Star Wars Force Pike

Darth Maul dual-ended Lightsaber or 'Force Pike' to replace the crowbar in Half-Life standard game. by Scarecrow

Cool-ass face paint and cool-ass music with a cool-ass weapon. Darth maul was one of the coolest things about the latest offering from George Lucas, 'the Phantom Menace'.

Expertly wielded by Maul, ineptly wielded by a certain Black Mesa scientist of our acquaintance. The Dual ended saber or 'Force Pike' is here for you to mete out Jedi Justice on your opponents.

****** INSTALLATION ********

Unzip this zipfile into the Half-Life folder on your harddrive. It will automatically create new sub-directories within the Half-Life folder so it is imperative that you get the correct one, or the weapon will not work. So, when I say unzip it in to the Half-Life folder, I MEAN the Half-Life folder, not the 'SIERRA' folder and NOT the 'Valve' Folder.

The zipfile will automatically setup the saber for use. All you have to do now is start a game and select the crowbar.

****** Technical Stuff ********

V_saber: 788 polys - seven skins totalling 47K - MDL size 94.2K P_saber: 92 polys - four skins totalling 10.5K - MDL size 16.6K W_saber: 32 polys - two skins totalling 9.92K - MDL size 11.6K

The hands are the Valve HEV hands which I have vastly simplified to allow more polys in the weapon. Anyone wanting a copy of these hands for weapon modelling with can drop me a line at the below address and I'll send them over. Be sure to state which format you want them in or you'll get an SMD file by default.

Sounds are the same as my original Light saber model but with the volume increased. They are sampled directly from the original trilogy - VHS copies - Well worn =)

****** ANIMATIONS **********

The animations are all new. There are no idle animations because idle animations are NOT used on the crowbar model anywhere. Ever. So I saw absolutely no point wasting time in making animations for them.

****** GLOW - or Lack of ************* As with the original saber, it doesn't glow. In dark areas it looks like a painted stick. This is unfortunate but unavoidable as I am NOT a programmer. I make the same offer as I made with the original Light saber. If anyone has the expertise or knowhow to make the saber glow then PLEASE feel free to give it a go. I will give all the assistance I can. I suspect it'd work better if the blade was a sprite instead of polys, I leave it up to you. Also, a continuous hum while it's active and a 'swiiiiish' as it's activated/deactivated would be cool, and probably not that difficult. Please note: I'm not really interested in suggestions. I only want to know if you can REALLY do something.

****** THANKS ********* Thanks to Austin for pointing out that the tips of the blades were too pointy. Thanks to Dorling Kindersley for printing the Visual Dictionaries. Couldn't have done it without you guys. Bless you.

I used the Dorling Kindersley Episode 1 Visual Dictionary to get the colours, details and scale right.

Any comments or questions contact me at

scarecrow@dial.pipex.com

Anal Star Wars Pedants need not bother.

Scarecrow, Acclaim Studios, Cheltenham 2:16 PM, 11th May 2000