Half-Life Improvement Team

Holy crap!Awesomness!!!D:

Shit.

That looks alright.

Actually, that looks downright amazing.

Personally, I might suggest ditching the scanlines on the crosshairs, but I dunno anymore.

Fee-abulous.

KylerAdams's OP4 crosshair-scanline critique is meritable for better visibility, but they need to be scanlined to fit with the rest of the HUD. Might I suggest filling in the crosshair gaps with a half-opacity green relative to the existing lines? Or, the existing lines could themselves be solely brightened for better contrast.

Everything else is worthy of grandeur. If I had to criticize something there, I would say I've seen medpacks made like that for a long time now, and I wish there were a way to have those side edges be better softened with the bevelled top. And another aspect, those dull white sides become bothersome, and a seam may be added (excused as either a method of accessing additional medical supplies, or at least as an indicator these things aren't seamlessly manufactured by Apple).

We all share your patient, loving mindset :D

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KylerAdams's OP4 crosshair-scanline critique is meritable for better visibility, but they need to be scanlined to fit with the rest of the HUD. Might I suggest filling in the crosshair gaps with a half-opacity green relative to the existing lines? Or, the existing lines could themselves be solely brightened for better contrast.

No, the half opacity wouldn't look right, unless you applied it to everything.. which might not look too bad. Might give a glowy sort of effect?

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The crowbar is pretty much final, it's unlikely to undergo any big changes. This our baby.

It deserve a name then

Also why don't you guys make some job opening ? I bet there is a lot of hands who would be more than happy to help

you still kick ass, man - just like old times

have my babies

OMFG AN UPDATE !

Awesome work :D

Those item models are really outstanding :)  I'm really impressed with what you've done to the battery model, the coil things look great!

Keep up the great work... and take your time ;D

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Personally, I might suggest ditching the scanlines on the crosshairs, but I dunno anymore.

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KylerAdams's OP4 crosshair-scanline critique is meritable for better visibility, but they need to be scanlined to fit with the rest of the HUD. Might I suggest filling in the crosshair gaps with a half-opacity green relative to the existing lines? Or, the existing lines could themselves be solely brightened for better contrast.

When I first started these, some of the crosshairs didn't look right at all. I had to go in and edit the Glock, Python, Desert Eagle, and M40 Sniper to be more visible, especially on the horizontal sections. They're tweaked quite a bit already. There's really not much more opacity you can add to make these more visible. It just ends up defeating the scanline effect. I'll definitely try to tweak them a bit more, but they generally work in-game.

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If I had to criticize something there, I would say I've seen medpacks made like that for a long time now, and I wish there were a way to have those side edges be better softened with the bevelled top. And another aspect, those dull white sides become bothersome, and a seam may be added (excused as either a method of accessing additional medical supplies, or at least as an indicator these things aren't seamlessly manufactured by Apple).

I haven't really been too happy with the medkit, and I think I may do something like that. I was considering retexturing it, so I'll probably add some seams to the body, like you're suggesting. The only one that's on it right now is actually around the perimeter, on the underside, which is not usually visible. Considering Steve Jobs' recent health issues, I can totally see him bringing out an iMedkit.

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Also why don't you guys make some job opening ? I bet there is a lot of hands who would be more than happy to help

We just want to keep it small for now. We've got our reasons.

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We all share your patient, loving mindset :D

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Keep up the great work... and take your time ;D

I really appreciate the patience, guys.

Thanks for all your support. We'll hopefully have slightly more frequent updates, but no promises as of yet.

Everything looks, well......super grainy. Then again, all the original half life textures were too, but in this day and age of high resolutions things just shouldn't be that grainy. Glad to see signs of life from the original modder folks, but yeah, whoever textured these should ditch the graininess.

*confused look*

Grain...what?

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When I first started these, some of the crosshairs didn't look right at all. I had to go in and edit the Glock, Python, Desert Eagle, and M40 Sniper to be more visible, especially on the horizontal sections. They're tweaked quite a bit already. There's really not much more opacity you can add to make these more visible. It just ends up defeating the scanline effect. I'll definitely try to tweak them a bit more, but they generally work in-game.

Understandable. I just mentioned that because the originals didn't have em. Fits tho. Nevermind my earlier comment.

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We just want to keep it small for now. We've got our reasons.

Small teams know how eachother works, about how much work the other guys can handle, what they can do. Makes perfect sense.

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Thanks for all your support. We'll hopefully have slightly more frequent updates, but no promises as of yet.

"more frequent"... twice every year now? :P

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*confused look*

Grain...what?

Way back in the stone age people used to use splotchiness (Dry Brush filter, Watercolor filter, etc..) and noise to make their metal bases. It appears that this is what has been done here and it makes the work look extremely dated (although this could be on purpose, you know, dated looking textures for a dated looking game). It makes me sound like a dick saying this, I know. I'm just trying to help though. The best way to define metal in my opinion is use subtle grunge brushes and edging. Lighting is a lot more effective at defining material then texture is. e.g more contrasted lighting indicates a shinier material and more subdued lighting indicates a dull material. I know this is next gen work and you won't have the luxury of a spec map, but imo you should try to emulate a smoother style as seen in Kaskad's work.

e/ for the time being you can download the flats at his site if you want a better look at his materials: http://www.benbolton.com/Safe.html

Feel free to bitch at me for providing good crit guys.

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"more frequent"... twice every year now? :P

I hope not. By which I mean, more than that.

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Everything looks, well......super grainy. Then again, all the original half life textures were too, but in this day and age of high resolutions things just shouldn't be that grainy. Glad to see signs of life from the original modder folks, but yeah, whoever textured these should ditch the graininess.

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Way back in the stone age people used to use splotchiness (Dry Brush filter, Watercolor filter, etc..) and noise to make their metal bases. It appears that this is what has been done here and it makes the work look extremely dated (although this could be on purpose, you know, dated looking textures for a dated looking game). It makes me sound like a dick saying this, I know. I'm just trying to help though. The best way to define metal in my opinion is use subtle grunge brushes and edging. Lighting is a lot more effective at defining material then texture is. e.g more contrasted lighting indicates a shinier material and more subdued lighting indicates a dull material. I know this is next gen work and you won't have the luxury of a spec map, but imo you should try to emulate a smoother style as seen in Kaskad's work.

These have all been textured by me. That's not graininess you're looking at. That's low resolution. The only model that has relatively medium-to-high resolution textures is the crowbar, because it's not tiny. In-game these are smaller, and the textures look fine in that environment. While I'm going for a relatively classic look, I'm not trying to make them low quality, believe me, but I like to stay reasonable with my texture and polygon sizes, relative to screen real estate.

Now, to clarify: apart from the crowbar, for which I've used a stock photo of brushed metal for the base of, all of these are textured using grunge brushes, layer effects, and other techniques in Photoshop - I don't think I've ever used the film grain effect in a texture, especially not the ones here, and I tend to steer clear of relying on filters. On the other hand, I still have quite a bit to learn about texturing, and I agree that a lot of these tend to look pretty flat. I've tried working with baked-in highlights and mine have yet to come out looking any good. That said, I'm definitely going to try work in some into future textures, and add them to these as well. Keep in mind that some of these can't help looking a bit grainy no matter what you do, as the 256-colour palette required of Half-Life model textures will do that sometimes, especially the smooth surface on the pop cans, which have a gradient. This isn't Source or another modern engine, unfortunately, so I have to work within those limits.

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I hope not. By which I mean, more than that.

I know, I know. I'm teasing.

What kinda maps did you use for that stuff, anyways?

64 for the spent casing, 128 for the cans?

I never really looked into the HL: E section much but after looking at this stuff I got to say I'm really interested in this now!

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I hope not. By which I mean, more than that.

These have all been textured by me. That's not graininess you're looking at. That's low resolution. The only model that has relatively medium-to-high resolution textures is the crowbar, because it's not tiny. In-game these are smaller, and the textures look fine in that environment. While I'm going for a relatively classic look, I'm not trying to make them low quality, believe me, but I like to stay reasonable with my texture and polygon sizes, relative to screen real estate.

Now, to clarify: apart from the crowbar, for which I've used a stock photo of brushed metal for the base of, all of these are textured using grunge brushes, layer effects, and other techniques in Photoshop - I don't think I've ever used the film grain effect in a texture, especially not the ones here, and I tend to steer clear of relying on filters. On the other hand, I still have quite a bit to learn about texturing, and I agree that a lot of these tend to look pretty flat. I've tried working with baked-in highlights and mine have yet to come out looking any good. That said, I'm definitely going to try work in some into future textures, and add them to these as well. Keep in mind that some of these can't help looking a bit grainy no matter what you do, as the 256-colour palette required of Half-Life model textures will do that sometimes, especially the smooth surface on the pop cans, which have a gradient. This isn't Source or another modern engine, unfortunately, so I have to work within those limits.

Yeah, low res 256 color textures are a bitch. Sometimes I forget we're working with a ten year old engine that won't accept 512's for props.

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64 for the spent casing, 128 for the cans?

Spent shells are 128x64, most of the ammo pickups are 256x256, the cans are 256x128, and the main medkit texture is 512x256.

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Yeah, low res 256 color textures are a bitch. Sometimes I forget we're working with a ten year old engine that won't accept 512's for props.

The max pixel size for model textures is 512x512, regardless of what role it's meant for. Just make sure to set gl_max_size to "512", because Half-Life defaults to "256" which scales large textures down to that size. It's only world textures stored in WAD files that can only go up to 256x256 pixels. The 256 colour restriction isn't always that bad, but it can matter on certain textures, where it becomes kind of noticeable. We'll have ways of using 24-bit colour textures in HL:E, but not for vanilla Half-Life.

Abyss, you do realize that those textures are for a previous previous previous previous gen engine? Those flat, bland textures only look good when you add 5654544663443 shaders.

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Abyss, you do realize that those textures are for a previous previous previous previous gen engine? Those flat, bland textures only look good when you add 5654544663443 shaders.

Or if you paint a bit of lighting on.

Alright guys, don't start an argument - Abyss is correct on this point, good static lighting can be added into a simple texture, even without shaders. Let's try to keep on topic.

I remember back when hl2 was speculated in 2002, Valve release media for hl2, and it was a crowbar render  :P

Nice work, it looks perfect for HL, not low or high res, just a good middle ground for a 10 year old game.