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[wallworm]

For those of you who have not seen it, it appears that Valve is sneaking Source 2.0 out to us. I don't play the game, but today spent some time in the new Hammer for Dota2. For the first time in years, I have to say that Hammer is becoming a viable again. The new UI and tools in the new Hammer are what I think most of us have wanted for years.

What does this mean for Wall Worm?

I'm not quite sure yet. Certainly I will continue to work on and use WW for the Source Engine games I like. And I will probably look into finishing the DMX exporters because it seems that the new Valve Map format is in DMX. As long as I can get some good idea of the specs, there is a very good likelihood that I will build a 3ds Max > Source 2.0 export pipeline in WW. But that will be a little time.

Bravo Valve. The new system is really nice.

[wallworm]

So the word hit the street this week that Valve has announced Source 2 officially. I have had several questions regarding how this affects Wall Worm. For the most part, very little. Wall Worm will continue to grow for both Source and Source 2. The main issues are that I'm not going to tackle Source 2 integration into WW until it is actually out. Once out, it will mainly be about my schedule and incentive.

As the tools evolve and the available Games/Mods expand so will my interest in adding Source 2 tools into WW. As it stands, I've messed with the Dota 2 tools enough to know the gist of the new toolset. Its certainly way cooler than Source for a designer's point of view. There are still many klunky things, but I have not spent a lot of time investigating it all yet--mainly because Dota 2 has no appeal to me personally. For my tastes, it's when a game like BF 2142 starts popping up in Source 2 that my interest will push me to explore a WW pipeline for Source 2. That or there is suddenly an influx of donations that make it worth my time.

I am curious to see the transition in the community from the old-school Hammer to the new Hammer. Considering how much negativity I've witnessed towards using Max for Source level design, I wonder how well the Source community takes the transition to a more polished (far more 3ds Max - like) Hammer. I suspect that the community will be generally happy, but there is likely to be a learning curve. Having played with UE4 this last year, and messing in Cry Engine randomly, it's the general movement for level editors to become more complex these last several years. I really like the editors in Cry Engine/EU4/Source 2. Cryengine's editor feels like Max away from Max!

Still, I am in love with Max. That love will always drive the development of Wall Worm. The only thing that can stop that passion is either death or Autodesk making policy changes that totally alienate me and I lose the ability to keep Max running on my machines (like if my Subscription ever ends and Max cannot be installed on some future OS--and Windows 7 stops being installable :P ) Those are all remote; for now.

As it stands, the development of Max itself has returned to a major priority at Autodesk. A ton of new features have been added to Max 2015 subscription extensions that show a renewed focus on delivering new features to content creators in Max like OpenSubdiv, multiple camera timeline renders, etc. Here was a total 3D God photo that was posted today of Eddie Perlberg, Tom Hudson and Martin Coven at ILM:



If you don't know those names or what ILM stands for, it's time for you to go to Google and learn a little. As a Max user, you need to know these :)

When WW does turn to Source 2, expect things like a level exported like the current VMF Exporter except to go to VMap.



WW Pro is still in Alpha but soon to move to Beta. Orvid and I have put many man hours into this. It will add to any Source designer's efficiency.

There is also a pending update to Crowbar that makes re-using Source models in Max easier. If you want to test that version out, contact ZeqMacaw on the Crowbar site.

Also, I'm excited that one of the icons of level design from my early days is toying with coming out of dormancy with the aide of Wall Worm. I can't share his/her name yet because he's/she's still just toying with the idea... but I really hope to see him/her explode onto the scene--especially with the honor of seeing him/her unleash something with WW.

[vicxvr]

I have always wanted to learn Max and once I saw what WW could do in Max I decided to get a student copy and learn it while making stuff for Source. Even if Source 2 comes with a new editor (Blender with plug-ins?) it won't make Max any less powerful and useful. Your great documention and tutorials for WW actually make something really hard to learn a lot more accessible.

I do wonder what Valve is going to do with Source 2. The rebirth of VR and their joint venture with HTC is only making things more interesting.

[wallworm]

You are correct.

I hope that you continue to get enjoyment from Max/WW. I suspect you'll find ways to use what you learn in your WW journeys in many unexpected ways over the years :)  I know I have.

In terms of Source 2, I think that when it's all said and done I'll be able to make a Max > Source 2 pipeline that continues to offer alternative pipelines for those of us who simply prefer 3ds Max. While I'm sure that that native tools will always dominate the community... I think that for those who have a Max brain (think parametrically, for example), Max will always be the best choice.