Anyone ever get the Rain Splashes tutorial to work?

[Armageddon]

Dude, you're gonna want to turn the percentage down to like 5 for a multiplayer mod like that.

[Jangalomph]

I was going around in the hl2 coders list talking about these rain particle etc. And the guys were saying that source 2007 Mod engine just isn't that great with particles "Sadly for me since im the particle man.." But source 2007 just sucks nuts at handling alot of particles. l4d2 on the other hand. My o my !

[Gary]

These are the only modifications to the file:

Code: Select all

void CClient_Precipitation::ClientThink()
{
   Simulate( gpGlobals->frametime );
         PrecacheParticleSystem("rain_impact");
}

Code: Select all

inline bool CClient_Precipitation::SimulateRain( CPrecipitationParticle* pParticle, float dt )
{
   if (GetRemainingLifetime( pParticle ) < 0.0f)
      return false;

   Vector vOldPos = pParticle->m_Pos;

   // Update position
   VectorMA( pParticle->m_Pos, dt, pParticle->m_Velocity,
            pParticle->m_Pos );

   // wind blows rain around
   for ( int i = 0 ; i < 2 ; i++ )
   {
      if ( pParticle->m_Velocity[i] < s_WindVector[i] )
      {
         pParticle->m_Velocity[i] += ( 5 / pParticle->m_Mass );

         // clamp
         if ( pParticle->m_Velocity[i] > s_WindVector[i] )
            pParticle->m_Velocity[i] = s_WindVector[i];
      }
      else if (pParticle->m_Velocity[i] > s_WindVector[i] )
      {
         pParticle->m_Velocity[i] -= ( 5 / pParticle->m_Mass );

         // clamp.
         if ( pParticle->m_Velocity[i] < s_WindVector[i] )
            pParticle->m_Velocity[i] = s_WindVector[i];
      }
   }

   /*
   // No longer in the air? punt.
   if ( !IsInAir( pParticle->m_Pos ) )
   {
      // Possibly make a splash if we hit a water surface and it's in front of the view.
      if ( m_Splashes.Count() < 20 )
      {
         if ( RandomInt( 0, 100 ) < r_RainSplashPercentage.GetInt() )
         {
            trace_t trace;
            UTIL_TraceLine(vOldPos, pParticle->m_Pos, MASK_WATER, NULL, C COLLISION_GROUP_NONE, &trace);
            if( trace.fraction < 1 )
            {
               m_Splashes.AddToTail( trace.endpos );
            }
         }
      }

      // Tell the framework it's time to remove the particle from the list
      return false;
   }*/
   /*Tony; the traceline replaces the IsInAir check.
   you also don't want the random's to be around the traceline either, or it will only check SOMETIMES. it  needs to check _all_ the time.
    you also probably want to do some radius checking of the particles position (ignoring z) for if it's in range of the local player to run this code or not
    otherwise you will have traces for every particle all over the place even if there's no way that the player can see it
   so when the player is out of that radius, you would only use if ( !IsInAir( pParticle->m_Pos ) { return  false; }
    probably also need to check to make sure that it doesn't splash on sky, too.
  */
    trace_t trace;
     UTIL_TraceLine(vOldPos, pParticle->m_Pos, MASK_SOLID, this, COLLISION_GROUP_INTERACTIVE, &trace); //Gary; now rain will collide with everything!

    if( trace.fraction < 1 || trace.DidHit() )
   {
        if ( RandomInt( 0, 100 ) <= r_RainSplashPercentage.GetInt() )
           DispatchParticleEffect( "rain_impact", trace.endpos,trace.m_pEnt->GetAbsAngles() , NULL );

       // Tell the framework it's time to remove the particle from the list
       return false;
   }

   // We still want this particle
   return true;
}

@Jang

Sad Valve doesn't give us an updated codebase... did you look at the ASW code though? Can it support more particles?

[ScarT]

The particle system in ASW is way better than the sad excuse you find in 2007.

[pfannkuchen_gesicht]

except of 3 new renderers and better performance there is no big difference

[Jangalomph]

Well ASW is alot more supportive in particles. l4d2 uses same engine version "from what i know" and that's how such great FPS is achieved. Their particle system is Newer and much better than our modifiable version. Plus it doesn't matter that we have all source code to ASW because we can't do crap with it.

[ferdyfist]

You have to precache the material first.
In the particle_manifest, put a "!" in front of your pcfs name.

[[Steve]]

Well ASW is alot more supportive in particles. l4d2 uses same engine version "from what i know" and that's how such great FPS is achieved. Their particle system is Newer and much better than our modifiable version. Plus it doesn't matter that we have all source code to ASW because we can't do crap with it.

What do you mean by cant do crap with it? its allways worked great for me

[Jangalomph]

Meaning ASW is pretty pointless to people who still want to mod half life 2.

[[Steve]]

not if they port there mod to the asw engine :s

[Gary]

There has been some progress since he said that. But yeah, it's not practical for HL2 mods.

It's general not useful if you want a regular FPS multiplayer. For a total conversion FPS or something along those lines, it can be useful(with a good amount of work).

Ivan's Secretes was on ASW, that was coming along nicely. I wish they would release there codebase, so others could learn or use it as a base. I would of loved to play with it.

[[Steve]]

its actualy not hard to make a regular fps with alienswarm.. you dont need to change much to get a working firstperson player.

its also not that complex to just strip the swam part and directly port your existing mod or half life 2.

Ivans secrets was looking pretty cool, but for those of you that are not so code savy you can use sanderns port of the 2007 template to asw, which has everything you could ever need to build a fps in the alienswarm engine.

https://github.com/Sandern/aswscratch


i would say the only negative would be the lack of shader source, but i hear even that is coming soon

[Gary]

Is it not missing all the view model code?

Also, if it were not that difficult to port a HL2 mod to ASW, then why have we not seen someone playing HL2 on the ASW engine?


I'm sure shader support is right behind EP3.

[ferdyfist]

Sry for double post.. xD

[[Steve]]

Is it not missing all the view model code?

Also, if it were not that difficult to port a HL2 mod to ASW, then why have we not seen someone playing HL2 on the ASW engine?


I'm sure shader support is right behind EP3.

it is only missing predicted_viewmodel.cpp and H
Which you can grab from Orangebox.
Its pretty straightforward after youve added that and looked at how the viewmodels work in orangebox.

Also there are people that have ports of half life 2 on asw,
My mod isnt a port of half life 2, but my alienswarm version is a port of my Orangebox version and thus contains alot of the half life 2 code aswell, as a result half life 2 is semi playable, with alot of missing ents / missing features.
i have just taken a super quick picture to show one of the deathmatch levels working with firstperson and viewmodels ect.


Edit , someone msgd me and said it was photoshopped so i made a quick video, sorry about the lame quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 1fzm5d9aE#!