Finally throwing out Halathon

[Zott]

In the shadows I wait, not commenting. But I too am watching this project and admiring the dedication and visual clarity. Nice nod with the Marathon mug in one of the latest pictures. I have not played Halo, so I don't have much to say as far as accuracy.

I will mention that with everything else being so good, the technicians holding their pistol out in front of them while they stare at consoles stick out. The man with the hands behind him while console viewing is loads better. I don't know if you are against using Lua, but you could check if the "hands-behind guy" is active, and then swap it with a pistol toting guy on the fly, for combat situations. Let me know if you need some code to do that.

[thedoctor45]

thanks for the feedback - concerning the bobs i guess i could just render another sprite of them without guns and just place them in front of the consoles as scenery since they're not supposed to start a fight on the bridge anyway. The lua idea is nice but I'm not sure if I can render the unarmed sprites and fit them together so perfectly with the existing ones that it won't look like it was added in at a later date. Also i kinda would have to add some type of animation that makes them draw their guns or it would look weird if the gun suddley just appears in their hands out of thin air lol.

[thedoctor45]

Here's a little teaser showing off the new Halathon multiplayer features - also, carnage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIDckmCKOdU

[Crater Creator]

This project has defied common sense since inception. Yet here I am, watching a video for a port of a 13 year old game, and feeling profoundly excited about it!

• The needler looks terrific. I wouldn't have thought the long contrails would turn out well in Aleph One, but they did. You also seem to have faithfully recreated the 'supercombine' explosion.
• Am I imagining things, or did you implement a jump complete with 3rd person animations? That's a neat trick.
• I think you could use a lua script to globally make teleporters work instantly like in Halo. I was going to provide a working script, but I can't quite determine the teleporter's destination for the general case.
• What stands out the most are the handful of unreplaced sounds. I take that as a good sign: it says to me you're over the bigger hurdles.
• What's the goal for player physics? Player run speed seems close to normal for Marathon, but elevated compared to Halo. Or maybe the size of the player is slightly smaller in relation to the environment. Gravity is low in both games compared to reality, but the player doesn't jump very high in Halathon (assuming what I saw is in fact jumping).

[thedoctor45]

• Am I imagining things, or did you implement a jump complete with 3rd person animations? That's a neat trick.

Yes, like I said in an earlier post i added megabytes jump.lua to the game by default - the jump height is intentionally kept pretty low since it would give you too much of an advantage gamplay-wise - it's just enough to cross larger gaps without issues - still i think i could increase it a bit though.

• I think you could use a lua script to globally make teleporters work instantly like in Halo. I was going to provide a working script, but I can't quite determine the teleporter's destination for the general case.

That would be pretty useful - the only thing that bothers me about the current teleporters is the activation delay.

• What's the goal for player physics? Player run speed seems close to normal for Marathon, but elevated compared to Halo. Or maybe the size of the player is slightly smaller in relation to the environment. Gravity is low in both games compared to reality, but the player doesn't jump very high in Halathon (assuming what I saw is in fact jumping).

Tbh i like the Marathon physics/gravity/player speed better compared to Halos that's why i oriented on those for Halathon - i just prefer fast-paced gameplay - I could decrease the player speed a bit tho.

[Zott]

but I can't quite determine the teleporter's destination for the general case.

You use the polygon's "permutation" to see what the teleport destination is. The word choice for doc listing isn't clear, I know...

the only thing that bothers me about the current teleporters is the activation delay.

See if the attached script does what you want. If not, you are free to modify to your will. It currently teleports projectiles, monsters and players. Lightly tested.

[thedoctor45]

Thanks zott , this works really well - should improve gamplay experience quite a bit.

[thedoctor45]

Btw, would it be possible to adapt this script to work for automatic level exists also?

[Hopper]

To exit a level without the player coming to a stop first, add this (untested) code to Triggers.idle:

Code: Select all

for p in Players() do
    if (p.polygon.type == "automatic exit" and Level.calculate_completion_state() ~= "unfinished") then
        p.teleport_to_level(p.polygon.permutation)
    end
end

To disable the teleport effects and sounds, you need MML:

Code: Select all

<view interlevel_in_effects="false" interlevel_out_effects="false"/>

[thedoctor45]

thanks for the hint hopper, unfortunately i get this error message when entering a level exit:



i put the code where you said so I don't think it's my fault.

[Wrkncacnter]

I believe you have to wrap that argument into an if...then...and block.

[Zott]

p.teleport_to_level(p.polygon.permutation)

should be

p:teleport_to_level(p.polygon.permutation)

You also have to use a variable to store the end state or else the player will try and teleport out indefinitely. This might be avoided without a variable by turning off the mml animations, but I did not test that.

[thedoctor45]

thanks again zott, working like a charm.

[herecomethej2000]

Can't believe you did an entire player set. Only a few TC's even bother, and this is one of the few that actually look good! Really some masterful trickery of the AlephOne engine to get architecture that actually resembles halo. I think back to when Halathon was just a weapon set and a shield bar. Really amazing job.

[thedoctor45]

just a small status update - I've completed work on 3 netmaps and am currently half way through with the 4th - if I can keep up the pace I'll get all 6 planned netlevels done by the end of September and maybe even add one or two more afterwards.
Of the 7 singleplayer maps, 3 are done, 3 are work in progress and one is still missing.

I hope to be able to release a Demo version of Halathon comprised of around 14-16 maps in total sometime around the end of 2014 if possible - assuming that I don't encounter any unexpected obstracles until then ofc.

If you think you can help with mapping drop me a PM - I'm not expecting anything original - a simple recreation of one of the default Halo netmaps would be more than enough.

take care
-doc

[Nobody1707]

Thedoctor45, you are a scholar and a vidmaster, and I salute you!

[thedoctor45]

Here're some screenshots of a reworked version of Damnation. Feedback is appreaciated.

[Qtekly]

That looks really cool, i can't believe that can be done in Aleph One. I can't see any difference between this and the real Halo.

[Crater Creator]

This is looking better all the time! The ability to jump will be handy for crossing those gaps.

[Fishman92]

Can't quite believe this is still making progress. Good work.

[thedoctor45]

Good to see you again Fishman

Getting the Halathon Demo released is my top-priority atm - progress is steady and I've already overcome most of the hurdles I have encountered so far so it's just a matter of a few more months.

Also here's a screenhsot of some 3D goodness:

[Fishman92]

Shame the engine doesn't allow 3d first person models. However what you've achieved here is pretty amazing. Slopes, bridges, and so on are things you take for granted in 'real' 3d engines, but the fact you've pulled it off here and looking so good is awesome.

[Dan]

Such progress. I love to see Aleph One can do all this. Looks just like Combat Evolved.
Also, I'd like to ask how you kept the dimensions of the map faithful to the original, if you did.

[Crater Creator]

Circumstantial evidence suggests Bungie still used world units in Halo, conceptually if not mathematically. If you look at an extracted 3D file of Hang 'Em High, for instance, you see a lot of ledges and whatnot that look about 1 WU wide. Sure enough, if you set your scale based on that when remaking it in Aleph One, the map feels right when you play it.

[Tycho X]

Amazing!
This probably isn't the appropriate thread/board, but I'd love to know how you made those bridges! (3D?)
Don't stop the good work, and good luck!

Also, isn't possible to change the title? 'Finally throwing out Halathon' doesn't seem quite appropriate.