Tekky Boxes mini mod

[taurus]

Hello

So I recently released a mini mod called "Tekky Boxes" for CSS and I'd like to share it with anyone in here too.
For personal reasons i only got this to a beta and I'm not sure how when I can continue finishing it but I think as the idea with the mod is not to only publish a map but also to share content I'm doing it a bit early.

The map can be downloaded at http://css.gamebanana.com/maps/177408 . So great btw that they are providing free space for modders!

I also got two video previews of the maps:
LunarArena - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi3-X7BEEog
Vertigo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOvUEHqzmWU

I will share a VMF soon also so people can learn how the things were set up, lighting, props etc if they want to try making a custom map and not having to figure out everything from start.

Enjoy!

/taurus

[nub]

This is actually rather interesting. It reminds me of a map I made of an arena full of physics-based traps and stuff that you'd trigger by blowing something up. It would send things like cars or combine roller-mines flying with the intention of colliding with other players. I also had cannons at each spawn area which fired cars out of them to the opposite end of the arena for added chaos. I even put in a giant crane magnet that would move back and forth across the map and pick up objects and whatnot. But I overdid it and the map had the tendency to lag, and unwanted chain reactions would occur with the potential of wiping out both teams in one fell swoop.

But anyway, I like seeing maps like this that add physics elements and such that can either be your friend or your worst enemy. I'm curious...how exactly did you get the boxes to move around like that?

[MaK]

I agree with nub this is pretty cool. I have no idea how it plays out but I genuinely appreciate the unique alien architecture and all the custom content. It's nice to see something different for a change. Plus I've always been interested in experimenting with dynamic and changing levels. Why you didn't make this for CS:GO I don't know, but it might be something to think about!

[taurus]

This is actually rather interesting. It reminds me of a map I made of an arena full of physics-based traps and stuff that you'd trigger by blowing something up. It would send things like cars or combine roller-mines flying with the intention of colliding with other players. I also had cannons at each spawn area which fired cars out of them to the opposite end of the arena for added chaos. I even put in a giant crane magnet that would move back and forth across the map and pick up objects and whatnot. But I overdid it and the map had the tendency to lag, and unwanted chain reactions would occur with the potential of wiping out both teams in one fell swoop.

But anyway, I like seeing maps like this that add physics elements and such that can either be your friend or your worst enemy. I'm curious...how exactly did you get the boxes to move around like that?

Hehe, bold move with car cannons you had made. Whacky idea I'd love to see the map and test it if it's still around. The performance issues might not a problem today. I remember in the old CS days there was some kind custom castle map that had a human cannon. Never seen a car cannon though!
Ideas like that, which make the map unpredictable in some ways I like and it was also what I tried to create.
Regarding the wipe outs, hah, yeah... That happens to me too but luckily only when BOTs play. The bots are programmed by Valve to shoot at physics props apparently. So when they are near one "boombox" they shoot at them and they can end a round in 2 seconds by wiping out their own team!

You ask me how I achieved the effect of the motions. Well since I'm not a programmer I always need to find ways to reach my goals the non traditional way or make it work with simple tools. And partly it was a fluke that it worked so well.
I edited the physics to non realistic settings. Which generated this effect.
I'll share the dev comments I've made for myself.

Code: Select all

    //Mass in kilograms
   $concave
   $mass 8.001  //higher value the faster they move
   $inertia 0.01
   $damping -1.00     //negative values makes them slide up angled/sloped surfaces. Set very high and they fly around bouncing of walls.
   $rotdamping -1000.00 //-1000 makes them slide

edit: Oh yeah, as you see the comment mentions flying models. I never got to test that out much to see what fine tuning does of the values but they did fly around like crazy bees in the level. The black flying boomboxes I have are currently only on path_tracks right now.

[taurus]

I agree with nub this is pretty cool. I have no idea how it plays out but I genuinely appreciate the unique alien architecture and all the custom content. It's nice to see something different for a change. Plus I've always been interested in experimenting with dynamic and changing levels. Why you didn't make this for CS:GO I don't know, but it might be something to think about!

Thank you for the comment!

I did not choose CS:GO because I was unfamiliar with the version of the engine when it comes to setting up lighting, and also I could not get my animated textures to work in-game. It was just black while it worked in CSS. Didn't feel like wasting time on looking for solution when i knew all worked completely fine in CSS.

[nub]

I'd love to see the map and test it if it's still around.

http://css.gamebanana.com/maps/50251

Enjoy. Not my finest work but it's fun to screw around in.

You ask me how I achieved the effect of the motions. Well since I'm not a programmer I always need to find ways to reach my goals the non traditional way or make it work with simple tools. And partly it was a fluke that it worked so well.
I edited the physics to non realistic settings. Which generated this effect.
I'll share the dev comments I've made for myself.

Code: Select all

    //Mass in kilograms
   $concave
   $mass 8.001  //higher value the faster they move
   $inertia 0.01
   $damping -1.00     //negative values makes them slide up angled/sloped surfaces. Set very high and they fly around bouncing of walls.
   $rotdamping -1000.00 //-1000 makes them slide

That's really interesting. I was sure they used some kind of hacked together AI. They move around almost like they know the map layout.

[taurus]

Yes they do seem to follow the level structure well! They are moving fluidly and sometimes they do a few new attempts and pass between walls or make burst jumps over obstacles or to get moving again.

Thanks for the link to you map. I'll test it out.

You guys might not know why animated textures are black in CS:GO then?
I get the error in messages of Hammer "$KeyValues error recursiveloadfrombuffer missing { in file" ...etc for the .vmts with animated textures.
Maybe the proxy's are not working properly in CS:Go.

Also the gravity trigger does not work unless I maybe remake it and also the map crashes when running it. Right now the player gets stuck inside the trigger when he touches it...

So a CS:GO version out of the question for me at this time.

[nub]

Post the VMT for one of your animated textures. It sounds like you're simply missing a bracket in the script, which is causing the texture to not render properly.


If I recall, a handful of the features that were commonly used in "fun" CSS maps (like yours) are no longer in CSGO, or are at least inaccessible. Unfortunately, it seems like CSGO won't ever be the same kind of iteration that CSS was. It really is a shame when a series' modability takes a hit with a new iteration.

[taurus]

Post the VMT for one of your animated textures. It sounds like you're simply missing a bracket in the script, which is causing the texture to not render properly.

I doubt it's the vmf because it works in CS? Or they possibly changed something that needs to be edited in the VMF. If the brackets were missing for all my animated textures the VMF would not even be saved with VTF edit.
(edit: actually it looks like all self-illuminated textures are broken, not only animated)

But here you go:

Code: Select all

"VertexLitGeneric"
{
   "$model" 1
   "$basetexture" "models/tb/Box512_crystalblue_anim"
   "$selfillum" 1
   "$selfillummask" "models/tb/Box512_crystalblue_anim"
   "$bumpmap" "models/tb/BoomBox_normal"
   "$envmap" "env_cubemap"
   "$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1
   "$envmaptint" 0.1

   "$phong" 1
   "$phongboost" 5.1
   "$phongexponent" 5
   "$phongfresnelranges" [2 2 80]

   "$rimlight" 1
   "$rimlightboost" 2
   "$rimlightexponent" 1

"Proxies"
{
"AnimatedTexture"
   {
   "animatedTextureVar" "$basetexture"
   "animatedTextureFrameNumVar" "$frame"
   "animatedTextureFrameRate" "20"
   }
}

}




If I recall, a handful of the features that were commonly used in "fun" CSS maps (like yours) are no longer in CSGO, or are at least inaccessible. Unfortunately, it seems like CSGO won't ever be the same kind of iteration that CSS was. It really is a shame when a series' modability takes a hit with a new iteration.

It would be very sad if CS:GO was not as moddable as CSS, for sure. I really like the feeling of CS:GO.

But then I noticed other things in CS:GO apart from (1.) broken gravity trigger (maybe has to be remade) and (2.) broken textures already mentioned.

3. my skybox textures has a visible line between seams
4. Map crashes
5. Shadows look strange on models
6. Boomboxes can make you stuck in a place and you can't make them move upon bumping them.

I don't feel like stabbing myself in the leg right now with that

edit: I figured something out.