On A Rail Uncut - Re-Adding Cut Areas/Scenes (Expansion Project)

General Development Source 1
#321

True.

I was pretty shocked by JUST HOW DARK my map was, as I was sure I copied Black Mesa’s lighting setup pretty closely - so to refresh my memory I ran around BM_C2A2B’s Office Complex just to be sure. DAYUM. That one’s hella dark too! It’s actually very unrealistically dark in the office complex - not even a old crappy office would be that dark normally. But, I suppose it’s the atmosphere of the chapter. Still…SERIOUSLY dark. Revising the lighting now, gonna make it brighter but not a great deal. The Office Complex does wind up looking pretty damn dramatic.

#322

Want screenshots. :wink:

#323

Watch him post a plain black screen and call it darkness :stuck_out_tongue:

#324

Nah, I’d at least make it accurate to my map. There’ll be a pixel of white in there somewhere.

#325

Well guys, I’m going to disappoint you again.

I know, it’s REALLY unprofessional of me to keep promising things and not delivering them, but I have good reason. I’m really sorry though, I shouldn’t keep promising stuff, but as a perfectionist…well, you know how it goes by now. You’ve put up with my idiosyncrasies throughout ST Uncut, you get it by now :stuck_out_tongue: .

I just compiled and played through the map with full lighting (after spending about an hour and a half tweaking the lighting from my last test), as well as some bugfixes.

I don’t mean to toot my own horn, and this is just my opinion, but it looks FANTASTIC. From a purely graphical perspective I honestly believe it looks amazing. I’ve actually kinda amazed myself with how good it looks. I wasn’t expecting lighting to radically transform it this much. But it has. I’m ridiculously pleased with it. And that’s why I don’t want to release the media until I’ve ironed out all the minor flaws I’m finding on my playthroughs. I’m so proud of how it looks I really want the first media release to be absolutely top notch. So, sorry guys. But, on the bright side, because I’m going to be refining it a lot over the weekend (no plans, wahey!), I’m HOPING to get the first map released very shortly, for alpha testing. It’s already in a 100% playable state (start to finish), it just needs optimization, balance and small fixes, all of which I KNOW I CAN DO over 2 days, because having played through the maps now, nothing major remains as of now.

So, there’s the silver lining. Make of it what you will. The video will come over the weekend and the maps may come with them, or maybe a little later, we’ll see.

EDIT: Mods, sorry for the double post, just wanted to catch peoples’ attention.

EDIT 2: Oh here’s a fun fact, entdata on C2A2A2 is currently at 190%. I seem to be the King of Poor Estimation, eh? Still runs just fine, though. Long story short - I thought entdata represented the I/O chain data present on the maps, as that’s what it said on the Valve Developer Wiki. I DEFINITELY haven’t used more I/O than C2A5G or H though (both had roughly 140% entdata), so I’m guessing that entdata actually represents just the number of entity of ANY type (props/lights/etc.) which would explain why the Source engine doesn’t really care when you have more - because that would just be a suggested limit. Blame the wiki for that one!

#326

hmm?

#327

Re: Cafe overlooking tracks.

  1. You don’t have to see dust and filth being kicked up by passing trams. I think the age of the environment lends itself to assuming and concluding that it does take place.

  2. You can clearly hear the wheels from a single tram clicking as they pass over the rail joints. I think several trams joined together that are carrying supplies would make plenty of noise. Additionally, the numerous flat hard surfaces and high ceilings would generate echo related sounds as well.

Just providing a heads-up before too much time is spent on this area. The two areas just don’t seem to go together well, unless they’re separated by a barrier.

#328

So a wall out of reinforced glass?

#329

I don’t see why anyone has a problem with that area, I very much like it as it is.

#330

I like it too. The only 2 problems I have with it currently are that it’s a little too bare, and the dark lighting doesn’t work well there. The dark lighting looks lovely everywhere else on the map, but not there. I’ll have to brighten it up significantly!

And I’d appreciate it if people stopped talking about that cafeteria, as I’ve already asked. I’ve noted your objections, now drop it. I’ll decide what to do after I’ve released the first alpha. I’ve already said this too.

My plan is to get the video out over the weekend, and hopefully by Mondayish get the map out there. I actually think there’s every possibility that I’ll link it into the BM campaign seamlessly for the alpha release, too. Just to provide maximum testing capability. It also gave me the idea of doing 2 final releases when I’m finished with the project at some nondescript point in the future. One which only includes A1 and A2 seamlessly linked in, and one which includes ALL the maps from OaR Uncut. An Uncut, and an Uncut lite, so to speak. On other gaming forums aside from this one, I’ve seen many people say they wouldn’t like to see OaR restored to its full, original length, but would rather see it lengthened by a bit. I figure it’s a good way to satisfy everyone and provide modularity.

This way, if you want OaR to be as long as it was in HL1, you can install OaR Uncut Full. If you want it to be longer than it was in BM, but not as long as it was in HL1, then you can install OaR Lite. If you loved BM OaR and like it being as short as it was? You don’t have to do anything! Seems like a good idea to me.

#331

if an area is bar blow it up, the on a rail section always had that active war zone/ clean up feel in half life so you would expect a lot of high explosives in use, hell for all we know the hecu could be trying to knock out rail paths. infact I know they are trying to knock out the rail paths as they do destroy one as part of the chapter.

#332

Yes, or glass that can be broken. It depends on the final design for this area.

==================================================

^ @Text,

The OaR Uncut Lite and OaR Uncut Full sounds like a great idea. Let each individual decide how much of OaR Uncut they want to play.

#333

This gives me the idea that the option could be integrated directly into the gameplay somehow. The main thing would be to indicate this in an obvious way to the player without breaking immersion.
Such as a main tram system control room,where you can switch the sections to go to different places.
Like this:
Image here
Clearly showing that if you switch it one way it is very short (cutting out one (or two?) of the levels), and switched the other, it is much longer.
Ofcourse you couldn’t package separately using this idea, but it gives player the option I think is a great plus for gameplay
What do you think?

#334

This is somehow an extremely interesting idea! but how could there be a good reason gameplay-wise to chose between two different tracks? maybe by making the shorter way more difficult and the longer way easier?

but a very very nice and extremely interesting idea!!!

#335

It’s an “interesting” idea, but it’s never going to happen. Not in a million years.

On another topic, I’ve been working on the soundscaping today, as it all seems a bit dead without some ambient noise. While looking through Black Mesa’s soundscript files, I noticed something interesting. In each chapter’s sound script file (the file which contains the names of the various soundscapes they made), there’s a humorous little comment at the top of each one, relevant to each chapter. I don’t know if this has been seen before, but I figured I’d post them here. They’re amusing.

Made me smile.

#336

Possible to tell where to look exactly in the folders?

Thanks!

#337

^ BMS/Scripts Open 'em with notepad or notepad++.

And I posted those in the Easter Egg topic in the cafeteria. :slight_smile:

#338

Let me just go ahead and say that I love this plan and I love you.

(cough In a non homosexual way)

#339

Well, my theory about using entspy worked like a charm.

I’ve set up the transition from A to A1 without decompiling A. It’s flawless. I’ll still have to package the edited version of A with the rest of my maps, but the difference is it’s still basically 1st generation. There are none of the negative side effects of decompilation present on the A map, and no extra work at all for me. Brilliant. This means if I set up B2 cleverly, I can make it transition back to the C map without needing to edit C too. This is very good news.

#340

That’s amazing! I don’t entirely understand it, but it’s amazing :smiley:

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.