omfg Gabe stole my grass?!?!

Dunno how many of you remember, but a couple years ago I was tinkering around with ways of making 'grass' (similar to UT2k3) in Half-Life. The way I came up with was to use a bunch of fixed-axis sprites. While I did make a couple demo maps, due to HL1's entity limitations and trouble finding textures I never got it working to satisfaction.

Enter Half-Life 2. Have you looked at the grass when you walk through it? Most of it is clearly just a bunch of fixed-axis sprites!

I'm not really saying Gabe stole my idea. I'm just saying I'm gosh-darned brilliant. That's all! :biggrin:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Jinx</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
I'm not really saying Gabe stole my idea. I'm just saying I'm gosh-darned brilliant. That's all! :biggrin:

</DIV></DIV>

just goes to show you, great minds do think alike.... and so apparently, does yours.
/runs

i would go after him and force him to mow your grass!

Quick! Steal it back!

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting fraggard</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Quick! Steal it back!</DIV></DIV>

my luck, steam would have some way of knowing and i'd lose my account..
somehow losing it over a grass sprite would be just to expensive

They are also doing the grass thing in Unreal 3. Go to the Unreal 3 engine website and look at the pic of the outdoor area with all the grass. You can see that it is a bunch of sprites. Clever idea Jinx.

I can remember this trick from Tomb Raider. Number 1 actually... :biggrin:

Nevertheless an effective method.

Yea I was going to say, they've been doing this for years....

Nothing new about it. Actually, I'm not sure how else you WOULD do grass. You'd be smokin' CRACK if you tried making it 3d :wink:

dont worry, we still love u for your fog (well i do atleast :razz: )

Sue him so you can get a cut of all the money they're making with hl2.

I've seen the same grass-sprite concept in many other hl1 mods ("they hunger" , for example). Guess " brilliant minds think alike " :smile: .

Spartan 34 said:
They are also doing the grass thing in Unreal 3. Go to the Unreal 3 engine website and look at the pic of the outdoor area with all the grass. You can see that it is a bunch of sprites. Clever idea Jinx.

That, and most unreal foliage, isn't actually a sprite, but double-sided polys on a model. I imagine the HL2 stuff is actually a model as well rather than icky sprites. :smile: And people have been doing the flat polys on models for grass/trees/foliage/shrubberies about as long as we've had alpha channels available in textures. :smile:

Did you invent that Jinx, eh? EH? EH?????? :biggrin:

Sorry, just had to rain on your parade. Except... ooh, sorry, that's not rain. :wink: bwuahahaha...

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting KungFuSquirrel</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Spartan 34</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>They are also doing the grass thing in Unreal 3. Go to the Unreal 3 engine website and look at the pic of the outdoor area with all the grass. You can see that it is a bunch of sprites. Clever idea Jinx.</DIV></DIV>

That, and most unreal foliage, isn't actually a sprite, but double-sided polys on a model. I imagine the HL2 stuff is actually a model as well rather than icky sprites. :smile: And people have been doing the flat polys on models for grass/trees/foliage/shrubberies about as long as we've had alpha channels available in textures. :smile:

Did you invent that Jinx, eh? EH? EH?????? :biggrin:

Sorry, just had to rain on your parade. Except... ooh, sorry, that's not rain. :wink: bwuahahaha... </DIV></DIV>
Jez you knwo so much! double sided plys? Alpha channels!!!?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting KungFuSquirrel</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetitle>
Sorry, just had to rain on your parade. Except... ooh, sorry, that's not rain. :wink: bwuahahaha... </DIV></DIV>
eewww, tree rat pee.. yucky.

from what i made of some stuff i read, the grass is some sort of prop mesh that you can tie to a texture, with properties for how much of it will be generated, how randomly, what size etc. i think there are other meshes that work the same for rocks, and other types of terrain.

Sorry, just had to rain on your parade. Except... ooh, sorry, that's not rain. :wink: bwuahahaha...

... :eek: I don't want to know.

from what i made of some stuff i read, the grass is some sort
of prop mesh that you can tie to a texture, with properties for how
much of it will be generated, how randomly, what size etc. i think
there are other meshes that work the same for rocks, and other types of
terrain.

Procedurally placed stuff, yeah. Heard about that too.

As for sprites or models, aren't sprites just two triangular polygons too? On engine levels?

Yeah, well, I suggested they make OP4 into a free DM mod. Look how well that worked :razz:

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Leperous</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Yeah, well, I suggested they make OP4 into a free DM mod. Look how well that worked :razz: </DIV></DIV>

i'll tell'ya what, if another mod comes along thats as good as OP4 is, i am doing everything i can to not let it fizzle out.

i loved OP4, but couldn't get anyone to frag it, or map for it either :sad:

If only you were a Eurpean - me and Lep used to play OP4CTF
religiously, quite frankly because it was the greatest DM/Team game on
earth :biggrin: Nothing comes close to unscoped rifle kills and barnacle
gymnastics, not at all :smile:

And those dodgy ass pickups. Classic game.

I await OP4CTF:S eagerly ( :wink: ! )

I am so going to buy one of these shirts someday... err, crap, their store isn't loading. Anyway, they have a Gearbox shirt in their company store that has the Op4 powerups across the front. Pretty neat :smile:

God, Op4CTF was great. I miss playing that. That was the last game I really played online, save for NS playtesting. Otherwise I generally stick with single player, LAN play, or bots.

Oddly enough, for having no one playing it, my Op4CTF maps are among the most downloaded from my site. Ranges from Tortuosity with 244 to Gauntlet at 340. And whoa, my download counters have skyrocketed... guess I haven't looked in a while. :smile:

I get at least 50 or so downloads of Battleschool every week from my own website. I'm not sure who is playing it, but I'm glad someone is still downloading my stuff lol.

Yeah, I'm sure the grass in HL2 isn't actually individual sprites; it's probably sprites bound in a model, or generated as terrain detail like in UT2k4.

I think the hl2 grass works because they keep it very small. If you tried doing larger foliage like they have in Serious Sam or some UT2k4 maps like that, the rotation would become noticable and it would look horrendously bad.

KFS: please make Quake IV not suck. Doom 3 is a beautiful game engine, and I'd love someone to make a game for it, rather than a boring $50 tech demo rolls eyes

Day of Defeat has had bundles of model grass (basically the same idea) for a looong time.

Yeah, well, I suggested they make OP4 into a free DM mod. Look how well that worked :razz:

rofl, i had opfor anyway, and look at it now! totally free :biggrin: