SPLIT: L4D Tools Discussion

[JoshuaC]

The L4D Authoring tools are out for those interested.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Authoring_Tools/SDK_(Left_4_Dead)

[AlexM]

also valve has released sketchup mapping tools?

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... urce_Tools

seriously? I hate sketchup with a passion. I cant help but think that effort would be better spent bringing hammer up to moder day standards. It's a little annoying waiting 2 hours to see how your lighting changes turned out when crysis does it in real time.

[Chunks]

The L4D Authoring tools are out for those interested.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... eft_4_Dead)

Page was removed.... however the beta is available apparently. I just enrolled in the beta for the sdk... dling a rather large update now.

[JohnC]

Figures. Hammer locks up right when it starts and model viewer crashes instantly.

[KungFuSquirrel]

The last ) is part of the link, which is why it's not showing up.

The sketchup tool is just a plugin for exporting basic blockins to Hammer. The worst part about using sketchup for quick layout work is you have to re-do it after, so this spares you that. It's not a required tool to make anything.

Hammer appeared to freeze at first but then ran fine after. The lighting preview mode actually works fairly well now, though it's still not as strong as D3's render mode or UEd's game mode.

[JoshuaC]

Fixed my link.

If your map takes hours to compile you're obviously not optimizing correctly.

[AlexM]

The last ) is part of the link, which is why it's not showing up.

The sketchup tool is just a plugin for exporting basic blockins to Hammer. The worst part about using sketchup for quick layout work is you have to re-do it after, so this spares you that. It's not a required tool to make anything.

Hammer appeared to freeze at first but then ran fine after. The lighting preview mode actually works fairly well now, though it's still not as strong as D3's render mode or UEd's game mode.

I forgot that the lighting preview apparently works in OB now, I'm always working in episode 1 so I dont have that luxury. I'll have to check that out.

As for sketchup I just can't really stand using it. I guess after using hammer for so long I just prefer to do the blocking with brushes and cut out the middleman. Personal preference I guess but it's still time I would have rather seen valve spend elsewhere.

[JoshuaC]

Woah I like the lighting preview. Though I don't get why they can't just make it load lightmap data from the .bsp and overlay it in the editor for you to look at.

[rockdude86]

how about making that work for people who dont have l4d, i have tf2 though but whatever i seem to do i cant get the orange box hammer to work all it gives me is white lines in 2d views and even more blobs of white in 3d view and i cant even navigate around in it. way to go valve

[Pampers]

any other new hammer features?

[the0rthopaedicsurgeon]

how about making that work for people who dont have l4d, i have tf2 though but whatever i seem to do i cant get the orange box hammer to work all it gives me is white lines in 2d views and even more blobs of white in 3d view and i cant even navigate around in it. way to go valve

what game are you trying to use it for? if i forget to switch the engine in the SDK menu and load an Ep1 game like css with the orange box sdk, then i get white wireframes too. you need to make sure you pick the same engine that the game itself uses.

[JeanPaul]

Woah I like the lighting preview. Though I don't get why they can't just make it load lightmap data from the .bsp and overlay it in the editor for you to look at.

Because that would require a compile, and that would sort of defeat the purpose now wouldnt it?

[JoshuaC]

Woah I like the lighting preview. Though I don't get why they can't just make it load lightmap data from the .bsp and overlay it in the editor for you to look at.

Because that would require a compile, and that would sort of defeat the purpose now wouldnt it?

I'd like to be able to see the previous version of lighting in the editor so I could made adjustments to it. The lighting preview is nice but it's far from an accurate representation of what it looks like ingame.

[dux]

Has something changed about the light preview? Still looks useless to me.

[Psy]

It took them this long to release an L4D SDK without any major changes to Hammer? Wowzer.