Right,

Just to clear a few things up.

As I've stated time and again, my version of HLMV is a complete hack. I'm NOT a C++ programmer - its just luck that over the past 10 years I've used so many C++ like languages that I can figure most of the C++ source out. The rest of the time has been me looking up stuff in Google.

Secondly, I modded HLMV because there were some features missing in HLMV that *I* needed, like transparency and additive previews. It was a self motivated project and as such, has gone beyond that already with the weapons origin view.

Third, yes, its buggy. Having read the source to HLMV not all of these bugs are actually mine, some appear to be left over from 1.25. Some I've fixed, others have appeared. It happens.

However, as for the stuff a lot of you have asked for, I've listened and looked into it but please consider the following. HLMV means Half-Life Model Viewer - thats what its for, viewing models. Its not some all in one editing suite for Half-Life. The nearest analogy I can draw is that you cant slap wings on the roof of a car and call it an aeroplane.

HLMV isn't built internally with as much flexibility as you might think and to add all the features you want, the only effective way to do it is to wipe the slate clean and start a new HLMV from scratch ands thats something I dont have the skill or motivation to do.

With that said, there probably wont be a release with new features for quite a while if at all from me. Yes, there is a version WITH a crosshair in the origin view (it was a goof that it got left out in 1.1b) but apart from that, the next version will probably be final and just contain bug fixes.

While I appreciate all the support and praise, I've also read a lot of complaints on other forums which doesn't do ones motivation much good. Doing these things takes away time from me that I could be spending doing more enjoyable things. Getting e-mails saying "your viewer sucks because you cant save origins in it" then looking at your logs and realising people have downloaded your DoD stuff 14000 times in the last month and that total donations come to "2", it does make you think "why the fsck do I bother..."

Anyway, polite sarcastic/rant over. Its not directed at anyone in particular, just an observation.

So to re-cap, the next release of my version of HLMV, whenever that is, will probably contain no new features and will probably just contain some bug fixes.

But to answer a few questions that have come up:

Q) Can you add a crosshair in the origin view?
A) Yes, there already is one in the next release.

Q) Does the origin view work for other mods?
A) Possibly. The current origin view is aligned for DoD (as near as I can make out). Theres no guarantee other mods use the same FOV and base alignment for their weapon views but if it works, it works.

Q) Why cant you save the new origins into the MDL?
A) I'm still looking into that. It may be possible but at the moment it looks a little more complicated that say the texture flags.

Q) Why cant you edit/save changes to events/sequences/other random parameter?
A) Because its a VIEWER not and editor. Plus putting that much destructive power into the hands of beginners would generate more "I edited this in HLMV and now my DoD wont load!" posts. Better force people do decompile and learn how to edit a QC properly than give them a tool for their own destruction.

Q) Why dont you add the ability to decompile/compile models into HLMV?
A) Because its more complicated than you think and I dont want to just slap a shell front end to MDLDEC and STUDIOMDL.

Q) Can you make it preview the weapon in the models hands?
A) HLMV is for all mods, not just DoD so you have to consider the wide variation in p_models and alignments. Secondly that would require HLMV to load two models into two MDL structures and for the p_model, find the bone the weapon model is attached to, align it with the relevant hand bone in the main model, rotate and orientate it correctly AND make it keep track of the parent bone during an animation sequence. Forget it. I have enough trouble using strings in C++ properly.

- Jed

P.S. Selbstmord, stop claiming the origin view was your idea on all those other forums ;). I had it working around the time of the first release but I hadn't got it lined up correctly yet so didn't include it until now. :D

I have no complaints...thanks to your great version of HLMV, and marzy's great originging tut, i have finally managed to do something i have wanted to do for a long while, and been too lost by all the processes to know where to start....

2 thumbs up from me!:D

I think itd be awsome if you made it so the way you move the model around and zoom in and out was more like mdlv2.exe. In HLMV you CANT move the model left, right, up, and down. in mdlv2.exe you can, its alot more flexible.... any agree?

Originally posted by nag
I think itd be awsome if you made it so the way you move the model around and zoom in and out was more like mdlv2.exe. In HLMV you CANT move the model left, right, up, and down. in mdlv2.exe you can, its alot more flexible.... any agree?

You can do all these things in HLMV, just hold down shift to move the model, and righthand mouse button to zoom in or out.

Originally posted by MaRzY
You can do all these things in HLMV, just hold down shift to move the model, and righthand mouse button to zoom in or out.

Yes its amazing what you discover if you read the manual.

Other shortcuts for fullscreen mode:

* g: toggle ground
* m: toggle mirror on ground
* b: toggle background
* s: toggle stencil buffer
* h: toggle hitboxes
* +: increase animation speed
* -: decrease animation speed
* 1: wireframe
* 2: flatshaded
* 3: smoothshaded
* 4: textured
* 5: more transparency
* 6: less transparency
* ESC: quit fullscreen


- Jed

Hey Jed do you think you can code the HL SDK?

What tools do you use for C++ programming? Also, can you release the source code on the final release?

well. i think ur work is exceptional, and i have no problem with it.

Originally posted by Vctrmaster
Hey Jed do you think you can code the HL SDK?

What do you mean exactly?

Originally posted by 2ltben
What tools do you use for C++ programming? Also, can you release the source code on the final release?

I use Micrsoft Visual C++ 6 and no, I probably wont release the source.

- Jed

Well Jed, regardless of the situation its appreciated that you are doing something not too many people do. Perhaps you may have a calling doing this. :D

I would have to agree with Sarge... Most of us work on models and skins, you are the only one I know of that is working to make the utilities better. The fact that anyone would give you any grief over this is appalling.

I am not a violent sort, but they should have their fingers broken to prevent moronic posts.

Your HLMV has promted many of us, myself included, to finally learn how to compile/decompile. That alone is something good.

Thank you.

Originally posted by Arsenal
I would have to agree with Sarge... Most of us work on models and skins, you are the only one I know of that is working to make the utilities better. The fact that anyone would give you any grief over this is appalling.

I am not a violent sort, but they should have their fingers broken to prevent moronic posts.

Thank you.

Jed Check your PM box

lol ty, when it wasnt simple enough to just do it i used mdlv2.exe instead.

As I've said, I appreciate the work you've done, no matter what silly little bugs there are. It's still a huge addition to the community. Good job. :D

Just to let you all know I havent gone to sleep.

Marzy is still working on some math to do with weapon origins and I'm still debugging and improving various parts ready for the 1.0 FINAL release.

I wont say what extra stuff in in 1.0 FINAL thats not in 1.1b but while its not going to change the world its still handy.

- Jed

Originally posted by Arsenal


Your HLMV has promted many of us, myself included, to finally learn how to compile/decompile. That alone is something good.

Thank you.

yes thanks to you and MaRzy, i am now not an idiot (more like a novice now) with the de/compiler anymore! check the release forum and see how many things i have done just in 1 day after learning how to de/compile!

Thanks again :D

Latest News About Another Great Feature In the Making

Ever wondered what it would be like to be able to save the UV meshes of a model as BMP files, for those models you would like to reskin straight out of HLMV.

Well all being well you will be soon, as talanted Jed's latest feature is the option to show UV maps, this allows you to be able to view all the UV maps of a model, and when the feature is fully finished, you will be able to save a UV map as a BMP file, which will be a big plus for skinners and re-skinners alike.

Pic of HLMV showing the uv map of the current texture (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scitzo/wipUVfeature.gif)

It's all looking good, and theres more to come, watch this space.

Sweeeeeeeeeet. The lack of vertexes really cleans it up. They're always chunking stuff when I mesh in MS3D, which I do by taking screenshots with unselected vertexes in the texture window and saving them as BMP's.

Good job again and stillm Jed. And to Marzy for working so close with him.

*sniff* You... Complete me... *sniff*

Kidding. Has that been over-done here? I'm sorry. -_-

More Great News About The Origin Feature

As most of you will know when setting up origins in Jed's HLMV, that part of the bottom of the weapon model is out of view, compared to that of what you see of the model ingame, So it becomes a bit of a guessing game when setting up new origins, on how much more of the model you will see once it's ingame.

Well not anymore, we kept working with ideas to find away to try and make it so you could see the same view in HLMV as you do ingame when setting up origins, and in the end we cracked it.

So in the next release when setting up origins you will see the same view of your weapon model as you do ingame, which makes it much better, and even easier when setting up your origins.

The picture below shows the default bren model in wire frame mode in HLMV, over an ingame screen shot that i've used as a backdrop, as you can see it's a near perfect match to that of what you see ingame.

HLMV ingame view picture (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scitzo/HLMVoriginingame.jpg)

You can also see in the picture that you can now use a crosshair in HLMV to help in setting up your origins, we also have a couple of more little ideas that might also be added under the origin tab, to aid you in the setting up of origins, but this is not final yet, so ill say no more for now.

:eek:

incredible...