How to use SVN packs

This seems to be a big problem with the GMod community, with most of them resorting to downloading an obsolete or broken pack from www.garrysmod.org. I hate to see people getting pissed off at an easy solution, so I've decided to post an SVN guide.

First of all, you need an SVN client. Personally, I use TortoiseSVN. [link]. When you download it, you need to install it. After you've installed it, whenever you right-click in a folder, there will be 2 new options:

SVN Commit
TortoiseSVN

To download SVN files, you need to go to the proper folder (As in, the folder where you want it installed), right-click, and click SVN Commit. A window will pop up. The only part of this window we are interested in is the top part (where you can paste things).

You will need to find a working link for the SVN to work. When you paste in the link and press the "OK" button, a new window will pop up which looks something like this:

It will have different text in the box, but it will look the same.

Some SVNs take a long time to load (10 mins+) while some will finish in no time. The speed of the download also depends on where you are downloading from.

After the SVN client has finished downloading the files, the "OK" button stops being greyed out and you can press it. Now you can launch GMod and test out your new pack!

Link to a GMod SVN site:

http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=SVN_Links

Gmod Parents FAQ

I've heard that some people have a problem with their parents doubting whether or not to get Garry's Mod, so here's an FAQ for them:

http://www.garrysmod.com/parents/

Wired hoverballs and thrusters

More updates!

This time, they're about wired hoverballs. In some servers I've been in, some people wonder how I make my wired things go up or down with wired (as opposed to regular) hoverballs. Also a point of discussion is how to make thrusters bidirectional. You probably think, "I've checked the box, but I have no new outputs. Huh?". No worries, I'll explain both in this post.

First up are the hoverballs. They have two inputs, ZVelocity and Hovermode. I'm pretty sure that in the last (outdated) version of Wire, they had a third input, ZPosition, I think.

Hoverballs are pretty simple to use, but moving them is a bit harder. Hovermode is self-explanatory, and it is a 1/0 input, meaning if the value is 0, it will be off, and if the value is 1, it will be on. ZVelocity is sometimes tricky to use. I usually move wired hoverballs up and down using:

-Add gates
-Negate gates
-Advanced Pod Controllers (APC)[Optional]

The method of linking them up is this:


1) Wire the A of the Negate to the Adv. Pod input of the button you want it to go down with. If you're not using an APC, make sure that the value is positive. It doesn't necessarily have to be 1.
2) Wire the A of the add to the Adv. Pod input of the button you want it to go up with. Same as above.
3) Wire the B of the add to the Negate gate.
4) Wire the ZVelocity of any hoverballs you wish to control to the Add gate.

Quick explanation:

When you press the button that triggers the Negate gate, the ZVelocity registers it as a -1 through the add gate, and the hoverball knows that it needs to go down. When you press the button that triggers the Add gate, the opposite thing happens. If you press both buttons, nothing will happen because the values cancel each other out (-1+1=0).

If you still have a version of Wire that has the third input, ZPosition, the routine is basically the same, except for the fact that you need to add an accumulator chip (Gate-Time). Wire the hoverballs to the accumulator and the accumulator to the add gate.


On to Thrusters:

If you want one thruster to go backwards and forwards instead of 2 doing the same thing, read on.

This routine is basically the same as for the hoverballs. You need:

-1 Add gate
-1 Negate gate
-1 thruster
-An APC (Pod Controller)[Optional]

1) Wire the A of the Add gate to the value which should make it go forward, and the B to the Negate gate.
2) Wire the Negate to the value which should make it go backward.
3) Wire the thruster to the Add gate.

You're all set! Unfortunately, sometimes if you use 1 thruster instead of 2, you might get some deviation from the path that you wanted to take. This can be solved by using 2 thrusters with the above method, one at the (front/left/top) and one at the (back/right/bottom).

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to email me.

Advanced Pod Controllers

Sometimes, people have problems with Advanced Pod Controllers and how to use them, so I thought I'd make a tutorial for those people.

Basically, the Advanced Pod Controller (APC) is used so you can use most of your buttons inside the pod (W, A, S, D, mouse1/2, space, etc.). It's really useful when making vehicles using the APC instead of the numpad because this way, you can use your mouse to look around instead of constantly jumping back and forth between the mouse and the numpad. First of all, to enable the APC, you need to spawn one somewhere (most likely attached to your vehicle/contraption) and link it to the seat you're using by right clicking on the APC and right clicking on the seat.

Instead of writing all the inputs here, I copied them from the GMod wiki page.

*****

Inputs

• Lock - Disables anyone from getting in. NOTE: Does not disable keys.
• Terminate - Kills the player inside.
• Strip weapons - Removes all the weapons of the player inside.
• Eject - Ejects the player inside.
• Disable - Sets W, S, A, D, R, Space, Alt, Shift, Mouse1, Mouse2, and Zoom values to 0.
• Crosshairs - Toggles the crosshairs for the vehicle.
• Brake - Turns on the Hand Break for the vehicle.
• Allow Buttons - Allows you to interact with Wire Buttons with the left mouse button
• Relative - Makes the Bearing and Elevation outputs relative to the Bearing and Elevation of the pod.
• Damage Health - Damages Health by input amount.
• Damage Armor - Damages Armor by input amount.

*****

The outputs are fairly self-explanatory, up to these few:

X, Y, Z, Distance, Active, and Team.

The XYZ outputs are for where the player is looking when he is inside the pod. This is useful if you want to make a missile and need it to fly at a moving target.

Distance is how far away the point the player is looking at is.

Team is what team the player is (Not really used any more, some servers I've been on use the teams Mingebag, Respected, Admin, Guest, etc.)

Active is useful for if you want a person getting in the seat to trigger something. I recently used this with a sound emitter to make an engine sound for a car.

If you have any further questions, email me.

Prop spawners, wheels, and hydraulics explained

Okay, I've seen in the search results that some of you are looking on how to use prop spawners, while others are trying to make bi-directional wired wheels. Both are actually pretty simple:

Prop spawners (wired):

During the week, I don't usually have access to GMod, so I might make a few mistakes, but here is what I remember:

-Prop spawners have a variable spawn rate, and this is set when you make one. A higher number means it spawns slower, while a lower one makes it spawn faster. This is caused by the spawn "delay". The delay is how many seconds it takes for it to refresh and spawn a new prop.
-One of the two inputs is spawn. Kinda self explanatory, when the value is greater than zero (0), it will spawn a prop.
-The other input is Undo. This is also self explanatory, it removes the props so you don't have to furiously mash your Backspace (or whatever your Undo key is) key and risk deleting something else.

Wired wheels:

To make a wired wheel go both ways, you simply have to make it have a negative input for one way and a positive for the other. I usually do it like this:

-Spawn an Add gate, a Negate gate, and a wheel.
-Wire the A of the add to the button/whatever makes it go forward.
-Wire the A of the Negate to the thing that makes it go backward.
-Wire the B of the Add to the Negate.
-Wire the Wheel to the Add.

Done, simple as that. You can also use this method for thrusters or even hoverballs (ZVelocity to the add).

Hydraulics:

Hydraulics are fairly simple once you get the hang of them. Fixed hydraulics can be used as sliders or to constrain a prop to move only in one direction.

To smooth/slow hydraulics down, you just need a Smooth gate (Gate - Time) and a constant value. Wire the A of the Smooth to the value that you would normally wire the Length of the hydraulic to, and wire the Rate to the Constant Value. The higher the Constant Value is, the more it gets 'smoothed', and the slower it is. Good for doors which are supposed to close slowly instead of chopping people in half, as has happened to me many of times...

I'll occasionally see what people are having problems with, and I'll try to make more of these in the future. If you have any questions/suggestions, Email me at Narcotic.Clown@Gmail.com.

Wired Elevator

Instead of making stairs, it's usually more compact and simpler to make an elevator.


You need (minimum):

2 panels (base plate and lift plate)
2 wired buttons (Off value 0, on value 1; off value 0, on value -1)(not toggled)
Accumulator (can be found in Gates - Time)
Add gate (Gates - Arithmetic)
Multiply gate (Gates - Arithmetic)
Constant Value
Wired Hydraulic (fixed)


Good to have:

Another prop welded to the lift plate with the buttons on it
Buttons at each level


Construction:

-Put your base plate where you want it and stack it if you have the stacker tool. If not, or if the props are different, position your lift plate very carefully above the base plate. Do not weld the two plates.
-Make a wired hydraulic in the center of the two plates, and put the controller where you want
-Place all the gates and the constant value close to each other near the hydraulics controller (in a square or at least on the same panel).
-Weld the second plate to the list plate if you made one, and put the buttons on there.


Wiring:

-Wire the A of the Add gate to the button with value 1
-Wire the B of the Add gate to the button with value -1
-Wire the Accumulator to the Add gate
-Wire the A of the Multiply gate to the Accumulator
-Wire the B of the Multiply gate to the constant value
-Wire the Length on the hydraulics controller to the Multiply gate


Explanation:

The buttons are the up-down controls of the elevator. The accumulator takes the values of the buttons and stores them (1 for up, -1 for down). The Multiply gate takes the value of the accumulator and makes it X times bigger, X being the constant value's number. Without the multiply gate, your elevator would go extremely slow (the default rate is 1 value per second). The hydraulics make the whole thing go up or down. If the hydraulics weren't fixed, then the elevator would just flop around instead of going in the direction you want it to. If you wanted to make the hydraulics on top instead of on bottom, then it's sometimes better to uncheck the fixed box to make gravity the only force acting on your elevator.


Tips:

-For realism, add a pole to the bottom of your lift plate and nocollide it with everything around it and the world geometry (more on that later).
-Use the Keep Upright tool on the lift and base plates for stability.
-Make a little cage for the player so he doesn't accidentally fall out while riding the elevator.
-The Constant Value can be any number you want. The higher it is, the faster the elevator goes. The number usually depends on the size/functionality of your elevator or on your mood. If it's a cargo elevator or a two-stop elevator, make it a low number (50 is usually good). If it's a personal elevator or there are great distances between stops, make it a higher number (150-250).
-Make buttons at every stop so you don't have to drag your elevator and risk breaking it.



I will post a few pictures of an elevator I made on Flatgrass while we were killing zombies. It has a nice look to it, and I might post it as an advanced duplication (adv. dupe) on www.garrysmod.org.

More posts coming soon

Sorry for being away for so long with no new posts, I'll try to get a couple up on the weekend for you guys.

For now, check out www.wiremod.com for some interesting stuff.

Simplest possible automatic door

Spawn 2 flat, wide props side by side lengthwise.

Select one to be the base and one to be the actual door. On the base, spawn a Target Finder set to anything you like (for a door, the range is good at 50-200 for a person, and 200-500 for vehicles and contraptions). Spawn a constant value of Z (Z being the width you want the door to open). Make an Arithmetic chip - Multiply close by. Put a WireHydraulic between the gap between the door and base and put the controller by the Target Finder, Constant Value and Multiply Gate. Make sure the Fixed box is checked.

Now for the wiring:

-Wire the A of the Multiply gate to the Target Finder.
-Wire the B of the Multiply gate to the Constant Value.
-Wire the Length of the Hydraulics to the Multiply gate.

There you go, you're done: Unfreeze the DOOR, not the base, and walk up to it. It should open and close depending on your distance.

Making a basic Laser-Guided missile

Hello again,

This tutorial uses Wiremod and the Laser Pointer SWEP found in the Weapons tab in your menu.

First, spawn a base prop. I prefer to use the long, blue-grey missile in the "[PHX] Useful and Explosive Props" section. Spawn 3 Wire Subtract gates anywhere on the prop. These will be your X-Y-Z chips. Make sure you remember which is which, or your prop will end up goin the wrong way. If you want, name the using the Wire Namer tool. Spawn a Laser Pointer Receiver somewhere on your prop. Get out the Vector Thruster tool. This will be the front of your missile. check bi-directional and select XYZ world in the drop-down bar. To activate the thruster, you need a Wired numpad. find one of those, and make it Toggled and the Value On 1, Value Off 0. you also need a GPS. Now, to wire it. Get out the Wire tool at the very bottom of the Wire tab.

-Wire the A of the "X","Y', and "Z" subtract chips to the "X", "Y', and "Z" inputs of the GPS, respectively.
-Wire the B of all 3 chips to the laser Pointer Receiver inputs like in the last step.
-Wire the "Mul" of the Vector Thruster to the 1 input on the Wired Numpad.
-Wire the X, Y, and Z outputs on the Vector Thruster to the X, Z and Z chips.
-Find the Laser Pointer SWEP in the Weapons section, and link it to the Laser Pointer receiver.
-Unfreeze it, (make sure you've saved it!), press 1 on your numpad, and point at whatever you want blown up!

Pictures will be added later.

Making a basic car

This is a basic car that requires the PHX model pack.

1- Go to the "[PHX] General Construction Props" tab in your menu and spawn a PHX 4 by 2 panel. Pick it up and freeze it in midair with your physgun (the blue one).

2- Choose the Wheel tool from your menu and put a wheel on each corner (like you would on a car). You can set the torque, friction or model to anything you like, but I prefer to use the APC wheel with friction 5.

3- Get out the thruster tool. Find the red or black propane canister, set it to force 1500, and place 2 in the back (horizontally) and 1 on each side in the front. Make sure the toggle keys for the ones in the back are set to forward 8, backward 2, the one on the left is set to forward 6, backward 4, and the opposite on the right side.

4- Attach a seat of your choosing, get in, and go.