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VMF Importer now finally viable

shawnolson

By shawnolson
in Level Design

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shawnolson

shawnolson

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This week I've released a giant splash-ton of updates to Wall Worm. They were kindly commissioned by Robert Briscoe... so if you happen to live in his neck of the woods and use Wall Worm, share some thanks with a cold round of beer and a cheer! :)

 

The main gist of this update deals with the VMF, QC and SMD importers. You can now import a complete VMF into Max, including all brushes, displacements, materials, entities, props and Cuban Cigars. The brush/displacements now get the correct UVW from the VMF.

 

During the development of these updates, I had access to some of Robert's VMFs. Maybe he will share some screen shots of the import soon, or maybe he'll let me post some. (I'm pretty amazed with his work... and cannot fathom how many times I would have murdered myself building some of those levels in Hammer!)

 

There are some other updates too. I've made displacements default to Quads for easier editing. They all now have buttons in the modify tab to switch back and forth between being quad/triangulated. Use quad for easier modeling; use triangulated for accurate Display Walkable function. Also some bug fixes, other new tools, etc.

 

If you really like reading random things, here is the complete WW changelog.

 

Enjoy.

 

PS. For those of you actively using WW, I'd love to get some comments that I can use in some shameless self-promoting stuff. I'm trying to get involved with more commercial projects than constant charity work, and what better way then shaming people into proclaiming awesomeness. I'm generally looking for comment like, "Shawn makes awesome crates" and "Without Wall Worm, I'd never be able to make that perfect crate." Better yet... how about some WW references in some levels? Maybe a worm doll in a pile or trash or a ripped wanted poster hidden in the dark alley.... you know!

 

:)

shawnolson

shawnolson

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Posted

JK great work Shawn, that sounds pretty epic.

 

:) Thanks.

Great work! Only recently started using and learning WW, but it's really helpful!

Keep up the awesome work!

Well you know my work will finally be done when I have programmed 3ds Max to turn on my coffee maker.

shawnolson

shawnolson

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One of my friends recently asked me if he should jump right into Wall Worm or start learning Hammer first. I didn't know what to answer him.

Well... Hammer excels at making crates...

 

I started by learning Hammer. If you are totally new to 3D it is a fine introduction. My personal journey was that Worldcraft/Hammer was/is frustratingly restrictive. The workflow for generating any asset for Source with standard Source tools is a giant pain in the ass in my opinion. I almost gave up on Source when I finally learned the process of making my own models and materials for Source. But I love some of the Source games so much, I decided to create my own workflow.

 

Anyway, here is a screen shot of a level I'm working on right now (currently for CS:GO). It has been a dummy level for a few years, serving as a testing ground for new features in Wall Worm. The screen shots are in-game. The entire level and all assets were generated 100% inside a single Max scene. That means, world geometry, displacements, models, multiple skins, materials, textures and everything right inside 3ds Max. No Photoshop. No text editor. No opening QCs, making batch files. Etc etc etc. (Actually, there is a statue in the scene my friend Gulliver Thoday created, and he may have used Photoshop or Mudbox for it... but that is irrelevant to my point... all of my props and textures are entirely Max).

 

61_de_sacrilege_beta450001.jpg

 

62_de_sacrilege_beta450001a.jpg

 

Anyway, I'm not sure that my answer is the best resource because I'm obviously very biased. But to put it into perspective, when I opened some of the scenes in Dear Esther for testing the VMF Importer that is mentioned in the OP, Hammer almost died. It took 10+ minutes just to open some of those scenes (and I originally thought it had frozen completely until Robert explained that it just takes forever in Hammer). In 3ds Max, the scenes open in a few seconds.

 

My opinion is that Max is simply the best tool for the job.

 

PS. Here is a new video I loaded this morning on some of the recent tools for working with displacements in Wall Worm:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch_XFF5_bW8

Pampers

Pampers

Posted
Posted

I think you would benefit from making some shorter videos that quickly summarize what your tools are about and main features, cba to watch 30 mins of video when I just want to get a quick overview on what your tools do :) now if I know what your tools do and I want to sit down and learn them, then the 30min long vids are good :)

shawnolson

shawnolson

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I think you would benefit from making some shorter videos that quickly summarize what your tools are about and main features, cba to watch 30 mins of video when I just want to get a quick overview on what your tools do :) now if I know what your tools do and I want to sit down and learn them, then the 30min long vids are good :)

Fair enough... but I figure that if you are curious about that you can just go to the website. I generally try to do the videos as if I were giving a class to students. For some people, just experimenting with the tools can be all it takes to figure them out. For others, having someone walk you through it is better. I can't really make videos on all the tools in a way that is best for all people due to time and other priorities.

 

In the case of this video, I made it to embed into the documents page on displacements... but happened to share it here as this thread is fresh (along with the video). Hopefully the docs are all someone needs... but the video is the classroom on that specific topic for those who may want/need it :)

 

I do appreciate the feedback.

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