Entity Guide and Source Documentation Project

[Mr Neutron]

I've attached the start of my entity guide.

I spent many hours compiling all the entity help boxes in Hammer together and reformating them into one document. It's a bit of a mess and not any more useful than the Hammer help, but I put it here so that people can volunteer there services to start working on it. In particular, someone with web building or database skills could help me put things in an easily referenced manner. Perhaps we could start a wiki.

The idea is that the entries for each entity will be more fully explained and cross-referenced.

I intend to do a similar kind of cataloging with the material and model assets, but in that case, the best thing would be a sophisticated interactive map so people can see what everything looks like in-game.

In general, I'd like to kick off a whole documentation project for all areas of Source, but this seemed like the most useful (and Valve already gave us a good start). I don't know about you, but I always like to know where everything is before I get to work, so for any mappers out there who want to know exactly what they can and can't do without making a mod, this is for them.

(BTW, the file is actually a .rar which I had to rename to upload here; also, I cut off the last 2/3 to fit it here; could a mod please give me more upload space? I only need 400k.)

 

[RabidJester]

I haven't read this yet, but it's a great idea and definitely needed by the community.

 

[Skull]

Very good idea, good luck with your project!

 

[Homercidal]

Great idea. It would be nice to have this on a web page for quick reference and as a single download in PDF format (There are more than a few PDF creators out there for free) for printing or for local use.

I can't see how the size can be an issue. If you want, I can host the file on my webserver and you could provide a link in these pages for the DL. Or, maybe contact one of the main editing sites, like Snark Pit or something. I bet they'd like to see this get done and they may want to host it as well.

I wish I could help comile the list, but I'm actually in need of th elist myself!

 

[Nostradamus]

If, let's say I where to make a site for this what would be required of it? I could propably code it in php, but not before I know excactly what would be needed for it...

 

[Mr Neutron]

Homercidal, PDF might work, but I think it may need a bit more interactivity than that...maybe.

Nostradamus, thanks for the offer, but I'll get back to you when I'm done with the first version this week. What I posted was just a sample to give people a heads up.

I'll put up an updated version (but still not a complete first edition) later today.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Homercidal, PDF might work, but I think it may need a bit more interactivity than that...maybe.

Nostradamus, thanks for the offer, but I'll get back to you when I'm done with the first version this week. What I posted was just a sample to give people a heads up.

I'll put up an updated version (but still not a complete first edition) later today.

that thing I mentioned, about this.. It's been okay'd Speak to Chris_D.

 

[polypod]

Well i was going to link to a great resource for entity information and this website blocked it... is there some kind of rivalry between you know who and you know who?

it truly is a great wiki.. between this place, that place and VERC, (hope i can say that ) have got me learning this stuff and i appreciate them all :imu:

 

[Nostradamus]

It's becuase HL2 .. wo.rl.d has posted some stuff from the illegal leak etc etc...
but yes it's quite a nice wiki, but it does not have the entire entity list... actually theirs is a bit lacking on that point...

 

[polypod]

i see.. perfectly understandable..
Thanks Mr. Neutron for the detailed information. As i've looked through it i've found stuff not on the wiki and am thankful.

 

[Mr Neutron]

Your welcome, but I haven't contributed any original information yet. I've only compiled the help associated with each entity in hammer together. I will release by tomorrow a revision which contains all the entities and groups them by like keys/inputs/outputs. This grouping is meant to simplify the overall picture and generally groups entities with similar uses, but this is not always the case, so my list will have to be cross-referenced by use. I can think of many ways the list needs to be cross-referenced, whcih is why a more sophisticated database is in order and why I asked for assistance. I'd like to set up something like a wiki, but one in which only trusted editors work (or at least limit the way people can overwrite the work of others).

 

[Mr Neutron]

OK, I have a quite good version now. The next phase is more grouping things by similar keys/inputs/outpus. So far, the grouping I've done has been minor. If you notice a pattern to exploit, point it out to me.

Notice that in the current form, the descriptions of the entities and their properties are none improved from the Hammer help. That phase comes after things are grouped, but if you want to start submitting revised entries, please do. The way to go about this is to start experimenting with a set of mysterious entites to find out EXACTLY how they work. Also, if you have comments/questions about the i/o system or entities in general, post them here too.

I'll try attaching it in two pieces so I meet the limit here. Note that the files are actually rar files, so you must have winrar.

BTW, anyone willing to host this document (in one piece)?


OOPS, didn't but my name or contact info in the docs. If you pass them along, please add this under the title at the top:

Editor: Mr. Neutron, [email protected]

 

[The Dark Elf]

Your welcome, but I haven't contributed any original information yet. I've only compiled the help associated with each entity in hammer together. I will release by tomorrow a revision which contains all the entities and groups them by like keys/inputs/outputs. This grouping is meant to simplify the overall picture and generally groups entities with similar uses, but this is not always the case, so my list will have to be cross-referenced by use. I can think of many ways the list needs to be cross-referenced, whcih is why a more sophisticated database is in order and why I asked for assistance. I'd like to set up something like a wiki, but one in which only trusted editors work (or at least limit the way people can overwrite the work of others).

Like I said, talk to Chris_D and you can both work something out to have it setup properly.

 

[Mr Neutron]

Version 1.0 !

k, elf



Here's the first real release version!

Sorry 'bout the split, but this versions far far better! I ditched the old method of grouping. I think you'll find this far more useable. Instead of putting everything in a hierarchy, I just gave certain groups of keys/inputs/outputs a tag. This way, more complex groupings can be done, and the rest are far easier. I've only converted the groupings I had and have yet to really go through to find all the useful groups to make.

[let me be clear what I mean by 'group': many entities share many different keys and i/o, but rarely all; by tagging a group of keys and i/o, I can give an entity that tag to indicate you must look up the tag to see the rest of that entites properties]

Oy, this must have taken 20 over this weekend and last night, so I hope you like it.

 

[Mr Neutron]

Current status:

I'm indexing the entities by type. Unfortunately, the first word in an entity's name doesn't always reflect what they really do. For example, logic_measure_movement can't be used in a purely logical way because the result of its opperation is always the movement of a target entity (in other words, the distance can't be passed on to be redirected for some other purpose), so it really should be grouped with those entities which make things move.

Once the use groupings are clear, I can focus on one group to start experimenting with and really documenting.

 

[Wilco]

Even better host it on hl2modcentral. which is more focused on this kind of thing. I think you speak to Majestic about that .

 

[Mr Neutron]

I've gone through now and added in the spawnflags (another tedious task). I'm back to sorting things by function now. The next, release around Tuesday, will begin to explain the entities having to do with logic. Also, it will have some general explanation of entities and the .vmf file format.


BTW, anyone understand why there are spawnflags at all? I see that it's a more processor efficient way of implimenting boolean properties, but why then are some boolean properties implimented as keys? And does the Hammer interface not include flags in its SmartEdit mode for a good reason?

 

[Mr Neutron]

Well, I've spent most of the last four days fixing my busted computer [turns out that the AMD heatsink/fan included with their retail chips is NOT adequate for cooling and athlon64 3000; so I had to get a new chip; at least by using their hs/fan, I'm still under warrenty]. I hope to get a new version in this weekend before I start focusing on my submission for the contest.

 

[Mr Neutron]

New version. Copy this link, but with the modification. Can't imagine why that domain is filtered out.

mc-gaming-clan._ripod.com/entities.rar (replace _ with t)

 

[Mr Neutron]

Here's my first real original contribution, text- and information- wise (though a few I barely edited from Valve's explanation). This is just the 13 logic_ entities, but it's a start. Where ever I wasn't sure of something, I put a remark [?? like this ??]. With your help, I'll fill in those holes.

Coming next...the 13 point_ entities.

 

[Mr Neutron]

Major update. Find it here:

http://hl2modcentral.com/tutorial.php?id=33&cat=0

 

[Mr Neutron]

phys_lengthconstraint demo map

For some of the more complex entities, I'm finding mere words tend to produce difficult to follow explanations. For some entities, a few pictures help, but for a number of these, I might as well make a demo map that explains things a lot more fully. The sdk_* maps Valve included are nice (helped me when I was absolutely baffled in a few instances), but not very complete explanations. Therefore, I've started making my own, starting with the phys entities. These will be .vmf files to reduce file size and allow you to load them up in Hammer yourself, but that means you have to build them yourselves. I've added a number of extra entities and triggers to display text and such in the map, but these will just clutter up your view and confuse you in Hammer unless you hide those viewgroups. So, I suggest you build the maps and run them first; only poke around in Hammer if things still aren't clear.

So here's the first one I've completed. Leave feedback here, please.

 

[Mr Neutron]

PHYS_HINGE demo map

Here's another one, this one for phys_hinge. (I'll post 'em one by one, then package them together when I'm done with all the physics entities.)

 

[Deleter]

hey, just wanted to say i was looking for this exact thing b4. thx a ton. this ought to help with all those entities :rolling:

 

[Mr Neutron]

more

Here's env_physexplosion, env_physimpact, and phys_ballsocket:

 

[agentagent]

It is a excellent piece of work but you should make it more interactive and upload it on the net so that others can view and download it.

 

[Brussells]

Is it me or does the link not work? I just get a listing of ads for other websites and some college girl picture!??