Blue Shift BSP format

[Whistler]

The Blue Shift BSP Format is slightly different from the ordinary HL engine BSP format:

This is the "original" one:

#define	LUMP_ENTITIES	0
#define	LUMP_PLANES		1
#define	LUMP_TEXTURES	2
#define	LUMP_VERTEXES	3
#define	LUMP_VISIBILITY	4
#define	LUMP_NODES		5
#define	LUMP_TEXINFO	6
#define	LUMP_FACES		7
#define	LUMP_LIGHTING	8
#define	LUMP_CLIPNODES	9
#define	LUMP_LEAFS		10
#define	LUMP_MARKSURFACES 11
#define	LUMP_EDGES		12
#define	LUMP_SURFEDGES	13
#define	LUMP_MODELS		14

But the Blue Shift is:

#define	LUMP_PLANES		0
#define	LUMP_ENTITIES	1

If you don't get what I'm saying above - You just need to use a hex editor and cut'n'paste the 5th-12th byte (note it's CUT'n'paste, not COPY'n'paste) after the 20th byte in Blue Shift maps and you'll get them read correctly in the ordinary HL engine.

[sfx1999]

Well that's silly. Why did they change the format?

Did you use your l33t h4x0r skillz to figure that out?

I've looked at the Half-life BSP format and I've found out that is pretty much identical to the Quake one, but someone told me that the lightmaps are different. I looked through the code and I could have sworn that the lightmaps were identical. Can someone explain this to me?

[botman]

The lightmaps are identical to Quake I.

The dynamic lights are different (Quake didn't support colored dynamic lights and Half-Life does).

botman

[sfx1999]

I don't get it. If the lightmaps are greyscale, then how does texture lighting work? It accepts 24-bit color values.

[sfx1999]

Does anyone know? Please tell me.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Many thanks for the info Whistler, now I finally succeeded in porting Blue Shift to Steam.

For those who are interested you need to use Half-Life's game DLL and client DLL, replace monster_rosenberg with monster_scientist (all that the Dr Rosenberg does is scripted, and the skin of the guy is in the scientists model, so I wonder why the heck they needed a monster_rosenberg ?), and in order to get the armor and helmet replace all the item_armorhelmets with item_batteries - all you need then is to change the w_battery model with the kevlar+helmet one

You can then change the value for the batteries and the color of the HUD to blue and voilà, Blue Shift runs as a HL mod with the Steam engine !

[sfx1999]

There are six new or modified entities in Blue-Shift:

http://collective.valve-erc.com/inde...lue&expand=all

monster_generic was modified so the head would follow the player with a flag.

as for the Doc:

monster_rosenberg

description

The monster_rosenberg entity is a custom entity for the Dr. Rosenberg character in Half-Life: Blue Shift.

usage

The entity is based on the monster_scientist code with the following modifications:

• More health than a normal monster_scientist
• If the player accidentally or intentionally shoots the monster_rosenberg it does not get angry/scared and refuse to follow the player.
• Uses custom dialogue set up in the sentences.txt
• Uses a custom unique head for its model (default body 3). This head replaces the "Slick" scientist character head.

The monster_rosenberg entity uses all the common monster properties and spawn flags with special note to the properties below.

• Body (body) - The default body uses the unique Dr. Rosenberg head which replaces the "Slick" scientist character head (3). Note that other bodies/heads can be implemented in the same manner in which the monster_scientist entity does.

These would not be difficult to implement, now would they?

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

not at all

In fact the Blue Shift code is rigorously identical to the HLSDK's game DLL one, except these microscopic additions. It's a bit of shame the Gearbox guys sold this game that expensive regarding the amount of work that's been put in. It's half shorter than most of the third party single player mods, and it's the HL physics, HL weapons, HL DLL, everything. They did nothing at all but to change the order of these 2 lumps in the BSP files in order to fool people into thinking they've made significant changes to the engine. In fact they made none at all. Opposing Force was a good game with some original content, but clearly, Blue Shift is a joke

*edit* oh and FYI I finished the game under Steam for testing, and everything works perfectly

[sfx1999]

Basically for the scientist, you have to change this:

int CScientist :: TakeDamage( entvars_t *pevInflictor, entvars_t *pevAttacker, float flDamage, int bitsDamageType)
 {
 
 	if ( pevInflictor && pevInflictor->flags & FL_CLIENT )
 	{
 		Remember( bits_MEMORY_PROVOKED );
 		StopFollowing( TRUE );
 	}
 
 	// make sure friends talk about it if player hurts scientist...
 	return CTalkMonster::TakeDamage(pevInflictor, pevAttacker, flDamage, bitsDamageType);
 }

To this:

int CScientist :: TakeDamage( entvars_t *pevInflictor, entvars_t *pevAttacker, float flDamage, int bitsDamageType)
 {
 
 	//if ( pevInflictor && pevInflictor->flags & FL_CLIENT )
 	//{
 	//    Remember( bits_MEMORY_PROVOKED );
 	//    StopFollowing( TRUE );
 	//}
 
 	// make sure friends talk about it if player hurts scientist...
 	return CTalkMonster::TakeDamage(pevInflictor, pevAttacker, flDamage, bitsDamageType);
 }

And fix the head spawning code. You also need to modify the generic monster or you might get some nasty problems.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

I get no problems at all. The head spawning for the Dr Rosenburg works as is because it's recorded in the entity key/values in the BSP file. Everything works perfectly, I didn't need to change anything but the HUD colors in the client DLL. You wouldn't tell the difference with the original Blue Shift DLLs.