The Simple Questions Thread.

[Zecrah]

I'd also recommend just going through the options, mainly "2D view" and tweaking them as you want. My favourite is "Snap to 15 degree rotations" or whatever. Never looked back after using that. ^^

[samwalton]

That worked Zecrah, thanks so much for posting a solution. I can't believe I didn't look there (I already have the 15 degree toggle set in 2d view and just didn't see the 3d tab!) You are awesome.

[jgoodroad]

is there anyway to change the area of a weapons spread via console? I am thinking about the shotgun acting more as a shotgun-rifle (like the kind used in skeet) because it would be awesome...

[Smurftyours]

Probable not, but I don't think it would be too big of a code change.

[Zecrah]

I think it's quite an easier code change indeed. I'll look at it myself later, I had similar intentions.

[joe_rogers_11155]

isnt that something you can do by editing the script?

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Weapon_script

If you still have an issue, ask me because I have a buddy who is doing the same thing for his mod.

[Zecrah]

Nope, as far as I know.

I found the code anyway. I'm presuming you're running the latest Ep2 SP code and using VC++ 2005 Express. You can probably adapt it if you're not.


-Open your project and then open the Server Episodic soluton, expand the "Source files" folder followed by "HL2 DLL."

-Open weapon_shotgun.cpp and go to line 46, which should read something like:

Code: Select all

virtual const Vector& GetBulletSpread( void )

-This is where the bullet spread vector is set, i.e. how accurate the gun is. If you understand the code even a little, you'll see that what Valve have done is given vital allies (E.g. Alyx) a lot more accuracy and the player less. This is visible by the:

Code: Select all

static Vector vitalAllyCone = VECTOR_CONE_3DEGREES;

which sets the vital allies' accuracy vector to 3 degrees.

-Look below and you'll see the player one:

Code: Select all

static Vector cone = VECTOR_CONE_10DEGREES;

This is what you want to change.

-In "basecombatweapon_shared.h" lies the list of predefined vector cones. I'll list them here:

Code: Select all

// NOTE: The way these are calculated is that each component == sin (degrees/2)
#define VECTOR_CONE_PRECALCULATED   vec3_origin
#define VECTOR_CONE_1DEGREES      Vector( 0.00873, 0.00873, 0.00873 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_2DEGREES      Vector( 0.01745, 0.01745, 0.01745 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_3DEGREES      Vector( 0.02618, 0.02618, 0.02618 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_4DEGREES      Vector( 0.03490, 0.03490, 0.03490 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_5DEGREES      Vector( 0.04362, 0.04362, 0.04362 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_6DEGREES      Vector( 0.05234, 0.05234, 0.05234 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_7DEGREES      Vector( 0.06105, 0.06105, 0.06105 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_8DEGREES      Vector( 0.06976, 0.06976, 0.06976 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_9DEGREES      Vector( 0.07846, 0.07846, 0.07846 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_10DEGREES      Vector( 0.08716, 0.08716, 0.08716 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_15DEGREES      Vector( 0.13053, 0.13053, 0.13053 )
#define VECTOR_CONE_20DEGREES      Vector( 0.17365, 0.17365, 0.17365 )

-Valve added a helpful note (For those of us who suck at maths... *ahem*) as to how to calculate your own vectors. Simply change it to however accurate you would like to be. I tested out 3 in my own mod, and it was still good but for a rifle I recommend 2, or for a sniper use 1.

-To make it more rifle like, open up "cfg/skill.cfg" in your mod folder (Extract it if it doesn't exist, make sure it's relevent to your engine branch) and change the constants that end in _buckshot (Around lines 148 for me) to suit.


For the shits and giggles, you could set up a massive pellet count, and a vector cone of about 60 degrees and add a few zeroes to the damage and wreak havoc.

[jgoodroad]

so, without code,You can change dmg, and you can change pellets (count)but If you want to change the spread you need to use code.

[Oskmos]

Wich is better for making a large slope with displacements:

1. Making brushes that tilts, then "displaceing" them.

2. raising the displacement on flat brushes.

both work just fine i guess, but just wondering if one way is better for performance or whatever

[Zecrah]

so, without code,You can change dmg, and you can change pellets (count)but If you want to change the spread you need to use code.

Yes.

Wich is better for making a large slope with displacements:

1. Making brushes that tilts, then "displaceing" them.

2. raising the displacement on flat brushes.

both work just fine i guess, but just wondering if one way is better for performance or whatever

Both the same. Personally, I'd do number 1, but I think for performance there's no difference. Except that sewing and aligning may be harder.

[Terr]

1. Making brushes that tilts, then "displaceing" them.
2. raising the displacement on flat brushes.

The choice will largely be decided on whether you need to sew any displacements together. If so, I'd go with #1, so that all the edges are nice.

[Zecrah]

Also, jgoodroad, I posted a tutorial just for you. xD Well not just for you, but you inspired it :d

[samwalton]

Some of the materials have a shininess attribute to them, requiring the use of an environment map. The thing is that there are some similar materials that don't have this attribute (like roads and plaster walls). Is there an easy way (a flag) to disable or enable this?

[Zecrah]

I believe you're talking about specular reflections. These are quite easy to disable, I think it's just a case of removing the envmap key from the material file.

So open the material of the file you want to change (the .VMT) and find the key called $envmap. Remove or comment it out and it'll stop creating specular reflections. The reason plaster doesn't have it is because, well it isn't reflective. ^^ Likewise, to enable it, add the line $envmap env_cubemap to the VMT to tell it to create specular reflections using an environment map from the nearest env_cubemap entity.

See the link below for more info
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$envmap

[samwalton]

Thanks! I'm creating a wet environment, where I would want specular highlights even on plaster. There are some road materials that have it and don't which was bugging me. Thanks again for the info mate!