[shaq]

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

thanks for the console commands! i'm gonna try that right away! your idea for the enemy spawning is nice. i checked out the level scripts and found two commands that look useful: AddCharacter and AddThisCharacter. They might be used for spawning. i'll try that out. I doubt there is a console command for spawning, because that would require you to specify the level and the spawning location. that and much more information is being loaded through the level script. too complex for a console command if you ask me. would also not be helpful at all. after all, the game doesn't throw enemies dynamically at the player, but always uses the same enemies in the same locations, so there's little point in a command to make them re-spawn. quicksave would be all you need to test the spawning

I was wondering if you could spawn in the console just to test it out. It would spawn them in the same room when you typed the command. Hopefully one of those commands will work for adding enemies. Are they specified per room on the level scripts? I haven't counted but there might be 30-40 rooms per level including echoes. lol It would take an afternoon to modify the whole game.

Maybe you could make a water grenade weapon while you're at it? lol That's my idea for a new weapon. Maybe a water balloon would work better? lol

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

silly me...i misinterpreted that as an abbreviation for gary's mod...as for the size, wow! the last time i used it was cinematic mod 4 and that was may be 2 years ago....6 versions in that time...incredible, but i wonder why the installation is so big? did the author crank up the resolution again?

i had cinematic mod 4 for both hl2 and episode 1 combined into a single directory to cancel out dupes and compressed both games with the mod down to 3GB...i had planned to wait until episode 2 is released to add it into that package and burn it on dvd...i guess i can start over now lol

sounds like steam limits you quite a lot. i only used it once, so i don't have a point of reference, but good to know!
I had problems using mods with steam. may be it's me, but i only got cinematic mod to work after using the non-steam version of hl2, so i'm not that much of a steam fan at all.

I think with 5 on up it required a 64 bit OS. I just downloaded Win 7 RC x64 so I could try it out. I think you can still get it until next week. It might take you that long to get 10 though. lol There aren't many places to dl it yet. I got it off a torrent and it took over a day to get it. Almost all the textures are high-res and it includes mods for all three now (HL2 and EP1 and EP2). Wait you mean you were waiting for episode 3 right? When that comes out it will be up to 12-13 and will be about 22GB. lol

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

Update: Alright I checked out your sparks values. 200 doesn't look that much different from the original value. It seems this is not the number of sparks, but rather the lifetime of them. I thought the amount of sparks was just the same, but they didn't bounce around that long. Anyway, 200 looks more realistic to me and i like it. I also set it to 100 for a try and that would be even more realistic, because many sparks didn't even reach the ground. However, 200 looks nicer.

I also experimented with the fluidbulletshells (10) and fluidicicles (100) and i couldn't point out the difference to the original values with either weapon. I thought the fluidicicles defined the amount of water particles that would be generated for the water gun. When I swing the gun back and forth in a rapid fashion I can see the stream break up into smaller water batches. I thought raising the value might keep it more consistent in those cases, but that didn't work. If you look on the ground while using the water gun, you can see the particles flowing away, so may be this also defines just the lifetime of this effect. I hadn't checked that out though. This might also explain why raising the water particle count of 20.000 doesn't result in more particles. the values for these effects seem to be stored in other scripts. of course, lowering the value would kill off many particles early on before you would even get to see them and thats why it looked like that value would influence the particle count directly. Anyway...I still don't know what the fluidbulletshells variable does. I thought it might have an impact on the watergun's bullet, or the shells that the other guns throw out during shooting, but I couldn't see a difference to the original value. Any idea?

I believe the number in the init.cfg is the total number at one time. So as new sparks/bullets/icicles/water appear the old ones have to disappear to keep it under the maximum value. That would explain why they don't spread along the floor. Have you tried raising any of the sparks to 20000? That could be interesting. lol There must be a way to determine the maximum values for each setting somewhere. It might even be in the nvidia drivers for all I know. I assumed the bullets value was for the spent bullet casing physx. If so it would only affect the ppsh, but it might be for the water cannon too. If both look the same with reduced values then it can be lowered to 200 or less. Try a really low value and shoot the ppsh and see if there are less casings. I don't think I even noticed if the casings stay on the floor after shooting.

Originally Posted by Xiaopang

Also, could you try something? Whenever I deactivate anisotropic filtering before starting a game, I don't get to see the prologue. Does that happen to you too? Which kind of version of the game are you playing, US or European?

Btw, using the give watergun cheat also gives you all weapons + the watergun, which you don't get with give all
Funny stuff: use the give watergun cheat during mental echoes, especially in the first level. It's kind of fun to watergun your huskies while they drag your sled. You can't kill them though. Also cool: in those outdoor mental echoes and in the very beginning of the first level before you open the hatch into the ship, all your weapons have a snow and ice encrusted texture. I can't remember having seen that while playing the game for the first time. Kind of makes it look like a deterioration effect from Far Cry 2. Another interesting thing that happened while using the water gun in a mental echo was that my arms and the gun from the mental echo were transported to the real world and floated in the air. The game resets your weapon slots after each mental echo (at least in the first level), so I was surprised to move after the end of an echo and not seeing my hands move with me. It also looks funny in the echo where you work your way up to the ship. When you have a weapon ready during the standup animation, you get to see 3 hands: two that push you up and one that holds the weapon

You mean the movie when you start a new game? I leave AF off and when I start a new game the movie starts and then I hit esc to skip it. lol At least I do that while I am testing the new numbers. I have US version but they should all be the same. In yours do you have Chronos spinning around on the main menu? lol just kidding Yeah I noticed about the giveall.

With spawning new enemies I don't know how that would affect the pacing of the game. Is there a way for enemies to open doors? Just imagine you just shot two baddies and you take a breath and relax and then BOOM! the door opens just as you were getting ready to walk out. lol I'm pretty sure that is possible. Or even open up the door behind you as you are leaving. It would make the game much better and more intense. Right now it is kind of like Doom 3 where only a couple of enemies are on the screen at one time. Or like on the movie screen when the boss pops out, maybe they could just appear in front or behind you.