Quote from Sa74nnooo.. dont give up on them, wunderboy. youre tools are so helpful. we need more
Well I'm still writing stuff and have a backlog of projects to finish. I know for a fact Valve use my stuff in house and Nem and I just did a small update of some of stuff specifcally to comply with in-house engine changes for EP2/TF2.
Ultimately I'm just writing the tools I need and it turns out you guys find them useful too hence why I give them away 
Source has been frustrating me a LOT lately, even to the point of *wanting* to look at other things.
The quality of their SDK tools has always been a irritation for me and probably the only reason I end up writing my own. Why the hell they still have DOS apps for somethings I do not know...
I'm not the greatest C++ coder and have only been part-time coding with SDK for about 12 months. I really can't stand how buggy and hackish the SDK code is at times. I wish it was just of better quality especially when it comes to things like Linux compiles.
I appreciate that having the actual C++ gives you a lot more power but it seems half the time your fixing Valve bugs rather than actually making progress on your mod. I've actually be wondering if switching to a more script based engine (LUA) might be a better idea.
I've stuck with Valve for a long time but the more serious my gamedev work gets, the more I start to hate their tools/SDK.
Dunno if anyone knew, but theres some basic displacement deformation code in the Source SDK. You can define a point, sphere size and if you want push, pinch or pull on the surrounding displacement.
Not tried it myself, not 100% sure if its fully implemented or just a hack but its there alright.
Always thought about making artillery rounds blow real craters
Woot. Just got an email from my boss saying my company will pay the cost of me going
So is anyone from here going to be there?
Quote from duxYou have to wonder what on earth they ponce about with with Hammer to NOT have any of this included with it.
Probably because Source is just Goldsrc with a few third party API's bolted on? I've yet to see anything in the SDK that stands out as "revolutionary" in Source. Seems most of the cool stuff is either something bought and bolted on or they've just employed someone who had a good idea.
Maybe if/when they break away from the old Goldsrc BSP based mapping system and go with a really new engine they'll be forced to re-write their development tools rather than just bolt stuff on.
I must admit, for a commercially available engine Valve's Source SDK toolset sucks. I know if I was shopping around for an engine I'd want a great toolset and Valve's would make me run a mile.
lol, well see we have to overcome the initial problem of getting Insta to actually turn up.
We need something along the lines of that mod where the Russians invade Gotland
My first thought when I saw those player models was Ghost Recon 1 multiplayer 
Any use?
[Blocked Image: http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/7422/uboattr1.th.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6893/brittextureduz2.th.jpg]
Second one isn't quite finished texture wise but they've both got diffuse + normal maps. No specular though.
Ah FFS...
I just got told I have a VIP pass waiting for me (I'm friends with one of the speakers) but I can't afford the cost of travelling down there from Stockholm or overnight accomodation 
I didn't wear a suit to my last interview but didn't get the job.
Maybe I should of worn my kilt...
Wow nice work! 
I actually started a model of the same tank months ago but never got around to finishing it. Story of my life!
Quote from skdrThrik. You said it. Listen to this guy over here
Now we just wait and see what Valve has to say on this, soon.
The first part of the statement will be release Q3 2008 with follow up episodic releases Q2 2009.
Users can also purchase the "Full Statement" gold edition via Steam for $29.99 including plush
"Swiss Cheese" Valve security model and limited edition "We'll patch our servers, soon" t-shirt.
Quote from Sa74nwelcome to mapcore wunderboy. thanks for all the tools you made
You're welcome :derp:
Jeez, it even made it to Slashdot:
Thought I'd chip in with what little I know (I had a small part in the development of the VTF plug-in so I got to know VTF format intimately )
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VTF <- has more specific info on VTF format and a reference image I did on how the different compression formats effect different texture types.
In general, DXT1 should be used where possible as it gives 8:1 (6:1 with alpha) compression. DXT3 and DXT5 give 4:1. For normal maps, generally save them uncompressed as the artifacts generated from the lossy DXTn compression can cause problems. However, as R_Yell said, if you feel your normal map doesn't lose fidelity by being DXTn compressed, knock yourself out.
3Dc compression is better for normal maps but unfortunately Valve doesn't currently support it or the forthcoming 7.3 version of VTF format. 
Main benefits of DXTn compression (or any compression in that respect) is apart from less disk space it reduces the ammount of bandwidth needed to push textures into your rendering pipeline - you'll get a 500k compressed texture into the card faster than an 8Mb uncompressed one!
If you want to see exactly how much texture memory Source is using, in the console use: mat_show_texture_memory_usage 1. You can toggle normal maps on/off with mat_fastnobump 0/1. That will give you a way of monitoring how your normal maps are effecting texture memory usage.
Suppose I could. I guess one of the lower LOD levels reduced in size would surfice.
Oh Herrow!
You can blame Insta and Skdr for me being here...
C47 Skytrain/Dakota I'm working on. 8300 tri's including interior and glass. It's eventually going to be "beat up" to look like its belly landed but obviously it makes sense to model a pristine version first then go to town on it.
Ambient Occlusion is done, texturing is in progress.
[Blocked Image: http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4013/c47bigrp4.th.jpg]
