The Half-Life Updated Betas don't always trigger CD Audio

[Ronin4862]

Start a new game as in the video shown and the Audio CD Track 03 "Vague Voices" will not be triggered. It is not the DLLs's fault, as I copied these over the default Steam ones in the vanilla Half-Life and Track 03 starts just fine. It has probably something to do with the maps. I only tested this situation here where I start a new game. I didn't test if ALL tracks trigger properly. https://youtu.be/TpjvEX3l0B4

In map c2a4 if you walk fast (keep the forward button pressed), Track 22 will not trigger. If you walk slow (with pauses) then it will. https://youtu.be/cxZD6PF-WdI

P.S. This was the place where the player used to get stuck at the transition between levels. Great job in fixing that!

[SamVanheer]

Same as https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/issues/239

The first case is music being played by using the worldspawn sounds keyvalue. Those are stopped by the engine right after they start playing.

The second case is similar. Music is played using a target_cdaudio using radius trigger. If you move too quickly you'll trigger it before the engine issues its stop command.

Like i said in the linked issue i can't fix this problem in the Updated projects. Please don't report music playback issues like these on the Updated repositories because they can't be fixed here.

[Ronin4862]

I fail to see the difference between the tram ride and entering Nihilanth's chamber. One works and the other doesn't. And more, the audio tracks in the tram and helicopter rides at the beginning of BS Updated and OP Updated trigger and play just fine...

[SamVanheer]

That's because they use different ways to start the music. I've explained this before.

Nihilanth uses a trigger_auto with a .2 second delay which allows it to bypass the stop command that's issued. The Opposing Force helicopter ride uses a trigger_auto with a 1 second delay. The Blue Shift tram ride uses a trigger_cdaudio hit after the tram starts moving, well after the stop command has been processed.

It's fixed in the Unified SDK but not here, for reasons i've already explained.

[Ronin4862]

Thanks for the explanation. It would seem that only the original tram ride at the beginning of HL is affected by this; but I'll have to play the whole game again thoroughly to confirm this. My initial playthrough was using copy-pasted client.dll and hl.dll over the original ones. The issue wasn't present then and that's why I didn't report it earlier. I really started playing the way you want by installing the three betas as Steam Mods only after you fixed that dotnet issue. This means I've only played the whole of OP Updated like this and now BS Updated which I'll finish shortly. Anyway... if I type "cd play 03" in the console to play "Vague Voices" will it continue to play after the first "loading" point? I'm at work right now and can't check until later tonight. And the trigger_auto command with xx seconds delay you speak of can't be implement during the tram ride? It doesn't have to start immediately; it could be triggered at any point. I would personally think that it would be better if it played AFTER the tram ride as everytime I play HL after a long time I mute the music just to hear the tram ride voice.

[SamVanheer]

My initial playthrough was using copy-pasted client.dll and hl.dll over the original ones. The issue wasn't present then and that's why I didn't report it earlier.

The engine only stops music if you're playing a game other than Half-Life, and it detects the game by checking the name of the mod directory. That's why it doesn't happen if you do that.

Anyway... if I type "cd play 03" in the console to play "Vague Voices" will it continue to play after the first "loading" point?

No, it will be stopped.

And the trigger_auto command with xx seconds delay you speak of can't be implement during the tram ride?

I could change the maps to do that but that's out of scope for this project. The Unified SDK fixes that and many other issues, so if you really want that you can play the games that way when it's done.

I would personally think that it would be better if it played AFTER the tram ride as everytime I play HL after a long time I mute the music just to hear the tram ride voice.

You can always modify the maps yourself if you want that.

[Ronin4862]

I could change the maps to do that but that's out of scope for this project. The Unified SDK fixes that and many other issues, so if you really want that you can play the games that way when it's done.

It's up to you Sam.

[Ronin4862]

I could change the maps to do that but that's out of scope for this project. The Unified SDK fixes that and many other issues, so if you really want that you can play the games that way when it's done.

I did a quick walkthrough. The only tracks that don't trigger are Track 03 and Track 05 (Tram Ride and Unforseen Consequences). To me this seems incomplete and unacceptable. I want the full Half-Life experience and music is a big part of it. If these two can't be fixed I have no choice but to play Half-Life like I did before (by replacing the vanilla client.dll and hl.dll with the ones I build using the code you release regularly after you fix a bug). Atleast until that Unified thing is ready...

[SamVanheer]

As i've said multiple times before this project is limited in scope. The main wiki page says it best:

The goal of the Updated repositories is to allow modders to make mods based on these games, while providing bug fixes that could be applied to the official games as well. A mod installation is also provided for each repository to allow players to play these games with all bug fixes applied.

The primary goal is to provide an SDK with bug fixes, not fix every bug in the game assets themselves.

The Unified SDK has an expanded scope that does include that (but still to a limited extent; other projects exist that aim to fix maps and other assets) and already has all of the fixes needed for music playback to work properly.

That project is nearing its first release, missing only a new UI (which is a lot of work) but otherwise allows you to play through all 3 campaigns. I've been fixing the issues reported on these projects so i can merge everything in and start working to get that first release out which involves testing to make sure everything i've added works properly.

I'm not going to keep arguing about the music issues in these projects. I've already made it clear that i can't fix the problem in the engine and that i won't make edits to the maps. You're just going to have to be patient.

[Ronin4862]

I appologise Sam, I didn't mean to sound it like that... What you did with these projects is nothing short of amazing! You fixed 3 games that were in a semi-broken state! No one else did that! By the way, I did an OP Updated walkthrough and all is fine! All tracks trigger just fine! I'll double check BS aswell. So far it seems that only those two tracks don't play.

[Ronin4862]

Hi Sam, I've finished playing BS: Updated and have no more bugs/issues to report. There are three things I would like to ask:

1. Since only maps c0a0 and c1a1a don't trigger tracks 03 and 05 respectively, can you at least tell what software should I use to edit those maps? Is there a tutorial anywhere for this specific task?

2. Can you release the new betas for Opposing Force and Blue Shift immediately after the current open issues are fixed (I think there are only 2 or 3 left)? I would like to have one more go at them and see if I missed anything before moving on to Half-Life 2.

3. Do you plan on having a "Half-Life 2 Updated" repository for the main game and its two expansions anytime soon? I would gladly find bugs for you to fix =D !

[SamVanheer]

1. Since only maps c0a0 and c1a1a don't trigger tracks 03 and 05 respectively, can you at least tell what software should I use to edit those maps? Is there a tutorial anywhere for this specific task?

Ripent. Here's a tutorial that covers the essentials: https://carlfoust.tripod.com/ripent/ripent.html

I would recommend learning the basics of level design so you understand how things work. Here's a tutorial for that: https://twhl.info/wiki/page/Tutorial%3A_Introduction_to_mapping

Unfortunately a lot of old resources and tutorials are gone because the websites they were hosted on went down. We've been trying to get some of those resources back to host them on TWHL but it's a difficult process, and people don't have much time to write tutorials.

2. Can you release the new betas for Opposing Force and Blue Shift immediately after the current open issues are fixed (I think there are only 2 or 3 left)? I would like to have one more go at them and see if I missed anything before moving on to Half-Life 2.

That's the idea. I've been wrapping up a bunch of smaller stuff so i can get those betas out, but i need to finish looking into the open issues and fix some things i know about.

3. Do you plan on having a "Half-Life 2 Updated" repository for the main game and its two expansions anytime soon? I would gladly find bugs for you to fix =D !

I am not planning on making anything like that. There are existing mods that do that already like Half-Life 2 Update and MMod. I haven't spent much time with HL2 modding but i'm sure you can find some open source projects that offer improved SDKs as well.

[Ronin4862]

Ripent. Here's a tutorial that covers the essentials: https://carlfoust.tripod.com/ripent/ripent.html

I would recommend learning the basics of level design so you understand how things work. Here's a tutorial for that: https://twhl.info/wiki/page/Tutorial%3A_Introduction_to_mapping

Thanks Sam, I did some research on this topic and it seems that trigger_cdaudio is equivalent to just typing "cd play xx" in the console which means "Vague Voices" will just play once and stop at the first load point and not continue throughout the entire tram ride like it should. Am I correct? And even if I somehow make the track start at the end of the ride after the guard opens the tram door it will be cut immediately after I enter the first massive door to Anomalous Materials, yes? This turns out to be quite the headache :))

[SamVanheer]

Yes, that's correct. That's why i implemented a whole new music system for the Unified SDK.

[Ronin4862]

I can't wait to see this Unified version :) Will it have the same behavior as the Steam version? Vague Voices will play uninterrupted until the end of the tram ride? What about the rest of the tracks? If for instance, in the Steam version, I start On a Rail and track 14 is triggered and then load any other save, be it the beginning or the end of the game, track 14 will continue to play which it shouldn't. Will it read from the Audio CD when inserted or only local files? If so, will it support *.wav files? I would hate to use the low res mp3 files when I have the high quality audio tracks on CD.

[SamVanheer]

I can't wait to see this Unified version :) Will it have the same behavior as the Steam version? Vague Voices will play uninterrupted until the end of the tram ride?

Yes and yes.

What about the rest of the tracks? If for instance, in the Steam version, I start On a Rail and track 14 is triggered and then load any other save, be it the beginning or the end of the game, track 14 will continue to play which it shouldn't.

Music stops playing when you start a new game, load a saved game or disconnect from a server (includes quitting to main menu).

Will it read from the Audio CD when inserted or only local files?

No it doesn't read from CDs.

If so, will it support *.wav files?

It supports these formats:

• Wave
• MP3
• Ogg Vorbis
• Ogg Opus
• FLAC
• WavPack
• Musepack

But note that the game uses full names so you can't just change the extension, it won't find the file if you do that. File type identification doesn't rely on the extension so you can rename a .ogg to .mp3 and it will work.

I would hate to use the low res mp3 files when I have the high quality audio tracks on CD.

You can use the high quality tracks in the Steam version by placing them in Half-Life/valve_addon/media and enabling addon content in the Options dialog.

You can do the same with the new music system.

You can try it now: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/releases

But note that these are pre-alpha builds. Don't report bugs you find because it's still a work in progress.

[Ronin4862]

You can use the high quality tracks in the Steam version by placing them in Half-Life/valve_addon/media and enabling addon content in the Options dialog.

I currently use *.nrg image files that I've created from the original CDs and load them with Daemon Tools Lite.

I've created the folder you say. Yes, it works, but only if I convert the tracks to mp3 files (i.e Prospero01.mp3 for Vague Voices and so on) but this degrades quality compared to the way I normally play (CD Audio image loaded with DT Lite).

Hopefully with Unified I can extract the tracks directly as uncompressed WAVE files and play them like that.

You can try it now: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/releases

I'll try it tomorrow. And how do I install it?

P.S. Couldn't wait :))

Copied hlu and hlu_hd over to Half-Life dir. I can start the Unified SDK as a Mod in Steam.

I'm not hearing any music. The only way is to keep an audio cd image loaded and type "cd play xx" in the console.

Where should the local music files be placed? Prospero01.mp3 that I earlier placed in Half-Life/valve_addon/media is not found.

https://youtu.be/pV79kxn0vbg https://youtu.be/KmcrmgWf-ow

In the video the music stutters when the game is paused (hit ~ for console). I solved this in the Steam version by disabling auto-pause or whatever it was called, so when I open the console, the game continues. This should be the case here aswell.

P.S.2: I see that you have a guide here: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-unified-sdk/wiki/Installation-instructions

It would be best to place this within the link where you download the release so people see it immediately and don't have to look around like I did. I will reinstall tonight as I'm at work now.

To recap:

1. The music can be in any of these formats (Wave, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Opus, FLAC, WavPack, Musepack)?

2. The filenames must be like this? https://twhl.info/wiki/page/Tutorial%3A_Making_Music_Play_in_Maps (Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx)

3. In what folder exactly must the music be placed?

4. What if I want to play the OF or BS campaign and then switch back to Half-Life? They have different tracks. Do I have to overwrite these files everytime (Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx)?

[Ronin4862]

I managed to install it correctly.

2. The filenames must be like this? https://twhl.info/wiki/page/Tutorial%3A_Making_Music_Play_in_Maps (Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx)

3. In what folder exactly must the music be placed?

The filenames must be exactly of the type Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx to be automatically recognized and they must be placed in a media folder either in the valve or hlu folders. Either one would do.

1. The music can be in any of these formats (Wave, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Opus, FLAC, WavPack, Musepack)?

Apparently not! For instance Unified expects to see "/media/prospero01.mp3" so you must force change the extension from .wav, .flac or whatever to .mp3 to work otherwise it won't see it! Can this behavior be changed Sam? So the music system would just look for the filename (i.e. prospero01) and not for its extension? This way it would play directly the file prospero01 nomatter if it is an .wav, *.flac or whatever.

One thing I noticed is if I extract a track from de Audio CD in uncompressed lossless WAVE, change its extension by renaming (prospero01.wav" to prospero01.mp3") and then comparing it by playing through the engine with "music play /media/prospero01.mp3" vs "cd play 03" it sounds better through the CD. There's a slight loss in treble clarity. I even made a recording of what I hear ingame and analyzed it through Sound Forge audio editor. The waveforms are slightly different. Are you sure this music system is lossless Sam? What I did here was a simple comparison of the same track extracted in a lossless format and then played through the new music system vs the default cd playback system. They should sound the same!

4. What if I want to play the OF or BS campaign and then switch back to Half-Life? They have different tracks. Do I have to overwrite these files everytime (Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx)?

Probably those tracks should be placed in their own media folder inside gearbox and bshift respectively. I can't test that because starting a "New game" in Unified always launches the Half-Life campaign.

[SamVanheer]

1. The music can be in any of these formats (Wave, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Opus, FLAC, WavPack, Musepack)?

Yes.

2. The filenames must be like this? https://twhl.info/wiki/page/Tutorial%3A_Making_Music_Play_in_Maps (Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx)

That page describes the behavior in the original game. This mod uses its own music system and music from the original games is handled differently.

I'm still working on a bunch of stuff including documentation for this feature so it isn't explicitly stated anywhere yet outside of the TWHL progress thread.

3. In what folder exactly must the music be placed?

Pretty much every Half-Life game and mod puts their music in Half-Life/moddir/media. That's the same here.

4. What if I want to play the OF or BS campaign and then switch back to Half-Life? They have different tracks. Do I have to overwrite these files everytime (Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx)?

Opposing Force and Blue Shift tracks are copied and renamed on installation. All files starting with Half-Life are renamed to start with Opposing-Force and Blue-Shift.

All files that are used in Opposing Force and Blue Shift that don't start with the game name have that name prepended instead.

It would be best to place this within the link where you download the release so people see it immediately and don't have to look around like I did.

I'd have Github pop up an unskippable dialog pointing people at it but that's not an option. I'll add a link to the releases as well, but i'd expect people to look at the main repository page as well, which tells people to look at the wiki. I can't make it more obvious than that.

Can this behavior be changed Sam? So the music system would just look for the filename (i.e. prospero01) and not for its extension? This way it would play directly the file prospero01 nomatter if it is an .wav, .flac or whatever.

No. The new music console command and entity are designed to work just like other commands and entities, which means it uses actual filenames. The ability to replace files with something that's a completely different format when a filename with extension is used isn't intended behavior anywhere in the engine, but since file loading identifies them based on contents you can change the file extension to get around that.

That's what i meant by "File type identification doesn't rely on the extension so you can rename a .ogg to .mp3 and it will work.".

One thing I noticed is if I extract a track from de Audio CD in uncompressed lossless WAVE, change its extension by renaming (prospero01.wav" to prospero01.mp3") and then comparing it by playing through the engine with "music play /media/prospero01.mp3" vs "cd play 03" it sounds better through the CD.

Wave files aren't meant to be used for high quality music. All audio is converted from the original format to 32 bit float so the Wave PCM data might lose quality. Wave support is more geared towards the low quality audio used by the game already.

Are you sure this music system is lossless Sam?

I never claimed it was. You'll probably get better quality using a .ogg file. Though the HQ soundtrack is distributed on Steam as .flac.

See https://steamdb.info/app/323130/

You can download the soundtrack through Steam. Open Half-Life in the library, then open the soundtrack in Additional Content.

What if I want to play the OF or BS campaign and then switch back to Half-Life? They have different tracks. Do I have to overwrite these files everytime (Half-Lifexx, Prosperoxx, Suspensexx)?

See above.

Probably those tracks should be placed in their own media folder inside gearbox and bshift respectively.

They are in their own folder in the original games, and they're copied to the media folder in hlu by the installer.

I can't test that because starting a "New game" in Unified always launches the Half-Life campaign.

You can launch the other campaigns using the map of0a0 and map ba_tram1 console commands. The main menu is part of the engine and the new game dialog can't be changed, so until i implement a new UI i can't deal with that.

Read this thread, i've explained a bunch of stuff about the development of these mods there: https://twhl.info/thread/view/20055

[Ronin4862]

Thanks for the detailed explanation Sam!

I never claimed it was. You'll probably get better quality using a .ogg file. Though the HQ soundtrack is distributed on Steam as .flac.

See https://steamdb.info/app/323130/

You can download the soundtrack through Steam. Open Half-Life in the library, then open the soundtrack in Additional Content.

I already have those and they are identical in quality to the tracks on the Audio CD. So what's the best approach, quality wise?

1. Rip my Audio CD tracks into .ogg (instead of .wav) and then rename the extension to *.mp3 so the game can see them? OR
2. Take the FLACs and rename the extension to *.mp3?

Read this thread, i've explained a bunch of stuff about the development of these mods there: https://twhl.info/thread/view/20055

Will do!

P.S. Any estimate for the release of the new betas? You don't have to fix the Shock Roach texture bug now. It's not that important anyway being the least used weapon of all. I'm really interested in playing OF and BS again with the fix for the MP5 muzzle flash that you and Malortie did :)

[SamVanheer]

So what's the best approach, quality wise?

The .flac versions are the HQ versions, so i'd use those.

P.S. Any estimate for the release of the new betas? You don't have to fix the Shock Roach texture bug now. It's not that important anyway being the least used weapon of all. I'm really interested in playing OF and BS again with the fix for the MP5 muzzle flash that you and Malortie did :)

That's not what's holding up the release. There's an obscure crash bug that needs more investigation, reporting and fixing.

The MP5 models are part of the Unified SDK release, you can use those already.

[Ronin4862]

The MP5 models are part of the Unified SDK release, you can use those already.

So the MP5 is not getting fixed in the upcoming betas for OF and BS Updated?

https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-op4-updated/issues/78#issuecomment-1240807015

[SamVanheer]

They are, i'm just saying if you really want that now you can just take the models from the latest Unified SDK build.

[Ronin4862]

They are in their own folder in the original games, and they're copied to the media folder in hlu by the installer.

You are correct. I didn't had them there because I deleted them after learning that I could use Audio CD Images loaded with DT Lite for the soundtrack. After restoring them (validate content through Steam) and reinstalling Unified, the BS and OF tracks are all there in *.mp3 format, while the Half-Life tracks are in /valve/media :

Now I'll make FLACs from my CDs and rename them (and their extensions) to match those in this folder and also the ones in /valve/media.

I love the way you grouped the save files for all three games, so that you can load any save from any game from the same screen:

They are, i'm just saying if you really want that now you can just take the models from the latest Unified SDK build.

Just checked them out right now! Excellent! Congrats to you and Malortie; every bullet produces one muzzle flash! I see that all MP5s eject the shells from OF which look nicer! One thing that I would like to be as it was before is the default view for the MP5 in Half-Life: It would be great if you could keep the default one.

I love the idea of Unified and really appreciate the hard work you put in. Can't wait to see the release! One minor complaint would be the fact that "pausable" in the console doesn't work. Everytime you open the console the game pauses and it would be nice if it didn't.

I've attached some backgrounds photos for the 3 games. Maybe you like them and can use them in your upcoming UI. If you need different resolutions just let me know. https://we.tl/t-Z8G3oi7nYA

[Ronin4862]

The .flac versions are the HQ versions, so i'd use those.

Ripping the Audio Tracks from the Original CDs into lossless formats such as *.wav* or .flac**, then renaming the files extension to *.mp3 so the game can see them, always results in a loss in dynamics and treble clarity when using music play media/xxxxxx.mp3 compared to just playing the Audio CDs ingame through cd play xx.

Would another OpenAL32.dll driver matter or the crappy Miles Sound System is still used for playing music like it was the case for the mp3s in the Steam version?

[Ronin4862]

Just checked them out right now! Excellent! Congrats to you and Malortie; every bullet produces one muzzle flash!

One thing I've always noticed but forgot to mention. Fire the default (non-HD) Half-Life MP5 bullet by bullet by tapping the left click in a dark room to see the muzzle flash better. It is a "star like" flash with "5 rays" where the fifth is hidden by the tip of the gun. But sometimes you'll see two flashes superimposed on each other per click/bullet fired and slightly misaligned instead of just one. You'll see more "rays" than normal. It's very hard to capture on video so you'll have to try it yourself.

[SamVanheer]

I love the way you grouped the save files for all three games, so that you can load any save from any game from the same screen:

When you make a save game in a mod it saves the file in the mod's local SAVE directory. You're not loading the save file from the original game's SAVE directory. All of the maps are copied to the hlu/maps directory so you're playing modified versions of those maps.

I can't touch the save and load game dialog code, that's in the engine. This behavior is the default.

One thing that I would like to be as it was before is the default view for the MP5 in Half-Life:

I'm aware of that, i think there was a mixup when the weapons were updated to use the same data where possible. The changes to the MP5 need to be reverted.

One minor complaint would be the fact that "pausable" in the console doesn't work. Everytime you open the console the game pauses and it would be nice if it didn't.

I can't do anything about that. The engine is responsible for handling the setting of that cvar. You'll need to change it after a map load for it to behave as desired (autoexec.cfg is probably your best bet).

I've attached some backgrounds photos for the 3 games. Maybe you like them and can use them in your upcoming UI. If you need different resolutions just let me know.

I'm not going to change the background. The SDK is just an updated Half-Life SDK, mod developers can change the background to whatever they want. It's not really meant to be a mod by itself, i'm providing updated maps to allow people to play the original maps in this mod and to provide tools to auto-upgrade other maps. Having updated official maps is a good test case.

Ripping the Audio Tracks from the Original CDs into lossless formats such as .wav or .flac, then renaming the files extension to *.mp3 so the game can see them, always results in a loss in dynamics and treble clarity when using music play media/xxxxxx.mp3 compared to just playing the Audio CDs ingame through cd play xx.

Would another OpenAL32.dll driver matter or the crappy Miles Sound System is still used for playing music like it was the case for the mp3s in the Steam version?

Neither of those are responsible for audio decoding, a separate library is used. The audio quality is still more than good enough, unless the loss in quality is noticeable i'm not going to spend time on that. Unfortunately high quality audio decoding libraries tend to be paid and proprietary which makes them unusable for an open source project so there aren't a whole lot of options.

One thing I've always noticed but forgot to mention. Fire the default (non-HD) Half-Life MP5 bullet by bullet by tapping the left click in a dark room to see the muzzle flash better. It is a "star like" flash with "5 rays" where the fifth is hidden by the tip of the gun. But sometimes you'll see two flashes superimposed on each other per click/bullet fired and slightly misaligned instead of just one. You'll see more "rays" than normal. It's very hard to capture on video so you'll have to try it yourself.

The MP5 uses sprites/muzzleflash1.spr which has 2 frames. The engine randomly picks one of them to start on and randomizes the roll angle (between 0 and 20 degrees), so you might just be seeing multiple muzzle flashes overlapping with slight variance in angle and sprite frame.

In the future please ask for help about these things in the TWHL Discord. This issue tracker is for bug reports and feature requests that are within scope.

[Ronin4862]

I can't do anything about that. The engine is responsible for handling the setting of that cvar. You'll need to change it after a map load for it to behave as desired (autoexec.cfg is probably your best bet).

I did have an autoexec.cfg placed in hlu folder with "pausable 0" from the very begining. It doesn't work in Unified. Instead it works flawlessly in both Steam Half-Life and HL Updated. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

P.S. Please let me know when you release the new Betas for the Updated repositories. I want to make one final passthrough.

[Ronin4862]

The MP5 uses sprites/muzzleflash1.spr which has 2 frames. The engine randomly picks one of them to start on and randomizes the roll angle (between 0 and 20 degrees), so you might just be seeing multiple muzzle flashes overlapping with slight variance in angle and sprite frame.

One more thing. The muzzle flash clips through walls. I see Malortie has noticed this so I won't start a new issue.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/issues/3084

Also, he managed to take a picture of what I was saying about the flashes overlapping. It looks ugly. Can it be corrected?

[SamVanheer]

I did have an autoexec.cfg placed in hlu folder with "pausable 0" from the very begining. It doesn't work in Unified. Instead it works flawlessly in both Steam Half-Life and HL Updated. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

There's a bug that causes certain engine settings to not reset when starting a singleplayer game, so when you launch a multiplayer game and then go back to singleplayer the settings are wrong.

I fixed that by reworking server configuration. The pausable cvar is reset in cfg/server/server.json:

{
    "Name": "Commands",
    "Condition": "Singleplayer",
    "Commands": [
        "pausable 1",

        // maximum client movement speed 
        "sv_maxspeed 320"
    ]
},

You can change that setting to disable pausing.

This is one of the changes that will be listed in the changelog.

P.S. Please let me know when you release the new Betas for the Updated repositories. I want to make one final passthrough.

You already have everything that's in the betas. There is no rush to release a new beta.

One more thing. The muzzle flash clips through walls. I see Malortie has noticed this so I won't start a new issue.

That's intended behavior. Changing it would require a completely new renderer, which is way out of scope.

Also, he managed to take a picture of what I was saying about the flashes overlapping. It looks ugly. Can it be corrected?

That's also intended behavior. While i could change it i'm not going to. You can always do that yourself in your own mod if you want.

If you don't know how to do that you can ask for help in the TWHL Discord.

I'm locking this issue now since the original topic has been thoroughly covered. If you find any bugs or have any feature requests that are in scope, make a new issue for each individual topic.

I've updated the wiki to explain what the scope is: https://github.com/SamVanheer/halflife-updated/wiki#purpose

I haven't updated the Unified SDK wiki yet but its scope is Updated's scope plus combining the three games and adding the features needed to play all of them in a single mod. That scope may be expanded in the future but changes like graphics and physics will always be out of scope.

Game assets will not be changed either beyond cleaning them up and fixing issues with them. The primary goal is to allow modders to make mods that can use any feature from the three games. The secondary goal is that all three games play as they do in the current Steam version. Maps are converted and upgraded to account for code changes and to fix soft-locking issues.

Please take the scope into consideration when creating issues.