Helix-Plugins

A repository for plugins I have created to be used with Helix, a roleplaying script for Garry's Mod. I hope you enjoy my work! Thank you to the Helix developers (and the devs that came before them) for laying the framework for me to build upon. I would not have gotten anywhere starting from scratch. Please excuse my spaghetti code.

If you have any questions about my plugins, or would just like to get in touch with me, you can find me on Discord @fauxzor#8368 or you can add me on Steam here.

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1. Extended Radio

Summary

This plugin extends the functionality of the radio implementation included in the default Helix HL2RP schema. In summary, this plugin makes the following changes & additions:

New features

• Local radio messages -- sent by yourself or someone in earshot -- are displayed as IC chat
• Dynamic display of a speaker's frequency and/or channel next to out-of-earshot radio messages
• Radio messages are scrambled over long distances & by various other modifiers (such as being indoors)
• 4 radio channels for each frequency, with both a GUI and chat commands to easily customize them
• Multiple radios can be on and listened to at once (although only one can be "Active" and transmitting)
• Toggleable "Broadcast" command for radio items, to transmit on all channels at once
• Toggleable "Listen" command for radio items, to listen to all channels at once (disable transmitting)
• Customizable radio callsigns, which display instead of the speaker's name when receiving radio messages
• Radio tone sound effects for sending & receiving radio messages, toggleable for each radio item
• Radio repeater entity used with duplex radios; takes input on one frequency and outputs on another
• Duplex radios, which have increased range when in range of a repeater but are useless otherwise
• Hybrid radios, which can toggle between 'simplex' and 'duplex' modes
• Centralized base radio item; new custom radio items can now be created with just a few lines of code

New chat classes

• radio_whisper (\rw)which displays in a darker & smaller font size if used with the Radio Chatbox plugin; reduces your readability over the radio, but only makes you audible to those within whispering range around you
• radio_yell (\ry), which displays in a brighter & larger font size if used with the Radio Chatbox plugin; makes your message easier to understand, but also easier to eavesdrop on

New items/entities

• sh_walkietalkie, a short-range radio designed to communicate with other walkie-talkies; does not have the ability to directly set the frequency, only to "Scan" for other walkie-talkie users in the area and tune in to their signal

• sh_handheld_radio, a re-write of the original handheld_radio item from the HL2RP schema to include new commands such as "Broadcast", "Channel", and "Listen"; the "default" radio item, with full frequency control

• sh_longrange, a duplicate of the handheld radio with a longer maximum range and different chat color; by default, this is the only radio type on which you can "Broadcast" on all channels, to further differentiate each type of radio

• sh_duplexradio and sh_duplexwalkie, duplex versions of the handheld radio & walkie talkie

• sh_hybridradio and sh_hybridwalkie, hybrid versions of the handheld radio & walkie talkie

• ix_radiorepeater, the radio repeater entity required for duplex radios to function, spawnable from the "Helix" category in the "Entities" tab; interacting with the repeater allows you to change its input & output frequencies

New chat commands (with examples)

• \setFreq (100.0), changes the frequency of your active radio

• \setListenFreq (900.0), changes the receiving frequency of your active duplex radio

  Frequencies can be any number between 100.1 and 999.9 but must be given in that exact format, with three digits, a decimal, and one more digit. Be specific!

• \setChan (1), changes the channel of your active radio

• \chanRename (1,TACTICAL), renames the specified channel of your active radio to the specified name

  Entries must be separated by a comma, and although the name can be anything, you are limited to 16 characters (for reasons).

• \rbc or \radioBroadcast, toggles broadcasting on all channels for your active radio

• \rls or \radioListen, toggles listening to all channels for your active radio

• \setCallsign (Character1 War Pig), changes the callsign of the specified player to the specified callsign; admin only

  No special handling is needed for spaces in the callsign; anything after the character's name will be the callsign verbatim. In the example, Character1's callsign was set to War Pig. To clear a player's callsign and reset it to the default, simply enter the character's name without a callsign.

• \clearRadioRepeaters, clears all radio repeater entities on the map permanently

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Features

• Separation of non-local radio chat from local radio chat

  In the past, radio scripts have not made a strong distinction between radio chatter and "regular" chatter. Even if someone is standing within earshot of you when they transmit, you will often receive their message as a radio transmission in your chatbox, as will they, even though they were heard far more clearly in the "real world" than on the radio. This sort of feedback encourages players to use the radio even when they don't have to, which clutters up the chatbox and in my opinion subverts the entire point of a roleplaying script, which is to provide an elegant "local chat" solution.

With "Extended Radio", your radio transmissions and any that you receive within earshot of the speaker will be displayed as local chat and shown in the regular chatbox. Any radio transmissions you receive from someone out of earshot will be displayed as a radio message, with all the associated aesthetics & sound effects.

• Customizable radio channels subordinate to each frequency

  The channel of your active radio can be changed using \setChan or by using the "Channel" command on the radio item in your inventory. Each frequency has 4 channels-- 1, 2, 3, and 4. You must be on the same channel as the speaker to receive their message, even if you are also on the same frequency. To reduce chatbox clutter, if you only have one radio enabled, you will only see the speaker's channel next to their name when you receive a radio message; if you have more than one radio enabled (and they're both not on the same frequency), you will also see their frequency, so you know which one to reply on. You should see the name of the channel corresponding to the radio you received the message on (barring special circumstances).

  You can rename these channels by using \chanRename number,name as one string separated by a comma. This will set the specified channel of your active radio to the specified name. However, it is recommended instead to ues the "Channel" command on the item in the inventory, which opens up a graphical interface to change channels and control channel names. Other people can not see the names of your channels... unless they pick up your radio! Channel names are saved per-radio and persist after being dropped.

• Listening and broadcasting to multiple channels at once

  By using the command \rbc or (\radioBroadcast), you will toggle sending transmissions on your active radio to all channels on your frequency. This can also be controlled by running the "Broadcast" command on the item in your inventory. Again, this is a toggled command, so remember to stop broadcasting once you're done! Messages received as a broadcast do not show a channel name, but instead solely the frequency (unless you're receiving it on a walkie talkie, in which case you'll just see your channel name, since you don't have access to the walkie's "frequency"). Broadcasting radios in your inventory are marked with a blue-green pip above the status icon, and display helpful text when you hover over them to remind you that you're broadcasting.

Three different levels of control are available in the config menu. Level 1 (default) enables broadcasting for long range radios only. Level 2 enables it for long range and regular radios, and Level 3 enables it for walkie talkies as well. There is also the option to disable broadcasting altogether.

You can also listen to all of the channels on a frequency by using the "Listen" command on the radio item. This will display an orange pip to the left of the status icon. You cannot listen and transmit on your active radio at the same time, unless you are broadcasting; this is to prevent people from just "listening" all of the time.

• Distance-based radio scrambling, with modifiers for being indoors, using a long range radio, yelling, etc.

  These modifiers remain a work in progress, but the general idea is that:

  • Radio transmission "readability" decays non-linearly with distance
  • Yelling makes you easier to understand; whispering makes you harder to understand
  • If the speaker and/or the receiver are inside of a building, the resulting message is more scrambled
  • Maintaining line of sight with the speaker much improves readability
  • Long range radios increase the maximum distance & therefore reduce distance-based scrambling
  • There is a small element of randomness-- transmissions could sometimes be better or worse than you'd expect

  Although somewhat cludgy I decided to stick with the "multiplier" system to adjust the maximum radio range. Source units are not very intuitive to most people and different map geometries make them less meaningful than the chat range, which all radio ranges are based off of. You can adjust the maximum radio range by adjusting the radio range multiplier from 1x the chat range to 135x the chat range (approximately the maximum Source map size and then some). Of note is that the "max range" is just the range which results in 100% scrambling; due to the nature of the scrambling code, and in what qualifies as a "readable" message, this may not be the actual "maximum range" to hear something useful.

  In addition to the maximum range, you can also adjust the distance-based model governing the garbling in the config. Each setting corresponds to a different model. Below is a plot of each of the models available, along with some commentary for each. Play around and find settings that work for you!

• New "radio yell" and "radio whisper" commands, with different chat color & more/less scrambling

  These can be used with the shorthand \ry and \rw. Note that whispering does not reduce the volume of your radio tones, to any would-be eavesdroppers, so remember to silence your radio if you want to transmit incognito!

• The ability to set one radio as "Active" & to listen to multiple different radios at a time

  Your active radio is indicated with a green square in your inventory. A radio that you are listening to, but not transmitting on, is marked as yellow. For reasons, changing your radio's frequency by using the "Frequency" command in your inventory will make it your active radio. The \setFreq command will only change the frequency of your active radio. I tried to keep things common sense, to avoid unnecessary inventory management: for example, if you only have one radio in your inventory, it should become active as soon as you turn it on without any additional fuss. However, it is possible to be without an active radio in certain situations. You should receive a notification if this is the case when you try to transmit or \setFreq without an active radio (or if you have another problem like having no radios).

  The radio frequency on which you received the message is displayed next to the speaker's name (or callsign), shown in dark gray if your active frequency is not the same as theirs and light gray if it is.

• Radio callsigns, which are used instead of the character's name for radio chat and shown in the "You" menu

  Callsigns should be persistent across a restart, although I have had mixed success with this. Two options are available in the config menu to set a "default" callsign: the speaker's character name (as usual), or an "anonymous" option (i.e. "Somebody/Someone/A voice radios in"). If a character has a callsign set, this will always show as their "radio name" even if transmissions are anonymized. A character's callsign can be set with \setCallsign and can include spaces and such. If no argument is provided, their callsign is reset to the default config setting.

• Long range radio item ("sh_longrange"), with different chat color & less scrambling

• Walkie talkie item ("sh_walkietalkie"), with different functionality & more scrambling

  Walkie talkies operate on the same radio frequencies as everyone else, but with one caveat: you can not directly choose the frequency. Instead, running the "Scan" command on the walkie talkie item in your inventory will search your surroundings for other players using a walkie talkie and gives you a chance to "lock on" to their frequency (and channel, for convenience). If a "strong" signal is not found, a random frequency is assigned to the walkie talkie. You are guaranteed to find a frequency if you are within speaking range of another person with an enabled walkie talkie. Scanning will always change your frequency; that is, you will not stay locked on to the same frequency if you scan twice in a row, even if the person on that frequency is right next to you.

  The maximum range of the walkie talkie is controllable via the config menu and scales to the current maximum range of the radio. I called it a "multiplier" but I suppose it's more like a "divisor". The maximum range of the walkie talkie will always be less than that of radio chat & their transmissions will always be more garbled, whether you are sending or receiving.

• *Radio repeaters & duplex radios, which only function when in range of a repeater

  Normally, radio communications are peer-to-peer; you communicate directly with other people, transmitting and listening on the same frequency. This is the familiar "simplex" mode, which has the downside of degrading heavily at long ranges, as the signal strength corresponds to the strength of your own radio. Radio repeaters create the possibility of "duplex" transmissions. By receiving a (potentially weak) signal on one frequency, and outputting it on a different (more powerful) frequency, radio messages can be "relayed" long distances-- at a cost. If you leave the range of the repeater, your messages won't get through at all.

These kinds of repeaters are only compatible with duplex radios, which cannot transmit and receive on the same frequency at once. Duplex radios function almost identically to their regular counterparts but with an additional "receiving" or "listening" frequency that must be tuned to the correct output frequency of a radio repeater. Duplex walkie talkies have their "Scan" function replaced with a "Synchronize" function to automatically set both the transmitting and receiving frequencies to those of a nearby radio repeater.

"Hybrid" radios also exist that can swap between simplex and duplex modes. For convenience when using hybrid walkie talkies (as you must be very close to a receiver to synchronize with it and this is usually only desirable to have to do once), you do not lose your synchronized transmitting frequency when swapping modes. In other words, this frequency will always be "saved" until you synchronize with a new repeater. This is not true for any frequency you were using in simplex mode! If you "lock on" to a frequency in simplex mode, swap to duplex, and then back to simplex again, you will have lost that frequency.

• Radio sound effects/tones for transmitting and receiving messages, modified by distance

• "Silence" command for the radio, which disables your own radio tones

  A silenced radio has a red line through the active/enabled marker. This does not stop you from hearing other people's radio tones if they are nearby-- overall control of whether or not sounds are activated is handled in the Helix config menu.

• Near total control of radio ranges, chat colors, callsigns, and other features via the Helix config menu

  I did some pretty extensive fiddling with the default settings, but I recommend changing the range multipliers & chat colors & such to suit your own server's needs. What works best on gm_construct probably won't work best on rp_city17.

Required content

I have repackaged the Left 4 Dead radio model included with the Clockwork content, along with custom radio sound effects, into a Workshop addon here. To be clear: I did not create this model, although I did customize the sounds myself. I believe that it is sufficient for clients to download the addon to see the radio and hear the sound effects; however, I still recommended including this addon in your server's Workshop collection if only so the physics of the radio model will work on your server. If for some reason that isn't working for you, or if you would just like the raw files themselves for some other reason, they can be found under plugins\content.

2. Radio Chatbox

This plugin creates a new chatbox above the regular chatbox, for radio chat only. It can be toggled on and off in-game through the Helix config menu. It functions nearly identically to the regular chatbox except with slightly different aesthetics -- including a larger font size for radio yelling -- and serves to separate radio chatter from regular speech. In theory this is a standalone addon. However, I have not tested it without the "Extended Radio" addon, and without the changes I have made to the chat types & commands, your mileage may vary getting it to work/having it be useful.