Im going to show the progress by date, so i can have a well detailed log 0 3 0.

• Before July 30, 2024

The idea was a simple introduction, you are on an elevator right up to the portal lab. Once you`re into the lab you will be greeted by a scientist who will tell you to put the long-jump module and your suit meanwhile he and his coleagues will turn on the portal.



Im stil not talking about the Xen levels themselves because i want to put my mind into the portal lab. The idea for the teleporter was (at first) to recreate the old teleporter from HL: Blue Shift



but i made a small teleporter instead.



I want to work on the illumination, i feel the map too dark, i want it to be dark, but not that dark (tomorrow i`ll show how the map looks compiled)

• After July 30, 2024

I finished the Long-jump stand (im going to start the map with the player already using the H.E.V. suit) and i added the scientist`s sequences, i need to work on the sentences and the map illumination.


• August 7, 2024

I added this yellow things to make it more reactor-esque



plus im working on the portal´s vfx, the idea is that two beams cross each other and creates a small flare that should be the portal initial state.And when the player puts the longjump on, the portal reach its final and stable state.



This is its initial state, and a look of the lab already compiled.


• August 12, 2024

The teleport sequence is done!



I was very confused with the use of multisources to make the sequence work as i wanted to, until i saw in TWHL page that multisources works as an AND gate



This made my life easier, i just needed to link the multisource with the initial state´s multi_manager, and then the multisource will wait until the character pick the longjump. And when the longjump is picked, the multisource will have an active state on its two gates, and will trigger the final state´s multi_manager.

But i had a problem

I wanted the 3 longjump modules to activate A SINGLE GATE and that was a problem because if i link the 3 longjumps to the multisource i will have 3 gates waiting to be activated, not 1, so i used a trigger_relay and linked it to the 3 longjumps, and the output of the relay was the multisource, in that way no matter which one of them you choose, it will activate the same gate of the other 2.


• September 4, 2024

Dialogs and sequences are done!

I cant believe the thing i considered the easiest part was in fact, the hardest.

I dont know how, or why, but every time i linked the sentences they HAD to wait until the dialog sequence finish in order to trigger the sentences, like... why? yes the sentences and sequences share a single target, being the target the scientist who will speak about the first survey team and then say he will open the portal, i wasnt sure why he had to wait for the sequences to end, i turned on the flags that enables the sentence to play within the sequence even.



And i couldnt even turn the gag flag on because the sentence didnt play if i did so, so i just started all over again, and surprisingly the sentence worked this time, now the scientist doesnt speak with other scientist or the player, only speaks what is triggered in the scripted_sentence.

And i added a little text to the map´s beginning, just for context.

Now im working on the Xen maps, but they are still a draft, i need to have a clear idea of what i want to do.


• September 12, 2024

The first xen draft was re-made to a bigger version, and changed the textures, the ones from the gonarch`s lair doesnt looked good, and they were too bright.



I dont want it to be B I G, but i want to make enough space to avoid the longjump parts feeling too small to make a jump, i draw those... fungi-like things that serves as a platform, i have the idea to add some fungi-like flora just to fill out space. The Half-Life Xen flora is limited, just the hair, the big/mid/small fungus, the plantlight, the tree and thats it, ofc i dont want to make too many of them i just want to make the necesary.



The same goes for the textures, i dont want to overload the map with unnecesary brushes just to make the textures look more "Dynamic".



And thats everything for now, see you in another post!.

• October 23, 2024

After a lot of trials and errors, i finally found a map layout and textures that fits the style im looking for.



I want the first place the player meets to be a dark cave, with your only lightsource being the bioluminiscent fungi, the way points placed by the old research team, and ofcourse, your lantern. if the map is going to be dark, the textures has to be the same, and the old ones couldnt achieve the darkness im looking for, that yellow bubble-ish thingy has to much brightness. I know in the last entry the images were too dark, but that was on DirectX, now im working strictly on OpenGL bc currently Half Life doesnt support DirectX anymore.



it still looks empty, mainly beacuse i had no time this month to work on this, but i finally created some flora.



im going to leave the longjump part to the end, i rather work on the way point section, and then the lomgjump, is beterr this way.