creating vehicles???

Okay, okay.....I'm a noob to half life editing. There....I said it. Admission is the first step to recovery. However, I learn the absolute best, by doing. But, everytime I try to create a vehicle, I run into a dead end. I have searched high and low for some sort of tutorial, but those are few and far between, and the SDK help files use terms I am not familiar with nor am able to find an explaination of. SOOOO........

If anyone could possibly write a short tutorial on how to create the most base vehicle you can using the generic props_vehicle_driveable entity, I would be forever in your debt. I am fairly familiar with half-life 1 editing, I am no pro, but I can get around, fortunately for me, the first generation had a LOT of documentation by very helpful and knowledgeable people. Understandingly, given the relative newness of the game the documentation just isn't that prevalent, so I must resort for "asking" for help instead of making it on my own. All I need is the base requirements for getting an in game object to allow you to "get in and put around". I can use one of the files in SDK for figuring out wheels and stuff, I just need someone to help me get started.

Thanks

Oh, and btw, is there anyone who is skilled in model building that would be willing to help me? I only have Win98 and apparently XSI will not work on my computer...(No moolah to upgrade :sad: )

Thanks

This is a rather complicated subject...perhaps you'd be better just sticking with the jeep or airboat for now?

This really int the place to be looking for modelers, and thats what
you need to make vehicles, sorry you just can't make a vehicle out of
brushes.

You can't create a brush-based vehicles, which is what i think you want to do. Sorry.

The generic one is for mod makers I'd assume, as it provides the bare bones essentials for making vehicles. As others have stated this is too advanced for you. Just throw in a buggy or airboat entity and be happy with that. If you want to create a brush-based tank you can through the func_tanktrain entity, but it has to follow a certain specified path. That is a bit complicated and I have yet to try it myself, so I can't help you with that.

http://hl2world.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=3320

Heyyyy...nice link. Some of the replies are uh...interesting, too :wink:

Ok Thanks guys, I appreciate the help. The reason I would like to do this is to create a driveable truck that you can place objects on the back of, i.e. the buggy, or one of the delightful shipping containers you can build in game. I thought, as a learning experience and as for a different side of half-life (all these goodies don't always have to include killing folks) I planned to build a life-sized model railroad, so to speak. Create a factory where you can load a shipping container on a truck, and drive the truck to a rail station, load the container on a flatbed, drive the train across country to a port, load it on a ship...etc. Mostly in order for me to learn how to build and plus a neat way to showcase everything that can be done with this engine. As I gain experience I can add more and more content to it. I'm building this just for me at the moment but if anyone finds it interesting and would like to offer help please let me know, I'll make sure you get a copy. (Or if you just want to play it when it's done :smile: )

Supersquid

Its sounds like a very novel, and very interesting, idea. Good luck
with it, be sure to keep your profile updated with progress :smile:

As a small idea for making a truck you can move things with, you could
try making a set of brushes that form a sort of trailer into a physbox,
and then parenting that to your buggy. That way it should move around
with the buggy while you drive it. I haven't played around with any of
this stuff myself so can't give much advice on how to do it, but it a
reasonably simple avenue of research for you to look down.

What ReNo suggests has phys_hinge written all over it, if you're going for the trailer idea...hmm, you know, you might want the ballsocket entity instead so the trailer can sorta bounce as well as move side to side, but I haven't used those yet.

Well I was able to tie the "trailer" to the buggy, I started very simple with only a flat brush to serve as a platform, which dragged along the ground behind the buggy. I'm going to attempt to connect it to some wheels in order to lift it off the ground, but if everything works out ok, I will have found a solution until I can find a way to create a completely new vehicle in the shape of truck, lorry...etc. I also discovered that when using a func_tracktrain with path_track entities, that the supposedly initial path node where the train is supposed to spawn, is incorrect. It will spawn at the next node in the chain after the specified spawn point. It took me a good five minutes to figure that one out. I am able to create a brush based train however, so hopefully with some artistic use of texturing and some neatly crafted brushes, I can create a modern looking freight train. :smile: Thanks for the advice guys and please, keep it coming. Next I have to figure out how to install the hinge device into the cars to give it a more train-like behaviour, I know I saw a tut on it somewhere so I will be doing some research. I also wonder if it is possible to make the cars uncouple and recouple so you can pick and choose.....so many things to discover.... :smile:

Supersquid

As to the last part of that, going through the help files it says once physics constraints are broken, they destroyed and gone. So...no coupling/uncoupling/coupling fun here I guess...

Well thats cool, that just means more trains! :smile: Thanks for saving me the trouble of looking for it.

Ss

IVE GOT YOUR ANSWER bwuhahaha ok ok ok its really cheep but VERY fun and im using DM so i dont kno if it'll work in SP so make a prop_vehicle airboat or jeep and name it now make brushes all around it and morph it into a car then make all those brushes func_physbox and set the parent to the jeep or airboat make sure u can have a door to enter and press e on the boat or jeep

oh another question i cant see jeeps in DM is that because i dont have the model files or everyone has that problem who knows maybe u guys do

Well that's all fine and dandy, but you're 3 years late.

Still news to me, Nice creative approach Zein!

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

LOL 3 years!!! ive dug up some weird forum |:D