Wall Worm Book: Hammered to the Max

[wallworm]

I'm working on an E-book called Hammered to the Max. This book will be distributed freely in PDF format. The gist of the book is to familiarize the community with using 3ds Max as a level editor (and replacement for Hammer). The majority of WW users seem to be more into prop modeling than level design, but I know that many still do level design and generally still use Hammer. Sharing some of my own tips and workflows, this book will help you understand methods of level design appropriate for Max.

I'm approximately 60% done with the first draft. At this point, I'm looking for some feedback from WW users. Things I'd like to know are:

• What do you find most challenging about 3ds Max
• What do you prefer in Hammer (that you can't do as easily in Max)?
• What tool(s) in WW do you find confusing?
• What kind of features do you want in your daily design process that are missing?
• What features do you want explained more?

I am willing to share the current (unfinished) rough draft with anyone who wishes to provide feedback on the book. Contact me directly if you'd like to preview the upcoming book. If I share the preview, please do not distribute with others until finished--as I do not want unfinished/unpolished versions of the book circulating on the internet.

I am also looking for WW users and game developers to share screen shots and examples of work that include assets aided with Wall Worm. Please send me any images and permission to use. My email is included in the WW download zip inside the readme.txt.

[wallworm]

For those who haven't seen this, the book is now out.

Get Hammered to the Max: A Hammer User's Guide to 3ds Max.

It's still a WIP. But you should find good use of this.

[wallworm]

I updated the PDF today with some new sections to discuss the Worldspawn entity, the new Entity Manager and various other additions.

[wallworm]

It's been nearly a year since I last updated the book. Today I updated it with a new cover (using Joris Ceoen's marble map made in Max) as well as edited and revised it a little bit. I still need to update sections that have been changed when using Wall Worm Pro (like how WW Pro textures work).

[wallworm]

Updated the book some today to include some corrections and a new chapter on troubleshooting compile problems (like finding brushes, loading leak files and more).

[wallworm]

First revision of Hammered to the Max in 2016. I added some more screen shots (from Joris Ceoen, Mathias Solheim, and Devin Ulrich) as well as added some new sections on displacements, textures and a few more things. The texture info (added to materials chapter) discuss some of the WW Pro functions.

[wallworm]

Updated Hammered to the Max with some information to reflect latest versions of WW--and added an important note at the end of the Displacements chapter to note the fact that displacements can no longer be quadrified.

[wallworm]

Revised Hammered to the Max with a bunch of new content. Chapter 10 on displacements has been reworked a lot.

[wallworm]

I am working on a major revision of Hammered to the Max. Please let me know if there are topics you'd like to see covered or enhanced.

[wallworm]

The revision I was planning in 2019 never happened because I got entrenched with my work at Autodesk. It's now been five years since the last revision to Hammered to the Max and the document is getting very dated. I would really like to make a revision this year. As such, I want to make a call-to-arms for Max users to share screenshots of their projects that utilized WW. I would love both Max screenshots as well as final productions in-game. If you would like to see your work in the next edition of Hammered to the Max, please send me your screenshots of Max/WW and in-game work, along with a note that you give me permission to use the content in the publication.

[Joris Ceoen]

The revision I was planning in 2019 never happened because I got entrenched with my work at Autodesk. It's now been five years since the last revision to Hammered to the Max and the document is getting very dated. I would really like to make a revision this year. As such, I want to make a call-to-arms for Max users to share screenshots of their projects that utilized WW. I would love both Max screenshots as well as final productions in-game. If you would like to see your work in the next edition of Hammered to the Max, please send me your screenshots of Max/WW and in-game work, along with a note that you give me permission to use the content in the publication.

I'm working my a** off to get Daigo released for the next version. Once again, a number of interiors needed more changes than I expected (especially geometry-wise), although I've finally gone through all the lighting techniques for getting exponentially better indoor results. I can't promise immediate screenshots for the coming week(s), but sometime in July I'll be able to provide screenshots. Would that be alright?