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Revised introduction page so it's more clear and easier to understand
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**Mapbase** is a special mod for Source 2013 designed to be used as a "platform" by modders and level designers. Mappers would create their maps based off of this mod and larger mods with their own unique changes would draw from Mapbase's code and assets. Rather than being a mod purely intended to change how the game plays or feels, Mapbase is almost entirely dedicated to improving the engine for mod creators themselves, attempting to alleviate the craziness of Source and provide new capabilities that help level designers make previously impossible visions easy.
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**Mapbase** is a special mod for Source 2013 designed to be used as a "platform" by modders and level designers. Mappers would create their maps based off of this mod and larger mods with their own unique changes would draw from Mapbase's code and assets.
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I (Blixibon) had the idea for Mapbase when I saw the inconvenience of creating maps for HL2 and I realized how easy it was to fix some of the issues in the SDK's code. I was also bringing a few general quality-of-life improvements to each mod I started making and I wanted to create a special kind of "base" mod that made it easier to keep track of them. This idea eventually evolved into Mapbase, which grew very far beyond my original vision.
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Rather than being a mod purely intended to change how the game plays or feels, Mapbase is almost entirely dedicated to improving the engine for mod creators themselves, attempting to alleviate the craziness of Source and provide new capabilities that help level designers make previously impossible visions far easier.
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Mapbase didn't enter my mind spontaneously. I (Blixibon) first had the idea for Mapbase when I saw the inconvenience of creating maps for HL2 and I realized how easy it was to fix some of the issues in the SDK's code. I was only considering them as improvements for my own mods at the time, but I was getting tired of bringing a few general quality-of-life improvements to each mod I started making. I wanted to create special kind of "base" mod that all of my mods could start from. These ideas eventually evolved into Mapbase, which grew very far beyond my original vision.
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## New entities and I/O/KV
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Mapbase adds **50+** new entities and hundreds of new I/O/KV (Inputs/Outputs/Keyvalues) to the engine, and that's not even counting filters or things ported from other branches of Source. Most of these additions are supposed to make it easier to use existing features/concepts (quality-of-life improvements) or are mostly related to the "map logic" pipeline and have nothing to do with the game itself, so most of these changes could go right over players' heads. For example, one of these logic entities is logic_skill, which could read the player's difficulty setting and detect when it's changed. A more direct entity, `point_entity_replace`, lets you instantly "replace" one entity with another, giving the illusion of transformation (kind of like `phys_convert`, but more flexible). There's also `game_convar_mod`, which lets you set the value of a convar and safely saves/resets automatically on map load/unload, not having to rely on point_server/clientcommand at all. Another entity called `logic_measure_direction` is a direct variant of the existing "logic_measure_movement", but it moves entities to the ends of built-in traces instead.
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Mapbase adds **50+** new entities and hundreds of new I/O/KV (Inputs/Outputs/KeyValues) to the engine, and that's not even counting filters or things ported from other branches of Source. Most of these additions are supposed to make it easier to use existing features/concepts (quality-of-life improvements) or are mostly related to the "map logic" pipeline and have nothing to do with the game itself, so most of these changes could go right over players' heads. For example, one of these logic entities is `logic_skill`, which could read the player's difficulty setting and detect when it's changed. A more direct entity, `point_entity_replace`, lets you instantly "replace" one entity with another, giving the illusion of transformation (kind of like `phys_convert`, but more flexible). There's also `game_convar_mod`, which lets you set the value of a convar and safely saves/resets automatically on map load/unload, not having to rely on point_server/clientcommand at all. Another entity called `logic_measure_direction` is a direct variant of the existing "logic_measure_movement", but it moves entities to the ends of built-in traces instead, kind of like a laser.
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Mapbase also fixes existing entities and I/O/KV that were bugged or otherwise tricky, like `func_clip_vphysics` not being able to start disabled or `OnBeginSequence` not using the target NPC as the activator. It also comes with a heavily revised FGD file that adds eyedropper support to keyvalues and inputs that needed it.
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Mapbase also fixes existing entities and I/O/KV that were bugged or otherwise tricky to use, like `func_clip_vphysics` not being able to start disabled or `OnBeginSequence` not using the target NPC as the activator. It also comes with a heavily revised FGD file that adds eyedropper support to keyvalues and inputs that needed it.
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## Map-specific files
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## Graphical changes
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Mapbase isn't supposed to change the feeling of Source or HL2 itself *in-game*, but it does have a few quality-of-life improvements related to the graphics **(and the shaders)**, usually for mappers and other kinds of modders to toggle at will.
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Mapbase isn't supposed to change the in-game feeling of Source or HL2 itself, avoiding subjective or "different" visual appeal, but it still makes a few changes related to Source's visuals. They are mostly just fixes, objective improvements, or optional features for mappers and other kinds of modders to toggle at will.
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Mapbase changes the shaders in Source. This is a major point of modding that has a few demands and caveats, but we've tried our best to make the most of it.
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Mapbase changes the shaders in Source. This is a major point of modding that has many demands and caveats, but we've tried our best to make sure they up to the trouble needed to implement them. For example, Mapbase gathers projected texture fixes and features accumulated from the Valve Developer Community, Alien Swarm, and various open-source projects like G-String. This makes projected textures in Mapbase *much* more stable and viable than their original Source 2013 counterparts.
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For example, Mapbase gathers projected texture fixes and features from all over the Source community, drawing from the VDC, Alien Swarm, and various open-source projects like G-String, making projected textures in Mapbase much more stable and usable than their original Source 2013 counterparts.
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Mapbase also includes ASW radial fog from Half-Life 2: Downfall, which means fog won't change with the camera angle anymore. This is one of the only changes that can't be toggled at will, but its high demand and appeal (and the fact it can almost be considered a bug fix in-game) make it tolerable.
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Another shader change is ASW-based radial fog from Half-Life 2: Downfall, which means fog won't change with the camera angle anymore. This is one of the only changes that can't be toggled at will, but its high demand and appeal (and the fact it can almost be considered a bug fix in-game) make it tolerable.
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You can find an overview on Mapbase's graphical changes [here](Graphical-Changes).
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