HL2 SDK soon

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Hammer maybe be clunky now but it will improve over time. Plus the more you use it the more you come to accept its flaws and get around them. I'm not really worried about it at all.

Edit: here is more pics.

Question: what is the blue grid in the background?

Campaignjunkie said:
Is it really that resource-intensive? Can weaker low-spec machines even handle the editor at all (say, GF4 MX), without crashes or massive slowdown? I'm curious.

i had the taboo editor loaded on a 700 celeron and a 64 meg pci GF4mx..

it loaded, couldn't do much, but it worked..

my 2.6 celeron and 9000 ATI runs it smooth as silk.. but seriously, i cannot see it requiring more power than the game..

and, i must be pure white trash easy to please, cause hammer is one of the best, most user friendly editors i have used to date.. i don't think i could stand a better editor..

Spartan 34 said:
Question: what is the blue grid in the background?

the new sky texture :biggrin:

I read something about using 3D skyboxes and 2D skyboxes. 3D skyboxes are more damanding because they have clouds and stuff but the resolution for the texture of the sky is crappier. It is suppose to make level look larger though. You still have to make skyboxes around the map but I'm wondering if they have to be enclosed and if it can be just one big box around the whole map.

Spartan 34 said:
Hammer maybe be clunky now but it will improve over time.

That's what I tried to tell myself about 3.4/3.5 :razz: This is the same interface the editor has had for years upon years. It's not going to change anytime soon.

oh well, enjoy using a crappy engine that can make tons of really detailed, interesting and cool shapes within the confines of a hallway!

Hey, whatever silly and rampant generalizations make you feel better about yourself. :razz: hehe. And I can at least build those shapes in the editor with little to no trouble at all. :wink:

Well, guess I'll have to settle for making a Cs:Souce map, right now. The editor does seem a little sluggish, but I drastically decreased the 3d draw distance, and that helped a good bit. I'm only using 512 ram, so it's just another sign that I need to upgrade to a gig.

Overall, I am left feeling sort of 'hrumph'. After playing with UnrealEd, and looking at the TON of vtm's (video training modules) that came with the dvd special edition of Unreal2004, I am sort of left wanting. There is still time, however for Valve to release a very solid SDK, that really has alot of meat to chew on, and tons of example material... I know this is only a small morsel.

There's only a couple of things that really bug me, right now.

• I haven't been able to scale models, at all... is this possible? It would be nice to have a library of rocks and organics, that are scaleable. You'd be amazed at the variation you can get, with 2 or 3 objects, if you can scale and skew them freely.

• Like was said before, the displacement tool is like 'wtf'? After using editors like Sandbox for FarCry, and UnrealEd.... it bugs me to have such a non-user-friendly tool. I can't see what the hell I am doing to the mesh... argh.

• I do like the materials, 3D skyboxes, area portals, occluders, lightmap control, etc.

• I really want a good interface for models and props. UnrealEd has done this brilliantly. There editor has its own floating pallette, that lets you view model files in their own little 3D window.

• Haven't really looked to hard at this, but I would like to have my textures at 64x64 in the browser, and I don't see the option. It's aggrivating to scroll so much.

• I DON'T to fark around with XSI! I spent years learning 3DsMax, and have learned my way around Maya at work. 2 professional 3D platforms is enough... gimme some dam Max exporters!

Anyway, looking forward to mapping again. Whatever the state of the editor; at least I feel very comfortable driving it.... I'm glad the overall navigation and hotkey setup is the same.

They are releasing a full SDK after HL2's release: "... Source Software Development Kit (SDK) Tools via Steam. A precursor to the release of the full SDK, which will be released shortly after Half-Life 2 is made available ..."

I think this SDK is just there to get people's mouths wet for HL2. Only most people pre-ordered HL2 almost two years ago and have since fully paid for them ... at a store ... and are being f**ked out of this small treat.

Crono said:
They are releasing a full SDK after HL2's release: "... Source Software Development Kit (SDK) Tools via Steam. A precursor to the release of the full SDK, which will be released shortly after Half-Life 2 is made available ..."

I think this SDK is just there to get people's mouths wet for HL2. Only most people pre-ordered HL2 almost two years ago and have since fully paid for them ... at a store ... and are being f**ked out of this small treat.

f**k THE VALVE PO-LEECE

Phew, I was worried that making textures was going to be a huuuge pain in the ass (as it is now)

Leperous said:
Phew, I was worried that making textures was going to be a huuuge pain in the ass (as it is now)

Phew, i was hoping just once, i would understand half a thought.. :heee:

one assumes you intended to continue after the last parentheses, but...

i gather, that adding images to the materials folder is all?

what

oh

Damn you aaaaaaaall! I can't use the editor for a while so please fill me in on all this new wonderful stuff you are talking about. What is it you were talking about making textures. I read the SDK and apparently textures are called materials and each material has to have some coding done to it before it can be used. Something about lightmapping. Aaargh!

don't worry. lep will have all the tuts wrote up long before you can run out of things to read about :biggrin:

They all need a text file to accompany them to specify what shaders
they use and how they use them. To be honest though you don't really
have to bother with much, you could just make basic, non-shader using
texture and use the standard basic text file.

I have a question about the Hammer...

On it, or any documentation, does it say that said Hammer cannot be distributed, or is it like the first, that allows you to do such.

Now then, if answer is equal to 'it can be distributed, it has nothing that says otherwise', then post it for damn sakes!

I know, this question is pretty dumb, but I must have it answered. I cannot wait any longer.

Well I had a look and couldn't find anything about distribution,
however I wouldn't like to just go ahead and post it here. Its Lep's
decision really.

Also, there is a lot of the SDK that depends on existing CS:S content,
and so it won't be much use to anyone just now. For example, the SDK
doesn't include textures, sounds, or props.

As Reno said, plus it needs Steam to be running, so I guess that it won't work for people who haven't "enabled" the SDK yet.

In other news, those cunning Valve monkeys have somehow "locked" all the HL2 VTFs etc. so we can't extract them from the GCF and use them, and similarly Hammer crashes if you change it to use HL2 content :/

That sucks... Now I must wait another 9 days of hell.

Although, i guess i can learn the theory on how to do the things by reading the 4 tutorials.