Joiner - An Automated VMF Tool

[Youme]

JOINER

1.0.3

06-04-2012

Created by Timothy 'YM' Johnson

Download here

This has been made in part for a university programming project, and part because it's something I've always wanted to do. Now it's at a level where I can hand it in for my uni project I'm taking a break from developing it further. I made it with TF2 in mind, since that's what I map for, but Joiner will work with any source engine games, since they all use the same vmf format

You can load in any VMF you like, as long as it has a brush textured in dev/slime Joiner will do it's work.

Joiner will never ever modify your input VMF, so it's totally safe to put in your working VMF, no need to create a new one.

Joiner works by finding volumes defined by single brushes textured with dev/slime. To create supports for a room, create a single dev/slime brush that exactly fills its entire volume.

You can have as many of these volumes in a map as you want, they can adjoin or intersect in any way. Joiner will create one set of supports per volume it finds.

The output will be completely func_detailed too.

Joiner will not work with any angled faces. Sorry folks, that's a feature for the future.

Joiner will not account for touching faces being the same room. That's another feature for the future.

Here are some before/after shots:

If you have any problems let me know what you were putting in, what the console said as it did it, and what you got out so I can try to fix it.

Download here

[insta]

Haha, cool!

[e-freak]

clever

[cincinnati]

i understand it's just an exercise, but the mismatch of the windows, doors, and floors to your results really undermine the idea of the tool.

is there a way to give the compiler a little bit more info to ensure some accuracy with the structure?

[slowdevelopment]

Awesome idea!

[Youme]

cincinnati, I plan on adding area avoidance in the summer, I'll pick a different useless dev texture and you can place that anywhere you don't want it to make brushes. Then if I really still want to work on it I'll add an option to simply omit brushes that would occupy the forbidden space, or to frame the forbidden space as well.

But even as it currently is, the small amount of fixing required is much faster than making the beams all from scratch or even copying and pasting from another area.

[insta]

Can it do other shapes than squares? Like say you have a L-shaped room.

[Youme]

Only rectangular, on-axis brushes. Any kind of angle stops it working properly (It will make a bunch of brushes along the angle that hammer just doesn't read in, so the end effect is as though it just ignores that face)

It'll do as many brushes as you want so an L shape works, but with some extra supports along the join. That's number 2 on the list of features for summer, right after angled walls as job #1.

Angles is higher priority than L shapes due to my personal mapping style, I always try to use as many angled buildings as possible.

[cincinnati]

But even as it currently is, the small amount of fixing required is much faster than making the beams all from scratch or even copying and pasting from another area.

i enjoy doing that stuff manually...there's something about nailing down the final weight of a space through details that automating it can't quite match.

as a kit of parts, though, i like it.

it would be cool to see this implemented at other scales for other things once it becomes a little more sophisticated, simply as an experiment.

[skdr]

Haha. Awesome

[Froyok]

Really cool !

It's a nice idea, now I want to try the same thing with maya !

[Pericolos0]

Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think procedural environment building tools like this have a lot of potential =)

[Puddy]

Like it! The minor fixes necessary to accomodate windows and doors are minor work compared to making it from scratch! Cool shit.

I think procedural environment building tools like this have a lot of potential =)

Perocedulos0

[Youme]

I think procedural environment building tools like this have a lot of potential =)

I know, right? I've always been way more interested in systems that build themselves than building them myself. Particularly when they generate those odd ball situations that you'd never make normally.

[MaK]

This is an interesting idea. Could be overused very easily. But pretty cool nonetheless.