Co-Operative Base (Mod)

OrangeBox Co-Operative Base

Formerly known as Shadow Source

Current Version: 1.75 - Released 8th March 2010 - Labelled as ShadowSource

Description.

OrangeBox Co-Operative Base is a patch file containing useful code fixes for the Source SDK Base 2007 (OrangeBox) for use in multiplayer modifications/total conversions requiring such things as working online AI.

There are some minimum system specifications required for using OBCO (OrangeBox Co-Operative) and these are as follows:

• Half-Life 2 or Half-Life 2: Episode 1.
• Source SDK Base 2007 (free download).
• Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, which can be found at one of the three following locations:

http://www.steampowered.com/ati_offer1a/ (ATI users).

http://www.steampowered.com/nvidia/ (NVidia users).

http://store.steampowered.com/app/320/ (Everyone else).

Additionally you can use content from any of the following games (as long as you own them):

• Half-Life 2: Episode 2
• Portal

Untested:

• Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
• Counter Strike Source
• Team Fortress 2
• Content from Valve supported Modifications.

Features.

Developers can easily enable and disable individual features to suit their needs.

Here is a list of the features available to mod developers:

• AI Patch Modifications:
  • Enable/Disable an enhanced version of Winstons' AI Multiplayer patch.
  • Valve Game Mounting:
  • Dynamically mount various official Valve games to get the most for your mod.
  • or use Static Mounts when you're sure you don't need Dynamic mounting.

• Episode 2 Support:
  • Including support for Alyx Darkness Mode

• Player Abilities:
  • Non-HEV wearers can still be allowed to sprint, have the geiger counter etc. This is on a per-item basis, so players could have the geiger, but no sprint if you wanted.
  • Players can pickup objects with their hands.

• Player Class System With:
  • Four (or more, or less) Player Classes.
  • Per Player Class Object Pickup Strengths.
  • Customise Class Health/Maximum Health Values.
  • Customise Class Armour/Maximum Armour Values.
  • Customise Class Walk/Sprint/Normal movement speeds.
  • Customise Class Jump Heights.
  • Each Class Can Have Its Own HUD Layout/Colour scheme.
  • Define how many players can be in each Player Class.

• Teamplay Support:
  • v1.75 includes fixes for enemy NPCs and teamplay games.

• Weapon Enhancments:
  • Development teams can now enable Iron Sight.
  • A known hl2dm Shotgun fast-switch bug - fixed.

• NPC Abilities:
  • Striders can be set to always impale players who get too close.
  • Barnacles can now be set to swallow the player.

• Vehicles:
  • The multiplayer camera judder is no more!
  • Thirdperson model in-vehicle animations can now be used.
  • Old-Style passenger seats can now be used to provide extra seats in vehicles.
  • Jeeps and Jalopys' can now have their headlights switched on.

• Cool Stuff:
  • Firstperson Ragdoll Views on player deaths.
  • Camera bob on player movement (incl. strafe).
  • Use CounterStrike: Sources' ladders code instead of the Half-Life 2 ladders.

• Game Settings:
  • Friendly Fire (Replaces players can collide from v1.5).
  • Dynamic Respawn Code. Don't spawn back at the start of the map anymore, respawn back where you left off in your killing spree.
  • Multiplayer Level Transitions. Not properly done, however with v1.75 on ALL players entering the transition area the server is forced to changelevel to the next map.
  • Save/Restore. In 2.0 (now called OrangeBox Co-Operative) we have a basic working transition system which saves/restores your loadouts.
  • Valve approved cheating. Now even if sv_cheats 1 is enabled, players can't cheat unless you define it as acceptable in the code.
  • Map briefings. Provide storylines on a per-map basis.
  • Map specific model overrides. Changes all players to a specified player model on a particular map (set by the mapper). Check out our defector map for an in-game example!

Credits.

• The Development Team:
  • Ariae -- Composer.
  • Chief -- Modeller/Reluctant Coder.
  • MontyPython -- Foley Artist.
  • Sneaky[ToB] -- Coder.
  • SpamSlayer -- Voice Artist/Coder.

• Occasional Team Members:
  • Apocrypha Roxy -- Voice Actress
  • MasterThief3 -- Voice Artist

• And thanks to the following non-team members:
  • Winston
  • Tony Sergi
  • Biohazard_90
  • Sub-Zero
  • DutchMega
  • The Last 7 Hours Spanish Mod
  • Skidz
  • Alters
  • .Kave
  • KuRouZu
  • Jorg
  • z33ky
  • JordanN
  • TheRJMan
  • HalfWit2

Getting the Current Release.

Our ModDB page download:

moddb

Alternative Mirrors:

megaupload

You will need 7zip 7zip or an archive program capable of extracting .7z files.

Patch File.

Now we move onto describing the patch file.

obcoop_shareddefs.h

To allow flexibility for mod makers, every change that was made to the SDK can be enabled or disabled by the mod team.

Compiled Version.

The information below is important for understanding how the modification operates, even if all you will be using is the patch file. You may find it more useful to use the Compiled mod folder as your mods folder and edit it as required, then you're assured that all the files are there and everything is setup correctly (unless you mess something up).

The compiled version has two compiled versions of the modification, one without Portal content enabled, and one with. If you WANT to have Portal enabled, you must overwrite the mod folder>bin DLLs with those in the mod folders>bin>Portal_Enabled_DLLs folders' DLL files.

GameInfo.txt

This file is extremely important, it can't be stressed enough because without it being properly setup most of the content will fail to work (if not crash hl2.exe) if using Static Mounting, and not load important sounds, animations etc if Dynamic Mounting.

GameInfo.txt is also where you define such things as your developers team name, website and the icon to display in the steam menu.

The most important section, and the section that we're going to describe here are the 'Search Paths'.

Search paths are the modifications way of mounting the GCFs which come with each Half-Life 2 game. In the current compiled version the search paths in our gameinfo.txt look like this:

  
    SearchPaths
    {
        Game				|all_source_engine_paths|ep2
	Game				|all_source_engine_paths|episodic
	Game				|all_source_engine_paths|hl2mp
	Game				|all_source_engine_paths|hl2
    }

Notice how we do not have Portal in the search paths. This is because Portal should never be defined here (Unless you use Static Mounting, in which case it should be put BELOW hl2).

If you create a map and notice animations or scripted sequences failing to load, this is usually a sign of Static Mounting being used, or of some specific game content being used in an incorrect Dynamic Content map type. An example is the Alyx "Dr Freeman I Presume" scene in d1_trainstation_04, this sort of concussion scene will *NOT* work if your map type were ss_ep1_ or ss_ep2_ and would not work in Static Mounting if half-life 2 wasn't mounted last in the list.

This leads us nicely on to the:

InstalledSourceGames.txt

Additional code in cdll_client_init.cpp and gameinterface.cpp has added the ability to mount additional GCF files. This is always enabled whether you are using Static or Dynamic content mounting.

The InstalledSourceGames file (previously AddMount.txt in older mod versions) helps the game find models, textures and maps that it wouldn't otherwise do through the gameinfo.txt's searchpaths. The gameinfo.txt searchpaths allow mounting sounds and particles which the AddMount.txt fails to do.

Only games listed within the text file will be displayed, and as such in most cases you will either wish to delete the code from the .cpp files, or blank out the contents of the file.

Notice how the order partially mimics the GameInfo.txt search paths, except that we put half-life 2: Deathmatch at the top and we ALWAYS! if being used put Portal as the LAST thing (bottom of) the file.

Skill.cfg

The skill file is important as it allows you to define such things as NPC health, NPC damage (to others such as the player), number of rockets a Strider may have and even how much charge a Vortigaunt can give to the players suit. It is worth reading through the file and editing it to suit your needs as it does define alot of features of modifications. It can be found in the cfg folder.

obcoop_english.txt

This is the modifications language definition file. Here you can find such settings as the titles for Chapters, the messages displayed on a vital ally being killed (for example) and other things such as server connection messages etc. It's found in the resource folder.

ChapterBackgrounds.txt

This file defines which of your modifications maps are background maps to display on the main menu. If you choose to use background maps with your modification, be sure to define the 'ss_bg_motd_fix' in the c++ code so as not to display the motd on the main menu.

Valve.rc

This file defines whether background maps are displayed on the main menu. It's found in the cfg folder.

Classmenu.res

This is the file which tells the game where to place the Join buttons etc for the Player Class System. I'm mentioning this in passing as in your own modification if you use the default Classmenu.res which comes with the SDK all you'll see is a window with a cancel button.

ClientScheme.res

This is the HUD colour file. Seperate versions can be used per player class as needed. Currently all classes are set to use the one same file.

Map Briefings

This is a folder in the maps folder. Each map that requires a briefing has a text file for that specific map. This loads in a similar fashion to the MOTD panel. It allows a quick map storyline for people loading the map. See our example maps in-game to see this concept in action.

StartupVids.txt

Create this for custom Startup Videos, or if you create a blank version of this file then there will be no startup movies at all in your mod.

Obcoop_Information

This folder contains information for mappers (including such things as an FGD file and useful prefabs) and also information for Dedicated Server hosts.