New to creating mods.

I've got to go to work now, but since the weather is so crappy (about 5 degree farenheight, 50mph winds and sleet) I might get home early. I'll try then.
 
So close, yet so far. Here is what I did. I renamed the lod files to match what was in the qc file; I inserted my idle.smd (the pose); I copied the info from the suit qc file and put it in the one with the police; I recompiled it.

The good news: it doesn't say 'error' anymore.

The bad news: it looks like it can't find the combine texture.

Here's a screenie.

It does this in both Hammer and in play.

Heh, if I ever need a jester outfit, I know how to get one.

Anyone have an idea why it is doing this? Maybe not a solution, but what does it mean?
 
Is the model still in the same place as the original ?
Otherwise any paths linking to the texture would be wrong then.
 
Yeah, you might need to check the original .smd and .qc. files to check if it's still looking at the texture.

Could you open your .qc and your reference.smd in text editor?

You're almost there. And I'll be sending you the compiled code you wanted this evening - I've finally got the oppertunity.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Hmm. I opened up the modified suit's file (the combine-ified one that doesn't work) and I found something interesting I didn't catch when I copy-pasted it. Here, I'll post a screenie.

It says that the material it's looking for (this is what I understood from it) is called hevsuit and it's under the models folder. So I went to the police qc file and it didn't have a $cdmaterials line. So now I'm stuck again.

I tried deleting that line to just use the reference file and recompilied the model, but nothing happened. That may mean that it needs a material file, but since it can't find one, it's like the line wasn't there (which is why it was the same when I deleted the line).

Since I can't find any mention of the cdmaterials line, I don't know what type of file it is, and since the name is hevsuit, a search would turn up a few dozen results.

Anyone have ideas?
-Archvilell

EDIT: Oh, I looked at the .smd file in a text editor and it appears to be looking for metrocop files. When it's opened up, there is about a million meaningless numbers (well, meaningless to me anyway), but metrocop_sheet is mentioned about 40 times throughout it, so I assume that it is the correct reference.smd file.
 
Ahh, that could be the problem. 'cdmaterials' is a folder, rather than a file. Look for where the Police.mdl's textures are stored, and point it there, or something.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Okay, I'll give that a shot. Right now I have about four subjects of homework, and it's 9pm. School is at 8:10am tomorrow. :( I hate school. Wastes mod-time.
 
Okay, I found the Police materials under source materials.gcf , extracted the police_sheet.vmf and police_sheet.vtf. Then I renamed them to hevsuit_sheet.vmf and .vtf. From there I don't know where to put them. Here is the line from the decompiler.

$cdmaterials "models\hevsuit/"

So I found the materials folder in my mods folder and stuck them in there. Nothing. So I put them in the models folder I created. Nothing. Then i tried putting them with the HEV .mdl file. Nothing. Then after a few minutes I had the brainstorm that maybe materials "models\hevsuit/" was the folder that it was loking for. So I created an hevsuit folder and put the materials in there. Nothing still. Now I'm still stuck.

What I know:
The physical shape of the suit works. I can pick out the gas mask face and the fact that it has a head tell me that it is trying to load my new pose and model.

The motley texture probably means that it can't find the textures to put on stuff (this happens when my computer runs out of memory, disk cahces to the point of detonation and crashes, losing all the files to everything).

The .qc file implies it is looking for materials.

I found the police materials in a gcf file under my user name.

Trying to stick the police files (I renamed them) in semi-random areas to no avail.
 
The trick is not trying to create textures, and put them where it's searching, but for it to search in the right place.

Of course, it could just be an smd problem, but I'm willing to look past that right now.

Inside the GCF file, what was the folder that the police textures were stored in? That's whats gotta go in the qc file - the location of the original textures of the metrocop, not anything else.

If all else fails, I'll take a look at the smd for you.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Gah! I went backwards lol. I changed the qc file to look for the materiasl in the police folder, but somehow it found the shpae of the original HEVsuit (the texture was still wrong). So I changed it back and it found the texture files! I have no idea what I did. I think I'm going to start over. The jumbled up mess I created is too much to sort through. I'm going to keep the smd file I created and then delete everything else. Then retry.

Heh, once I get this finally done (because it will happen. I'm not going to stop), I will know how to do it by heart.
 
Exactly. Which makes you better than a large number of modders.

Let me know how it goes.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Okay. I fixed my suit back to where I was with the purple and black colors and Combine shape. Hmm. The hevsuit textures are in the source materials.qcf in hl2\materials\models\hevsuit. I think they are the textures, anyway. The files are hevsuit_sheet.vtf and hevsuit_sheet.vmt.

If they are the textures, then that would explain the .qc file line

$cdmaterials "models\hevsuit/"

but it wouldn't explain why Hammer is not even trying to apply them. However, I editted the qc file to

$cdmaterials "models"

because I was temporarily braindead and was thinking of a different file. So it doesn't work. But here lies my question now. If it is looking for that file in the source materials.gcf, how would I edit that? It is under my username folder, which implies it is used by all games, hl2 and my mod. If I edit that, then wouldn't it change for all my games? Or is there some way I can make the program look for the new gcf in my mod folder so i can have it editted for my mod but now HL2?

My theory is that if I take the police .vtf and .vmt and rename it to hevsuit_sheet.vft and .vmt files, it will apply the Combine textures thinking they are the original hevsuit textures.

On the other hand, the new suit can't even find the old hevsuit textures (thats why its not displayed), so merely changing the textures in the gcf won't help. In which case I will somehow have to tell it where to find the textures.

This makes sense to me, but if it is too garbled with half-thoughts, ill try to re-write it if anyone reading this needs help. Heh, I get some ideas while I type, so I include them, then it only half makes sense to anyone else reading it. Sorry *shrugs*. Heh heh heh. Guess I'm weird that way.
 
The new suit, as it's using the original Metrocop's reference.smd, will be looking for the police.vmt.

$cdmaterials "models\hevsuit/"

should read

$cdmaterials "models\police/"

or something similar. If that doesn't work, then post the reference.smd (as a text file), and I'll have a look at that.

-Angry Lawyer
 
SUCCESS!!

Woohoo! It finally works. In-game and in Hammer.

Thanks Angry Lawyer, Griever, and others who posted.
 
*Folds his arms, leans back slightly, and lets the wind whip through his hair and suit in a heroic manner* Another problem solved.

Congratulations, mate. Now, you can make a tutorial about it, and give back to the community :)

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
*Folds his arms, leans back slightly, and lets the wind whip through his hair and suit in a heroic manner* Another problem solved.

Congratulations, mate. Now, you can make a tutorial about it, and give back to the community :)

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

Good call, AL. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who had to figure out this mess.

Wow, this is too cool. The HUD is blue, the stunstick works, and the Combine HEV is actually a Combine. Thanks for the persistant help, AL.
 
Absolutly. However, I have only the first map made, and I need to alter it a bit to account for the abrupt change in storyline. And since I'm a one man mod, it will take awhile. But, once I figure out scripted sequences and get the intro made, it should go fairly quickly. So by all means, you can play it.

It's people like you that make my work worthwhile. :D
 
Well i'm happy you got your stuff working, it sounds awesome. I had a mod idea around similar to yours but since i can't even understand the HL2 code i never started (i think i'm just too stupuid) Anyways i'll be shure to play your mod when it comes out.
 
Now you know how to make models, you could try modelling some weapons, and I'll teach you how to code them.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Actually, modeling weapons was in the plan. I want to make some sort of Combine sniper rifle and an AR15 style rifle (because the SMG sucks the Combine AR eats ammo like that's its job).

I planned on using the Maya PLE to make the models. The only problem with the PLE is it leaves a giant watermark on all rendered things. Does a weapon model get rendered by HL2 or Maya? Meaning, if HL2 uses just the information and not a rendered image, then it will work. However, if it wants rendered images of the weapon, then I'll have to get some other 3D creator.

Right now, my focus is on getting a Combine to sit down and type, then alter my map so it fits my Adrian Shephard storyline. I suppose I could get working on making a gun model then. I'm not sure what the best way to go about incorporating a storyline into a map is. Do you suppose it's better go through level by level completely, making all the scripts, voices, etc. or is it better to make all the maps then incorporate the story all at once?
 
I'd say level by level, then if you decide to change something in the story you dont have to re do everything.
 
That's what I was leaning toward as well, just for that reason. Building basic levels really isn't that hard, just time consuming (which is good, cause it's fun :) ).

I'm glad that I already have a few fans; my only concern for you guys is that I won't be able to get it out to you for a long time (I've been working on it a little less than a month and haven't got the first level done yet; however, it's close). But I've also been learning for the past month, so once I know how to do more stuff, it should go faster.

-Archvilell
 
HL2 renders the models made by Maya. There should be no watermark in game, although you'll probably need to import it into Milkshape before compiling.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Well i've made mods (small ones) for a few less complicated game series (C&C, Homeworld and Battlefield) and never really got anywhere fast, so i'm kinda used to waiting. On the other hand i cant model or texture, just can't seem to get it to work, maby it's just the programs, maby it's just me. Ok, now i gotta shut up. what i wanted to say is i dont mind waiting, the exitement is fun too :)
 
Well, I'll let you know when it's done Orineas. Patience may be a virtue, but everything is better right now. Except bad stuff like death and illness, but who thinks negetively?

Alrighty AL, then it's off to work I go. I'm adding a few rooms to the first level then get working on guns. New stuff is always fun to play with, and new guns should be even better.
 
Done tweaking my first map. I think it looks pretty cool. Too bad there aren't any scripted sequences or anything. But I couldn't do much anyway. I don't have a microphone to make the voices (yeah, I'm doing most of the voices too) so I can't start doing any of the plot yet.

Anyway. I'm going to start working with Maya now. I have a semi-simple design, but it has been awhile since I last used it.

-Archvilell
 
u wanna modell ur own stuff huh?
If u want to do that:
go to www.torrent.com
and download "bitlord".

maya is a professional modeling tool for making models.
(it can be a little hard to use though)
If u find it har there are plenty of tuts for it on the internet.
...
But :S i unno how to add binary files to mods SO hmm that could be a problem... ...hmm, try ask the admins here :D theyll work it out forya ;)

np m8 ;)
 
Here's a hint. If you want to stay on this site, don't give outlinks to warez or even suggest that people acquire it.
 
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