We Can’t Remember: A&E

Ring a bell? No? Well then, go back to the first post and you’ll notice it’s the day that WCR:A&E’s website first started. So we may plan something.

Maybe…

FlashK

Go here: http://nekoarcnetwork.com/l4donl4d2/index.html

And ignore my other post.

These guys are really great, doing all this for free, but seriously, if you don’t own Left 4 Dead 1, don’t even bother.

I’m just writing a note on a problem I recently encountered (and fixed).

(Well this works for Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools anyway)

Problem: I’ve added lights to my map, and it runs, except the entire map is bright! I do not want this .

Solution: Well for a start, the map is in what is called ‘fullbright’. This is because there is a leak in the map where the emptiness in hammer is somehow connected to your map, ie. a hole. You need to find it and fill it in. Then it should work. If it doesn’t, type in ‘mat_fullbright 0′ and see whether the map changes lighting. if not, then I don’t know yet.

Basically, read this.

However, if you are having the problem the guy has, then your PC may not be powerful enough to run with lights or something…

-FlashK

I’m just writing this quickly for mappers like myself. I’ve always been told, “If you can’t find the answer on the Internet, and you know it, let the world know”… or something like that. Anyway, just a few mapping notes.

1. Making double doors is easy. Just add two doors and give them the same entity name. Hammer automatically links them together. Does not apply to func_door doors, ie. brush doors. (Prop doors are fine). On the other hand, you can make a brush door emit an output to make the other brush door open at the same time. Example: I have two sliding doors. One is called ‘door01′ and the other is ‘door02′. I can create an output in ‘door01′ to make the otehr door open with it. Output: Open, Target: door02, OnInput: Open. This will make both doors open at the same time! (Yipee!)

2. func_conveyor is fun to use. But although it pushes players, it will not make the brush animated or move props. Sorry, but you gotta do somethings yourself. I believe there may be some conveyorbelt-based textures and I will look into those at a later date. Try using trigger_push too.

3. func_precipitate replaces the old func_snow, func_rain etc. Although for me, snow doesn’t work. Fix Please? If you’re having a problem, it is because some engines do not use snow. For example, Half-Life 2 will not generate snow whereas Half-Life 2: Episode 1 does, when it is used in the Borealis. Just make sure that in an engine that does use it, you set the precipitation type to ‘Snowfall’ rather than ‘Snow’ (because snow is obsolete – HL1?), and set the brush texture to ‘particle/snow’ or something like that. Don’t ask why just do it.

-FlashK

Scrap all of that, go here: http://nekoarcnetwork.com/l4donl4d2/index.html

Welcome to an (hopefully) useful guide on how to play Left 4 Dead 1 maps and custom maps in Left 4 Dead 2, virtually error free!

First off a couple of thing:

• You MUST own Left 4 Dead 1. Or at least all the models/textures/sounds/etc.
• You should have at least 7 GB of free space.
• For the optional bits you should know what the console is and how to type stuff into it.

With that out the way, here’s the low down.

Step 1:

Windows 7 and Vista: Navigate to ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead’.

Windows XP: Navigate to ‘C:\Program\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead’.

This is your Left 4 Dead 1 files folder, and we’ll be copying things from here.

This also assumes that your default drive is C. If it isn’t you probably know how to find that folder anyway.

Step 2:

Windows 7 and Vista: Also Navigate to ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons’

Windows XP: Also Navigate to ‘C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons’

This is where you’ll be copying files to.

Step 3:

In this folder create a new folder named ‘Left4Dead1′

Or anything else really, the name doesn’t matter.

Step 4:

Go back to your ‘Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead’ folder and select the following:

• The ‘maps’, ‘material’, ‘missions’, ‘models’, ’scripts’ and folders
• ALL .vpk extension files.

Copy these over the the ‘Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons\Left4Dead1′ folder you made in Step 2.

This is a crucial step. Without these files any Left4Dead1 maps will turn out all pink and black and have errors lying around.

This step does take a while, it’s a heck of a lot of files.

Step 5:

In ‘Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons\Left4Dead1′ you will need to create a ‘addoninfo.txt’

In this text file, you will need to put the following.

“AddonInfo”
{
addonSteamAppID         500                                                     // 500 is the app ID for Left 4 Dead
addontitle              “Left 4 Dead 1″                                      // Add-on title that shows up in Add-ons list. ~20 chars max
addonversion            1                                                    // Version number of add-on version of the form <major>.<minor>
addontagline            “Left 4 Dead 1 Maps”                 // Add-on tagline or wrap-up- a short description. ~100 chars max
addonauthor             “Valve”                                                 // Name/alias of the author
addonSteamGroupName     “”                                        // (Optional) Steam group related to the add-on. We use this to construct a URL to the group page.
addonauthorSteamID      “”                                            // (Optional) Steam ID of author. We use this to construct a URL to the author’s page.
addonContent_Campaign   1                                                          //This addon provides muliple connected maps with a finale
addonURL0               “”  //An html home page for the add-on that includes a download link.

// short description that appears in the Add-on list screen…
addonDescription        “Left 4 Dead 1 Maps.”
}

This let’s Left 4 Dead 2 read the files as an addon.

Step 6:

Fire up the game and play!

Hopefully if you’ve follow these steps ( and the guide isn’t wrong) you can play the Left 4 Dead 1 maps!

By extension, if you put any Left 4 Dead 1 custom campaigns in the Left 4 Dead 2 Addon folder, they will also have working textures and models.

Optional Things to do:

Have some sounds:

• Go into your ‘Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\sound’
• Select the ‘animation’, ‘npcs’ and ‘plats’ folders
• Copy these files over to your ‘Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons\Left4Dead1′ folder
• Start up Left 4 Dead 2 and open the console
• Type’ snd_rebuildaudiocache’
• This will cause Left 4 Dead 2 to start going through all your sounds and recompiling the audio cache needed for music to play. It will look like it’s loading a map.
• After the ‘loading’ is done, you’ll have alt+tab out of the game to close down Left4Dead2 from the task manager.
• Now you should have some more sounds in the maps! (Although some stuff still doesn’t work).

Some bugs and annoyances:

• Sometimes maps will use the original Left 4 Dead 1 common models. These don’t have such great limb decapitation, and some textures are extremely bright and colourful. I have no idea how to fix that.
• The finale triggers will still glow and work, but no sound will play. Therefore, press the trigger once, and then wait until it starts to glow again to set off the finale.
• The Crash Course generator button will not work. You’ll just have to pretend to be in that truck…
• Some sounds may still be missing from the map even after the option step, you’ll just have to grim and bear it. (Or if you have more knowledge than me, tell me how to do it )
• Sometimes in campaigns intros, you will have control of your character but not be able to move the mouse, or your view will be stuck half way in the ground. This is temporary and will be fixed as soon as the intro stops.
• Your view may also be stuck in the ground during finales, this again is normal.
• There will be no new weapon spawns. That means no melee weapons, no new guns, no bile bomb, no ammo packs, no defibrillators, no adrenaline etc… However all Special Infected will still work, and if you have the pre order bat, you’ll sometimes find it laying near piles of ammo, and with the starting weapons.
• I have no idea if this will work on-line, technically it could.

Well that’s it! Go kill some zombies!