I haven't tested anything.
The tricky part for the alien code would be to determin which direction to take the lighting from, at which point. The Barnicles in HL are only ever on the ceiling, so they only ever need their lighting from above.
Pic on shows that the barnilce is lit using the lightmap from the ceiling, but the player is still using the floor lightmap.
The second pic shows what happens when the origin point of the player passes through (or touches) the ceiling, it becomes lit by the cilings light map.
I tried this effect on the red-lit wall, but it didnt work (pic3)
So it seems that the HL engine only works with floor and ceiling light maps, and the player always uses the lightmap of the floor, until its origin point touches the ceiling.
I also noticed that when placing a barnicle (im sure im spelling that wrong) in worldcraft its origin point was at the top of the entity, whereas usually its in the center.
Maybe for level 1 aliens you could have the origin point at its feet (if its even possible to move player OP's) but im not sure how you are making the model appear upside down, if your uing a player animation, then you shouldnt have a problem, but if your using the engine to flip the model then you might have problems.
And about the wall climbing, i dont ahve a clue :??? sorry.
--Scythe--
the_only_scythe@yahoo.co.uk
If it is a big issue later though, the problem can surely be revisited. I have a feeling no one will notice anything looks odd when it's 10 on 10 and everyone is interested in playing the game. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
Mapper should still keep this in the back/middle of their minds when designing/lighting a map. If you dont do things that are too weird, it should be ok.
Its a shame how the ENTIRE model of the barnacle is lit when you #### a flashlight on it -- including its tongue which hangs down over 20 feet in some cases. Good thing Bob doesnt have any weird appendages like that <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo--> he should look just fine.
-Jacius