Developer Journals
Displaying entries 1 through 12 of 12
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2008-07-17 00:09 PDT
I recently remade this old TFC flash video for FF...
http://images.trepid.net/just_a_game_ff.html
ff_2fort is being made by shadow, and I think it's turning out great
On a side note, I like to make werewolf movies.
http://images.trepid.net/just_a_game_ff.html
ff_2fort is being made by shadow, and I think it's turning out great
On a side note, I like to make werewolf movies.
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2008-06-29 06:05 PDT
You're craz-you're crazy, man. You're crazy! I like you...but you're crazy.
Last week, I started converting FF's source code to the Orange Box code. It was an insane task, to say the least. First of all, nobody else wanted to do it. I mean, everyone wants FF to use the latest version of Source, but nobody wanted to do this psychotic conversion that Valve has forced on all the old mods. Granted, a mod would have an easy integration if it didn't modify any base files, using nothing but brand new files specifically created for that particular mod. FF's not like that, though. Yeah, FF's code uses a lot of unique files, but we also did a lot of base modifications. Luckily most of those modifications were commented well, and now even more of that is better commented and separated from the base stuff.
1 week, thousands of differing files, and hundreds of compile errors later, FF can now be played with the Orange Box engine. OOOoooOOOhhh!!! There are quite a few bugs to work out, however, so 2.1 won't be using this code unless we fix all the major bugs within a couple weeks.
After getting past the initial problems of FF crashing immediately upon startup, during map load, and lots of other similar spots, I finally got into the game...but I couldn't pick a team or class, and therefore couldn't spawn. I could go into thirdperson, though...
Wow, right? That's so Orange Box.
The first thing I noticed was this...THING...on the left. Said something about "Server" blah blah, like I cared. I later confirmed it's the chat window. Well, part of it. It's this little spot/coffin where all the received chat messages go to hang out forever. It's basically the worst thing imaginable.
Anyways, I couldn't move or look around in firstperson, but I could look around in thirdperson (as a side note, Valve greatly improved thirdperson mode with a moving camera that has collision, among other cool things). So once I could move the camera around, the next thing I noticed was that awesome Orange Box motion blur effect...
This is called a town. It's where everyone hates you and makes fun of you.
The problem with picking a team and class had to do with the way the new code handles console commands. FF has a special way of making some console commands, and most of the console commands use this special method (team, class, +gren1, dispenser, cloak, etc...pretty much everything you do in FF that's directly related to FF). Long story short, I fixed that crap and some other crap dealing with different crap and was then able to look, run, shoot, and do all that other minor stuff FF needs to be considered a game.
WARNING: if you don't like motion blur, you'll hate every single one of these screenshots, because I was literally shaking the mouse to make all of them blurry, haha...
In the Orange Box engine, your flashlight casts dynamic shadows off objects.
(including yourself when you're in thirdperson)
In 2.1, hunted's dirt hole is a vent (finally).
Blur slideshow, WOOH!
Apparently the flamethrower's particles aren't drawing.
Just another reason to revamp FF's effects using the new particle system.
It will be so nice.
More blurry 2.1 hunted.
Some blurry 2.1 cz2 as well.
I don't know if redux wants this seen yet, but it's blurry...so nobody's really seeing it.
2.1 has swim animations, y'all!
So by having FF use the Orange Box engine, we get motion blur.
The other new things like vgui videos, the new version of Hammer (lighting preview, what?), the new particle system, the material and commentary editors, steam avatars, and so forth...all of them mean nothing in comparison to the greatness that is motion blur.
r.
Last week, I started converting FF's source code to the Orange Box code. It was an insane task, to say the least. First of all, nobody else wanted to do it. I mean, everyone wants FF to use the latest version of Source, but nobody wanted to do this psychotic conversion that Valve has forced on all the old mods. Granted, a mod would have an easy integration if it didn't modify any base files, using nothing but brand new files specifically created for that particular mod. FF's not like that, though. Yeah, FF's code uses a lot of unique files, but we also did a lot of base modifications. Luckily most of those modifications were commented well, and now even more of that is better commented and separated from the base stuff.
1 week, thousands of differing files, and hundreds of compile errors later, FF can now be played with the Orange Box engine. OOOoooOOOhhh!!! There are quite a few bugs to work out, however, so 2.1 won't be using this code unless we fix all the major bugs within a couple weeks.
After getting past the initial problems of FF crashing immediately upon startup, during map load, and lots of other similar spots, I finally got into the game...but I couldn't pick a team or class, and therefore couldn't spawn. I could go into thirdperson, though...
Wow, right? That's so Orange Box.
The first thing I noticed was this...THING...on the left. Said something about "Server" blah blah, like I cared. I later confirmed it's the chat window. Well, part of it. It's this little spot/coffin where all the received chat messages go to hang out forever. It's basically the worst thing imaginable.
Anyways, I couldn't move or look around in firstperson, but I could look around in thirdperson (as a side note, Valve greatly improved thirdperson mode with a moving camera that has collision, among other cool things). So once I could move the camera around, the next thing I noticed was that awesome Orange Box motion blur effect...
This is called a town. It's where everyone hates you and makes fun of you.
The problem with picking a team and class had to do with the way the new code handles console commands. FF has a special way of making some console commands, and most of the console commands use this special method (team, class, +gren1, dispenser, cloak, etc...pretty much everything you do in FF that's directly related to FF). Long story short, I fixed that crap and some other crap dealing with different crap and was then able to look, run, shoot, and do all that other minor stuff FF needs to be considered a game.
In the Orange Box engine, your flashlight casts dynamic shadows off objects.
(including yourself when you're in thirdperson)
In 2.1, hunted's dirt hole is a vent (finally).
Blur slideshow, WOOH!
Apparently the flamethrower's particles aren't drawing.
Just another reason to revamp FF's effects using the new particle system.
It will be so nice.
More blurry 2.1 hunted.
Some blurry 2.1 cz2 as well.
I don't know if redux wants this seen yet, but it's blurry...so nobody's really seeing it.
2.1 has swim animations, y'all!
So by having FF use the Orange Box engine, we get motion blur.
The other new things like vgui videos, the new version of Hammer (lighting preview, what?), the new particle system, the material and commentary editors, steam avatars, and so forth...all of them mean nothing in comparison to the greatness that is motion blur.
r.
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2007-04-28 11:08 PDT
Figured I'd give an update since my replacement parts arrived...
http://trepid.net/ff/images/new_hotness-02.jpg
From 30 fps with the E6400 and 8600GTS to 100 fps with the E6600 and 8800GTS.
So uh...yeah, get those better parts (or higher/better) if you're thinking about upgrading.
Thanks to this upgrade, I can now play FF again without crashing. The whole reason I upgraded was because my computer started to die. I'd be playing FF and eventually (quickly), I'd lock up, run out of memory, or any number of other lame things. It made it real easy to work on FF. And by easy, I mean I wanted to strangle somebody. So before, I was struggling to work on FF while my job was taking up most of my time and my computer was turning into a worthless kid toucher. Now all I have to do is deal with the whole lack of much free time due to my job...thing.
I guess it wouldn't be right if I didn't leak a screenshot...
I don't think that area has been shown before. Jesse recently made that tunnel to replace some semi-lame room or something that used to be there. When he first told me about a tunnel being made, I was worried it might be just as lame as the room or even worse. But I think it looks pretty damn cool. Now all we have to do is add a vehicle and the whole escape area should be done.
Well, nevermind. We still have to do the tower/button stuff. See, the button you see in that screenshot won't be the button used to open the escape door. We may or may not keep that temporary button, but it definitely won't be used to open the escape door in either case. The plan is to have 1 tower on the right side of the door with a button, and the other button over there in or around that red building.
Annnnnywho...
http://trepid.net/ff/images/new_hotness-02.jpg
From 30 fps with the E6400 and 8600GTS to 100 fps with the E6600 and 8800GTS.
So uh...yeah, get those better parts (or higher/better) if you're thinking about upgrading.
Thanks to this upgrade, I can now play FF again without crashing. The whole reason I upgraded was because my computer started to die. I'd be playing FF and eventually (quickly), I'd lock up, run out of memory, or any number of other lame things. It made it real easy to work on FF. And by easy, I mean I wanted to strangle somebody. So before, I was struggling to work on FF while my job was taking up most of my time and my computer was turning into a worthless kid toucher. Now all I have to do is deal with the whole lack of much free time due to my job...thing.
I guess it wouldn't be right if I didn't leak a screenshot...
I don't think that area has been shown before. Jesse recently made that tunnel to replace some semi-lame room or something that used to be there. When he first told me about a tunnel being made, I was worried it might be just as lame as the room or even worse. But I think it looks pretty damn cool. Now all we have to do is add a vehicle and the whole escape area should be done.
Well, nevermind. We still have to do the tower/button stuff. See, the button you see in that screenshot won't be the button used to open the escape door. We may or may not keep that temporary button, but it definitely won't be used to open the escape door in either case. The plan is to have 1 tower on the right side of the door with a button, and the other button over there in or around that red building.
Annnnnywho...
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2007-04-26 04:50 PDT
So I upgraded my motherboard, processor, RAM, video card, and power supply recently...
ASUS P5N-E SLI
Intel Core 2 DuoE6400 E6420 E6600
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 800
XFX 8600 GTS XXX EVGA 8800 GTS
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610
*BEGIN EDIT*
So thanks to some tips from some FF forum folk, I decided to exchange a couple of the parts for better parts without losing much money.
Apparently the E6420 came out in the past week or so, so I worked my magic on a newegg support whore to let me return my E6400 even though it's been a little more than 7 days. So now my CPU will have 4MB L2 cache instead of 2MB. I don't even know what other differences there are, but it's 6420 instead of 6400. The 6400 can go screw.
But then I realized the E6600 came down in price, so I ordered that instead. The E6420 can go screw.
I also decided to return my XFX 8600 GTS XXX for an EVGA 8800 GTS at only $30 more (after a $20 mail-in rebate). So I'll have 320MB of 320-bit memory instead of 256MB of 128-bit memory, slower core/memory speeds, and 90nm instead of 80nm. Some trade-offs, but OH WELL. It's an 8800 instead of 8600 for not much more, but apparently the performance is more than "not much more" and that's all I care about. The 8600 can go screw.
Anyways, onto the old babble about the old parts and the old FF and just sit down...
*END EDIT*
http://trepid.net/ff/images/new_hotness-01.jpg
That's with everything maxed and only getting 30 fps. Haha, while 30 fps is kind of disappointing, I guess it's expected with 16xQ AA and me skimping on the parts to save a few hundred dollars. I mean, why save money? That's just crazy talk. But uh...I still see jagged edges. What the hell, mang? I would think "16xQ" AA at 1600x900 would mean no jagged edges anywhere. Maybe I didn't set something right.
At any rate, FF can look and run faster than my old setup, which is nice. Only FF, though. No other games will run better. I think I may overclock my E6400. I read somewhere that even with the stock cooling, it can go from the default 2.13 GHz to over 3 GHz. I don't know if I want to go that high, though. I get scared sometimes.
I wish I had more time to mess with FF stuff like I used to. But noooo, I had to be selfish and get a job. I try to find time here and there, but it seems like I'm always trying to do something that requires a little more time than I can devote to it...and it seems like I try to do too many things at once instead of just focusing on one thing until that one thing is done. Like uh...I have some AC optimizations started but not complete, glow shell shader and implementation started but not complete, a dynamic lights "manager" started but not complete (including dlights on a lot more things, which is where the "manager" comes into play...which is mainly just an options menu for enabling/disabling dlights for players on fire, rockets, ICs, explosions, muzzle flashes, rails, and so on...dynamic lights are cool, and I want 3 or 4 of them...possibly a little bit more than that, Jim), and what was I babbling about?
Annnnywho, it'll be cool when my computer starts crashing. I like upgrading only to have bad parts.
crinkle crinkle
ASUS P5N-E SLI
Intel Core 2 Duo
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 800
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610
*BEGIN EDIT*
So thanks to some tips from some FF forum folk, I decided to exchange a couple of the parts for better parts without losing much money.
Apparently the E6420 came out in the past week or so, so I worked my magic on a newegg support whore to let me return my E6400 even though it's been a little more than 7 days. So now my CPU will have 4MB L2 cache instead of 2MB. I don't even know what other differences there are, but it's 6420 instead of 6400. The 6400 can go screw.
But then I realized the E6600 came down in price, so I ordered that instead. The E6420 can go screw.
I also decided to return my XFX 8600 GTS XXX for an EVGA 8800 GTS at only $30 more (after a $20 mail-in rebate). So I'll have 320MB of 320-bit memory instead of 256MB of 128-bit memory, slower core/memory speeds, and 90nm instead of 80nm. Some trade-offs, but OH WELL. It's an 8800 instead of 8600 for not much more, but apparently the performance is more than "not much more" and that's all I care about. The 8600 can go screw.
Anyways, onto the old babble about the old parts and the old FF and just sit down...
*END EDIT*
http://trepid.net/ff/images/new_hotness-01.jpg
That's with everything maxed and only getting 30 fps. Haha, while 30 fps is kind of disappointing, I guess it's expected with 16xQ AA and me skimping on the parts to save a few hundred dollars. I mean, why save money? That's just crazy talk. But uh...I still see jagged edges. What the hell, mang? I would think "16xQ" AA at 1600x900 would mean no jagged edges anywhere. Maybe I didn't set something right.
At any rate, FF can look and run faster than my old setup, which is nice. Only FF, though. No other games will run better. I think I may overclock my E6400. I read somewhere that even with the stock cooling, it can go from the default 2.13 GHz to over 3 GHz. I don't know if I want to go that high, though. I get scared sometimes.
I wish I had more time to mess with FF stuff like I used to. But noooo, I had to be selfish and get a job. I try to find time here and there, but it seems like I'm always trying to do something that requires a little more time than I can devote to it...and it seems like I try to do too many things at once instead of just focusing on one thing until that one thing is done. Like uh...I have some AC optimizations started but not complete, glow shell shader and implementation started but not complete, a dynamic lights "manager" started but not complete (including dlights on a lot more things, which is where the "manager" comes into play...which is mainly just an options menu for enabling/disabling dlights for players on fire, rockets, ICs, explosions, muzzle flashes, rails, and so on...dynamic lights are cool, and I want 3 or 4 of them...possibly a little bit more than that, Jim), and what was I babbling about?
Annnnywho, it'll be cool when my computer starts crashing. I like upgrading only to have bad parts.
crinkle crinkle
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2007-01-23 02:46 PDT
Random cz2 screenshot?
So moving on, they're gonna cancel Latin.
Back in July, hunted had its first playtest. Since then, we've playtested hunted lots of times just like all the other maps. Here are some random screenshots from yesterday's playtest...
The screenshots are widescreen because I recently got a BenQ 20" widescreen LCD monitor. It's nice havin' an LCD monitor with a high native resolution like 1680x1050. I still have my old 17" 4:3 LCD monitor as well so I can extend my desktop every now and then, which is really useful when I want a reference picture or two up while I'm mapping.
Speakin' of that July dev journal, I guess I should update you on the portal idea. I had forgotten about that idea until I looked at that dev journal just now, which should give you a hint about what happened to the portal. Might have been cool, but we're just going with a more normal escape area. So yeah, just lettin' you know in case you were wonderin' about the whole escape portal thing.
*EDIT*
So Jesse convinced me to put these others up that I had taken out earlier...
I took them out because the first one really shows the empty road which shouldn't and won't be empty in the end, the second one shows the missing tower in the escape area that should and will be there in the end, and the third one just seemed a bit too random even though I like the look of that room. But then Jesse let me know how I showed even more random and stupid screenshots in that July dev journal. So I put them back in.
Skadaaaaaap!
O&A XM 202
So moving on, they're gonna cancel Latin.
Back in July, hunted had its first playtest. Since then, we've playtested hunted lots of times just like all the other maps. Here are some random screenshots from yesterday's playtest...
The screenshots are widescreen because I recently got a BenQ 20" widescreen LCD monitor. It's nice havin' an LCD monitor with a high native resolution like 1680x1050. I still have my old 17" 4:3 LCD monitor as well so I can extend my desktop every now and then, which is really useful when I want a reference picture or two up while I'm mapping.
Speakin' of that July dev journal, I guess I should update you on the portal idea. I had forgotten about that idea until I looked at that dev journal just now, which should give you a hint about what happened to the portal. Might have been cool, but we're just going with a more normal escape area. So yeah, just lettin' you know in case you were wonderin' about the whole escape portal thing.
*EDIT*
So Jesse convinced me to put these others up that I had taken out earlier...
I took them out because the first one really shows the empty road which shouldn't and won't be empty in the end, the second one shows the missing tower in the escape area that should and will be there in the end, and the third one just seemed a bit too random even though I like the look of that room. But then Jesse let me know how I showed even more random and stupid screenshots in that July dev journal. So I put them back in.
Skadaaaaaap!
O&A XM 202
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2006-07-24 17:44 PDT
Hunted had its first playtest on Sunday. We poppin' cherries off! HAAAAH! Poppin' cherries off! HAAAAH! Poppin' cherries off! HAAAAH! Poppin' cherries off! HAAAAH!
That's gonna be the Ying Yang Twins' next platinum-sellin' single. Just watch. Wait, what happened? I'm over here now.
For the past few weeks, Jesse and I have been on mission of sorts to finally get a playable hunted committed to FF's SVN so we can finally get started with some "real" hunted playtesting. We were tryin' to get the playable hunted committed last week, but we failed. This week, however, we just almost/kinda/sorta failed. Wait, what?
I downplay it like that because even though we managed to commit an updated and playable hunted for Sunday's playtest, we "almost/kinda/sorta failed" by continuing to neglect the escape area. And because of that, I woke up on Sunday before the playtest with a feeling of guilt like, "Why did we waste time yesterday by retexturing areas and working on semi-finished areas...when there isn't even an escape area yet and we haven't even started the lua scripting."
We didn't completely waste time on Saturday, though. We finally added info_ff_teamspawns (which I think is a worthless entity, because info_ff_script should be able to act like a spawn point...but I guess that's for another wonderful dev lua discussion), info_ff_scripts for health and armor kits, and the 2 holes on the corner of the ruins that overlook the warehouse ramp and field.
But even though we did some useful stuff on Saturday, we still didn't make the escape area...which means we should have completely failed for the second week in a row.
There were only a couple of hours before the playtest, so there wasn't enough time to make an actual escape area and recompile hunted...because hunted takes a couple of hours to compile. In hindsight, there actually was enough time due to the playtest being a little delayed, but the keyword there is "hindsight." So instead of making the whole escape area along with a trigger_ff_script for the escape's brush-based trigger and other brushwork that would require a full recompile, point entities were used so hunted could be recompiled with -onlyents.
A new concept that Jesse and I want to go with for the escape area is using a portal instead of a normal door like in the old TFC hunted. So the buttons that used to open a door would open a portal instead. Right now, this portal is only using a point_camera and a scaled down version of HL2's models/effects/portalrift.mdl...along with not using _rt_Camera for the portal material's basetexture, because FF supports multiple render targets for multiple monitors watching multiple orgies all at the same time. Very cool stuff, but it's not perfect for the desired portal effect Jesse and I want.
What Jesse and I really want to have is an escape portal that basically looks like the portals in Prey and Portal, so you actually see through the portal like you're looking through a window. That way the lame low resolution point_camera portals can be murdered in their sleep.
Anyways, by using point entities and -onlyents, a playable hunted was committed for Sunday's playtest. But Jesse...missed out on all that Sunday fun. Hahahahah, he missed hunted's first playtest. Everyone point at the queer and laugh.
Here's the extra goodness, though. My "mouse3" button is my "Push to talk key" in Ventrilo...and it just so happens that for me, "mouse3" is bound to "jpeg" in FF. So every time I talked to the team on Vendrilldo, I also took a screenshot. Which means...I took a lot of screenshots, and here are some of them...
Note: because these were essentially "accidental" screenshots, they were all taken at jpeg_qualilty's default setting of 90. Also, the HUD is being reworked right now, so I cropped the current HUD out of the screenshots. And the sniper rifle view model isn't in-game yet, so I cropped it out as well. Annnnnd I also cropped out other incomplete things, like the escape area...or lack thereof. I'm leaving the one screenshot that shows the sniper with missing textures, though (09)...just because.
O&A PARTY ROCK!
That's gonna be the Ying Yang Twins' next platinum-sellin' single. Just watch. Wait, what happened? I'm over here now.
For the past few weeks, Jesse and I have been on mission of sorts to finally get a playable hunted committed to FF's SVN so we can finally get started with some "real" hunted playtesting. We were tryin' to get the playable hunted committed last week, but we failed. This week, however, we just almost/kinda/sorta failed. Wait, what?
I downplay it like that because even though we managed to commit an updated and playable hunted for Sunday's playtest, we "almost/kinda/sorta failed" by continuing to neglect the escape area. And because of that, I woke up on Sunday before the playtest with a feeling of guilt like, "Why did we waste time yesterday by retexturing areas and working on semi-finished areas...when there isn't even an escape area yet and we haven't even started the lua scripting."
We didn't completely waste time on Saturday, though. We finally added info_ff_teamspawns (which I think is a worthless entity, because info_ff_script should be able to act like a spawn point...but I guess that's for another wonderful dev lua discussion), info_ff_scripts for health and armor kits, and the 2 holes on the corner of the ruins that overlook the warehouse ramp and field.
But even though we did some useful stuff on Saturday, we still didn't make the escape area...which means we should have completely failed for the second week in a row.
There were only a couple of hours before the playtest, so there wasn't enough time to make an actual escape area and recompile hunted...because hunted takes a couple of hours to compile. In hindsight, there actually was enough time due to the playtest being a little delayed, but the keyword there is "hindsight." So instead of making the whole escape area along with a trigger_ff_script for the escape's brush-based trigger and other brushwork that would require a full recompile, point entities were used so hunted could be recompiled with -onlyents.
A new concept that Jesse and I want to go with for the escape area is using a portal instead of a normal door like in the old TFC hunted. So the buttons that used to open a door would open a portal instead. Right now, this portal is only using a point_camera and a scaled down version of HL2's models/effects/portalrift.mdl...along with not using _rt_Camera for the portal material's basetexture, because FF supports multiple render targets for multiple monitors watching multiple orgies all at the same time. Very cool stuff, but it's not perfect for the desired portal effect Jesse and I want.
What Jesse and I really want to have is an escape portal that basically looks like the portals in Prey and Portal, so you actually see through the portal like you're looking through a window. That way the lame low resolution point_camera portals can be murdered in their sleep.
Anyways, by using point entities and -onlyents, a playable hunted was committed for Sunday's playtest. But Jesse...missed out on all that Sunday fun. Hahahahah, he missed hunted's first playtest. Everyone point at the queer and laugh.
Here's the extra goodness, though. My "mouse3" button is my "Push to talk key" in Ventrilo...and it just so happens that for me, "mouse3" is bound to "jpeg" in FF. So every time I talked to the team on Vendrilldo, I also took a screenshot. Which means...I took a lot of screenshots, and here are some of them...
Note: because these were essentially "accidental" screenshots, they were all taken at jpeg_qualilty's default setting of 90. Also, the HUD is being reworked right now, so I cropped the current HUD out of the screenshots. And the sniper rifle view model isn't in-game yet, so I cropped it out as well. Annnnnd I also cropped out other incomplete things, like the escape area...or lack thereof. I'm leaving the one screenshot that shows the sniper with missing textures, though (09)...just because.
O&A PARTY ROCK!
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2006-03-22 16:07 PDT
FF's movement is really fun and addictive.
I like...open cz2 just to check out somethin' specific, but then I fall into some kind of Caesar Chavez on peyote trance while I strafe jump, bunny hop, trimp, ski, conc jump, and whatever everywhere. I was like, "Aaahhh!" with the fire. Then about an hour later, I'm wonderin' why I opened cz2 in the first place. Bunny hoppin' is so easy to do in FF too, which has made my timin' completely off in TFC and I miss just about every follow-up jump.
Speakin' of cz2, Jesse and I have been hittin' it good lately. Gotta keep goin' with it, though. Can't stop, don't wanna, ahhhish!
I uh...I got nothin'.
Oh, I guess I can show you this old screenshot of ff_hunted's first (well, sorta first) VMF...when it was still basically a Source version of TFC's hunted...but not really a "Source" version...it was more like a "hey, here's a VMF of TFC's hunted since the new Hammer uses VMF files for Source maps" version...
Not exactly like givin' you a release date, but it's 3 AM and you're a dry cleaner.
Just lookin' at that screenshot reminds me why we put a roof on the ruins.
Hoooot Pocket!
I like...open cz2 just to check out somethin' specific, but then I fall into some kind of Caesar Chavez on peyote trance while I strafe jump, bunny hop, trimp, ski, conc jump, and whatever everywhere. I was like, "Aaahhh!" with the fire. Then about an hour later, I'm wonderin' why I opened cz2 in the first place. Bunny hoppin' is so easy to do in FF too, which has made my timin' completely off in TFC and I miss just about every follow-up jump.
Speakin' of cz2, Jesse and I have been hittin' it good lately. Gotta keep goin' with it, though. Can't stop, don't wanna, ahhhish!
I uh...I got nothin'.
Oh, I guess I can show you this old screenshot of ff_hunted's first (well, sorta first) VMF...when it was still basically a Source version of TFC's hunted...but not really a "Source" version...it was more like a "hey, here's a VMF of TFC's hunted since the new Hammer uses VMF files for Source maps" version...
Not exactly like givin' you a release date, but it's 3 AM and you're a dry cleaner.
Just lookin' at that screenshot reminds me why we put a roof on the ruins.
Hoooot Pocket!
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2006-02-21 17:18 PDT
<schtoofa> i'm going to bed, don't leak shit - if you want to just put it in a dev journal and i can approve it
Alright, it's time to "leak" random screenshots.
Not off to a great start...
This could be familiar to a lot of you...
Bak bak baaaaaaaak...
We were obviously reaching the limits of the Source engine...
It then where, yeah?
Go get Lil Jimmy and let's play Monster Rain...in the rain...
Seriously, obey the filename...
We will never replace this background map, because it's just way too amazing...
She's a huge man beast of a woman...
Playing around with animated prop_dynamics in hunted...
I think you can count on us "leaking" something in every dev journal from now on. Everyone else on the team better go along with this, or we take your food.
*Edit by schtoofa: I have no clue what drugs you do, jon. Please keep them far away from me.
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2005-10-24 00:04 PDT
Jesse and I have been workin' on cz2 a lot lately...tryin' to find its sweet spot to hit it just right. We sorta put it aside while we worked on hunted, but now we're back to it even though hunted still ain't done, baby. We found out that cz2 can handle the train better than hunted, and the train's what we're all about. If you can't handle the train, then you need to get outta here and go get me a chicken sangwich before someone is hurt...cause when I saw the sign glowing in the night, I thought to myself, "I'd love a chicken sangwich right now."
For the most part, we're still tryin' to get some of the basic brushwork done, cause we kinda started over with most of cz2. Not with the area in the one released screenshot of cz2, but with the rest of the map. Those areas played out in right field...cause they stunk. You see, cz2 was startin' to have a more realistic look to it, like hunted's look. For example, cz2 had some metal warehouses...you know, the kind of metal warehouses that you've probably seen plenty of times already in your night terrors. So, we decided to change cz2's look to a more "Fortressy" style, which basically means random cool brushwork and team colored textures on a...bun. There's got to be some sesame seed glue out there!
We finally looked into Source's texture lighting, as well as how we can use it with light props. The effects are pretty cool, I think. It's way better then being tickled, cause texture lighting starts off fun like tickling but doesn't end horribly. I dunno why we never looked into Source's texture lighting before, considering Jesse and I (and most TFC mappers) used texture lighting all the time back in the old TFC mapping days. Slip 'N' Bleed From the Aaaanus, they shoulda called this ride.
MrBeefy recently came onboard. He's all hopped up on the Q, so he's been makin' a lot of FF textures that should come in handy for the FF maps. He takes advice and criticism well, so dat's coo'. He also hasn't been kidnapped yet, which is also pretty coo'. If he plays, he's gonna get a free snow cone.
I got two straws in here...in case one breaks down.
Go Astros!
For the most part, we're still tryin' to get some of the basic brushwork done, cause we kinda started over with most of cz2. Not with the area in the one released screenshot of cz2, but with the rest of the map. Those areas played out in right field...cause they stunk. You see, cz2 was startin' to have a more realistic look to it, like hunted's look. For example, cz2 had some metal warehouses...you know, the kind of metal warehouses that you've probably seen plenty of times already in your night terrors. So, we decided to change cz2's look to a more "Fortressy" style, which basically means random cool brushwork and team colored textures on a...bun. There's got to be some sesame seed glue out there!
We finally looked into Source's texture lighting, as well as how we can use it with light props. The effects are pretty cool, I think. It's way better then being tickled, cause texture lighting starts off fun like tickling but doesn't end horribly. I dunno why we never looked into Source's texture lighting before, considering Jesse and I (and most TFC mappers) used texture lighting all the time back in the old TFC mapping days. Slip 'N' Bleed From the Aaaanus, they shoulda called this ride.
MrBeefy recently came onboard. He's all hopped up on the Q, so he's been makin' a lot of FF textures that should come in handy for the FF maps. He takes advice and criticism well, so dat's coo'. He also hasn't been kidnapped yet, which is also pretty coo'. If he plays, he's gonna get a free snow cone.
I got two straws in here...in case one breaks down.
Go Astros!
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2005-10-03 03:41 PDT
So I was layin' on my bed, listenin' to O&A on XM 202, kinda sorta fallin' asleep, when Hurricane Rita decided to go to school in a hummer. And by that, I mean it decided to knock the power out at 5 AM last Saturday. It wasn't even the full man beast of a woman, either. It was barely even a storm at that point. Ooohhh, maybe it wasn't even the hurricane that took the power out. Well maybe there's a killer after you!
So the power went out, and the storm got worse and worse up until about 2 PM when it started to go away. It was pretty much completely gone by late afternoon. The power stayed out for a week. That sucked, but I didn't get it nearly as bad as other people got it.
It sucked not having...computer and internet...for a week.
No computer and no internet make Jon something something.
To try and put it in perspective in a way that everyone can understand, it was kinda like when you're watchin' a funny movie at a theater, and then you realize you're actually lost in the jungle being eaten alive by tigers. That was it...Bucho!
Anyways, FF...
Well, we've scrapped the FFMDK. I talked a little about the reasons why in this thread, which happens to be a tutorial about why and how you mappers out there should use BSPZIP to put your custom content inside your map's BSP. If you don't wanna sift through that thread to find the 1 paragraph about the FFMDK, I'll just quote it here...
If you're upset about this, you shouldn't be. It's really not that big of a deal. It seems like it should be, but it's really not. So uh...yeah. Good luck, bro.
Hey, hunted and cz2 are done. Oh wait...no they aren't. They'd definitely be further along right now if Jesse wouldn't have started smokin' them BF2 rocks and if Rita wouldn't have been such a hole. Man, I hate holes. They're so worthless and...so black.
Things are back to normal now, so Jesse and I are gonna map all the way to Vegas, baby. Vegas.
You're so money and you don't even know it.
So the power went out, and the storm got worse and worse up until about 2 PM when it started to go away. It was pretty much completely gone by late afternoon. The power stayed out for a week. That sucked, but I didn't get it nearly as bad as other people got it.
It sucked not having...computer and internet...for a week.
No computer and no internet make Jon something something.
To try and put it in perspective in a way that everyone can understand, it was kinda like when you're watchin' a funny movie at a theater, and then you realize you're actually lost in the jungle being eaten alive by tigers. That was it...Bucho!
Anyways, FF...
Well, we've scrapped the FFMDK. I talked a little about the reasons why in this thread, which happens to be a tutorial about why and how you mappers out there should use BSPZIP to put your custom content inside your map's BSP. If you don't wanna sift through that thread to find the 1 paragraph about the FFMDK, I'll just quote it here...
Understanding and using BSPZIP is also kind of important because we no longer plan on developing and releasing the FFMDK (Fortress Forever Map Development Kit). Fortress Forever itself is obviously much more important, and FFMDK development would just eat away at precious FF development time. Initially, the FFMDK would have only helped you not use content (first or third party) from other games, like HL2DM, CS:S, and DoD:S. Or if you wanted to use content from those games, you would have had to put that content in your FFMDK directory to have it work, which would have then helped out with the BSPZIP process. We would have eventually put FF content in the FFMDK, but we might have been able to release FF by the time that would have happened anyway. So the FFMDK has been scrapped. It's just more important for us to focus on FF instead.
If you're upset about this, you shouldn't be. It's really not that big of a deal. It seems like it should be, but it's really not. So uh...yeah. Good luck, bro.
Hey, hunted and cz2 are done. Oh wait...no they aren't. They'd definitely be further along right now if Jesse wouldn't have started smokin' them BF2 rocks and if Rita wouldn't have been such a hole. Man, I hate holes. They're so worthless and...so black.
Things are back to normal now, so Jesse and I are gonna map all the way to Vegas, baby. Vegas.
You're so money and you don't even know it.
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2005-07-19 00:35 PDT
It's been a long time since my last dev journal entry, so I figured I'd write another one. I'll just have a ssssugar packet or two...
Jesse and I have been workin' on hunted a lot more than cz2 lately. That's not a bad thing, because we really do need to finish hunted already, GOSH! With the new modeling additions to the dev team, we've been gettin' some custom props made just for hunted. This is great, because custom props will definitely help make the FF maps more unique compared to other maps in other mods in a...world. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that Foantaire-Fey must be stopped! Unless you're on their side, then Foantaire-Fey must not be stopped! Either way, we think you'll like what we plan on doin'. Oh, you'll like it alright...you gonna like it or you gonna die.
Somethin' else that I guess almost everyone else on the dev team is forgettin' about is the FFMDK. That's right, the Fortress Forever Map Development Kit. I'm just gonna mention it here so that maybe it'll get you, the community, talkin' about it. Then maybe we'll be pressured into releasing it to the public. Or maybe schtoofa will delete this paragraph from this dev journal entry, so nobody will know about the FFMDK yet and it'll take that much longer to release it. Mulch has my back though, so you better watch out, schtoofa...or I'll sick Mulch the Man Beast on you. You don't want that, do you? Remember Ricky? Or is it still too painful to think about?
Anyways, if you were wonderin' about the waterfall I fell down in Colorado, well...it's in this thread on Trepid. Haha, good times...good times.
Skadaaaap!
Edit: Jon, you owe me a 12pack of good beer for leaving that FFMDKrap in here -schtoofa
(okay, so it's not krap but you still owe me that 12er)
Jesse and I have been workin' on hunted a lot more than cz2 lately. That's not a bad thing, because we really do need to finish hunted already, GOSH! With the new modeling additions to the dev team, we've been gettin' some custom props made just for hunted. This is great, because custom props will definitely help make the FF maps more unique compared to other maps in other mods in a...world. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that Foantaire-Fey must be stopped! Unless you're on their side, then Foantaire-Fey must not be stopped! Either way, we think you'll like what we plan on doin'. Oh, you'll like it alright...you gonna like it or you gonna die.
Somethin' else that I guess almost everyone else on the dev team is forgettin' about is the FFMDK. That's right, the Fortress Forever Map Development Kit. I'm just gonna mention it here so that maybe it'll get you, the community, talkin' about it. Then maybe we'll be pressured into releasing it to the public. Or maybe schtoofa will delete this paragraph from this dev journal entry, so nobody will know about the FFMDK yet and it'll take that much longer to release it. Mulch has my back though, so you better watch out, schtoofa...or I'll sick Mulch the Man Beast on you. You don't want that, do you? Remember Ricky? Or is it still too painful to think about?
Anyways, if you were wonderin' about the waterfall I fell down in Colorado, well...it's in this thread on Trepid. Haha, good times...good times.
Skadaaaap!
Edit: Jon, you owe me a 12pack of good beer for leaving that FFMDKrap in here -schtoofa
(okay, so it's not krap but you still owe me that 12er)
Trepid Studios
discuss Team Lead / Project Manager - 2005-04-28 09:34 PDT
Jesse and I have been workin' on cz2 a whole lot lately, which is always a good thing. Things are comin' along nicely. We're still mostly in the orange/grey dev texture stage, but we do have some areas textured and lookin' like what they'll probably look like in the end. Before yesterday, we hadn't ever compiled the map; we had just been making it in Hammer all this time without ever checkin' out how things would look in-game. Because of yesterday's compile, we started working on the light_environment and sky to get a good look for the lighting and whatnot. I think we have the lighting looking good for what we have so far. Or I guess you could sorta say we have the start of the "palette" lookin' good so far. Hopefully we'll have something really good to show before the panda bear invasion.
