Models.. Like the Skeleton

How do you use models in maps? how are they placed?

Id like to add a couple skeletons to a grave area I am making.. and a stack of skulls ( if I can find a model ) with a Texture to match behind it.

($)

This should be in "Editing".

In multiplayer maps, the env_cycler is probably the most commonly used entity for this job. It's not without its problems though - normal cyclers (not my special gmdm2 ones :biggrin: ) will bleed black/yellow blood when shot, and advance a sequence/frame in animation. Using a cycler switches it between single-frame advance and normal animation.

Monster_generic or monster_furniture might also do the job.

I dont want it to move.. I just want it to lie there and look pretty.. I map for CS, not HL.

I am going to make little boxes in the wall where the Skeletons can lie and be seen from flickering candle light.

($)

I think the most reliable way is still to use a cycler. If the model doesn't HAVE any animation sequences then the effect will be more convincing. Also, if you keep them out of the reach of players, you can stop any of the bugs that I mentioned.

All you need to do is use an env_sprite. Set the sprite name to the model you want (e.g. models/skeleton.mdl), and it should work. The model will be located such that the center of it's base is at the center of the sprite entity, so if you want a skeleton on the floor, the sprite entity needs to be half in the floor. You will also need to place a clip brush over the model as it will not be solid in the game (you will have to tweak the size of the clip brush to get it right). I think this method even shows animations but I'm not sure about that.

Ack, ignore me - I've been messing around with cyclers for too long :wink: Jeff has the answer.

any time i've tried to set a sprites name to a model, hammer crashes on me. maybe it just doesn't work in tfc.

thanks for the help guys..the skeletons are going to go in a map that I am working on..Money comes up with the ideas and I make it happen

Reign

Reign said:
thanks for the help guys..the skeletons are going to go in a map that I am working on..Money comes up with the ideas and I make it happen

Reign

giggles

the sexual inuendo was up in "general" you shouldnt bring it down to "editing" :dodgy:

scary_jeff said:
All you need to do is use an env_sprite. Set the sprite name to the model you want (e.g. models/skeleton.mdl), and it should work. The model will be located such that the center of it's base is at the center of the sprite entity, so if you want a skeleton on the floor, the sprite entity needs to be half in the floor. You will also need to place a clip brush over the model as it will not be solid in the game (you will have to tweak the size of the clip brush to get it right). I think this method even shows animations but I'm not sure about that.

I think it's actually the origin of the model that gets put on the point of the env_sprite, which just so happens to be the middle of the base quite often, but there's a few oddballs where that's not the case.

Also, and I could be wrong, but I believe the point of the sprite entity must be visible for the model to show, so if it's in a floor, you're going to want to entity the floor around that area or something so that it doesn't block vis from seeing the point.

...

env_sprites can load models?

Learn something new every day. That's only the coolest feature I've heard of in a while.

Almost anything that calls for a sprite can load a model. The one other major use of model over sprite is if you're setting a laser endsprite.

Orpheus said:

Reign said:
thanks for the help guys..the skeletons are going to go in a map that I am working on..Money comes up with the ideas and I make it happen

Reign

giggles

the sexual inuendo was up in "general" you shouldnt bring it down to "editing" :dodgy:

there was no sexual inuendo mentioned here not that I can think of..

I would post some screens of my map but I don't know how..I think this is the wrong section for that anyways.

giggle

Reign said:

Orpheus said:

Reign said:
thanks for the help guys..the skeletons are going to go in a map that I am working on..Money [color=gold]comes up with the ideas and I make it happen[/color]

Reign

giggles

the sexual inuendo was up in "general" you shouldnt bring it down to "editing" :dodgy:

there was no sexual inuendo mentioned here not that I can think of..

I would post some screens of my map but I don't know how..I think this is the wrong section for that anyways.

giggle

no, no inuendo at all :smile:

if money has a pit, use his and just post the link under your name.. easy enuff.

Why not use an item_generic?

FIDDLER said:
Why not use an item_generic?

explain please..

There's no such thing as an item_generic. I think Fiddler intends the monster_generic entity.

Perhaps that's only in the OP4 cfg?

@PointClass base(Weapon, Targetx) = item_generic : "Generic scenery item"

[

model(studio) : "Model" : "models/egg.mdl"

sequencename(string) : "Sequence Name" : "idle"

skin(integer) : "Skin" : 0

body(integer) : "Body" : 0

With an item_generic you can place any model into the map without having any problems. Most models (i.e. a trash can, light pole) simply leave at idle. If you want to place a scientist that doesn't react to the environment then you would have him as idle etc. You can even place them in thier other positions (i.e. dead on table etc.).

FIDDLER said:
[size=13]
@PointClass base(Weapon, Targetx) = item_generic : "Generic scenery item"

[

model(studio) : "Model" : "models/egg.mdl"

sequencename(string) : "Sequence Name" : "idle"

skin(integer) : "Skin" : 0

body(integer) : "Body" : 0

With an item_generic you can place any model into the map without having any problems. Most models (i.e. a trash can, light pole) simply leave at idle. If you want to place a scientist that doesn't react to the environment then you would have him as idle etc. You can even place them in thier other positions (i.e. dead on table etc.).

[/size]

...Where did you get that from?

item_generic is, as you guessed, op4 only.

Add that to your Half Life cfg and see if it works :razz: .

Why on earth would you want to do that

You can't place entries at random into the FGD :razz: . The game won't identify them, primarily because there's no corresponding class created for the entity in the game itself.

Like Gollum said, you might not want to do that :smile:

not to sound like a newbie but what is OP4 and FGD and what the heck are yall talking about?

I'm so confused.

reign

"Op4" is "Opposing Forces", a single- and multi-player modification for Half-Life made by Gearbox Software. Basically, it has a new storyline and some different weapons.

An FGD is a game data file (heh, I always felt it should be GDF). It tells Hammer what entities it can make, and what their properties are. It doesn't do anything else - it won't create new types of entities for you, only make Hammer aware that they exist.

To add on what you stated about Opposing Force...

It has ALL of the original Half Life weapons + 9 additional weapons. Multiplayer is the same as HLDM except OP4 has those additional weapons and maps created by Gearbox as "core" maps. OP4 also has all the "core" HLDM maps with the new weapons layed about. The long jump is still in the game.

Then there is CTF which currently doesn't run under the Steam platform :sad: .

I wonder why HLDM is still more played that OP4??? All of the OP4 servers even have the bunnyhop plugin installed. Things that make you go HMMM...

More <SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol">[color=white]? [size=13]better [/color][/size]</SPAN>

Entities are defined by the game, not by the FGD- it's like making up a 'whatchamacallitmeter' and putting it on your car's dashboard, if it's not plugged into something existing in the engine/whatever then it won't work!

<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->OK, I found this by searching the forums, im trying to place in a model in a map, so i put in the env_sprite, and changed the sprite to winebottle.mdl, i clicky on the 'x' in the corner and hammer crashes!
can anyone help me, am i not using the right point entity.
i am using VHE 3.4 with the fgd's that come with it.

$loth said:
<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->i am using VHE 3.4 with the fgd's that come with it.

That might be your problem there, get the "newer" fgds.

Very, Very nice $loth. A thread from November.

It's alright, he's asking about the same thing in this thread. But yes, the .fgd files and tools included with Hammer are very, very old. (DoD 2.0b anyone?) Get newer ones.

<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->[quote]
That might be your problem there, get the "newer" fgds.
[/quote]

it worked!!!! it worked!!!! thanx omega slayer, and yes vash, a thred from november :biggrin: [ I use the search function :razz: ]

<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->

sloth, if your map is for TFC, then that's why the sprite is crashing hammer when you give it a path to a .mdl

if so, then this thread may help.

<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->Nope fishy, its for HLDM for the comp, I have a clever idea but it won't be in 100% support of people, because i will be using normal hl models like barney! and the chicken from cs.

<!-- ZoneLabs Popup Blocking Insertion -->OK, so i downloaded and put in some tree models, yet when its compiled it has 'blue stuff' [thats the best way i could describe it] around it, i made it using the 'cycler' entity, should i of used the cycler_sprite?

Vash said:
Very, Very nice $loth. A thread from November.

LOL, and what else would you expect, with a search option that supposed to scan the whole database..

you guys.. without you, my diaper budget would be so small

So now that i have got the hang of placing a model into a map, there is still 1 prob which needs tweaking, the blue stuff, i have some tree models and around the leaves are there is blue when i compile, what setting should i have to get rid of this?

the setting to render the blue as transparent is built into the model itself. DoD 1.1 was the first mod to introduce the new feature of transparency in models, by updating the hw.dll and the sw.dll . the steam installation also has the update.

for people without steam or DoD1.1, replacing your existing dll's with the new ones is meant to make the models render correctly, but i couldn't get it to work on my old hl install. :sad: on another thread, Pepper posted this link to the dll's, and i assume (as i dont speak french) how to do it right.

has anyone else had any success at making it work on an old hl install? Myrk maybe? i know you wanted to try.

The problem he is describing is when a texture has been made with blue parts that aren't pure blue due to some kind of filter being applied to the texture after the addition of blue, and results in blue bits round the edges of masked areas. There isn't really a solution to this other than to edit the texture so that it no longer contains any obvious blue bits.

possibly, but i assumed that the tree models $loth downloaded were from this site, which dont suffer from that problem :biggrin:

Orpheus said:

Vash said:
Very, Very nice $loth. A thread from November.

LOL, and what else would you expect, with a search option that supposed to scan the whole database..

you guys.. without you, my diaper budget would be so small

I guess we can also Depend on you.

Gorbachev said:

Orpheus said:

Vash said:
Very, Very nice $loth. A thread from November.

LOL, and what else would you expect, with a search option that supposed to scan the whole database..

you guys.. without you, my diaper budget would be so small

I guess we can also Depend on you.

and the crowd groans in 3 part harmony