Today I released Normal Tools 1.45 that includes several new features and better workflow tools. Here is a new short video:
Phong settings from Max are controlled in the Material settings. Here is a basic overview of Phong settings you can control . I don't have time today to go into it deeply at the moment. But essentially, set the Standard Material's shader type to Phong. Then select your model and click Wall Worm > Wall Worm Materials > Give Obj Mats WW Materials. Now open your material in Slate and click the For Model checkbox and change the Source shader menu to VertexLitGeneric. Now there are some extra phong settings below. Re-export the material.
At this time, the Phongexponent texture is exported via the Specular Color map. The following video is about exporting a normal map with specular level, but some of the happenings might help you understand the process. Exporting a material with Phong is already lined up as the sequel to this video. But for the moment you'll have to take what you can from this video to understand the principles.
Posted a new video today on setting up and exporting a VertexLitGeneric shader for Source with both a normal map and a specular map in 3ds Max. Will do a follow up with Phong setup at some point. Enjoy.
Got a new video up demonstrating how to use CorVex, PropLine and Wall Worm Model Tools together. This should answer most of the common questions users ask me on using them in tandem.
Thanks Kochi.
I've got word from a couple users that you can't get it to work in CS:GO. Not sure about that. At the moment I'm testing in Black Mesa and it works fine. I'll look into CS:GO and see if it is something I can address or if it's just a case of CS:GO tools not allowing custom particles and/or has some different workflow that's needed.
There is a new goodie in Wall Worm. While working on some assets for Black Mesa, I decided to make it easier to export animated textures for the Valve Particle Editor. Now you can quickly convert rendered images into particle-ready VTF sheets. If the docs aren't clear enough, there is a sample scene in Max 2015 format you can download from that link with a text file explaining what to do with the scene to export into VTF.
Enjoy 
Last week there were many updates to Wall Worm that are specifically for streamlining teams of people working together. With those new updates I've written a new document called Anatomy of a Design Team that outlines some of the principles for collaboration. The principles can be applied to large mod teams or simple Mapper/Modeler duos. It is in the downloads tab of the linked page. I hope it helps clear up some pipeline questions; and I hope you enjoy!
A ton of new features and updates in PropLine this week. The feature list is too long to paste here... just go to PropLine page to see the whole list. That list doesn't include a few minor updates posted since.
And a new video on some of the features/controls added:
PropLine updated today with several new controls for prop distribution, transformation and per-prop overrides. No video yet but docs linked above have changelog and updated documentation on some of the new settings.
Got a new plugin for prop distribution called PropLine. It's a parametric tool for scattering props along splines. There are already similar solutions like the Spacing Tool in Max but it has limitations (like the preview always disappears if you move the viewport and you lose access to the settings once you hit OK). PropLine is designed to work alongside other plugins I've been making like CorVex.
There is a new video detailing the entire workflow of creating and exporting textures for brushes and models using Wall Worm Pro. The WW Pro tools give you control of almost all VTF parameters inside the 3ds Max material editor. See the video:
Finally had another mostly free Sunday this weekend and recorded Episode 2. Again, thanks to my brother Eric for all the original music. Both Episode 1 and Episode 2 cover 4-hours of recorded time each (fast-forwarded into one-hour episodes), so by the time Episode 2 is done, it's at a state of 8 hours after a blank slate. The exception is the skeleton model, which I created last year for another level I was testing. I probably spent a day working on the skeleton. I had intended to build and render the 2D sky for this episode, but I didn't get it in yet. So episode 3 will cover that. I hope you enjoy. And I hope these videos are helping people understand the kind of workflow I've been getting at for Source all along. The process I've been putting together is not the same way you'd normally do things in the Hammer workflow, so I think that in large part a lot of my babbling the last few years has been largely misunderstood in the Source world.
New tool for making brushes in 3ds Max: ShellVex. In the video below, an entire layout composed of 2 splines, 2 CorVex nodes and 1 ShellVex node.
Quote from cashedI'm definitely seeing more of a use for polishing, but as a Unit nazi I just find working in 3DSmax to be difficult in the broad stroke layout sense.
I know that this is a sentiment I hear a lot. In my own personal take, there isn't any difference between Hammer and Max when it comes to units and basic layout. Of course, I've been experimenting with Source in Max for a few years now; there was a time when I was more comfortable in Hammer... but my awkwardness in Max was mainly because I was trying to approach things as if I were still in Hammer. Fast forward a few years, and I'd shoot myself if I was forced to use Hammer for anything more than an Orange Box! But that's just me. 
Added more captions throughout the video to give more hints, tips and explanations. Will record next episode this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a version of the map to throw up and let people run around in soon after that.
Quote from will2kHey Shawn, have you considered contacting Jonny at Gamebanana for a joint-contest with money prizes?
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Thanks for all your efforts and perseverance in pushing wallworm to new limits and reaching out to new designers, keep it up.
Will, that is something I've considered. JorisCeoen is active on GB and has recommended that too. I'll give GB a shout soon and see what can be mustered up.
And regarding the work on WW. Your comment is encouraging. My real hope is that those who always felt limited or held back in Hammer can get the same kind of creative enjoyment in Max that I feel. Of course there are a lot of editors out there, so people aren't limited to Hammer. But for the games I enjoy playing and designing for (mostly Source games), it's exciting to be able to use Max instead of Hammer. Sharing that excitement is what I'm really trying to do.
Quote from blackdogWould be very nice to have a voiceover comment
I thought about it. But really I just wanted to take the viewer on a bit of a ride for once instead of my normal spiel. I tried to use the callouts at key points to explain what is going on. And I've always wanted to showcase my brother's music... so I felt good about this change. But if there is something specific you'd like explained, feel free to ask.
With the absolute flop of the first level design contest, I had to rethink my strategy for getting people interested in using 3ds Max to make a level for Source. The majority of WW users who are interested in trying the process keep telling me that they just don't understand the workflow.
I'd already started a collection of videos, but after a lot of discussions with the WW crowd, I scrapped what I was working on and started anew with a whole new approach. I don't know if this approach will help, but I'll give it a go.
Here is episode 1 in the Start-to-Finish series on making an entire level for Source inside 3ds Max. Episode 1 is a single afternoon, entirely inside 3ds Max and no other apps. By the end, there is a level that is compiled to Source. In this episode I create all the brushes, displacements, and make a brand new set of textures inside Max for the world geometry and displacements.
Episode 2 will go into making the sky (2d + 3d) and some props.
I hope you enjoy.
Working on tutorials this month and won't be able to look into who practical this is to add into WW. You may get away with this by copying gameinfo.txt from your mod folder to the desired output location, as I think WW simply uses the folder housing the gameinfo.txt folder for deciding where final content goes. In that case, you can try changing the global Game Info Dir setting in WW to the folder housing your altered destination path.
I think using the non-game folder is a very good idea if you are using 3rd party content created by others because you have no control over where they came from and how they are named. That seems to be one of the main purposes of using TopHat's approach, as well as using Dropbox.
For all of your own content, the bast practice is to properly namespace your folders to you/your team. So instead of using the folder "myproject" use something like "yoursteamname" or "yourwebdomain.com". Done this way, it is unlikely to encounter and naming conflicts. And in my opinion, I can never think of anything I make as a contamination.
This, of course, doesn't solve the scenario of using Dropbox, which only uses one path, but I do think that you can still use the multiple folder locations with Google Drive.
Anyway, let me know how you get with setting custom paths. I'll experiment with this at some point too.
