The Firearms F.A.Q.

[Evil Superstar]

This F.A.Q. offers a comprehensive list of common questions, problems and lot's of extra's for the Firearms mod. Written for both the seasoned veteran as for the people unfamiliar with the mod, this FAQ aims to offer answers to a broad range of questions about every aspect of the game.

F.A.Q. CONTENTS

GENERAL

What is Firearms? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6023&postcount=2)
What do I need to play Firearms? Where do I get Firearms? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6023&postcount=3)
What are all the skills and what do they do? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6024&postcount=4)
Which weapons are there, which ones are the best, do the most damage, etc..
What are the controls?
How do I use the mortars?
How do I parachute? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6028&postcount=8)
Help, I can't tell the teams apart!
Will there be a new update for FA?
Will Firearms be released for Half Life 2? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6023&postcount=11)
The History of Firearms
About the people behind Firearms.
Who or what is the Menkey? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6034&postcount=14)
Is there a Firearms IRC channel? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6035&postcount=15)




SUPPORT

How do I install Firearms?
I get a "client dll differs from server" error. What do I do? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6037&postcount=17)
What are all those 0kb files in my half life folder? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6038&postcount=18)
How do I improve my framerate?
How do I improve my network connection?
My problem isn't on the list!




CUSTOMIZING

MODELS AND SKINS

Where can I find custom models? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6042&postcount=22)
How do I install custom models? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6043&postcount=23)
How can I alter the skins of the models? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6044&postcount=24)
How do I reorigin my models?
How can I convert a model from other mods?
How can I create a model for firearms?
How do I create a mesh?
How do I animate?
How do I make renders?
How do I compile my models?




SPRITES AND SOUNDS

Where can I find custom sprites and sounds?
What does what in the sprite folder?
How do I make my own crosshairs?
How do I make my own sounds?




MAPS

Where can I find custom maps?
How do I make a map?




BOTS

What bots are there for firearms?
How do I install Marine bot?
How does Marine bot work?
All about waypoints.




CODING

How do I bind keys to actions, sentences, sounds, etc. ?
How do I change the premade configurations?
How do I change the command menu?





CLANS AND LEAGUES

What leagues are there currently for firearms?
I want to join a clan, who is looking for members?
I want to start a clan, what do I do?
What are the active clans and where do I find them?




SERVERS

I've been banned from a server. What do I do? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6069&postcount=49)
I want to report a cheaters, exploiter, etc.. How would I do that? (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6070&postcount=50)
How can I have my own server?




F.A.Q. RELATED

Credits and thanks (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6072&postcount=52)
F.A.Q. notes (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showpost.php?p=6073&postcount=53)

[Evil Superstar]

Firearms is a modification of Valve Software's computer game, Half-Life. It’s a multiplayer only game that focuses on teamplay and as the name suggest, firearms. Firearms is a semi realistic mod which contains a lot of innovative ideas and features, which gives FireArms a distinctive unique feel among the HL mod scene.

Main features:

30 weapons, with various custom add ons, realistic animations, realistic reloading system, easy to use bipod system and a unique useable mortar system.
Innovative skill system, no restrictive classes, gain new skills while you progress in the match: you decide if you want to be a marksman, medic, stealthy spec op or a jack of all trades.
Reinforcements, firearms was one of the first games to have the number of spawns depended on a team specific reinforcement pool, which doesn't force players to wait after he has been killed, but still make every death count!
A wide range of maps, maps vary from hectic close quarter combat frenzy to city wide tactical urban combat, fight in nearly every climate and continent.
Parachutes, spawn in style with these controlable parachutes!
Various Objectives, Firearms offers several types of play: from push type to search and destroy, from territorial control to team death match!

[Evil Superstar]

To be able to play Firearms you'll need:


A valid Half-Life key: still widely available in stores around the world for a very small price
Steam: Valve (http://www.valvesoftware.com/)'s content delivery system. Available for free at www.steampowered.com (http://www.steampowered.com/)
The latest Firearms installer which you can find here:

Filefront (http://files.filefront.com/Firearms_RC_30_Windows_Full/;3847337;;/fileinfo.html)
Ausgamers (http://www.ausgamers.com/files/browsegame/html/1/573)
vgpro (http://files.vgpro.com/file/1290/)
Gamearena (http://www.gamearena.com.au/files/details/html/16265)
Pexgames (http://www.pexgames.com/filebase/?act=dir_browser&id=158)
Fileplanet (http://www.fileplanet.com/52029/50000/fileinfo/FireArms-v3.0-Full-Client)
Filecloud (http://www.filecloud.com/files/file.php?file_id=1543)
Fileshack (http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=3857)
3d Downloads (http://www.3ddownloads.com/telefragged/tacsim)
Gamespot (http://dlx.gamespot.com/pc/halflife/moreinfo_6122519.html)
famod.de (http://famod.ngz-network.de/filebase_details.php?file_id=27916&download=yes)
OmegaForte (http://www.omegaforte.xnhosting.net/firearms_v30_full.exe)
www.tacsim.com (http://www.tacsim.com/downloads/firearms/)


It's also recommended to install the latest version of the popular anti cheat software Cheating Death (http://tx2.us.unitedadmins.com/index.php?p=content&content=cd) which is often used and sometimes even required on Firearms servers.



Firearms system requirements
There are no official system requirements for this game, but due to heavy modifications the standard minimum requirements for Half Life no longer apply.

However: a fairly modern processor and graphics card should run the mod in an acceptable way. A broadband internet connection is highly recommended.

Also note that in order to run Valve's Steam you'll need

Minimum System Configuration

* 1.2 GHz Processor
* 256MB RAM
* DirectX 7 capable graphics card
* Windows 2000/ XP / ME / 98
* Mouse
* Keyboard
* Internet Connection


Preferred System Configuration

* 2.4 GHz Processor
* 512MB RAM
* DirectX 9 capable graphics card
* Windows 2000/ XP/ ME/ 98
* Mouse
* Keyboard
* Internet Connection


- Thanks to Somedude (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=22) for his contribution

[Evil Superstar]

Marksmanship (Marksmanship I, Marksmanship II)
Marksmanship will increase your accuracy with any weapon in the game. The first level skill, Marks I, only gives you a +1 boost, but Marks II gives you a +2 boost for a total of +3. Long-range firing with standard assault rifles can be greatly augmented by using the marksmanship skills. Marksmanship will also allow the use of a scope on the .44 Anaconda and the M14.

Nomenclature
Nomenclature is your proficiency with guns. Using this skill, you can reduce your reload time by 25%. This is a helpful skill to use if you're only wielding one weapon (with no backups).

Battlefield Agility
Battlefield Agility allows you to fall from any height and not break your leg. It also cuts your fall damage by about 50% and allows going to and getting up from prone much faster than normal.

Stealth
Soldiers who have the stealth skill can equip silencers to certain weapons (Beretta 92, Uzi, MP5 and M4) using the alt-fire key. Their footstep sounds are also greatly reduced, almost to the point where you cannot hear them at all. Also, laying claymore mines makes no sound at all, and your damage with the knife is doubled. And lastly, if you capture a push point when you have the stealth skill, no trumpet sound will be broadcast to the players.

Artillery (Artillery I, Artillery II)
Artillery I allows the firing of any mortar built by your team, and allows you to plant and call artillery flags. Artillery II allows you to build and dismantle mortars. In addition to mortars, any Arty I user will automatically have a grenade launcher attached to their M-16 or AK-74. These attached grenade launchers are free, and thus do not cost any extra credits.

First Aid (First Aid, Field Medicine)
Soldiers who go this route are medics and have special medic symbols painted on their helmets. They receive several free bandages on spawn.

Level 1 First Aid skill allows the player to heal up to 15 health to themselves and teammates (can only be done once per life on each player), give bandages to teammates, plant a medic flag to mark their location, treat cuncussion effects on teammates hit with a cuncussion grenade and heal wounded soldiers on the ground. Healing wounded soldiers on the ground gives the medic 1 frag when they are level 1 First Aid. Healing a teammate gives the medic 0.5 frags, and bandaging a teamate gives the medic 1 frag.

Level 2 First Aid (Field Medicine) allows the player to heal up to 30 health to themselves and teammates (can only be done once per life on each player) and mend broken legs on themselves and teammates. Field Medicine players can also do all the skills from level 1 First Aid, and they receive the same bonus frags for doing each (except for the exception below).

An important note here: Medics with First Aid who treat wounded soldiers lying on the ground will receive 1 frag. Medics with Field Medicine who treat wounded soldiers lying in the open will MEDEVAC their patient, receiving 1 frag and giving their team 1 reinforcement. If they do this indoors, they will only receive the frag. MEDEVACING a wounded player will actually bring a helicopter to lower a stretcher and pick up the wounded player, giving a nice visual effect.

Medics heal others by walking up to them and using the skill. If no one is in front of the medic, the medic himself is the default target of his skills. All treatment options require the use of 1 bandage. If a player needs health and a broken leg fixed, the first use of the medic skill on them will heal them, and the second use will mend their broken leg. You can bring up the medic skill options by setting a button in the CONTROL menu to bring up the skills menu. Advanced users can also bind 1 key which acts as the medic skill button.

Leadership
New to FA leadership skill since FA 2.8 is the battlefield information. Bind a key to this feature in your CONTROLS menu. When you press and HOLD this key, you can see an overlay of all the map objectives, their current status and distance, as well as the current location and distance of all your teammates. This really gives a leadership user a firm grasp of what the battle is like, and allows them to plan out strategies for their team.

Leadership also gives you a special skin that ID's you as the team's commander. In addition, you have an increased set of voice/radio commands.

Source: the Firearms manual By Hitman & Graham Davis.

- written by ville (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=128)

[Evil Superstar]

One of Firearms' main attractions are obviously the weapons. These are neatly devided into several catogaries. Now obviously, part of the fun is to find out which weapons suits you best, so no spoilers here.

Melee

Combat knife
ammo: none
credits: 0 (starting weapon)

While it's limited to up close and personal combat only it can be quite deadly in the right hands! Comes completly free and can be used endlessly.



Handguns

Colt model 1911
ammo: 4/5 mags of .45 ACP
credits: 4

While the Colt only has 7 bullets per magazine, it does pack quite a punch and it's rate of fire is more than respectable.


Beretta 92Fs
ammo: 4/5 mags of 9mm Parabellum
credits: 4

The Beretta is your basic sidearm: 15 bullets per magazine, decent power and it can be equiped with a suppressor. Not a bad weapon, but needs a bit of practice to excel with.


Beretta 93R
ammo: 4/5 mags of 9mm Parabellum
credits: 5

The Beretta 93R is almost like a submachine gun in pistol format. Much like the 92Fs it fires 9mm bullets, but with an expanded magazine and a fancy 3 round burst this is a much more dangerous toy.


Colt Anaconda
ammo: 24/30 rounds of .44 Magnum
credits: 4

The Anaconda is the only revolver in the game. While it's powerful and acurate (it can fit a special scope too!) it's slow rate of fire and slow reload makes it a poor choice for close combat.


IMI Desert Eagle
ammo: 4/5 mags of .50 AE
credits: 5

If you want to most bang for your buck, than this is the gun for you! The .50AE offers a lot of power, but also brings greater recoil with it. A deadly weapon if you can keep it under control.

[Evil Superstar]

still nothing here

[Evil Superstar]

yeah nothing here either

[Evil Superstar]

This is simple. Hit your "use" key in midair if you have a parachute equipped. After you have succesfully landed with the parachute press "use" key again to ditch the used chute so it won't slow you down.

The use key is usually "e", but you can change this inside of the Firearms options. Go to Options and then go to Controls, and then find where the use key is listed and set it to whatever key you want.


- written by ville (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=128)

[Evil Superstar]

you guessed it, nothing here

[Evil Superstar]

NO

wow, almost
will make it a bit more interesting ... eventually

[Evil Superstar]

To quote AlejandroDaJ:


**firearms On Source**
... will not happen. Period. No FA2.


The Firearms team has decided to move on and work on something new and improved. If you will World at War might be called the follow up mod to FA, but any similarities end there. Other FA teammembers are working on other mod(s), there will be however no Firearms on source.

-edit- Currently at this time, the WaW and FA teams are taking a very aggressive stance towards use of the Firearms name, or code, for another mod. We are NOT authorizing the use of the name Firearms Mod for any other teams to use at this time. -SWATJester

[Evil Superstar]

Firearms was originally implemented on quake1 engine by Caspar Milan and Christian Øelund. It consisted of new guns and possibility to play multiplayer maps on single player (if I remember correctly). Here is a clip of their still functioning homepage (http://www.planetquake.com/firearms/).

FireArms for Quake is about guns, because that's what we love. It will feature so many guns that, you'll think it's impossible and if that's not enough, you are able to combine them with a simple menu. You can choose different ammunition types, suppressors, laser sights, reddot sights, scopes and much more. It's the most realistic weapon modification ever made.

- written by ville (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=128)

[Evil Superstar]

filler

[Evil Superstar]

http://users.pandora.be/JorisJ/brol/menkey.gif

The menkey is the official mascotte of the Firearms mod.

[Evil Superstar]

The official Firearms channel is #firearms on irc.gamesurge.net

Also try the sister channel, #fa_admin, which is also the place to go if you have any issues with these forums.

More info on how to use IRC can be found here (http://www.mirc.com/irc.html).

[Evil Superstar]

so this will take a while I suppose

[Evil Superstar]

Make sure you are using the correct version of Firearms. If you aren't sure, download the latest version (currently 3.0) from http://www.firearmsmod.com and reinstall it. Make sure the server you are connecting to is on the same version you are, i.e. you aren't trying to connect with version 3.0 to a 2.5 classic server. Finally, if all else fails, uninstall and reinstall HL, redownload 3.0 and give it a clean install, and try again.

[Evil Superstar]

This is a known bug in FA for a few versions, with little to do against it.

There are however a number of .bat files out there that will clean them for you.

You can either find one of these files or make them yourself by opening a new page in notepad and type:


del *.


Save as something.bat

when you place this into your half life folder it will delete anything in there without an extension.



Alternatively you can go to the half life folder, set your display mode on "detail" and then sort on "size", which will group all those files together, and thus easier to delete.

[Evil Superstar]

place your computer in a 45° angle so the bits flow a bit faster

[Evil Superstar]

Modest Genius wrote a netcode guide (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showthread.php?t=546) some time ago. While it might be obsolete in some points it still very useful.

[Evil Superstar]

oh noes

[Evil Superstar]

Due to circumstances the only place at this moment would be this part (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21) of the forum

[Evil Superstar]

Usually custom models are packed inside of either a rar or zip archive. You need a program like Winrar or Winzip to extract the content of the archive.

Inside the archive there will be at least one *.mdl file. It can also contain a readme for credits (*.txt,*.doc), custom sounds (*.wav) and alternative skins (*.bmp) for the model for the people who know how to insert them into a precompiled model.

*.mdl files goes into ../Steamapps/your@email/half-life/firearms/models folder
*.mdl files goes into../Steamapps/your@email/half-life/firearms/models/player/red1(or blue1) folder in case it is a player model.
*.wav files goes into ../Steamapps/your@email/half-life/firearms/sound/weapons folder

It is recommended that you make back-ups of the files you are going to replace.


- written by ville (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=128)

[Evil Superstar]

Easiest way is to download program called Jed's Half-Life Model Viewer (http://www.wunderboy.org/3d_games/utils/hlmv.php), install it, open a model file in it and go to the textures tab. There you will find a drop-down menu which will contain all the texturemaps the model is using. Select the map you want to edit, press the extract texture button and save the texturemap onto your hard drive.

Then open your image editing software and alter the skin they way you want. After the editing save your new texturemap as 256-bit .bmp file. It is also important that you do not play with width and height of the texturemap, otherwise the model viewer will not accept the new texturemap.

Open up Jed's Half-Life Model Viewer, go to the textures tab and select the same texture map from the drop-down menu you exported earlier but this time press the Import texture button and select the texturemap you altered. After that is done, you should see your new texture applied onto the model. Now you should save the model by going to File > Save Model As...

- written by ville (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=128)

[Evil Superstar]

If you're conversion/new model/what ever looks funny in-game, and by funny, i mean the gun is either too low, too high, too much on the side, too far ahead or too far back... or just doesn't show up, the the origins are dodgy. In which case, use Modest Genius' reorigin tutorial:

load the model into HLMV (enhanced or Jeds)

go to the origin tab

play about with the settings until you find one you like, and make a note of them

decompile the model

open the .qc file

after $cliptotextures, add a line that reads:
$origin x y z
where x y and z are the numbers you got from before

recompile

done

- written by author unknown

[Evil Superstar]

This is a short but COMPLETE tutorial. I take for granted that you KNOW how to operate a keyboard and mouse! (Therefore, CS noobs this tutorial is NOT for you!

Step 1: Choose your model carefully.

Essentially, this is so you don't replace a machine gun with say, a pistol! Looks very bad, and the anims would be very weird. Well.. not so much as the anims, but the feeling of it ingame is enough throw you off.

Replacing an assault rifle with a submachine gun is ok
(and vice versa),
Shotguns for shotguns,
Pistols for pistols,
etc.

Also, when you download a custom model, say.. from CS-skins.net, check with the author before you release. They worked hard on their models. Don't just give them credit in the .txt file. EMAIL THEM!

Step 2: Check the animations.

Some mods have more anims then others for their weapons. But usually, all mods that have guns have idle, reload and firing anims. So unless the mod is very different, there shouldn't be any problems.

What to do:
-Open the model that you want to replace in FA with HL MODEL VIEWER
-Write down each name of every anim for that weapon in a .txt file. This is important, you'll need the names later on.
-Open model from other mod in HLMV.
-Check it's animation's names.

If the anims match(very rarely), your done! All you gotta do is take the model from the other mod's /model folder (or .pak file) and put in the firearms/model folder. No recompiling necessary

Step 3: If the anims DO NOT match (more anims, other anim names, etc)

What to do:
-Copy the new model into another folder
-Open Milkshape 3D
-Decompile the model via Tools<Half-life<Decompile normal HL .mdl file
-Leave ALL of the boxes CHECKED.

This will "unzip", if you like. the .mdl file into the folder it currently is into several files. (.smd, .bmp and .qc)

-Open the .qc file with NOTEPAD.

At the bottom of the .qc file, you will see something like this:
Code:

$sequence animation1 "animation" loop fps 30 ACT_IDLE 1


$sequence:
animation1: This is the name .smd file containing the animation.
"animation":This is the name of the anim as it appears inside HLMV.
Loop doesnt really matter unless it is an IDLE animation, an animation that can be played over and over again (like the breathing of the player model when its not moving)

Since the name in between the " " 's don't match the ones from the FA model you want to replace, you have to rename them.
(Thats why i asked you to write down the names of the anims from the FA model your replacing in the first place!)

Step 4: Renaming

What to do:

-Rename the anims that fit the FA ones the most by changing the name between the " " 's.

Like, if the model from the other mod as a single "idle" anim, and the FA model's idle anim is called "idle1"... well.. add the 1! DUH!
And as i said before, some models from other mods have different number of anims.

If it as MORE animations, there's no problem.
FA simply doesn't use the excess ones. You could delete the lines in the .qc file, but it would still work perfectly.

If it as LESS, then there is a problem:

Some of the FA anims are unique... but can be copied!
Most notably is the reload_empty animation is the major problem in converting weapon models. FA as 2 reloads. 1 for if the weapon still has a bullets in the magazine, and 1 for when the gun is completely empty, thus, it will not only reload, but recock the gun as well.

What to do:
-In the .qc file, copy the whole line of the "normal" reload anim and paste it after all the others.
-Rename it to reload_empty

Your model will now have 2 anims that are exactly the same, but will make it work in FA.
If there are any other anims that are missing, repeat this process with the most appropriate anims:

Like, if a model as a single "idle" anime and FA as "idle1", "idle2 and "idle3", copy the idle anims 3 times and rename them!

But if the new model has, let's say, "shoot1" and "shoot2", and your replacing a model with just a "shoot" anim, well then, pick one of them! And rename it to "shoot".

After this, don't forget to save the file!

Step 5: re-compiling
This is easy...honest!

What to do:
-in Milkshape 3D, go to Tools<Half-Life<compile .qc file
-Select the .qc file you just edited (of the new model, duh!)
-Press ok.
-Let her rip!

If all goes well, you'll have a brand new .mdl file. Check it's animation's name and compare them to the FA weapon you want to convert and see if its all right.
The ORDER in which the anims are in does not affect FA in anyway.
Afterwards, copy the new .mdl file in your firearms/models folder and you're set!

PROBLEMS you might encounter:

If the model is misaligned ingame, use this tutorial to correct it.

It's the best way.. trust me.. i know...

There are also tons of problems that can occur during compile.
IF you didn't do ANYTHING but rename the .qc file and you get an error during the compile, it might be that you mispelled something.
Check the .qc file again.

Ending statement
I made this tutorial to increase the visual quality of FA.
I DO NOT SUPPORT MODEL RIPPING IN ANY FORM.
So please don't do it! ok?
Got problems?
TRY STUFF BEFORE YOU POST HERE! Trying is the god damn best way to learn stuff.

It's late.. i need coffee!..

-------
BP's "How To Convert a Model" tut 102
-------

Ok class, listen up. 101 was just to show you how to make a direct conversion with the .mdl file.

Now i'm still filled with alchool right now, and im writing this on the top of my head so.. yeah.

In this class, 102, you'll learn how to do a FULL conversion of a weapon from another mod into FireArms, which means you'll have lots of recompiling to do, and loads of bone assignement to do also, but you'll be able to use use your weapon with the FA arms.

What you will need for this tutorial
Half-Life model viewer

Milkshape 3D
(Any version will work, but since 1.6.0, it has a new .mdl decompiler plugin which doesn't fuck up animations anymore.. which is uber good! )

The model you want to convert.
The model you will replace.

Step 0: model check
First off all, like in class 101, i told you to carefully choose the model you want to convert, as not every model can be converted without reanimating it.

Obviously, you don't want to convert your "1337" Desert Eagle model from CS to replace the M60!

Pistols replace pistols
SMGs replace SMGs
Rifles replace Rifles
HMGs replaces HMGs

and so on, but it doesn't work that way.

Now, you may ask why not replace the Sterling with a P90 for example. Well the simple fact of the matter is:
HAND PLACEMENT
You do NOT hold a Sterling the same way you hold a P90. And since this tutorial is to convert models WITHOUT reanimating, well you need a model that is held almost the same way that the original FA model is held. So replacing the MP5 with a UMP.45 would work for example.

Another thing to consider in choosing your model, is what key parts does the weapon have. By this, i mean the magazine, cocking handles, and bolts for rifles. This is the reason why you cannot convert a SIG 552 to replace the SSG 3000, since the SIG uses a cocking handle rather then a bolt.
If the model you want convert has the same things as the model you want to replace, you're good right?

Well you're not out of the woods yet! WHERE the things are located. If your model for example uses a LEFT handed bolt, or if the cocking handle is further away along the receiver.. well you're outta luck for this model.

Now, for this tutorial, i will use my Counter-Strike AWP replacement model for the SSG 3000 if and when a more detailed example is needed. But keep in mind, im simply using my conversion as an example, and that the principles behind the conversion is the same for almost every conversion.


Step 1: Setting up your working environment
This may seem like trivial step, but it's important.. trust me on this one.

First off, make a new folder (like c:\models\ to keep it short)
Inside that folder, make another folder called \old\. This ensures that the files do not overwrite themselves during decompiling.. and makes everything more clean!

Now, copy the v_model you want to convert (the one from the other mod) into the \old\ folder.
Then copy the model you want to replace into the c:\models\ folder.

So when i did my AWP conversion, i put the v_awp.mdl file in the \old\ folder, and the v_ssg.mdl into the c:\models\ folder.

Step 2: Decompiling the models
You'll need to decompile both the model you want to convert, and the model you want to replace.

1- Open Milkshape 3D
2- Go to the Tools menu < Half-Life < "Decompile normal HL .mdl file"
3-Browse to where the model you want to convert is, and press ok.
4- Keep everything checked.
5- Press OK
6-Repeat same procedure for the model you want to replace.

Step 3: "Cutting the fat"
This is where you take out all off the unnecessary parts off the model you want to convert. By this, i mean the arms and the bones.

1- Still in MS3D, go to FILE < import < Half-Life SMD
2- Select the REFERENCE .smd file for the model you want to convert and open it. Uncheck the SKELETON box.

The name of the .smd file is usually named something other then an animation name. (for example: Not idle.smd or reload.smd)
If you still don't know, well then try each and everyone of the .smd files. If a message box pops up saying:

"Append Keyframes at current time?", well thats not it. It's an animation file. Press NO, and keep searching until the message box:
"SMD IMPORT" comes up.

3- Now that your model is all up, go to the GROUPS tab in the Top right of MS3D
4- Click on every item that says things like "Arms", "Fingers", "thumbs", and press delete for each of them.

If you're not sure which ones to delete, just click SELECT, and the groups will be highlighted in red in the viewports.

6- Then go the MATERIALS tab
7- Select the materials that are put on the hands, arms, thumbs.. basically all the materials used on the groups you deleted just before and press the DELETE button also.
8- Save the model (like weapon.ms3d should do)

Now you have a nice weapon model to fiddle with! Yay!

Step 4: Triming the old model
Repeat the same procedure as in Step 3, but this time, you'll delete everything BUT the arms AND the skeleton.

1- Still in MS3D, go to FILE < import < Half-Life SMD
2- Select the REFERENCE .smd file for the model you want to convert and open it. RECHECK the SKELETON box.
3- Do as in Step 3, but delete the weapon model instead.
4- Also delete the materials for the old weapons.
5- Save ("new.ms3d" should do)

Now you got nothing but the arms AND skeleton.

Step 5: Putting it all together
Now it's time to put 2 and 2 together and do some magic!
(Does it reeeeally show im full of beer right now? )

Copy the weapon.ms3d file AND it's textures to the c:\models\ folder.

With the arms still loaded up in MS3D, proceed as such:

1-Go to the FILE menu < Merge
Now your arms have something to hold onto!

2- Select every group that makes up the weapon
3- Move the gun into position.
This is a tricky manouver and as such, it's quite normal that this tutorial isn't meant for complete newbies. It's also why i told you to choose your models wisely. This is the time where you can see if the conversion is possible, with a minimal loss of realism.( Ie: The arms don't clip in the weapon too much , and the grips and such as where your arms are,etc)

When your new model is in position with the arms, make sure the scale is right. If the model is too big, rescale it by going to the MODEL tab and pressing the SCALE button. In the 3 XYZ fields below, put in 0.9 OR 1.1 in each of them and press scale. This will scale down OR up your model in slow increments until the size is juuuuuust right!

After thats done, save.

Step 6: "Slap me up Scotty!"
This is the step where you reassign the vertices to the right bones to make everything work!

With the weapon and arms all in place, its time to get ready to recompile. But before you do that, you need to reassign every vertices to their appropriate bone. THIS IS NOT AN EASY STEP.

Watch closely where the bones are (If you don't see them, go to the JOINTS tab and check SHOW SKELETON. It may look like a mess, but you just have to zoom in.(shift+left click and drag)

Now, this is where it gets complicated. You have to select a bone in the JOINTS tab and it will show up red in the viewports.
Then according to that bone, you have to go to the MODELS¸ tab, press the SELECT button, and then the LOWER Vertex button (not the one under ROTATE mind you). Then by dragging selection boxes all over your model, select the vertices that you want to assign to the bone you selected. After all are selected, go back to the JOINTS tab, and press ASSIGN. Now, not knowing exactly which bones does what in the animation, you have to assume what they do. They are usually named differently then the ones used for the arms, or are situated inside the weapon model.

For my AWP conversion, i assigned every vertice of the main body of the gun to one bone, then assigned the vertices of the bolt to another, the bolt hand, the trigger, and the magazine and so on until every vertice is assigned. To check if you did assign every vertice, click on the SELUNASSIGNED button. The ones that aren't assigned will be highlighted red.

Also, to make sure you don't reassign vertices of the hands, go to the GROUP tabs, select the hands, and press HIDE.

You're almost done!

Save your model.

Step 7: "Export this mofo!"
This is where you get ready to compile and actually do it.

1- Go to the FILE menu < Export < Half-Life SMD
2- Overwrite the old reference .smd file.
At this point, if you get this message:
"FOUND VERTEX WITH INVALID BONE ASSIGNEMENT!" , it means you did NOT assign every vertice. Go back, and finish the job.

3- Go to the TOOLS menu < Half-Life < Compile .qc file
4- Select the .qc file for the old weapon model, and let her rip!

VOILA!
YOU'RE DONE!!!!!!!!!
Woot!

Go in your c:\models\ folder and open the .mdl file you just created. Play every animation to see if it all fits well.
If some parts of the mesh are all fucked up and stretched all over the place, it's most likely that you assigned the vertices to the wrong bone. Go back, and reassign them.

Well that's it folks.

- written by ville & blackpanther

[Evil Superstar]

Hello everyone!

You ready to learn how to model low polygon meshes for your favorite game / mod ??

Well this tutorial, uses max 5 and shows you how to model from A to Z. These techniques I used are widely known in the gaming industry. Of course there are better modelers than me, but those ppl aint making the video tuts. I am. So for those interested, head on to my website.

BTW, you wont find only 1 video tut, but 12 of them. So have a good visit everyone.

http://bmc.unrealcodex.org

remember to get Xvid codec, cause the compression is way beyond good.
http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/

Till next time.

- written by vecdran

[Evil Superstar]

http://www.itsabeast.com/xmas/tutorials/skinmeshing/index.htm

http://home.zonnet.nl/g.griesheimer/Unwraptut/unwraptutorial.htm

http://waylon-art.com/uvw_tutorial/uvwtut_01.html

[Evil Superstar]

Now let's NOT begin with the basics, that's where everyone starts, so let's start with the nearly most complex parts, and work our way to a working animation

Assigning:
First you need to have a set of vertices that can be assigned to a set of bones. If your just using a premade bone structure from another model, I advise you to take note, and write down what vertices are assigned to what bones on the original model, before attempting to assign your own vertices, because most bone structures do not have individual bone names describing what they attach to, usually they are just bone01 and so on, not even in order (as is the case with hands/arms). Now if you have all that clear, and you know which bones need to be assigned to what vertices, then you can set to the tedious task of assigning those vertices to their appropriate bone joint, not difficult stuff, but it can get aggrevating if you select 1 wrong vertice.

Exploring your Bone Structure:
Now if you are making completely new animations, and you don't have a bone structure use, things get more complicated, but in my opinion, this is the BEST way to make your models, because then you know more specifically which bones control which verts. To create a bone structure you will first need to get a general idea in your mind of how you want your animations to function, if its a weapon, you will want it to be in the right hand, so you will want to branch your bone structure from the right palm (wrist) bone right, or if you don't want it to be affected by the arms movment, you will want to make sure it's not connected to any other joints when your initial bone... once you have a general idea on how you want to start, you will want to select the joint you want to branch from (or not, depending on how you want it to function) but generally speaking, let's say we are making a weapon, so we want it to branch from the palm of the hand. Well we know the palm vertices are controlled by the joint in the wrist, so we select "bone48" from the "Joints" tab to select the right hand wrist joint ("bone25" for left wrist), then while your still in the "Joints" tab, make sure that "Show Skelaton" is checked, and with the bone still selected, you will then go back to the "Model" tab, and click on the "Joint" tool, located to the right of the "Extrude" tool, and you will then click some where in your workspace where you want to place this joint, it will be the base joint for the rest of your bone structure. I suggest placing it some where you want most of the weapons action to take place on, so that animations will be easier, so take your animation ideas into consideration when placing this bone. For example if I wanted to make finger twirl animations, I would want to place this bone in the trigger guard, so that it can be rotated by the point where the finger will be. Before continuing make SURE that your bone is properly aligned with the model that you want it to be assigned to, because it will, by default, be created on all the same axis as the joint that it branches from, except the ones you specify by placing it, i.e., clicking on it from a side view will set it as far forward as you want it, and as high up, but it won't set how far over left and right you want it (from the origin) and I suggest taking some time to make sure its accurately lined up with the center of the model your assigning it to or else it will pivot offcenter.
Now with this bone in place, proceed to place another joint and it will branch from the last bone you placed, so unless you want the next bone to be branched from the last bone you made, then remember to reselect your initial bone, or whichever you want to branch from. Continue adding your new bones this way until you think you have all your areas that will have some kind of animated action involved covered, and remember, place the joints where it will hinge from, not in the middle of the object, go back and assign all the appropriate verts to their new bones you made, and your set for the next step.
You will want to save TWO seperate copies of this file, one as a .ms3d work file so you can come back and edit it easily later, and export another as a .smd REFERENCE file, call this file something like ref1.smd or ref.smd, you will be coming back to this file ALOT, so save backups of it in case you overwrite it.

Being a Poser:
Now if you have created a new bone structure, you will have your reference file, thats great... now you need to see your new bone structure in action, so you then need to create a series of "sequences"...
but before we get to the actual animating, you have a problem that must over come... you have to make a reference sequence, no not a reference file, you've done that, but now you have to make a default "pose" that will be the first and last frame of all/most of your animations, and some in between. Now this is the most preliminary of all animation, but its still animation, so keep this in mind, "DO NOT SAVE YOUR FILE!" if you save your file, it will ruin your keyframes, if you want you want to save your work, you must export to a .smd SEQUENCE file, now, to get started, we will want to click the little square at the bottom right called "Anim", this will put you in animation mode and you will no longer be able to select anything but joints, and at this point, if you would like to, you can turn off the "show skelaton" option in the "Jonts" tab, to clear up some viewing space, because you know what bones do what right? The player camera is based roughly above the origin, so you will now have to move those primary arm bones (Bone48 & Bone24) forward in front of it, and you will have to move them to the right some, this is best done through trial and error until you get a feel for where the arms should be, but I suggest first moving them so that the back end of the arm is under the origin, you will also want to drop the arms down below the origin some too... Now to check out how the arms look you must first export your animation sequence to a .smd SEQUENCE file, name it something like "idle.smd" or "idle1.smd" since that will most likely be your first animation, as it is the most simple. Then you must generate a test .qc file easily done by using the milkshape "Tools/Half-Life/Generate .QC File" option from the menu bar, now you will need to edit this .qc file, it's only text so open it with notepad, and set it up to work with your reference file, and your test idle animation, which can be done, by changing the lines:
studio "./reference"
to
studio "(your reference .smd name here)"
and
$sequence seq-name "sequence" loop fps 30 ACT_IDLE 1
to
$sequence "Idle" "(your test idle sequence .smd name here)" fps 30
and assuming you have textures assigned and in 256 colors, you compile this .qc file with either milkshape, or krastitatos external compiler, I suggest the latter of the two. When it compiles it will create a .mdl file of the same name as the .qc file name you generated, and you can then view it in Jed's HLMV, and goto the origins tab, and see where the arms are, and get an idea of where they need to be moved to. When you have the arms in the right position you need to start "posing" the hands and arms into a default holding pose for the weapon, here you just set to work rotating lots of joints in the hand and arm structures, and repositioning the ARMS and the weapon only, do not use the move tool on any hand or finger joints, only rotate them into place. When you finally have it in a decent enough "pose" hit control-a to select all the joints, then hit control-k, as it is your best friend while animating, control-k is the equivilant of control-s, while animating, it saves the positions of the joints, then if it checks out in the origins in Jed's HLMV, and everything seems fine and dandy, your ready to start animating!

Animatezoring:
Now you think your ready to animate huh? Well you are, its exactly what you did to "pose" the shape, except with an added 4th dimension, time, your timeframe scale is located along the bottom of the screen running from the left side, to the right side, next to the "Anim" button, make good friends with this bar, there will come times when you love it, and times when you want to rip off your monitor and shoot it with your .50 BMG leg cannon, but you can't I'm sorry... just make friends with it... explore around and click and drag the little bar back and forth through the time frame, notice it does nothing... and notice the 2 numerical boxes on the right of it, those are also your friends, not as important ones, but they are still your friends, one tells you which numerical frame your on, and the other defines the number of frames to display on the frame bar, since your first animation will most likely be an idle animation I suggest keeping it some where around 30 for a good easily controlled number of frames, and remember this one thing, you cannot pick up and leave off on animations easily, this is something that has to be either done in one sitting, or come back and do it later, because if you close milkshape you have to re import the sequence .smd onto the reference .smd to get access to it, and I will discuss this later, long story short, animations aren't fun to salvage... anyway, continue posing pieces, using control-k to save their transformation geometry at that time frame (very important) until you have made some kind of motion or animation for about half of the time frame, the other half we want it to be going back into position right? So we go back to frame one, hit control-a to select all the joints, then use the animation/copy keyframes option from the menu bar to copy all the joints keyframes from frame 1, thats your "pose" remember? And we wanna go to the last frame, and use the animation/paste keyframes option from the menu bar, the immediately press control-K to save the last keyframe, now swing the little tracker bar back and forth and make sure your animation checks out, with as little clipping as possible, I know its hard to help it some times, and go back and make your final tweaking adjustments, remembering to press control-K when you change something, and when it all looks good, export it as a .smd SEQUENCE, and compile your .qc to check it out in HLMV... now when you make more animations under different names, you will need to add them to .qc file by copying and modifying the $sequence line from before...

Realising you've screwed up when it's too late: (editting animation)
Now this is difficult but some times we have to do it, so here we go...
First you must load your reference .smd file again, using import, making sure you don't have extra crap already being worked on in your work space, I suggest opening a new file first, then you must load the desired .smd sequence that you want to animate, lets say your idle.smd sequence...
With your .smd sequence apphended to your time frame, when you click the "Anim" button, it should load up the animation, but with some distortion that you must deal with:
-first it will start the sequence at frame moving your frame 1 to frame 3, leaving an annoying extra 2 frames at the beginning of your animation... damn...
-secondly EVERY frame will now be keyframed... even more "damn..." because now things will be nice and difficult to modify...
Solution 1: To fix the extra 2 frames we must put a very useful tool to action, called "reverse animation" under your plugins menu this way your last frame will be put right on frame 1, and the extra 2 useless frames will be at the end where you can cut them out, but FIRST, make SURE your animation time frame bar is set to the same number of frames as the sequence your modifying + 2 for the extra 2, this way your last frame in the sequence is the last frame on the bar, as if you were working on it. Now here's the tricky part, turn off "Anim" mode, and use the reverse animation tool to reverse the animation, and then turn it back on, and your 2 extra frames will be at the end where you can now change the frames to display number back down two (-2) so that those 2 frames are cut off, then exit Anim mode again, and re reverse your animation, and then select all and press control-w to reweld any unwelded vertices during the process, and when you reenter Anim mode, your animation is undistorted by the extra frames! yay! But the other problem... everything being keyframed... sorry there isn't a solution to this other than just going frame to frame and using control-shift-k to UNkeyframe the joints... and I've had to do this for a 320 frame animation it's NOT fun, so let's try to avoid using this section of the tutorial please

H4Xoring with animation!: (tricks and shortcuts)
Now these are just a few tricks I've developed, other than the ones listed above, in the previous sections of the tutorial, so here we go...
-Make your deploy and holster animations in under 5 minutes! This one is easy, you use your "posed" frame as frame 1, then at frame 15 (last frame) you just rotate both arms, Bone48 and Bone24, down so they are out of sight, control-K them, export as holster.smd, then exit Anim mode, use reverse animation, reweld vertices, reenter animation mode, check it to be sure it works, export as deploy.smd sequence... easy huh?
-Use the plugin manager plugin to set keyboard shortcuts for your animation keyframing tools, like I have control-shift-c set to copy keyframes, and control-shift-v to paste keyframes, and I find it useful to start all animations, except deploy and holster, and multi part reload animations, by pasting the "posed" frame at both the start and end frames and keyframing them, and letting the animation half build itself, by working around the first few frames setting ranges in your animations and letting the keyframes transition themselves back into place, its easy stuff once you get used to it...
-You can splice animations by loading one, then going to the last frame on its sequence and then importing another on top of it, although ms3d doesn't like animations with more than 300 frames...
-Finally, when animating stuff, always do the most complex parts first, like slides coming back and hammers pulling back, because you can set them in the first frame where the weapon is level and flat, but don't set the keyframe, then use copy keyframes (even though you haven't set the keyframe it works) and you can paste it anywhere in the animation and it will rotate or move appropriately according to its parent joints, this is very very useful, as making a slide pull back properly on a moving weapon would be very difficult to animate by hand, remember to make good use of that "posed" frame!

hope this helps at least one person out there.

-written by Ice

[Evil Superstar]

yeah, it's time for my medication, no need to force me into that weird jacket again

[Evil Superstar]

Editing the .qc file

The .qc file contains the compilation instruction for the model. The simplest may to create one is to decompile one from a similar model in the folder where you will be compiling (don't do it somewhere else unless you want to have to change a bunch of folder paths manually.

To edit the .qc file, use "Tools" -> "Half-Life" -> "Edit QC File..." and select the file you want to modify. This should open Notepad. There, you need to make the following changes:

- Look for the keywords "$body group studio" and replace the associated "studio" parameter by the name of the .smd file of you final model (without the extension)

- Just below that, under the "$body group Helmet", make sure the "studio" parameter correctly points to your helmet.smd or what not, (in a lot of cases, there will be a relative path here which may not match your file location, so you will need to correct that)

Once these two changes are done, just save and exit.



Compiling a model

All that is left to do is run the compilation using "Tools" -> "Half-Life" -> "Compile QC File..." to select the .qc file. If everything was done correctly, you should obtain a new .mdl file matching the first line of the .qc file (which you can modify if you want the output to have a different name).



Troubleshooting

If the compilation did not work, check the following common compilation problems:

- Make sure your model's .smd is in the right folder and is correctly referenced in the .qc file

- Try importing your model's .smd in MS3D, and if you are getting errors about loading textures, make sure the texture files assigned are all 256 colour .bmp and are in the compilation folder

-make sure you have all the animations listed in the .qc file in the compilation folded

Important note on player model animations

Because of the way the movement animations (walk, run and crouch-Walk) are done in FA, they do not decompile correctly. If you decompile the animations from an official model and import one of these three in a player model you will see the model moving backwards when you play it. A model compiled with these animations would move forward normally, but would appear to "moonwalk" when going backwards (i.e. the animation would have the legs going forwards even though the entire model is moving backwards).

The solution, however, is quite simple: you need to compile with animations that have been decompiled twice. So all you need to do is compile a model with the inverted animations, decompile the animations from it, and then use these new animation files to correctly compile. Of course, once you have done this once, you can reuse these corrected animations for any other model



if you see something thats wrong, or can add a piece of advice ect





- written by Rapid-Fire

[Evil Superstar]

Due to circumstances the only place at this moment would be this part (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21) of the forum

[Evil Superstar]

your sprites folder should contain 5 types of files:

The 'effects' sprites, things like faexplode1 and the debris sprites. Leave well alone (except replace those horrible explosions)

The 'hud' sprites. These are what show the HUD to u, and include such things as the stamina bar, the ammo counters and the weapon selection sprites

The 'crosshair' sprites. These are not just crosshairs.spr, but also the scope sprites and many custom crosshairs (eg gr-smgxhair.spr)

The weapon txts. These do two things: first of all they tell FA what weapon it is for the purpose of other sprites. This is what the number on the first line does, it tells the 'hud' sprites which weapon to display. (EDIT-no its not, im going to have to update this) Secondly, they tell FA what sprites to use at other times, such as which crosshair to use and which scope to use. The hud.txt does the same sort of thing but for the hud.

Lastly there are special custom sprites, for example if uv got a custom weapon picture or something it will ahve to have its own individual sprite otherwise only one could be used at a time. These would them be referenced in the txts.

- written by Modest Genius

[Evil Superstar]

How to Make Crosshairs

Tools used: Photoshop 7, SpriteWizard

1. Open a new image in Photoshop. Make it 32x32 pixels, mode RGB.

2. Image>Mode>Indexed Color. Palette: Custom. Now you should have a 'Color Table' window with the first two colors being black and white. Enter the colors you will use for your crosshairs (feel free to replace the black and white if you don't need 'em). Make the very last color (in the bottom right corner) something you WILL NOT use in your xhair, you will use it for your background. Here I chose white (#FFFFFF) and green (#00FF00) for my xhair and grey (#555555) for my BG.



3.Fill your whole image with the color you chose as your BG (grey #555555 in my case). Now you get to draw your xhair. Make the the center pixel at 11,11 and use the colors you entered in your custom color table. I usually zoom in at max (1600%) and draw with the pencil tool with a 1pixel brush. Here I'm making mega's xhair. Save as a .bmp 8 bit.



4. Now we need to compile (make your BMP into a usable .spr). For this we'll use SpriteWizard. Get it at http://models.firearmsmod.com/tutor...iles/sprwiz.zip Open up SprWiz.exe. Click Next, then click Browse... Select the .bmp you saved earlier. Click Next, then Next again. Now choose Alphatest (the second one) and click Next. Click Finish and save your crosshair as crosshairs.spr



5. Actually using your xhair. First, go to your 'firearms\sprites\crosshairs\functional' directory. Copy only the .txt files there and paste them in your 'firearms\sprites' directory. Then, copy your own crosshairs.spr to your 'firearms\sprites' directory. You're done!

- written by Funky

[Evil Superstar]

Clear Recording

There are several principles you have to obey in order to get clear sounding high
quality sound effects. Make sure you have alot of time and are well rested once
you start working meticulously on your hard and software settings. Getting your
equipment to produce noise free recordings and find appropriate sound motives
are the hardest part. Once you got everything setup correctly (write down all
settings!) you can work efficiently.


This signal has been recorded too silent. Alot
of noise will appear when the volume is being increased (which has to be
done).

You should start with checking your audio equipment. You should use an allround
condenser microphone (i.e. AKG C 1000, Audio Technica 4033, Neuman U98).
You need to get a wind shield / plosive protection as well. You can also
make a tentative one using a stocking and a coat hanger (yep, you heard
right). You should make sure your cables and plucks are fully functional.
Once this is done you have to minimize static noise. Therefore test your
mixer settings (mute all analog inputs that you're not recording from) and
make some test recordings to balance the mic input level/analog input level
proportion. Do all your recordings in 44khz, 16bit and always store the
original recordings (i.e. once you got several ones recorded, burn them
on CD or make dat backups). After you made a backup of the original sound
open the work version of the sound and start optimizing it. Mute areas that
are supposed to be silent but contain static noise. Make sure you don't
cut off vital signal data and listen to the area that you selected before
you mute it.


Perfect recorded signal: the waveform takes more than half of the wave window vertically and the signal peaks don't touch the vertical window borders which avoids clipping.

There will arise hard ends where you muted the noise. Remove those hard ends by fading in/out respecitvely. After that adapt the volume of the whole sound
by i.e. normalizing to the peak (=amplify the sound til the highest peak
reaches 0db). Now you have a good sound for your archive (you also should
store this one). Now you can play around with the sound and start seriously
working with it. Don't change the sampling rate or bitrate of your sound
unless you have completely finished the work on it (to keep up good filter/effect
quality). Also keep in mind to first convert the sample rate and after that
the bitrate if you have to (i.e. for Half-Life).

This part is the most work intensive one. You will spend alot of time solving hard
and software problems when you are doing soundeffects engineering. Don't
let a problem discourage you as there always is a solution. Just post
your requests on the BBS or email me directly.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Basics Of Sound Design

To create atmospheric soundeffects, you need to keep several basic rules in mind. You have to do lots of experimental work. Record household and everyday's live sounds. Use any sound editing software and play around with effect and filter presets. Combine them. If you get a suitable sound that sounds similar to what you need then save this file and try around with this sound until you get closer and closer to your goal. If the filter presets cannot give you what you need in order to make the sound perfect then try not using any filter presets. Take the filter that comes closest to what you are thinking of and change the filter settings by hand. If you find what you want then save the setting using a telling name.

In order to be able to remeber all different steps and filters you used to make i.e. a proper gunshot write them down. You will be very disappointed if you need such a sound again and have to do all the work once more and from the very beginning.

In order to create sounds that gain atmosphere you will need to see the object you have to set to sound. Get as much information on the project as possible. Think about it and try to activate all your imagination. The more detailed the whole plot and gaming atmosphere is in your mind the better will be the sounds you create. You may even want to get alphas of the game with the working model already implemented. So you can use a map from the mapper of your TC and put in the brandnew high energy weapon sound you just made. You will be able to decide about the quality of the sound yourself, you will feel it.

Record the sounds in 44100 hz, 16bit format and then sample them down to 22050 hz using an alias filter in order to prevent a alteration of the sound. Use the proper soundformat from the very beginning. People later wont hear the cool high quality 16 bit 44khz stereo sound in the game. They will only be able to hear the soundformat Half-Life's sound engine is using. B)

- written by PrimeSuspect

[Evil Superstar]

why did I came up with so many questions? D:

[Evil Superstar]

Heyas everybody. I've been lurking the forums for quite a while now, and after a little problem with my registration, I'm finally showing my face.

Anyways, I thought I'd make an introduction by putting together a list of common questions I've seen here over the time, and some more. I'll be adding up to this as they pop up.

Anyways...

Currently covered:

Why doesn't my map have any reinforcements?
My map is huge. Why does it get clipped off after a while?
How do I put a sky in my map?
How do I make water?
How do I make a ladder?
How do I make glass?
How do I make grass? Fences? Camo nets?
How do I put ammoboxes? And how do I rotate them?
How do I make a radio that calls in an airstrike? (Requested by NeMeSiS187)
How do I make good looking hills? (Requested by NeMeSiS187)
How do I put my map into a self-extracting archive? (Requested by Grunt)


Why doesn't my map have any reinforcements?

You must have an info_firearms_detect somewhere inside your map for it to be considered as a Firearms map. Also, make sure you're running the game with the "-deathmatch 1" flag.


My map is huge. Why does it get clipped off after a while?

Half-Life wasn't originally designed for huge maps, so they made a limit on how far can you see. Fix it by going into Map > Map Properties > Max Viewable Distance. The default value is 4096, the next good value is to double that.


How do I put a sky in my map?

You must texture the brushes where the sky should be with a texture originally names "sky". Ingame it will turn it into the sky you select by going into Map > Map Proprieties > enviroment map

(cl_skyname). You can find a list of skys at C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\firearms\gfx\env, or wherever you intalled firearms. THe name of the sky is the name of the files there, only without the "bk", "dn", "lf", "rt", "ft" and "up" in the end.


How do I make water?

Create a solid to fill your hole (I suppose you have a hole to put the water in, right? It would look quite weird if the water was just standing there...), and place one of the water textures on

all of the sides of it. Then, select your brush, and click on the toEntity button. Select func_water from the list.

If you want it to be transparent, set Render Mode to Texture, and FX Ammount to a value, according to how much transparency you want. The larget the value (Max 255), the less opaque it will be.

If you want it to be wavy, change the Wave Height propriety. 2 is normal.


How do I make a ladder?

Create a sold the size of your ladder. Paint it with one of the ladder textures. (A trick here is to fit the texture to the face, then only change the vertical scaling back to 1, or 0.5). Press the

toEntity button and make it a func_wall. Set Render FX to "solid", and Render Ammount to 255. Then, make another brush, the same size as the first one. Put it just in front of your ladder, so that

they touch. Give it the aaatrigger texture. Push toEntity, and make it a func_ladder. That's it.


How do I make glass?

Create a solid for your glass, and give it one of the glass textures. Push toEntity, and select func_wall. Set Render Mode to Texture. Set Render Ammount to the amount of transparency. (The more, the less transparent it is).

If you want it breakable, instead of a func_wall, make it a func_breakable. The strength value is how much beating can it take before breaking.


How do I make grass? Fences? Camo nets?

Make your grass solid. Make it 1 unit thick. Set the grass texture on it and fit it to the face. Then, select the one unit sized faces, and set them to the "{invisible" texture. That will avoid ugly looking lines floating in the air. THen, if you want people to be able to walk through it, select it, and push toEntity. Make it a func_illusionary, set Render Mode to Solid, and FX Ammount to 255.

If you don't want to be able to walk through it, make it a func_wall instead.

If you don't want bulletholes in it either, instead of making it a func_wall, leave it as a func_illusionary, but put a brush with the "clip" texture over it. (Thanks CoPKiLlA)


How do I put ammoboxes? And how do I rotate them?

Use an entity tool to put an ammobox entity in your map. Make sure to keep it a few units away from the wall or else it'll go through the wall and look ugly. To rotate an ammobox, if you use

WorldCraft 3.5 (Hey, I like Worldcraft better), you can just rotate them the same way you rotate a brush by clicking on them when they're selected, and then dragging the white dots that appear.

Otherwise, unclick the SmartEdit button in it's proprieties, and change the angles propriety. It's in an XYZ format, so change the 2nd number.

Same works for bandies.

How do I make radio that calls in an airstrike? (Requested by NeMeSiS187)

Make your radio. Then, select it, and push toEntity. Make it a func_button. Set the target to something like "airstrike". Set "delete before reset" to the time between airstrikes in seconds. (600 seconds = 10 minutes).

Then, put a large solid in the are you want airstriked. Fill it with the aaatrigger texture and make it a func_hurt. Give it a name like "airstrike_hurt", and set the damage to 100. (or less, if you don't want the arstrike to kill). In the flags tab, tick the "Start Off" flag.

Put in a couple of env_sprites for the explosions. Set the name to something like airstrike_explosion, Render Mode to additive, FX Ammount to 255 and Sprite Name to an explosion sprite. (tc_rubble uses sprites/faexplode1.spr). Set the framerate to something like 5 or 10, to keep the explosions there longer. In the flags tab, check the "Play Once" box.

Now for the sounds. Throw in a couple of ambient_generic entities, for the jet flyby, and the explosions. Give them all different names like "airstrike_flyby", volume to 10. Set WAV name to your sound. A couple of the most common sounds...
ambience/jetflyby1.wav - Jet Fly By
weapons/explode3.wav -
weapons/explode4.wav -
weapons/explode5.wav - Big Explosions
In the flags tab, check Start Silent and Not Toggled. If you want it to be heard everywhere in the map, tick "Play Everywhere" too. A tip here is to set the explosion ambient_generics to the same name you gave the sprites, so they both trigger a the same time.

Now, to put it all together, you put a multi_manager somewhere. Give it the same name you targeted your button to ("airstrike"). now, unclick the smartedit button. Push "Add", and put in your sounds in order. The Key is the thing to trigger, and the Value is the time that has to pass for it to activate since the multi_manager is triggered. In the end, add twice your func_hurt, a second or so apart. The 1st time it will activate it, killing everybody in it, and the second time it will deactivate it. In the end, my multimanager would look like this:

targetname - airstrike
airstrike_flyby - 1 <- Triggers the jet flyby sound
airstrike_hurt - 3 <- activates the hurt zone
airstrike_expl1 - 3 <- shows the sprite and plays the sound (if you have them both at the same name, of course).
airstrike_expl2 - 4 <- another explosion.
airstrike_hurt#1 - 5 <- turns off the hurt zone.

Now, when you push your radio, it will activate your multi_manager making your airstrike, and the radio will reset itself for another airstrike 10 minutes later.

How to make good looking hills? (Requested by NeMeSiS187)

There are two ways. The easy way, and the not so easy way. The easy way is, you download GenSurf, feed it a bitmap, and have it spit out a nice terrain for you. Easy, yes?

Now, if you want to do it manually, then, what you do, is create your area, then split up the floor into a nice grid. Then, split the grid into triangles, like so.

+- +- +- +
| \ | \ | \ |
+- +- +- +
| \ | \ | \ |
+- +- +- +
| \ | \ | \ |
+- +- +- +

Now, it's just a matter of using the Vertex Editing tool to drag the vertices of the triangles to make slopes. Easy and effective.

How do I put my map into a self-extracting archive? (Requested by Grunt)

This question doesn't quite involve mapping, but I'll explain anyways. First, check if your computer has Winzip. If it does, uninstall it. Then put your computer into a pentagram of goat blood and chant ancient ritual songs to rid your PC of demons. Then install WinRar.

With me so far? Good. Now, make a folder for your map. (This is by far the easiest way, I think) Deppending on what you have to put in, inside the folder, create your directory structure like if you were going to copy it into the fa directory.

your folder
|-maps
|-models
\-whatever

Ok. Now, put your stuff into the respective folders. After that, select all of the folders in your folder, rightclick on them, and use the "Add to archive" option that WinRar conviniently put there for you.

In the screen that shows up next, set the compression level to best, and check "Create SFX archive" (SelFeXtracting to whoever cares). Put in a name for your selfextractor, and then move on to the Advanced tab and click SFX options there. In the Path To extract put in C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\firearms, since it's the default for most people. Explore the other options, if you want.

Then press Ok, and Ok. Fwee.

- written by Sunstorm

Once you have completed the tutorial you should have a basic understanding of how to use hammer, time to look at how to do things that you want, there are many sites and many tuts covering almost everything.

Valve - ERC
http://www.valve-erc.com/
Browse the forums, resources and files pages at a minimum

Handy Vandals Almanac
http://www.karljones.com/halflife/almanac.asp
Probably the biggest collection of entity tutorials availiable, the place I go when I want to learn how to do something new or refresh old skills. Links to most mapping sites.

Chaincraft
http://www.planethalflife.com/chaincraft/
Explanations and Firearms resources/info.

Search Engines
http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.google.com/
If you think that people send you these links for a joke, think again, by providing the right keywords you can find exactly what you want, faster then looking through all the sites

Examples:
half-life mapping tutorials <subject/problem>
half-life mapping <subject/problem>
half-life worldcraft tutorials <subject/problem>
half-life worldcraft <subject/problem>
half-life compiling <subject/problem>
half-life <subject/problem>

- written by Chainsaw

[Evil Superstar]

Currently for the last version the only available bot is called Marine Bot.

Taken from their site (http://jameshiddle.com/marinebot/?page=about)


Marine Bot provides computer generated players (bots) for the Half-Life mod Firearms, in order to play multiplayer games in single player mode or to bulk out servers for a more enjoyable game. Marine Bot is currently in version 0.9 Beta, and is designed for Firearms 3.0. It is also backwards compatible with all Firearms versions back to 2.4.

We are an independent, open-source project, supported by United Admins. All our content, including Windows and Linux releases, forums and source code, can be accessed via our website which can reached at www.marinebot.net, www.marinebot.tk, www.marinebot.eu.tt or jameshiddle.com/marinebot.


If you are running FA 2.1-2.4 you can use the old Firebot 0.2d, which I found still for download at http://www.playground.ru/download/?mirror=2649. This bot also has about 90% compatibility with FA 2.5.

Alternatively, if you are running FA 2.4-3.0, you should use Marine Bot (www.marinebot.net).

If you are running MB 0.9 in any FA version other than 3.0, you should check this thread (http://hybridchill.com/mb_snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=606) and this database (http://marinebot.yis.us/pafiledb.php?action=category&id=3) to see if there are better waypoints for your FA version.

If you are, for some reason, using FA in a version earlier than 2.1, there are no bots for it (and somehow youve managed to find an old version of HL, since these versions of FA dont work on the latest versions of WON or Steam)

- Thanks to Degree:N (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=117) & Modest Genius

[Evil Superstar]

Visit the Marine Bot download page (http://jameshiddle.com/marinebot/?page=downloads), and read the information on it carefully. Most people will want to download the Windows .exe installer. Run this installer, and read the information page carefully.

Taken from the MB documentation (this section also written by me):
There are two methods depending on which version you downloaded, the self contained .exe installer or the stand-alone .zip or .rar archive. Make sure you have a working copy of Firearms before you install MB!


Using the .exe Installer Program:

1) Run the installation utility and follow the instructions. Be sure to read the information on the second page. If you are not running Adminmod / Metamod, then installation is complete!

2) If you are using Adminmod / Metamod, open the file liblist.gam in your firearms folder using notepad. Comment out the line under 'MarineBot LAN' using '//' at the start of the line, and uncomment the line under 'MarineBot AdminMod' by deleting the '//'. Then use the following command line to start your game or server (add this in the properties of the shortcut you use) '+localinfo mm_gamedll marine_bot/marine_bot.dll'


Using the .zip or .rar Archive:

1) Extract the archive using a relevant extraction program (we recommend WinRAR by RarLabs, available from http://www.rarlab.com/ ) to your 'firearms' folder. Ensure you allow the directory structure when you extract. Then open your firearms folder and locate the program 'liblist_install_mb.exe'. Run this program. If you are not running Adminmod / Metamod, then installation is complete!

2) If you are using Adminmod / Metamod, open the file liblist.gam in your firearms folder using notepad. Comment out the line under 'MarineBot LAN' using '//' at the start of the line, and uncomment the line under 'MarineBot AdminMod' by deleting the '//'. Then use the following command line to start your game or server (add this in the properties of the shortcut you use) '+localinfo mm_gamedll marine_bot/marine_bot.dll'
Although this all looks quite complicated, 90% of users will simply need to run the .exe and thats it.

- written by Modest Genius

[Evil Superstar]

insert random comment here

[Evil Superstar]

Taken from this site (http://jameshiddle.com/marinebot/?page=waypoints)

Marine Bot comes with a set of official waypoints for all the officail maps in firearms, plus a few others.

There are, of course, times when people want to play with bots on different maps. To do this you will require a set of waypoints for this map. Alternatively, we may release updated versions of waypoints between MB releases.

Waypoints for new maps, and updates for your current waypoints, may be downloaded from our Waypoint Database, created and maintained by Sergeant.Rock.

Each download is a .zip file containing a .wpt and a .pth file. Both of these files should go into your firearms\marine_bot\defaultwpts folder if they are official waypoints, or your firearms\marine_bot\customwpts folder if they are third party ones.

If you have created waypoints of your own, and would like to see them listed in the database, please post them in our Waypointing Forum.

- Thanks to Degree:N (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=117)

[Evil Superstar]

To bind a key in game, press ~ to enter the console, and type bind "key" "command", where key = the key you want bound, and command = the HL command you want bound to it.

Alternatively, look in your firearms directory for your autoexec.cfg <correct name?> and config.cfg files, and edit them by hand in the text editor of your choice. Make sure you save them as .cfg and not .txt files.

For a complete list of keys and commands, look <insert list link here>

[Evil Superstar]

filler

[Evil Superstar]

Where?
in your "firearms" base directory. There is a file called "commandmenu.txt"

Well, this'll be hard to explain...

Code:

"2" "CHANGE TEAM" "changeteam"


Let's start with the basics. The "2" is the number in which it's number hotkey is going to be. The "CHANGE TEAM" is the text that will show in your command menu. The "changeteam" is the actual command that the command menu does when you press "2" or click it with your mouse.



Code:

"1" "MERGE MAGAZINES" "mergeclips"



Here I implemented the merge magazines command into the command menu. It takes the hotkey number of "1" and uses the "mergeclips" command.


Let's dissect the radio commands menu.

Code:

"1" "RADIO COMMANDS" { "1" "Yes Sir!" "radio yes" "2" "Negative!" "radio no" "3" "Under Heavy Fire!" "radio underfire" "4" "Area Clear!" "radio clear" // SKILL4 "5" "Stay Here!" "radio stay" // SKILL4 "6" "Move Out!" "radio moveout" // SKILL4 "7" "Hold Your Fire!" "radio holdfire" // SKILL4 "8" "Let's Go!" "radio go" }



You first begin your sub menu by doing the regular line you would usually do for a typical one button command.

Code:

"1" "RADIO COMMANDS"



Next, you go to the next line and add a curly bracket.

Code:

"1" "RADIO COMMANDS" {



Go to the next line after that, and press tab. Then you add a button to your submenu.

Code:

"1" "RADIO COMMANDS" { "1" "Yes Sir!" "radio yes"



Keep on adding buttons until you're satisfied. Make sure you number them in order.

Code:

"1" "RADIO COMMANDS" { "1" "Yes Sir!" "radio yes" "2" "Negative!" "radio no" "3" "Under Heavy Fire!" "radio underfire" "4" "Area Clear!" "radio clear"



After you're done, make sure you end the sub menu with curly brackets pointing to the right.

Code:

"1" "RADIO COMMANDS" { "1" "Yes Sir!" "radio yes" "2" "Negative!" "radio no" "3" "Under Heavy Fire!" "radio underfire" "4" "Area Clear!" "radio clear" }


Code:

"1" "MESSAGES" { "1" "TO ALL PLAYERS" { "1" "'Laugh out loud'" "say LOL." "2" "'What the fuck?'" "say WTF?" "3" "'Sorry.'" "say Sorry." "4" "'Thank you'" "say Thank you." "5" "'Teams, please.'" "say Teams, please." } "2" "TO TEAMMATES" { "1" "'Executing artillery strike.'" "say_team Executing artillery strike! Stay clear of any markers!" "2" "'I need a medic!'" "say_team I need a medic!; voice medic" "3" "'Let me heal you.'" "say_team Let me heal you.; voice medic" "4" "'Fallback and camp!'" "say_team Fallback and camp!" "5" "'On my way'" "say_team On my way." } }



Now we're going to learn to make sub menus in sub menus.

Begin your sub menu with your typical line and the curly bracket pointing to the left.

Code:

"1" "MESSAGES" {



Now, instead of starting a button, create another sub menu.

Code:

"1" "MESSAGES" { "1" "TO ALL PLAYERS" {



Add menu selections as you would to a typical sub menu.

Code:

"1" "MESSAGES" { "1" "TO ALL PLAYERS" { "1" "'Laugh out loud'" "say LOL." "2" "'What the fuck?'" "say WTF?"



If you're finished adding buttons to the sub sub menu, end it with a curly bracket pointing right.

Code:

"1" "MESSAGES" { "1" "TO ALL PLAYERS" { "1" "'Laugh out loud'" "say LOL." "2" "'What the fuck?'" "say WTF?" "3" "'Sorry.'" "say Sorry." "4" "'Thank you'" "say Thank you." "5" "'Teams, please.'" "say Teams, please." }



If you want to start another sub sub menu, go ahead.

Code:

"1" "MESSAGES" { "1" "TO ALL PLAYERS" { "1" "'Laugh out loud'" "say LOL." "2" "'What the fuck?'" "say WTF?" "3" "'Sorry.'" "say Sorry." "4" "'Thank you'" "say Thank you." "5" "'Teams, please.'" "say Teams, please." } "2" "TO TEAMMATES" { "1" "'Executing artillery strike.'" "say_team Executing artillery strike! Stay clear of any markers!" "2" "'I need a medic!'" "say_team I need a medic!; voice medic" "3" "'Let me heal you.'" "say_team Let me heal you.; voice medic" "4" "'Fallback and camp!'" "say_team Fallback and camp!" "5" "'On my way'" "say_team On my way." }



When you're done with the entire menu, remember to close it all off with a curly bracket pointing right.

Code:

"1" "MESSAGES" { "1" "TO ALL PLAYERS" { "1" "'Laugh out loud'" "say LOL." "2" "'What the fuck?'" "say WTF?" "3" "'Sorry.'" "say Sorry." "4" "'Thank you'" "say Thank you." "5" "'Teams, please.'" "say Teams, please." } "2" "TO TEAMMATES" { "1" "'Executing artillery strike.'" "say_team Executing artillery strike! Stay clear of any markers!" "2" "'I need a medic!'" "say_team I need a medic!; voice medic" "3" "'Let me heal you.'" "say_team Let me heal you.; voice medic" "4" "'Fallback and camp!'" "say_team Fallback and camp!" "5" "'On my way'" "say_team On my way." } }



-written by Swifty

Comment from Modest Genius:

Adding '// SKILL#' to a button will only make it appear if you have the specified skill. For example, '// SKILL4' will only appear if you have leadership (the numbers are the same as those listed on next to the skill when you choose it ingame)

[Evil Superstar]

filler

Currently the only leagues running for Firearms are the FAL-US (Firearms League US), and FAL-EU (Firearms League Europe). These leagues can be found at league.firearmsmod.com for further information.

[Evil Superstar]

your message you entered is too short

[Evil Superstar]

ezezded

[Evil Superstar]

erzr

[Evil Superstar]

If you've been banned from a server, the first step is to sit down and review your actions. Have you been arguing with the server admins? Have you been presenting a bad attitude on the server? Generally when one thinks they've been banned for "No reason", 99% of the time the reason is their own bad attitudes.

If the answer is still no, make a post on that server's private forum (if any), requesting to be unbanned. If there is no such forum, make a post on the appropriate forum here, including your name, steam ID, approximate time of bannage, who banned you, and why. Be nice, or you probably won't be helped. Don't spam, or you'll be banned from here too.

- Written by SWATJester_os (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=15)

[Evil Superstar]

If you suspect someone of cheating or exploiting, record a demo of them. <insert something here about how to do this, spectator mode etc.>

Viewing them in 1st person spectator mode from the demo, will allow you to much better see if they are cheating or not. If you still suspect the person of cheating, upload the demo somewhere and make a post in the appropriate forum, entitled "Suspected cheater on _________ server". Make sure in the post that you include the time and date, complete and accurately spelled players name, and if possible, STEAM ID (this can be retrieved by typing status in the HL console while connected to the server). Be sure to link to the demo too. Most server admins, as well as many respected players in the community, will take the time to check it out review it, and take action as necessary. Also, if the individual server the player was on has it's own forums, you would want to make a post there.

Do not make posts accusing someone of cheating without at least providing a demo. You will be laughed at, and sent on your way.

- Written by SWATJester_os (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=15)

[Evil Superstar]

erzzer

[Evil Superstar]

First of all I would like to thank the FA team for making this wonderful game which has kept us entertained for years (and still does btw)

I would also like to thank the following people for their contribution to this faq (in alphabetical order)


Somedude (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=22)
SWATJester_os (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=15)
ville (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/member.php?u=128)

[Evil Superstar]

If you have any suggestions, corrections or questions about this F.A.Q. you can post them in this thread (http://forums.worldatwarmod.com/showthread.php?t=441)

Thank you for all the people who contributed to this F.A.Q.!