More cynically, Half-Life is just another game about jumping on things and shooting things in the face to get to the next level.īut as a longtime Half-Life modder and game developer, I also know Half-Life in a very different way: in its map logic scripting, SDK source code, 3D models and animation events, 2D skins and texture flats-I’ve even studied the way Valve named the individual game files and folders. For others it’s about a mute sociopath who murders anything that moves, as he bunnyhops (always hopping) with bloodlust.
For some people it’s about Gordon Freeman, an everyman physicist who struggles to survive the inter-dimensional alien invasion of a secret government research facility.
It's reproduced here, for Half-Life's 20th anniversary, with author Robert Yang 's permission.Ģ0 years ago, Half-Life was released to a rapturous commercial and critical reception. Processed in an agreeably aromatic 141 ticks.This article was originally published in PC Gamer UK 262, back in January 2014. Views expressed by users are the individuals's own and do not represent the opinions of any other entity. TWHL is a fan site and is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All rights reserved.Īll member-submitted resources copyright their respective authors unless otherwise specified. Site and non-dynamic content copyright © 2024, Logic & Trick. Hollow tool on the other should be discouraged, it can encourage bad practice with beginners. It never creates invalid shapes, unlike the Vertex tool. It isn't good advice to tell people to split their hallways into reusable componenrs, this would lead to poorer optimisation but more importantly, this sort of reuse would be the kind easy to notice (and a technique beginners could have figured out alone).īesides, there's nothing wrong with the clip tool, apart from the minor texture tweaks it sometimes causes, but it's rare and brush manipulation tool is supposed to be before texturing. This tutorial should give more tips on how to improve the appearance of hallways by discussing its different components (lighting, architecture, ceiling, floor, walls, openings, details.) This is why Vertex Manipulation is prefered, as it keeps the texture attributes. By that I mean, if you have aligned the texture, then clipping might not keep the alignment. Just remember that when you clip, the Texture attributes are not saved to the individual brushes. I know a lot of web sites say that clipping is Evil, but with a bit of practice, it is sometimes more convienient when cutting large blocks. The easiest way to achieve this is to set the GRID to something around 8.
To save you from errors later on, the clip line must be straight. This is where GRID settings are really important. Use the Clipping tool in one of the 2D windows.
The image below is what your hallway should begin to look like. You can also build each individual brush, but this is one of those 'good' uses for the clipping tool. Make sure you are using the clipping tool that does not delete anything, the entire selection should be white. Select the two vertical brushes of your hallway, and slice them horizontally into 3 sections. Ungrouping the brushesNow, this is where you can start to use your imagination.