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[wallworm]

It's been brought to my attention that there are some people who are aggravated that there are some functions of WW that don't work as expected in some versions of Max. The aggravation generates an expectation for me to either support all versions of Max or to document all these. These frustrations, apparently, have been shared behind the scenes in some circles.

Although I sympathize, I cannot support all versions of Max nor document all of these. I've tried to varying degrees to do this over the years, but it is just too monumental for a single man. Generally speaking, almost all problems that WW has can be fixed by upgrading to the latest version of Max or installing the latest service pack for your version of Max.

There are still some known problems. Among them are that the SMD Importer fails to import proper bone weights in older versions of Max, Display Walkable requires Max 2011+. Those are issues I know off the top of my head.

I only have access to Max 2012+ at this point, and have only used Max 2014 in the last year. I cannot be expected to stop what I'm doing in 2014 to test every feature in older versions of Max. I'll move to Max 2015 as soon as Rayfire is updated.

Here is the deal: I've been offering these tools freely for years! Free! And the overwhelming majority of users don't even share an email of "Thank You", much less support the project with open feedback, bug reports or donations. If you have not contributed positive/constructive feedback or money, you really cannot expect any support.

I get great satisfaction in seeing those who use WW enjoy using it. And I greatly appreciate those of you who have shared time, encouragement and finances for Wall Worm.

I'm not saying that WW cannot improve in many ways (as I see much room to grow) but I wish that all the users would share the same kind of respect and patience that I have shared with all of you.

[Joris Ceoen]

If allowed I would also want to have people realise that it is just unbelievable that the Wall Worm Model Tools are free. There are many 3DS Max plugins on the internet, some which that Shawn even suggests in his upcoming E-book that are commercial and relatively expensive while being a shred compared to the complicated work that Shawn has put into these tools.

I know that more than 50% of the mappers I have in my friends list (and those are to my knowledge quite a lot and some of them are amongst the most recognized mappers in the Source community) have used Wall Worm Model Tools in their workflow and made modelling an actual possibility. If anything, all those other mappers asked me many times to export a model to Source, all which went past WWMT, indirectly benefitting from these amazing tools.

Even more, you're given the opportunity to do many things in 3DS Max with WWMT for level design that are simply a dream in Hammer terms. I'm still learning so much that has already gone past all hammer methods, not to mention that I got to do this freely. Shawn spends most of his free time helping anyone that comes along the forums with questions and frequently releases updates that adress these mentioned problems.

Something like this is so rare nowadays and with his post right now I still feel that some people have no limit on impudence. I take it it's because realising the amount of work that has gone past WWMT is just impossible to get a hold off, especially if you don't open your mind to the possiblities of the program and the fact that it's more than just a whole, complete Hammer replacement.

I don't need to know which circles are being targeted, because it's likely I will come across them anyways, enlighting on these tools that deserve positive attention. I will try my best to display what the benefits are of WWMT once my cathedral is done and bring them forward to the mapping communities, and I'm sure most of you will see things you just deemed impossible to date. By this I would like to request anyone to talk about WWMT if you are experienced with it, and not just mention the first 'flaws' you come across with because of a lack of knowledge/interest/courage...?

[wallworm]

Thank you Joris. Before long I'll be calling you Wall Worm's Bulldog.