2021-04-06 08:43:38 +00:00
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hlmaterials - Nuclide Documentation
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Written by Gethyn ThomasQuail, 6th April 2021
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This document gives a general overview of what the materials.txt files is,
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and how it's used in Nuclide, and why the decisions were chosen for the
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current implementation. It is not an in-depth explanation of the format
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itself.
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The materials.txt is how the GoldSrc engine defined sounds for various
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textures throughout the game. For example, crates make "wood" sounds,
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vents produce metallic feedback, etc. It is an analogue to surfaceparms
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for those familiar with idTech engines, this was just Valve Software's
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way of doing it before adopting standards.
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In stock Half-Life, this file is located at:
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sounds/materials.txt
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It is allowed to be overwritten by a modification, and users could customize
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the file on the client-side only for themselves. This means there was no
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map specific materials, and mods could not inherit HL's materials, so
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mods would always have to manage a nearly duplicate file if they desired
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custom texture sounds.
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A few mods tried to remedy this problem, the following below is methods
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documented so far:
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- maps/MAPNAME.mat
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Introduced in The Wastes.
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- maps/MAPNAME_materials.txt
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Convention by Andrew Lucas, creator of Trinity SDK, modeled after
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MAPNAME_details.txt
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- materials_file "PATH/FILE.txt" via "worldspawn" entity
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Introduced in Sven Co-op 5.0
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All these methods are supported by Nuclide, as one goal is to implement
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conventions by not only Valve but the community as well.
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In addition Nuclide has also implemented a way of giving modifications
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their own inheritable materials file:
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sounds/materials_UNIQUENAME.txt
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The idea here is that any mod or even map pack can include ONLY the textures
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used, and no longer will anyone have to manage a near-clone of materials.txt
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For repackaging or modding purposes, if you desire to give your map custom
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sound definitions, we recommend The Wastes method for individual maps, while
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the Nuclide method should be used for Mods or Map Packs. We find these to be
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the most clean and efficient way.
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2021-07-19 09:25:28 +00:00
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NOTE: We recommend only using materials text files for GoldSrc related modding
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purposes. It is inefficient for modern projects as there are much better
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2021-04-06 08:43:38 +00:00
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standards already supported in Nuclide. Keep in mind, it takes memory to load
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big text files, and lots of text files adds up over play sessions.
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