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Random map generator
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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by RaPtoR on Mon Feb 14th at 8:57pm 2005

Hi folks!

As some of you may know, i've been working on an application initialy called "random map generator for half life 2".
Well i'm about 90% finished with the coding (i've written about 2000 lines of vb code (...yet)) and 15% finished with the bug-testing. But i have greatly underestimated the third part, and that is, making the rooms. It's not that, that i'm bad at mapping, but i'm bad at making hl2 maps. After iv'e made the first room (took me like 45 min), i had to bugtest it all of the physics, models and special effects that i'd put into it, and it took me all day. I still havn't got everything to work as it should... ...please help me on this one!

If your'e interessted of contributing by making rooms please PM me and i'll send you the standard template for random map levels when i'm done with the coding. After all, i might run in to an unsolvable problem. But everything looks quite bright right now.

When i'm done coding, i'll also give it some nice design. Does anyone have a cool name to suggest like "Scorpion, random map generator" or "HL2 MazeMaker" etc..?


Here's to give you a taste of the current, ultra cool, GUI: ;D



I see you in the world of random maps sooooon....

As before, im sorry for making it look like a dumb ass advertisement from some kind of internet spam crawler.
[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by satchmo on Mon Feb 14th at 9:30pm 2005

As for the name suggestion, what if you call it "The Other Half"?
[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by ieatmonkeychow on Mon Feb 14th at 9:41pm 2005

So what this does is takes different rooms and makes a level? Very interesting.

BTW, is this HL2 SP or HL2 DM? I think it would be crazy for a server to use this and have random DM maps every level change. It'll be a new adventure everytime.





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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by Bobv on Mon Feb 14th at 9:54pm 2005

is there any way this could be incorporated into a mod or a level? this thing by it self IMHO isnt very much, but if you had a multiplayer mod (preferably coop) where you are never familiar with the level beacuse it's generated each time, that would be very cool.




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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by RaPtoR on Mon Feb 14th at 10:28pm 2005

? quote:
is there any way this could be incorporated into a mod or a level? this thing by it self IMHO isnt very much, but if you had a multiplayer mod (preferably coop) where you are never familiar with the level beacuse it's generated each time, that would be very cool.


Yes, thats a great idea! Even though my original idea was to use it for SP. You could set up a serwer witch get fead by new maps all the time!

? quote:
As for the name suggestion, what if you call it "The Other Half"?
Hmm.. i like it!
[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by fishy on Mon Feb 14th at 10:47pm 2005

if it didn't involve downloading a new map on every mapchange, that would be amazing.

[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by Leperous on Tue Feb 15th at 12:05am 2005

Making some kind of voting system (or simply a tally of kills etc.) and a 'genetic code' to refine the generated maps could be a cool experiment too, if you were into that sort of thing.



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by xconspirisist on Tue Feb 15th at 12:34am 2005

I dont think this could be done seriously - people would be quite pissed downloading new maps on every map change, maps that would never be playied again...

You could send the random seed to the client, to compile, but again, you'll have people with slower pc's compiling this map before playing and stuff. Lot of inherrent problems.




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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by ieatmonkeychow on Tue Feb 15th at 12:41am 2005

I see my idea is liked.

I wouldnt mine downloading maps everytime, as long as it was something fun to do.

As for a voting idea. Maybe they could vote for the layout or tuff-ness of the map. I think it would be a really cool idea. I would play it.





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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by Bobv on Tue Feb 15th at 12:48am 2005

these maps arent too complicanted, so file size shouldnt be that big - and server can create, compile, and quene up maps while people are playing to have some ready ?





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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by Zevensoft on Tue Feb 15th at 6:03am 2005

Try and get the HL2 BSP format off of valve and see if you can assemble pre-compiled pieces instead

Also why aren't HL2 BSP's compressed? It would seem the logical thing to do, ie. save space by loading the compressed bsp into memory, and then decompressing into the data structures. Maybe its faster loading uncompressed, but the difference in speed would be tiny compared to the space saving.




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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by Forceflow on Tue Feb 15th at 7:07am 2005

? quote:
these maps arent too complicanted, so file size shouldnt be that big - and server can create, compile, and quene up maps while people are playing to have some ready ?



If server and client have the same generator version, and start with the same parameters, they should produce the same maps, no ?

No downloading involved.

You mentioned everything looks quite bright --> Leakage !
[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by RaPtoR on Tue Feb 15th at 8:22am 2005

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas guys! But downloading the maps "should" take way shorter time than compiling them. And it requires some loads of CPU too. Maybe that would work when HL3 commes out and everybody is running 100000 TH optical computers .

Now i have another idea.
With some kind of mod-modification, maybe you could dowload the map from an internet server instead of the game server. I reckon that the download speeds would increase with like 1000% since you normaly get like 3 kb/s - 5 kb/s when downloading from a server. Any ideas on how this could be done?
[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by xconspirisist on Tue Feb 15th at 9:15am 2005

I believe an experienced mod coder could modify the bandwidth given to map downloaders, in hl1 is was quite sufficent. I would definatly jump on this bandwaggon if I had hl2.




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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by fraggard on Tue Feb 15th at 9:20am 2005

I believe Steam has a setting that allows you to specify a map download URL. If the entry exists it will serve the download from there, otherwise the standard trickle download continues. If someone can confirm this, then I think this may be what you are looking for.




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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by fishy on Tue Feb 15th at 3:54pm 2005

i've read the same as fraggard. you dont need to dl from the game server. [addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by KingNic on Tue Feb 15th at 4:31pm 2005

http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?news=1078093753-84291500

It was activated in Half-Life but I dunno if it's in Half-Life 2.

[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by RaPtoR on Tue Feb 15th at 10:31pm 2005

WOW! Thanks for that fantastic link KingNic! Just checked, that cvar is implemented into HL2 SP as well (sv_downloadurl)!!! That means that anybody could set up a server, using maps from a fast internet distributer!!!

In other news: ( ) I made some amazing progress today, completing a function, allowing the rooms to be rotated in place! No need for 16 roomtypes now, but just 4!!! ( - | T + )
[addsig]



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 Re: Random map generator
Posted by ieatmonkeychow on Sat Feb 19th at 1:24am 2005

Sounds cool. Im really looking forward to it.

[addsig]




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