Proto talk:Half-Life (Windows)/September 1997 Prototype

Bullchicken

Just realized that the bullsquid is also referred to as bullchicken in the final game's files. Because this isn't unique to the prototype would it be alright to remove it? Clone5184 (talk) 00:57, 28 March 2015 (EDT)

Official Walkthrough Documents

I'm curious if anyone else has found this. Apparently, on the disk there's a folder labeled "Walkthrough". In this folder there's the synopsis that's already been talked about, but I just noticed another file that's literally a walkthrough of the first few levels of the demo. The date on this appears to be the same as the Synopsis. I'm curious if this should just be mentioned, or if the files themselves should be uploaded, or a copy and paste of the text or what. Clone5184 (talk) 14:21, 24 October 2015 (EDT)

Various bits & pieces

• The crosshair matches code in the Quake GPL release to draw a 'crosshair' using a console character. https://github.com/id-Software/Quake/blob/bf4ac424ce754894ac8f1dae6a3981954bc9852d/WinQuake/view.c#L1057
• Screenshots suffering from the Hall Of Mirrors should probably be taken with "gl_clear 1" typed into the console for clarity (also: -width & -height options)
• Someone probably ought to document how holding Alt allows you to change your altitude while noclipping (inherited from Quake).
• Using existing Half-Life editing tools, a texture extractor, etc, full versions of the editor-only textures "clip" and "origin" can be found.
  • Assuming WC crashes for you too, TrenchBroom is overkill for the job but can show textures well enough. Go into the Face panel then add the WAD as a texture collection.
  • The textures can also be extracted from the BSPs (this is how I found them in the first place)
  • It should also be noted that "clip" and "origin" are 'unused' in the final as well - again, they're meant for the editor only.
• "bin" contains a full set of map editing tools,
  • bin/halflife.fgd: What is and isn't implemented? (TODO)
    • It describes trigger_libraryportal and item_book, neither are implemented.
  • Is the "Valve" .map format supported yet? (Probably not)
    • WC: Is the "Valve" .map format supported yet? (can't even run the thing, but probably not)
    • QBSP2: Is the "Valve" .map format supported yet? (No.)
      • Weirdly, the GPL release of the Quake tools has a merged QCSG and QBSP, but Half-Life doesn't, and WorldCraft's manual (page "Manually compiling the level") suggests the state of the GPL release is how things always were.
      • "SetQdirFromPath: no 'prospero' in E:\External2\Half-Life 0.52\Half-Life\bin\example.map" : This is normal for QBSP, but 'prospero'?
  • The BSP format is 100% identical to the final version of Half-Life, only differing in version number (29, same as Quake's, not 30, as Half-Life's is).
    • This implies that the compatibility with Quake is simply because the BSP format didn't change significantly. Only differences: Miptexes have palettes now and the lightmaps are 3x (L->RGB) the size.

--20kdc (talk) 12:28, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

• The "trigger_libraryportal" and "item_book" bits that you mention are likely from the cancelled game Prospero, as it takes place in a giant library and was being developed in tandem with Half-Life up until its cancellation. Prospero - Database: Episode 3, by ValveTime
• Here's a tutorial on how to get the 0.52 prototype's version of WorldCraft working. -=TUTORIAL=- Half-Life 1 Alpha Mapping with Alpha Worldcraft (Working compile)

--Teajai (talk) 04:57, 29 February 2024 (UTC)