Proto:Half-Life (Windows)/Build 725 (Oct 19, 1998)/readme

This is a sub-page of Proto:Half-Life (Windows)/Build 725 (Oct 19, 1998).

There are two versions of this readme file. One is included in the root directory of the CD, and the other is in the build itself. They are slightly different from each other.

readme.txt (CD)

Nettest2 Readme File:

***** Update From Nettest 1 10.20.98 *****

1. Multiplayer should be working now. There will be a server running at all hours of the day and night. Get in there and play! Write all the bugs you find to mbugs@valvesoftware.com.

2. The model loading crash is fixed (mbarrel.mdl). This occured at the end of the 'On a Rail' map.

3. OpenGL in multiplayer is working.

4. We will be meeting in the Half-Life chat room every day at 6:00 PST.

5. There should be an update at 4:00 every day. You can access the updater either from the Half-Life interface at Configurations, or though Sierra Utilities through 'AutoUpdate'.

6. Every day we will be meeting the the Half-Life chat room at 6:00 PST. This gives you an oppurtunity to ask specific questions in a better environment than e-mail.

7. The Chat room has been revamped, send us your comments. You should be able to type more text in a single line now.

8. AutoAim can now be turned off.

9. Disk space is not checked when you re-install the game.

Decals!!!
These are the instructions for making custom decals in Half-Life, enjoy!

Making a custom decal is a simple process. All you need is an image, and a paint program capable of simple palette manipulation and image scaling. Paint Shop Pro is ideal, and is available as shareware from http://www.jasc.com.

The steps for creating a decal are:

1. Paint or scan an image. Make it 64 by 64 pixels in size, either by painting the image to that size, or by scaling your scanned image (or larger painted image.) Painting in black and white is recommended, because the final decal will only show up using one color, a color of your choice, and you can change that color at any time between games using the game interface. Keeping your source decal as a black and white image is the easiest thing to do.

2. Use your paint program to make the image a "grayscale" image: that is, the palette, or colors that the image uses, should be a ramp from white to black. If you are painting the image yourself using Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, or some similar program, you can specify that you want the image to be grayscale before you start. With the palette going from white to black, any white in the image will be totally opaque, and any black in the image will be totally transparent (invisible). Any grey in the image will be partially translucent: very translucent if it is near-black, and close to opaque if it is near white.

Some programs, if you turn an image into "grayscale", will ramp the palette from black to white: that is, if you look at the color palette, the first color will be black, and the last color will be white. In this case, you want to invert your image, such that the black portions of your image are the parts that will be opaque, and the white portions are the parts that will be transparent. Be sure you check what the palette looks like after you save your file, and adjust the palette if necessary.

Think of it this way: if your decal looks like a chalk drawing on a blackboard, you want the first color in your palette to be white, ramping to the last color which is black. If your drawing looks like a pen drawing on white paper, the first color should be black, ramping to the last color which should be white.

3. Save this image in your half-life\logos directory as a windows bitmap (.bmp) file, and it will automatically show up in the list of decals you see in the launcher interface. There you can choose the color the decal will appear in. Changing the color of your decal during a game will not take effect for that game. Only after you restart your game will the new color appear.

If you would like to view pre-made decals, several are shipped with Half-Life and can be found in the Half-Life\logos directory. These will give you a good idea about the file format and final appearance of a decal, before it appears in the game.

******* End Updated Material *******

Always have the most current version of DirectX installed on your computer. As of this CD's ship date DirectX 6 is the most current version. It is included on the CD in the 'DirectX' folder. Always make sure you have the newest drivers for all of your hardware installed on your computer. Many hardware manufacturers are developing OpenGL drivers for their graphics accelerator cards. Please make sure you check on your card's manufacturer website for their latest drivers.

General Testing Instructions:

1. Look through all areas thoroughly. We are interested in any areas of the program that you are having trouble with. Go through the menus in the launcher, play the multiplayer game, play the single player game. Tell us everything that doesn't work right for you.

2. Make sure that you use the Update function often. Having everyone involved in the test running the most current build is extremely important. The Updater can be found in two places: Running 'Sierra Utilities', which is installed onto your computer when you install Half-Life (Shortcut in Start menu), and through the Half-Life launcher.

3. There are five documents included on the CD. They will be inculded in a folder off the root called 'Docs'. Please fill these out as completely as you possibly can. This is where you can have an impact on the final product!

4. We are going to have meetings at a set time over IRC (Internet Relay Chat). A mail will be sent to you to inform you of when that will be occurring. This will give you an opportunity to chat with people at Valve about your concerns.

5. There will also be four e-mail addresses for you to send your concerns to. They are:

bugs@valvesoftware.com - Bugs that you find in the single player portion of the game.
mbugs@valvesoftware.com - Bugs that you find in the multiplayer portion of the game.
installer@valvesoftware - Any concerns that you have with the install portion of the product.
summary@valvesoftware.com - Your overall summary of the product.

6. When you write us with bugs that you find, please include as much information as you possibly can. Your machine specs, what you were doing right before the problem, and whether or not you can reproduce it can be extremely useful for us to stamp all those bugs out. Here is a sample bug report and what should be included in it:

Description: Write the steps that you went through the get the behavior that you were seeing. Be as verbose as you possibly can. Go back and try these exact steps to make it happen again.

Computer Information: In here give us as much information as possible to help us reproduce the bug. What operation system you are running, what resolution you are running in, if you are in hardware acceleration or software acceleration, etc.

Saved games: For problems that you run into in the single player game, attach a saved game to your e-mail. This can be extremely useful for us.

Any other information: The more information we have on problems that you are experiencing, the better. Anything at all that you can tell us about your hardware, software, machine brand, anything...can be helpful in fixing problems. Send everything that you possibly can think of.

Known Issues:

These are the areas that we are working on right now. We will be updating you as the test is going, so make sure to run the AutoUpdater!

1. To view the two opening .avi's for Half-Life, you must have video compression installed. To make sure that you have installed video compression, goto your control panel and select Add/Remove programs. From there, select 'Windows Setup' and scroll down to 'Multimedia'. Select Multimedia and make sure that 'Video Compression' is checked. You must have video compression installed to view the opening movies.

2. Player Customization is not in just yet. It will be updated at some point during the test. You can change your name, and spray decals, but not all of the functions are working properly.

3. LAN game is not hooked up yet. We encourage you to run off the Internet on our servers, and they will be active at all hours during the test. Look for Valve people up there too!

readme.txt (game)