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| Dev. Journal: trepid_jon |
June 29, 2008, 6:25 pm
You're craz-you're crazy, man. You're crazy! I like you...but you're crazy.
Last week, I started converting FF's source code to the Orange Box code. It was an insane task, to say the least. First of all, nobody else wanted to do it. I mean, everyone wants FF to use the latest version of Source, but nobody wanted to do this psychotic conversion that Valve has forced on all the old mods. Granted, a mod would have an easy integration if it didn't modify any base files, using nothing but brand new files specifically created for that particular mod. FF's not like that, though. Yeah, FF's code uses a lot of unique files, but we also did a lot of base modifications. Luckily most of those modifications were commented well, and now even more of that is better commented and separated from the base stuff.
1 week, thousands of differing files, and hundreds of compile errors later, FF can now be played with the Orange Box engine. OOOoooOOOhhh!!! There are quite a few bugs to work out, however, so 2.1 won't be using this code unless we fix all the major bugs within a couple weeks.
After getting past the initial problems of FF crashing immediately upon startup, during map load, and lots of other similar spots, I finally got into the game...but I couldn't pick a team or class, and therefore couldn't spawn. I could go into thirdperson, though...
Wow, right? That's so Orange Box.
The first thing I noticed was this...THING...on the left. Said something about "Server" blah blah, like I cared. I later confirmed it's the chat window. Well, part of it. It's this little spot/coffin where all the received chat messages go to hang out forever. It's basically the worst thing imaginable.
Anyways, I couldn't move or look around in firstperson, but I could look around in thirdperson (as a side note, Valve greatly improved thirdperson mode with a moving camera that has collision, among other cool things). So once I could move the camera around, the next thing I noticed was that awesome Orange Box motion blur effect...
 
This is called a town. It's where everyone hates you and makes fun of you.
The problem with picking a team and class had to do with the way the new code handles console commands. FF has a special way of making some console commands, and most of the console commands use this special method (team, class, +gren1, dispenser, cloak, etc...pretty much everything you do in FF that's directly related to FF). Long story short, I fixed that crap and some other crap dealing with different crap and was then able to look, run, shoot, and do all that other minor stuff FF needs to be considered a game.
WARNING: if you don't like motion blur, you'll hate every single one of these screenshots, because I was literally shaking the mouse to make all of them blurry, haha...
In the Orange Box engine, your flashlight casts dynamic shadows off objects.
(including yourself when you're in thirdperson)
 
 
In 2.1, hunted's dirt hole is a vent (finally).
  
Blur slideshow, WOOH!
Apparently the flamethrower's particles aren't drawing.
Just another reason to revamp FF's effects using the new particle system.
It will be so nice.
 
 
More blurry 2.1 hunted.
  
Some blurry 2.1 cz2 as well.
  
  
I don't know if redux wants this seen yet, but it's blurry...so nobody's really seeing it.
2.1 has swim animations, y'all!
So by having FF use the Orange Box engine, we get motion blur.
The other new things like vgui videos, the new version of Hammer (lighting preview, what?), the new particle system, the material and commentary editors, steam avatars, and so forth...all of them mean nothing in comparison to the greatness that is motion blur.
r.
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-Absolute
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| Dev. Journal: z0rt |
June 28, 2008, 3:00 am
Hi everyone! It's your neighborhood friendly DT. As you may have noticed, I have been inactive for the past several days. Why? Well... unfortunately, my laptop got infected by some new virus. Good job Symantec for nothing (long string of expletives)! I'm in the process of fixing the laptop, and don't expect to be active in development or beta testing for another week. Since the virus is new to the scene, I have to clean up manually, which can take God-knows-how-long... not to mention the many reboots and many many attempts.
In other news, the beta testing seems to be going very smoothly. Expect 2.1 to come around the Earth's aphelion.
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-Absolute
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| Dev. Journal: Pon |
June 25, 2008, 12:47 pm
Hello. I'm Pon, a recent addition to the Dev team. I think they must have been desperate for Lua scripters, and I was better than nothing I guess :P
I figured I should do a journal, but I don't really know what to write. I mean, Lua, and programming in general isn't that interesting to most people. But, meh. I could say a few words about myself, my experience, and so forth, but I'd prefer people keep reading and not fall asleep :)
Maybe next journal.
So, inane rambling over, we come to the meat of all journals, and the only bit 99% of people reading this will care about - some info on what I've been working on:
Epicenter fixes - The three captures per round system has been fixed, and there will also be HUD icons to indicate the aforementioned captures. Should make it a lot easier to understand whats going on, hopefully.
ff_harbor - As Nezumi mentioned in his jernal, I'm working on the base Lua for that. Not much more to say other than what Nezumi already mentioned, aside from it'll hopefully be good gameplay, as well as a good looking map (which Nezumi's always are).
I'm also making another base Lua for a new map by one of the Devs. Can't really say much at this stage I guess, but I'm sure it'll have a positive impact on FF when it's ready.
Aside from that official FF work, it seems I've become a mapper's bitch of late, with Ihmhi and =AS=zE both pestering me night and day to make their maps work properly :P. Still, their maps should be worth it. At least in terms of the Lua :)
Also, I have a few concepts of my own that I'm planning to start on. Quadflag (posted in the official concepts thread) is one I've started on, and hope to finish a concept map soon. I'll also likely create a concept map for =AS=zE's Last Team Standing lua, seeing as his port of Agoraz was withdrawn. For both I'll release the source .vmf alongside, so that people can both make a decent map from it, and hopefully learn a little bit about Lua as well.
And thats it. Hope you managed to stay awake :)
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-Absolute
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| New League |
June 23, 2008, 9:48 am
Remember the old wonid game ?
If so, i have a good news for you !
New league is active right now, its called Won2.
All you need is your old cd version of Half-Life, the HL 1.1.1.2 update then your ok to join it.
Pretty same as the old league was like before steam.
For more information about this new league please visit their website.
http://www.won2-tfc.com/
For Old-School only.
Comments (1)
-BlinD-AF
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| Team Fortress 2 video: Meet the Sniper |
June 19, 2008, 5:42 pm
Admittedly, we can't get enough of Valve Corporation's humorous introduction videos for Team Fortress 2's (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) character classes. That said, the devs have just released a new "Meet the Team" video, with this latest clip introducing everybody's favorite (or hated, depending on whose side you're on) dead eye: The Sniper.
So what does it take to be capable shot? More than just a steady hand, it looks like the job entails patience, a pot of coffee, and several jars for your occasional bathroom break. Unglamorous, perhaps, but it's all worth it when you can head-shot the opposition before they ever see you.
The video is available for viewing below. Enjoy the clip, and be sure to keep on the lookout in case Valve gets around to introducing the rest of the crew. On that note, we're wondering how they're planning to do the Pyro guy, given he's plain incomprehensible.
Buy: [The Orange Box (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [The Orange Box (PS3)]
Buy: [Team Fortress 2 (PC)]
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-Absolute
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| Dev. Journal: Dexter |
June 18, 2008, 4:20 am
Hello, I'm Dexter! Many of you who frequent the :e0: server probably know me as that one soldier who always goes on O. Sorry, I come from Quake :(
Ok, I admit - I wanted to try this dev journal (Nezumi) thinger as well. I've been working on some base_*.lua files, making them more flexible. base_ad now works with any color combination teams for attackers and defenders and I fixed no flag return sounds in base_id, for example. Now I'll halp Nezumi with his cacti map and perhaps rework some of mervaka's code into a reusable form which gives him a total boner. And god forbid I have enough time to get into the source code.
Oh my hell, I think I'm getting a sunburn.
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-Absolute
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| Dev. Journal: Sh4x |
June 13, 2008, 7:10 pm
I figured I'd make a dev journal too, mostly so you guys have an idea of what I'm working on right now. So here it is!
Since I joined the team, I've been trying to figure out exactly what I'd like to be working on for the next weeks. It's quite something for me because for the last 2-3 years, all I had on my mind was to finally finish this one freaking huge map that seemed like it would never end, ff_dropdown. I swear it gave me a hard time, mostly because I didn't know how to map when I first started it but also because it's a pretty complex map design wise and it's all original which makes it that much more difficult to do than a simple remake.
Anyways, like I was saying, I've been thinking about what I'd like to do next. It had to be smaller. I wanted something I could finish fast enough so I wouldn't get bored of it before completion. It had to be something else than standard CTF because that's the direction we're taking as a team right now. And it had to be something where dense fog would work because I just freakin' love fog and there's something I wanted to try with it.
So I started working on it a couple days ago and sshhhh don't tell other devs but I think it's by far the best looking map on this mod already!
I'll keep you posted!
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Comments (0)
-Absolute
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| Dev. Journal: Elmo- |
June 13, 2008, 7:10 pm
Ello Ello... it's Elmo!
Woo, it's awesome to be on this side of the fence after sitting on the other side for so long, waiting for these dev journals and announcements to explain WTF the/us FF devs are actually doing!?
It's awesome to be on the team but not because I get to see the bits that haven't been released yet, but because they frequently TALK to one another, find out what tasks are required and just get on with it! I have much faith for FFs success yet! I think this influx of new devs (like me) has really brought some extra life and progress to the mod too. I can't seem sit here for more than half an hour without there being a reply to read on the dev forum!!
Right, now on to the stuff you may care about! I'll be Optimising some of the existing maps, starting with ff_monkey, and boy do I have my work cut out for me. I've almost done one base, as you will see if you haven't already skipped to the links.
PLEASE NOTE: This is work in progress - IT ISNT FINISHED!! I am aware there are some things missing around the level and that water is far from finished, dont worry. Also I don't have any env_cubemaps in, this means anything that has a reflective material is only reflecting the skybox and not its surroundings e.g. water & objects.
I'll explain what I've done so far... I've rebuilt it... completely... almost every brush... I dont plan on doing that for the others in order to optimise/clean them up but ff_monkey really was made badly and there are quite a few improvements Ive made already.
1. For those of you that ramp slide on the left ramp from front door and have got stuck halfway up on that stupid physically nonexistent lip, you'll be glad to be know it has gone. The ramp was - for no reason - made up of two (perfectly aligned) brushes; its now one, problem solved, simple.
2. Texture alignment is now/will be as perfect as I can make it throughout the base. Once I've completed the base I will probably nodraw it all and apply all the textures again to be sure! Im a perfectionist...
Texture Alignment Example (Ceiling Curve)
3. Previous Lazy mapping is no more... such as cutting the heads off those 'poor' T monkeys :( and no more gaps behind wall props.
T Monkies (Heads)
Wall Prop Gaps (Gone...)
4. OPTIMISATION Now that I've mapped it properly, you WILL have considerably better FPS in most areas, comparisons are below but you will mainly notice the improvement during full game play. No more standing in flag room rendering fights going on in the ramp room/lower spawn/water way that you cant actually see!! No more standing in ramp room rendering the water from the route beneath the base! No more crossing mid map and rendering too much of the action inside the base, which was increasing the strain from the already detailed mid map. No more standing here there and everywhere using more resources than necessary.... You get the point so here are the comparisons.
Flag Room 1
Flag Room 2 (T Junction)
Ramp Room 1
Ramp Room 2 (In Top Spawn)
5. Lighting is currently darker in some places but only because I havent grabbed some of the floating lights. I dont believe in adding lights unless theres a prop to act as a believable light source. I WILL ensure the lighting is PERFECT for the released version but that will be the last thing to be adjusted.
Some more General Comparisons
Flag Room
T Junction
Ramp Room
Lower Spawn
Water Entrence
Water
So what left to be done??
With regards to ff_monkey, I have almost completed one base, which can then be copied and flipped for the red side, I will remake the front of the bases but the mid map shouldn't be too much of problem as I will be copying a lot from the original.
I will now explain my current workings. I've been having some trouble deciding on how to map the water way with regards to how it previously linked to the mid map; beforehand, one could look towards mid map and see the trees in the distance. Rendering areas other than the one you are in is usually undesirable for performance issues, but in this case it added a nice depth to the map.
I hadnt needed to consider this for the rest of the base but I felt this depth would be missed if I werent to include it. I have now reached the point during mapping that I have to deal with it and have realised that I need to change my mapping technique to get it. The same mapping technique Ive been using to make my custom map ff_medieval, and if youre interested, I will elaborate further... just you try and stop me (lol).
Think of the map (any well made map) as being made up of a series of closed boxes, the sides of these boxes are made up of key walls in the base, anything that should considerably block the players visibility from drawing whats behind it.
Just to explain, ff_monkey was not made in this sealed box manor, or rather there were unwanted links or rather suitably named leaks through to the other parts boxes in the map, which is why it ran so badly and why I couldnt just simply add optimisation to improve performance.
ANYWAY, these boxes are normally ONLY linked with doorways and/or corridors. Okay? Well In order for me to get my desired outside depth (distant trees), this method of sealing the players visibility into boxes isnt quite appropriate. Lets say all of these boxes have a sort of lid, be it the ceiling or the sky. To get my desired depth in ff_monkey, the water and mid map boxes, need to, in effect, have their sky lids removed and then be sealed again by a new sky box placed over the top of them both.
So that you can picture it:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w...t_example3.jpg - Brown = mid map/yard
- Yellow = water way
- Red = skyboxWhite Line = hint
^^ The hint is some good old optimisation, Im not going to explain hints, if youre interested read up on them for yourself here. In this example hints kind of act as a way of maintaining the original box forms, it maintains that lid we took off. So ONLY if youre looking through the lid will you see its contents, unless of course its contents are sticking out of its box.... the tops of the trees! My desired depth is now possible and controlled to minimise on PC strain.
The engine now knows that (only) the trees in mid map, can be seen from water and so are allowed to be rendered once again; its simple really. Honest. I use this technique as described above all over the level, hint brushes within these boxes, placed off corners and higher platforms to make smaller boxes, separating the level. Then add some well placed area portals (thats another thing) and your optimisation is complete!
Now I can finally shut up and actually get on with it I guess. Even if you dont understand what I said above, it may at least give you some confidence that I know what Im doing! *Strokes Fortress Forever* Ah, yes, you can be calm now... my precious!
Not sure what I'll be working on once ff_monkey is finished, and I am unsure when I will finish it as I'm off to download festival in 3 days for 5 days.
Eventually signing out after two and a half pages in a word document... hmm I wonder what the word count is... ~1,300! lol Taken me days to finish this post! 12hr day of work then 3 hour bike ride to end up at 1230am finally finishing this!
Elmo! :D
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-Absolute
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| TF2's Pyro class to get new unlockable weapons, new Meet the Team video coming soon |
June 7, 2008, 1:53 pm
The Pyro from Valve Corporation's Team Fortress 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) finally gets some love in the form of new unlockable weapons and achievements in the next update. Valve did not give any further details concerning the new pieces of sweet, fiery equipment that will be added to the Pyro's already formidable arsenal, but we're hoping that it'll be as uber-powerful as the medic's new Ubersaw.
The new unlockable weapons system - where players meet the requirements of certain achievements to unlock new weapons - will soon be implemented for all Team Fortress 2 character classes. The last class to benefit from this series of updates is the Medic, who can now unlock and use a new array of weapons upon getting certain achievements.
There's another good thing coming our way, however, and it's another Meet the Team video - this time focusing on out beloved fedora-wearing Sniper. Like the Pyro unlockable weapons update, Valve did not disclose when we can expect the video to come up, but it will be soon. Very soon, we hope.
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-Absolute
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| Dev. Journal: Nezumi |
June 1, 2008, 11:47 pm
OMG.
WTF.
You guys, seriously, I'm not. Even. Joking. I'm on the dev team!
So I thought I'd write y'all a little dev jernal [sic].
I'm making maps. Actually, as some of you may know, I'm making a lot of maps. Some of them may now actually get finished. One of them, ff_tiger, did get finished recently. (Btw, if you're reading this and you're Arne 'Cynic' Lund, plz email me kthx). I think tiger will be included in version 2.1. I'm really excited about the opportunity to make an update without running into version conflicts, or having things like an _r1 version.
Cacti should also be done sometime soon too, now that I can get a little help from FF's modelers, scripters, and lua coders. I'm tingling with excitement (even now) at the thought of being able to work on a map as part of a team. There's always things that are probably very simple, but would take me so long to figure out on my own. Just a few very basic props, a little lua fixup, a line here or there added to sentences.txt so I can get some Ellen McLain in the map. Beta testing will be handy too.
Finally, there's Harbor. I've always been an advocate of new gameplay types, so I'd like to get this one released. It's kinda like hunted, except there are 2 VIPs and each has a team of bodyguards. There's no goal to escort your VIP to, and instead each team must try to kill the enemy VIP before they do the same to you. If a VIP kills the enemy VIP, then you team gets an extra large pile of points. Instead of being civilians, the VIPs can pick from any of the normal 9 classes. I'm imagining them being spy, and trying to stab their rival, or being a medic and concing to a rooftop to hide, or being a soldier and sitting behind a wall of defenders, and so on. The map takes place in a fairly realistic looking harbor area (although far less open than tiger), and there are 7 bases around the map. Each team randomly rotates to another base each time a VIP is killed, and some bases are much easier to defend than others. Pon is being awesome and writing the LUA for me, and for the first time ever I'm going to knock up the level with dev textures and playtest it that way, so I can rearrange it if necessary.
So, uh, that's the plan anyway. Remember everyone, don't press the carve button.
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-Absolute
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