Zhlt 3.0 Beta, Download and test the lattest builds Options

[amckern]

ZHLT 3.0

Download > http://www.zhlt.tk

What is ZHLT 3.0?
3.0 Is the next build of the ZHLT Tools, that xp-cagey left the community before he joined EA in Mid 2004

These tools, are designed to be the last complie tool version, for Half Life 1

What do ZHLT do?
Basicly they turn the raw .rmf, or .map into a playable .bsp map file, more info can be found at http://www.zhlt.info/what-the-compile-tools-do.html

Should I download an use ZHLT? My q tools, are running quite well...
As a rule of thumb you should always download, and run the lattest build of ZHLT

As for why, the q tools are over 6 years old, and where very powerful in there day and age, but as the world has progrssed, so has the tool set.

Orignal ZHLT was a coustom set of tools, writen by Zoner, who was an employee of GearBox at the time

Though to answer the qustion, ZHLT are very powerful, fast, and stable, not to mention that they do quite a bit more then the q tools can do, so yes, upgrade your tools, if you have not done so.

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News

2/November/2006

The NS forums are back!

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Download The Tools

Most people will want the 32-bit version, if you don't know which one you need, download this one. Even if you have a 64-bit processor (e.g. AMD Athlon 64) you are most probably running 32-bit Windows. If you have a 64-bit processors, and are running Windows 64-bit, download the version for 64-bit processors.

Windows 32
http://downloads.ammahls.com/zhlt/x86/zhlt34x86final.zip (715 KB)

Windows 64 (AMD 64 ONLY)
http://downloads.ammahls.com/zhlt/x64/zhlt34x64final.zip (357 KB)


You will also need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x32) or the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x64)

System Requirements

The Compile tools are built to be used with the below specifications, if your system dose not match these, you may experience lengthy compiles.

Pentium 4 or equivalent with SSE Support
128MB RAM
3MB Disk Space
Windows 98

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Changelog

ZHLT 3.0 For Half Life 1
Tool set Managed by amckern
amckern@yahoo.com
News Updates and downloads can be found at http://ammahls.com
View the Official ZHLT Docs at http://www.zhlt.info

You will also need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x32) or the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x64)

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BIG THANKS to Carl "XP-Cagey" Patrick, for helping us with code, to rectify the shadow code, and other support through the 3.0 beta stage, with out you ZHLT would not be where it is to day.

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3.4 Final (25 Feb 2006)

Testing is over, and no code changes have been made.

The tools are now safe for use, with 32 Bit, and Windows 64.

PLEASE, note that if you are going to run the 64 Bit tools, with a 32 Bit Operating System, you will get an error box telling you that you 'toolname.exe is not a valid Win32 Applaction'. - http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitled1ty.png

Testing: Solokiller, x64, Puchi, Other Members of #mapping on GameSurge IRC

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3.4 Beta (10 Dec 2005)

All Tools
First Relase of 64 Bit Tools
Added Cpt_Andrew - Env_Sky code for SOHL Based Levels

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3.3 (9 Oct 2005)

CSG
Fixed
Some long standing Bugs - CSG Will no longer crash, unless there is some strange reason

RAD
Fixed
Some ZHLT Light Flag crashing - the ZHLT Flag Shadows are also slightly better

Package
Removed
All non SDK Power tools - keeping the tools up to date was/will be a pain

ALL TOOLS
Corrected
All .html page notes in the log file now point to www.zhlt.info.

Thanks to Wraiyth For the help with the bug we sorted out over MSN, and Animis Immortal for the motavation to get the bug fixes done

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3.2.1.1 (3 Apr 2005)

ALL TOOLS
I fixed some cosmetic changes up, such as giving the tools version 3.2.1

Package
Moved the .pl files for opt ENT data, to live in the power tools folder, as they should have! Sorry FragBait0

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3.2.1 (14 March 2005)

CSG
Removed HINTSKIP, this texture has been a bug, and appears to not work.

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3.2 (8 March 2005)

CSG
Fixed
HINTSKIP showing up in the world (AKA Getting rendered, and not discarded as it should have been).

RAD
Included the correct HLRAD.EXE Build

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3.1 (7 March 2005)

CSG
Added
Hint skip texture for GTK. Simply apply it as a group texture - WARNING! I do not have GTK, so this build might be not work as Planed - Thanks DeeTae for the idea.

RAD
Fixed
Some more RAD functions in relation to ZHLT Light Flags.

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3.0 Final (3 Feb 2005)

CSG
Fixed
Out Of World Errors in CSG, when the brushes where in-fact proper solids

RAD
Fixed
Primary Colour Bug, with light_env
Infinite v bug in HLRAD, when using odd sided texture lights
Black blotches, when Infinite v would spam

Package
Added
Opt_entdata
Hlfix
Makewad
Mapbackup
RESGen

Big Thanks to ts2do, for finding the small bit of code that has stoped Final from coming out for the past 6 months

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3.0 Beta 4 (11 Nov 2004)

Package
Added
ZHLT.wad This version fixes some issues when using a texture with capital letters
Lights.rad (Hammer 3.4)
Wad.cfg (1.7)

ALL TOOLS
Started converting functions to assembly, in other words, making each bit of code, as fast as it can go, by making it as Simple as possible

CSG and BSP
Cleaned up some tab spacing, so that built in command line options where displayed proper

RAD
Fixed
Crash bug when using Opaque entities
Added
Faster Rad Code by Nem, Improves compile time by about 15-27%

Ripent
Added
New command line switch (-parse), by Nem that Pareses and reformats entity data stripping all non-essential formatting, to cause less chance of a bug

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3.0 Beta 3

ALL TOOLS
This version was a test, for including the MSVC.lib code, it did not work, so was removed after a small internal beta test With members of #mapcore, and #svencoop on Game surge IRC

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3.0 Beta 2

ALL TOOLS
Updated Banner, with AJenbo's email address, for shared credits

CSG
Added AJenbo's CSG Code
This Code changed the default subdivide to 240, to save on Clip nodes by about 1.2%

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3.0 Beta 1

ALL TOOLS
Made the Banner look clean, and updated the Credits
Added an extra line, to the Bug Reports Banner, stating that if you have a mapping error, to ask at the modifications 'Nominated Mapping Help Forum', to help nub mapmakers Updated the compile error reference code to show Tommy14's Error Page that is much more comprehensive then the Standalone ZHLTProblems.html
Tweaked Tool's Complier optimising
Destroyed ALL errors at /w3 level compiles

VIS
Added faster Vis code, by Egir
This code changed the VIS Code to a basic form of assembly
Tested with AMD XP Chips, Not tested on Intel Chips or Older CPUs

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The Developers behind ZHLT 3.0 would also like to Thank

Torus Interactive, Razor Monkey Studios, Tommy14, Rae, Lego, Gugs, the Guys #countermap, James "Pongels1" Manfield, Unknown Worlds, Mum, Dad, EB Games Australia, The staff at Carmon Drive Takeaway, Chico Foods Australia, P&N Beverages, Paul Payne

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Bugs

Please post any bugs you find, including

The complie log
Your machines cpu,
How much ram you have
Your os

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Links

http://ammahls.com
Offical News, and Infomation on ZHLT 3.0

http://www.zhlt.tk
Offical Download site for ZHLT 3.0

http://www.zhlt.info
Offical Docs Site, includes inks to web resources

Thanks
The ZHLT 3.0 Team

This post has been edited by amckern: Nov 7 2006, 12:15 PM

[Thaldarin]

Good to see someone is keeping them going. I think your coding skills are better than your mapping skills You should also think about reporting your tools update to other communities that might well use it. Or simply alert PHL.

[amckern]

thanks

at the moment, the tools, are in very early BETA!

i'm wating for the code from ajenbo, for csg, so you dont have to 2 versions in the download

So the slower it seaps out the more chance i have of keeping the updates clean

once there is a stable beta, or a full final, i'll email the 300 addresses i have for half life news sites

amckern

[Zyndrome]

Make sure to keep me updated too on this, amckern.

[The_Real_Nem]

...or make an article similar to Merl's on the VERC.

Now to really confuse newbies with version numbers. Is it ZHLT? MHLT? AHLT? XHLT P Series? Ahhhh!

[Tequila]

[Mendasp]

I'd say it is...

BoPHLT

Bunch of People's Half-Life Tools

[wnn]

Nice, ill see how it works on my Intel processor.

[Hibame]

Its

ATAI

amckern's try at insanity

[amckern]

its ZHLT 3.0

Read ^^^ the thread topic

also, thanks, and please note that this is not a map, so treat me well...

[FragBait0]

Amckern, relating to your latest post on the "Get the latest compile tools" thread...

Try using the putting the libraries where your compiler (MSVC?) can find them and extract the netvis directory into....your netvis directory

I compiled one of the libs myself from the code of sourceforge and the other, zlib, i got from some random zip. Not sure where it came from...was a long night argh.

EDIT: and I put this post here because... I could. It seems to be a better place - is it?

This post has been edited by FragBait0: Sep 21 2004, 12:11 PM

Attached File(s)

 netvis_extrafiles.rar ( 70.01K ) Number of downloads: 13

 

[amckern]

thanks fragbait0

i'll see if this fixes it, and if so, i'll consider making a beta 3 release soon, still need to work on some code

amckern

[Thaldarin]

I am having to use a previous version of the tools in RAD, because for some reason your tools will not use the .rad file and create texture lights. Strange, rest is fine, although I have no idea if anyone else has this problem, keep up the good work.

PC Specs (Incase you need them for the RAD probs)

Win Xp Home
512MB DDR Ram
2.4GhZ Intel Celeron
Ati Radeon 9200 64MB DDR Ram, not sure but think its 4x AGP.

[amckern]

ok

No 1 else is having problems with this, though there was a problem with the beta 1 tools, and opaque lighting, this has been fixed in beta 3, though beta 3 has other bugs, so its not out at the moment

amckern

[amckern]

Hey amckern, seeing as you're working on a modified version of the p15 tools, i would really appreciate if you could answer a question for me, i'm having alot of trouble with my leaves (97.4 fullness and about to go right over) and i need to know why func_walls generate leaves during bsp. Also what could i use alternatively that wouldn't generate more leaves? If i made a duplicated of some geometry, made if a func_illusionary and textured the original clip, would that create the effect of a func_wall without generating the leaves?

I just did a google search, and found that one of my fellow coders has a in-depth look at Vis - http://www.egir.dk/index.php?page=hlvis/hlvis.htm

Look at your map, and see if you can do anything to reduce the leaves, such as cutting the brush with clip, and not letting vis do it for you -its allot of gl_wireframe 1, but well worth it, once its done, also null any sides of entities the player wont see

Making a square of brushes around a pipe, or such, will reduce the entity count, and also, make the leaf count smaller, and speed Vis up, as you can see by the MS Paint shown here -


Example of Brushwork

At the end of doing this you should have a better map for Vis, that makes less leaves, and also speed the compile process up even more, Because you do some of the Grunt work that Vis would normally do.

amckern

This post has been edited by amckern: Aug 7 2007, 02:48 PM

[Mendasp]

I thought beta 2 would fix this but it didn't. HLRAD keeps crashing when it says

[amckern]

opauce (sp?) lighting has issues

I'm FIXING them, in the mean time use the p15 rad, or tools

There beta, becuase they are in need of testing, so thanks medasp for leting me know its more then one map

amckern

[The_Real_Nem]

I was playing with my BSP Viewer today (writing an export feature) and I noticed that there are A LOT of faces with unnecessary vertices (see attached). I noticed these vertices because I had to remove them and they were quite numerous (5%-10% of all faces had them).

So if you are looking for something to do, removing these could:

1. Improve rendering performance.
2. Reduce BSP sizes (marginally).
3. Reduce compile times (I'm thinking of ray/polygon intersection).

It shouldn't be too hard to do (let me know if there is some reason for these vertices).
Nem

Attached File(s)

 face.GIF ( 1.8K ) Number of downloads: 0

 

[amckern]

what tools are the bsps your looking at made with?

Stupid q, but if its a pre p15 complie, then cagey might have done something for this, in the p15 tools

[The_Real_Nem]

Not sure what versions all the BSP files I tested use (as I didn't compile them) but I do have a p15 compiled BSP which does as I have explained (so the problem exists in p15).

Nem