Manual

From HLAEwiki

Welcome to the Half-Life Advanced Effects (HLAE) manual.

This manual is work in progress, so you might want to check back from time to time.

First Steps

Installing HLAE and your first steps capturing images with sound!

FAQ

Frequently asked questions and answers, tips and tricks can be found in the FAQ.

Guides

Matte Effects

The matte effects allow you to separate the game objects (i.e. players and level) into different image streams. This allows you to apply great effects in your video editor.

Tracking

The tracking system allows you to automatically aim your camera on players and other objects.

Zooming

Covers various commands to get the action focused.

Sampling System

Description of the experimental sampling system.

Links#Tutorials

Links to tutorials in various languages.

Advanced Guides

Camera Motion Data

References

Overview with short descriptions of the many available console commands. Since the manual cannot cover every single feature and it's details, you might have fun digging in the command reference and finding some small gems now and then.

AfxHookSource

Minimal hook for Counter-Strike Source in order to export / import camera motion data.

Other

Demo Tools
Describes the available demo (.dem) file tools (i.e. DemoCleanUp and DemoFix).
Render Settings
Description of the launcher dialog's rendering settings. This can be helpful in case the captured images are broken or incomplete.
DemoEdit
(Not related to HLAE) Description of Valve's Demo Edit tool that allows to create Camera Paths.

Appendix

Links
Links to groups and sites related to Half-Life, MDT an movie making.
Coordinate systems
Lists references about various coordinate systems i.e. the (Half-Life coordinate system)
HLAE Interfaces
Interfaces HLAE can expose, that may be helpful for other tools wanting to interact with it. Includes example code.