The guys at Unknownworlds (Natural Selection 2 Developers) have been creating some sweet tools for source. They made a LUA debugger and they have had talks about source recognizing .swf files for ingame GUI etc.
But recently they showed off this cute app that is pretty awesome for us texture artists. It allows us to automatically see our textures updated in the environment 
Video of it in action
http://www.unknownworlds.com/files/ns2/bsp_viewer.mov
Blog entry
The video link is crashing IE/Firefox 
Quote from ErraticThe video link is crashing IE/Firefox
Works for me (Konqueror) 
Neat tool 
fantastic tool.
video also crashes for me.
(edit - is the app not available for download?)
looks like philipk textures to me
definitely a very very useful tool! this shouldve been part of the sdk since valve first released the sdk.
I could of sworn Nem's Crafty does this already. 
Good lord, this looks amazing. Why has nobody done this yet?
Also, for god's sake, PLEASE do not EVER allow swf files in a game! Do you have any idea how amazingly insecure that is?
Quote from SindwillerWorks for me (Konqueror)
lolWorks fine in Epiphany.
2 awesome tools posted in the space of a week, rock on 
pretty cool
How is using .swf files for the GUI insecure?
Quote from WunderboyI could of sworn Nem's Crafty does this already.
Actually yes it does, the only difference is that you have to reload the bsp, but since it's really fast ... :x
and yeah .. you only have the diffuse.
Quote from ThrikHow is using .swf files for the GUI insecure?
code injections, cookie grabbing, etc.Well, unless they clamp down severly on what swf's can do, what kinds of commands they can execute.
In which case they'd almost be as well, if not better off supporting svg.
do want phong on world geometry
That's rather awesome.
Well, I didn't really think it was something the players would be having anything to do with dissonance -- just a way for the developers to do more animated, fancy HUD elements (possibly useful for the RTS-like overview thing in Natural Selection).
I guess if you introduce the whole 'community content' aspect there's room for issues, but I wouldn't imagine it'd be too bad considering we run .swf files all the time anyway.
I've never really heard of .swf files being very insecure in the dramatic way you describe. In fact, I haven't really heard of .swf security issues at all. Is it really that bad?
Quote from ThrikI've never really heard of .swf files being very insecure in the dramatic way you describe. In fact, I haven't really heard of .swf security issues at all. Is it really that bad?
Do you have a myspace account?Think of it this way: swf's can execute any javascript commands. They can dump cookies, sessionid's, and - if something's wrong on your end - inject and execute code.
If the dev's took anything out that wasn't related to mouseovers or the like, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. If they just make a swf viewer, though, then there would be a problem.
But yes, get it working properly and that would add a whole 'nother element of awesome (or awesomely cheesey =D) to HUDs.
Quote from dissonanceDo you have a myspace account?Think of it this way: swf's can execute any javascript commands. They can dump cookies, sessionid's, and - if something's wrong on your end - inject and execute code.
The sky is falling!
SWF is just a file format and it's pretty much open. My assumption is their going to include code to open and interact with the SWF files in game as they wouldn't be able to embed the current flash player into the engine.
The game isn't a browser, there is no Javascript interpreter in it to execute Javascript for a start and I doubt things like file operations and code execution is going to work either.
More than likely they'll take an open-source SWF lib and just use a sub-set of it's code to allow vector based, interactive HUD elements that communicate event's back to the engine via LUA or something. Thats's how I'd do it.
Quote from WunderboyThe sky is falling!
SWF is just a file format and it's pretty much open. My assumption is their going to include code to open and interact with the SWF files in game as they wouldn't be able to embed the current flash player into the engine.
The game isn't a browser, there is no Javascript interpreter in it to execute Javascript for a start and I doubt things like file operations and code execution is going to work either.
More than likely they'll take an open-source SWF lib and just use a sub-set of it's code to allow vector based, interactive HUD elements that communicate event's back to the engine via LUA or something. Thats's how I'd do it.
Sounds good, but in that case, why not just use SVG? It's a whole lot easier to edit.I'm down for it either way, though.
Actually I thought SVG was a better idea too but I guess more people are familiar with SWF.
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