New kind of HL mod, need coder, modeler Thread

I also posted this in the FA OTF and planet HL forums. I am very serious about this.

A bunch of thinking and research and I have come up with this, please comment and contact me!!!

I have recently come up with a new kind of mod which would allow for a lot of replay value and shows a lot of promise however has some nasty things to get past.

Here is the idea in full detail:

I have always loved the game resident evil and its engine of using a pre-rendered system to make cool backgrounds and a diffrent more surreal atmosphere. Well I think that this is possible with the half life engine, and instead of porting resident evil, making a new one using pictures as the backgrounds.

The system works like this, the background is put as the entire screen, and the models interact in this backgroung by having a 3d overlay of a floor, walls, and other important triggers (like going from one part of a room to another). All of these things are seen in development, and synched up with the background, but invisable in gameplay, so it gives a convincing illusion of interation of the pre-rendered background. This is exaclty how the games resident evil and parasite eve are made.

The half lfie engine can easily do this but there are some problems. One would be serious programming to create a good inventory system which would properly emulate the one in resident evil, because using the current system in half life royally sucks, and takes away from a genra like this (like the mod heart of evil, great mod, but poor inventory system was not good.). I think that the vgui would be excellent for an inventory system.

Another key diffrence is control. Since it would always be based around a fixed 3rd person prespective the controls would have to be diffrent to facilitate playing the game in such a way. The mouse would probobly not be used at all. Instead the controls would be like resident evil, with an aim weapon button and either aim high or low, and that would be it for aiming and shooting. Technically thats the only thing which needs some coding work with controls, the rest are remaps.

Also would be cutscenes and FMV movies. I can make movies and get voice acting no problem, I like to do movies on the side. The thing is how to make a movie splice into the game, like what you would see in a bunch of games when you beat a level or something. Cut scenes where characters talk to each other would be very easy because of the HLs scripted sequence thingie....which pretty much is all set and ready.

By using this system here are two advantages which are unheard of with half life, especially single player.

-VERY HIGH poly count with models - since there are no textures to be rendered and the level in 3d form is invisable this allows room for super high quality models, as well as better animations since there is no first person to this game.

-many more levels can be made in shorter time. Once the system is created just take a photo, have it made to be rendered, and synch up the 3d so collision detection works properly with regards to that picture. Repeat and add items, weapons, monsters (zombies I hope) and scripted sequences. Performance tweeking and testing is taken down to almost nothing, and other tweeks are minimized a great amount as well. This means much more for making levels and more content for gaming. For photos I am very good at what I do and I could come up with all the images all ready and high quality within a day or two.

I learned C++ a tiny bit in high school and I have looked through the engine but I am not that good with programming, or with modelling. Any help on the programming and engine end would be greatly appreciated. This mod is very promising since even though this is mostly armchair and just an idea I already have the image part down, along with movies, so the creative content is solidified, its just the technical part and some models that need to be taken care of.

Please email me or reply here with any questions or discussion, I really would like to make this mod a reality and its a fresh new idea which honestly has not been seen. It is a throwback since things like lighting and ricochets will not be seen but the look and atmosphere is unmatched. I am not bullshitting and I am serious when i say I would like to work at this so please contact.

Sound bully, good luck.

It does sound interesting...and the way you put it...completely possible.

For the inventory screen...would it not be possible to just make a solid background GUI using the basic weapon selection system...then just code a sort of "on/off" button for it. Im not sure....but I know you can take things out. So why wouldnt you be able to create that ability and bind it to a key?

I hope this works out for you.

im sure you can bind all sorts of things in the VGUI.

I am thinking only one slot for a weapon and the VGUI would put a weapon into that slot.

Items like keys would just be triggers to doors, thats already been done.

special puzzle items need something more since you would need to "use" them at a special point for it to work.

sounds great.

with some adaption you could also make an myst/ journeyt man project style game.

w00t!

oh hell yeah I like myst, but that is a point and click and has a lot more puzzles and the pace and feeling is not of fear and franticness.

here are some pictures I made to further show what I am talking about.

The blue part are the barriers are the walls which you cannot run past. Everything in that picture except the 3 zombies is a 2D image. The blue parts are where the invisable 3d part is which gives the collision detection to that 2d image, giving the illusion that its interating with the 3d part. The red part is the door, where a trigger would be used in conjunction with a use key to go past that door, into another 2d render.

This better shows a more complex room where there could and will be parts of the 2d going over the 3d part, also adding to the illusion. This is simple by just taking key parts of the imagine and layering it over both the pre render and the 3d.

Maybe I could help you out with making a model or two. This sounds interesting, and I do need some mod experience. Do you have any chat programs we can talk over?

You really seem to know what you are talking about...I can see this working. Good luck!

Well computers have always been an interest and hobby, and I have been up close and personal with quake and half life since the inception, so Im not going to come to a discussion without my homework done.

This is very ambitious so I dont wanna be stupid about it, of all that I have seen with mods only one mod EVER has done even a fixed 3d presepctive, and actually dont laugh, I forgot the name of that mod.

rambler I will PM you about model details.

well, i dunno if it is a new "kind" of hl mod, this will be just an horror mod with prerendered backgrounds:P

it is a new kind of mod though

Has this ever been talked about for HL?

People dont think of this system because it does not have a large and understanding following. I loved it because to be honest almost all architecture in 3d games sucks. It really does. It has no resemblance to real life. Its usually much larger and much more bare then anything you see in real life, no matter how well made it is. Even maps I made for myself I stopped because I am anal about that. Residents evil seemed to get it right, and even with code veronica, which is full 3d, it looks much more real then any other game. Even deus ex 2 has shitty level design, looking very bare.