Wall Worm Forums

• Plugins: Added official support for 3ds Max 2026.
• System: Fixed incorrect Assembly being loaded into 3ds Max 2024/2025 that caused several functions related to mesh data (commiting a sculpt mesh, exporting displacements, etc) to fail with a MAXScript error.
• Problem Checker: Fixed MAXScript error when some global settings were empty.
• Problem Checker: Fixed some invalid problem reports regarding newer versions of Max as well as unnecessary game-engine-specific warnings (Source vs Source 2).
• Batch Tools: Moved several of the USD-related functions into another toolset.

Note about the cryptic USD items that come to changelog here and there. Since the bulk of my work at Autodesk for the last few years has been around USD, I've been slowly doing experiments with USD in WW. At some point I plant to migrate some of the workflows in WW to USD-compatible workflows. None of those have been exposed to the UI/UX. But now that USD is being released officially with Max 2026 (and is available in different flavors for Max 2022+) I will possibly be a little more active in pushing those forward. Namely, it will open up workflows for collaborating across Max/Maya/Houdini directly via USD with an endpoint in Source/Source2.

Commit Sculpt Mesh broken in Max 2024/2025. I'm working on a fix.

EDIT: Now fixed in WW 6.3.4

Version 6.2.0 released on 11-3-2024

* FGD: Fixed the FGD Parser for CS2 in Max 2022+. There were changes in the CS2 FGD files that had stopped the WW Parser from working.
   
* FGD: Updated the FGD Parser to no longer use a messagebox to inform of parse errors. Now the errors are only put into the MAXScript listener.
   
* Convert Scene to Model: Updated the tool to clear the undo buffer to avoid potential crashes when using Undo with that tool.

* CSV Report: Fixed script error if running the CSV Report when no displacement functions had been loaded.
   
* Materials: Fixed MAXScript error when loading some older scenes created with Wall Worm.
   
* Security: Updated digital signatures for DLLs and EXE.
   
* Security: Updated build system to stop signing MAXScript files since the AdskSignTools.exe does not support modern certificate requirements.

There is a problem with the CS2 FGD Parser. I suspect that something has changed with the formats in the CS2 FGD formatting. I will try to get a fix for it soon.

UPDATE: Fixed in WW 6.2.

The Commit Sculpt Mesh function is currently broken in some versions of 3ds Max in WW 6.0.0. I'm looking into the problem.

This is the first public release of Wall Worm with Source 2 support. Support is limited to Counter-Strike 2 version of Source 2 formats. Many features are still missing. To export WWMT and Materials to S2, you need to set your game's global settings to Source 2 engine.

Some info on features included on docs site here and here are instructions on setting up for S2.

Below are release highlights.

Version 6.0.0 released on 3-2-2024

   * Engine: Added Source 2 Engine support into several key areas of Wall Worm. Source 2 formats compatible with Counter-Strike 2.
   
   * WWMT: Added support for WWMT to export to VMDL format when the settings are configured for CS2 format of Source 2. Current features supported: Mesh, Hull, LODS, Materials, Textures, Sequences, Skins, Bodygroups,  Attachments and Breakable Gibs.
   
   * Entities: Added support for Source 2 FGD format in Max 2022+. MAXScript FGD parser does not support Source 2 format.
   
   * Materials: Added support for the PBR Material (PBRMetalRough) in Wall Worm. For Source, native support is for base_color_map and normal_map. For Source 2, all maps are supported.
   
   * VMAT: Added support for creating Source 2 materials. Currently limited to shader "csgo_simple.vfx".
   
   * VMAP: Added limited support to export an ASCII VMAP file. Currently only exports entities. The Mesh export is working except for normals.

   * System: Fixed Source compiler problems in many areas of Wall Worm from recent changes in Windows.
   
   * Settings: Updated the settings to automatically try to create missing folders if the settings define them but the folders do not exist.
   
   * Settings: Added new button to open the Wall Worm settings folder in Windows Explorer.
   
   * Settings: Updated the Create Local GameInfo function to get game paths from mount.cfg when creating a new gameinfo.txt file from Garry's Mod.
   
   * Entities: Updated FGD parser in 3ds Max 2022+ to set float spinners to default value of 0 if the FGD provides an empty default value for floats. Fixes malformed FGD issues.
   
   Entities: Updated the link buttons in entities pointing to WallWorm.com and the Valve Developer community to buttons that call a method to open the browser rather than using the Hyperlink control. This alleviates the security warning that happens when using the ShellLaunch() command in embedded scripts as the entity custom attributes are embedded in scenes.
   
   * Materials: Updated Material Exporter to exclude some common tool materials from the export list so that the exporter UI is less cluttered.

If you want to know why Wall Worm updates have been sluggish for a while, it's because I've been head down at work for so long overseeing USD features in 3ds Max and Maya. What's all the buzz about USD? See some examples of how it's used in a webinar where I gave a live demo in Max, Maya, Houdini and Unreal.

The next release of WW will have support for the Counter-Strike 2 version of Source 2; HL:Alyx and Dota 2 are not supported. In this release, Wall Worm can export models from WWMT Helpers as well as their materials and textures.

This thread will detail the current capabilities and known issues.

If you want to test these tools before they are officially released, simply contact me directly for an installer.

With this first release of Source 2 support, Wall Worm will only have limited support of the features that work for Source/Goldsource. At this time, the capabilities are limited to models and their materials and textures. Level exporting has been started but does not work yet. There are no importers and the MDL loader is not yet working for Source 2.

Setting Up WW

To properly set up WW for Source 2 you will have to manually configure your global WW Settings for Source 2. There is no GameConfig.txt file that WW can use to configure your settings. You will also need to install the CS2 Workshop tools from the DLC. You can do this in your Steam library by right-clicking CS2, clicking properties, then going to the DLC section.



You need to set the modelsrc, materialsrc and mapsrc paths to the models, materials and maps folder in your CS2 content addons folders.

Set the GameInfo folder. The default is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo
Then set the Bin Dir to the Bin folder for the compile tools. By default that is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\bin\win64
For the FGD settings, you need to manually point WW to the FGD file. by default that is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo\csgo.fgd
Finally, set the Engine to Source 2.



Exporting Assets

The workflow for assets is very similar to Source but there are a few differences.

#1) Only use the PBR Material (Metal/Rough) (PBRMetalRough()) on your models. You can use them with Multi/Sub-Object Materials. This material maps extremely well to the Source 2 materials.

#2) Not every feature of WWMT yet works in the export.

The features that will work:

• Meshes
• Hulls
• LODS**
• Bodygroups
• Sequences
• Multiple Skins
• Attachments
• PropData
• Custom Gibs
• Materials***

** LOD Material Replacements not yet supported.
*** You should set the texture names to .tga and the Material names to use .vmat.

When you export the models with custom materials, the materials will continue to appear red in the modeldoc tools in Source 2. I don't know why yet, so at this time you have to open the model after compile and select materials in the modeldoc and double-click them--they will open in the material editor and suddenly work. Click the Save All button in the material editor to keep the textures working.

Entities

Wall Worm now supports the CS2 FGD for entities. It will honor the new @exclude command as well as the @OverrideEntity and delete_keys command.

VMap Exporter

The Level Exporter now has limited VMap export. At this time, entities should export as expected. However, displacements and world meshes are not yet exported correctly and will crash Hammer if you try to load a VMAP exported from Wall Worm with anything other than entities.


That is it as of now. Please share feedback as you test it.

I wanted to give everyone a heads up on where I am with Wall Worm in Source 2 along with a general roadmap.

First, I've planned on doing Source 2 for years, but I never felt the need yet because of limited games and documentation. CS2 forced my hand on the issue to a degree.

First, expectations. Although I am passionate about WW and maintaining it, the reality is that the amount of time I have for developing WW these days is relegated to the weekends. And truthfully, I often don't want to be at a computer on weekends. So it's really down to when I feel inspired.

Where I am with S2:

Right now I have tools to export WWMT to DMX and VMDL. The support is currently limited to creating a simple VMDL document that will reference the main meshes and collision hulls. My intent is to make WWMT functionality as robust for S2 as S1 but it will take some time.

Once I get enough personal testing of the current VMDL Export with mesh and hulls, I'll release it for testing.

VMDL Export support

• CVMeshList from WWMT Meshes
• CVphysicsMeshList from WWMT Collision Hulls
• Basic settings in Mesh/Hull data from WWMT

Next:

• Animation Sequences
• BodyGroups
• LODs
• Morphs

VMAT Export support

I have not yet started on this. Since my understanding is that S2 is PBR, I might be able to simplify the material authoring with the PBR material that ships with Max.

VMAP Export support

I have looked at the VMAP format briefly and I understand it's a version of DMX. Hopefully I can get that done sometime in 2024.

VMDL Loader

Loading VMDL into Max like the MDL Loader is high on my priority but I would not expect it before the end of 2024.

Instructions on being able to continue a project started that was configured to CSGO but stopped working after the Counter-Strike 2 release on Source 2. https://dev.wallworm.com/document/269/using_legacy_csgo_with_wall_worm.html

New video tutorial on building a terrain for Source Engine using displacements in Wall Worm:


This a recording of the making of the first pass of the landscape for a level my son Ethan and I are working on. It also features four songs by my son Hayden Olson. And if you didn't know, my brother Eric is the one who made the music for the WW intro... and has been featured in many past WW videos. We all caught the creativity gene from my parents... :)

New troubleshooting documentation if you have missing WW icons in 3ds Max 2022.

Version 5.9.3 released on 5-4-2023

* Installer: Updated installation application to utilize the PluginPackage system from Autodesk. 3ds Max 2022+ will utilize the PluginPackage system. Older versions still use Plugins.UserSettings.ini to set plugin paths.
   
* Plugins: Fixed the installer missing WallWorm.Helpers.dll for 3ds Max 2024 that was causing several WW Pro enhancements not working.

* CorVexSpline: Added new parameter to keep the meaning of top/bottom consistent regardless of whether the target CorVex nodes have positive or negative height values.
   
* Alpha Spec: Fixed a MAXScript error when loading some texture setups.
   
* Alpha Spec: Added support to copy Opacity Map into another map's alpha channel.

The latest installer works with 3ds Max 2024. If you find any issues, please report them to me.

When WW 5.8.3 was released last week, it was missing several plugin packages. That is fixed in 5.8.4.

Version 5.6.1 released on 1-8-2023

   * Entities: Added new Entity Override workflow that allows you to override entity properties when an entity inside a Forest or PropLine meets the conditions of the override. Current conditions are altitude-based or volume-based.
   
   * CSGO Tools: Added rollout to create the map TXT file for CSGO.
   
   * ProPal: Fixed MAXScript error when manually creating a ProPal node in some versions of 3ds Max.

   * VMF Exporter: Updated the VMF Exporter to only place the -deletecubemaps command in the PAK batch file. When used, the user is required to rebuild cubemaps.

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Version 5.5.4 released on 12-28-2022

   * PropLine: Fixed a MAXScript error that could happen when deleting nodes that are used as sources in a PropLine.

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Version 5.5.3 released on 12-28-2022

   * PropLine: Fixed the Skip Materials PropLine only working with WallWormMDL nodes.
   
   * PropLine: Fixed some transform issues with non Wall Worm MDL nodes when using the Skip Materials functions.

Version 5.5.2 released on 12-28-2022

   * PropLine: Added button to acquire include/exclude settings from another PropLine in the scene.
   
   * PropLine: Updated PropLine to properly utilize the WallWormMDL node's face count for display limit purposes such as Hull and LODs.
   
   * PropLine: Fixed incorrect size calculations on WallWormMDL nodes in some cases.
   
   * PropLine: Fixed problem in PropLine where prop instances could have incorrect transforms when the Skip Materials option was on.
   
   * Materials: Fixed missing material parsing in some cases. Only for Max 2022+.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated VMF Exporter to always write the batch files to compile and PAK the assets even if the exporter is not actually compiling.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Added new option to delete cubemaps in compiler. When enabled, the command is added to the beginning of the PAK batch file.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated the PAK report to skip files that are missing but are found inside the PAK file (for 3ds Max 2022+).
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated the PAK report to not mention missing .sw.vtx and .dx80.vtx files as modern compilers aren't making these anymore.
   
   * Entities: Fixed defect causing an infinite loop in some occassions when looking for entity classes.
   
   * Soundscape Manager: Fixed defect that caused Max to freeze indefinitely when loading the Soundscape Manager.
   
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Version 5.4.1 released on 11-12-2022

   * PropLine: Added new option called Skip Materials. When on, materials are not generated for the PropLine. Helps improve performance.
   
   * PropLine: Added new options to display meshes with high face count as Boxes.
   
   * Displacements: Added new spinner in the Displacement Floater to control the depth of terrain brushes when using the Terrain and Corridor functions.
   
   * Displacements: Updated some of the button groups in the Displacement Floater.
   
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Version 5.2.9 released on 10-24-2022

   * CorVex Spline: Fixed incorrect additional spline segments being created in a CorVex Spline using the new Side Mid Divisiors setting.
   
   * CorVex Spline: Fixed regression where CorVex Splines from wall-mode corvexes that were not closed would create an unexpected extra segment.

Version 5.2.8 released on 10-22-2022

   * Material Utilities: Added an option to rename (non-bitmap) textures based on their usage in a material.
   
   * WWMT: Added new Hull Material ID setting that will force the exporter to convert faces using that Material ID into a collision hull. Useful for complex models made in ForestPack or RailClone. Available only in the modify tab of a WWMT Helper.
   
   * CorVex Spline: Added name list that will allow the corvex spline to derive itself from any corvex nodes with names matching the patterns. Useful to make a CorVex Spline from a CorVex in a XRef Scene. BETA Feature not full tested!!
   
   * CorVex Spline: Fixed CorVexSpline missing a segment on CorVex nodes in block mode.
   
   * CorVex Spline: Added new settings to make a vertical spline on the middle line of each side of a CorVex.
   
   * CorVex: Fixed MAXScript error that could happen in fringe cases related to invalid material ID values.
   
   * PropLine: Added new option to randomly flip objects 180 degrees in the Z Axis.
   
   * PropLine: Fixed the max values of Translation and Rotation values not being enabled when randomization is turned on.

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Version 5.2.1 released on 9-26-2022
   
   * Batch Tools: Added a new Batch Tool to mass convert files into MDLs.
   
   * FBX to MDL: Updated the tool to include a UI for the new Batch MDL converter.
   
   * Sky Writer: Updated the Max Render Time spinner from Integer to Float.
   
   * Sky Writer: Changed the label of the Render Time to Render Frame.

   * Entities: Added new buttons in the Modify tab of entities with a vscript parameter to open/create/edit script files and associate them to the entity. When no script file exists at the location chosen, an empty script is created and opened. (3ds Max 2022+ only.)
   
   * VMF Exporter: Fixed the compile batch script to work with map names that were previously not working because of incorrectly escaped characters.
   
   * VMDL Exporter: Added first prototype version of the VMDL exporter for Source 2. Not yet production ready.

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Version 5.1.45 released on 9-8-2022
   
   * Displacement Proxy: Fixed Mesh face index out of range MAXScript error in some scenes with a Displacement Proxy.
   
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Version 5.1.44 released on 9-5-2022
   
   * Macros: Added new Macroscript to delete the faces of objects using tool textures. Can be called via macros.run "wallworm.com" "WallWormDeleteToolTextures". You can also add to the UI using the "Delete Faces using Tool Textures" from the wallworm.com category in the Customize User Interface menus.
   
   * Entity Manager: Fixed MAXScript error when text was typed into the Filter field.
   
   * Sky Writer: Added option to choose camera type (Free Camera, Physical Camera or Vray Camera).
   
   * Sky Writer: Updated Sky Writer to keep its camera in the scene after rendering. This allows customizing some of the camera parameters.
   
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Version 5.1.42 released on 8-21-2022
   
   * Macros: Added new Macroscript to place selected object pivots to the average position of their bottom-most vertices. Can be called via macros.run "wallworm.com" "PivotToBottomAverage" .

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Version 5.1.40 released on 7-5-2022

   * Brush Proxy: Added new (experimental) Brush Proxy Primitive to create geometry from brushes in the scene. Useful for reference in an XRef Scene. Material generation still buggy.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Fixed issues exporting levels with specific names.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Fixed exporter not launching game if also PAKing assets.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Fixed defect exporting scenes with VRay and Arnold cameras.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Added new option to export hidden cordons as active. This setting is not available in the exporter UI, but can be accessed via MAXScript with rootnode.exportHiddenCordons. It is a boolean. Existing scenes will be set to false to keep past conventions. New scenes will default to true.
   
   * VMT Importer: Updated VMT Importer to add a Missing Texture (missing.tga) to texture slots that point to textures that cannot be found. This fixes crashes when using Autodesk Vault that was having issues with bitmaps pointing to missing file paths.
   
   * Delete Faces Modifier: Fixed button not working in the Delete Faces custom attribute to remove rollout from UI.

Version 5.1.36 released on 6-5-2022

   * Entities: Fixed a MAXScript error that could happen when copying entities.
   
   * Displacements: Added new function to send displacements to an XRef Scene.
   
   * Assets: Updateed RES File Generator and BSP PAK functions to collect .NUT script files from entities.
   
   * WWMT: Fixed defect in LODs that was copying the root LOD material to all subsequent LODs when exporting a WWMT. Previously affected scenes will need the LOD materials re-assigned because of this defect.
   
   * WallWormMDL: Fixed a MAXScript error when exporting clicking the Orientation Fixup button in the MDL command panel but there the MDL data is missing or not yet assigned.
   
   * Overview Exporter: Fixed overview exporter not working with several game configurations.
   
   * Overview Exporter: Fixed MAXScript error in Overview Exporter.
   
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Version 5.1.33 released on 5-24-2022

   * Tools: Fixed Slice Tools custom attribute to not cause a MAXScript error when the file with the slice modifier is loaded into a version of Max where Wall Worm is not installed.
   
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Version 5.1.32 released on 5-22-2022

   * DMX Exporter: Fixed some MAXScript errors in the DMX exporter caused by exporting meshes with a Physical Material.

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Version 5.1.31 released on 5-22-2022

   * PropLine: Added new options to progressively affect scaling of props.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Fixed error in the VMF Exporter batch file that was failing to copy the map BSP to the maps folder on completion.

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Version 5.1.29 released on 5-22-2022

   * Entities: Added support for the Get Sound button in entities to browse the game's current sounds.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated exporter to delete the temporary log file generated during compile.

Version 5.1.28 released on 5-21-2022

   * CorVex: Fixed MAXScript error loading some older scenes with specific spline setups.
   
   * QC Importer: Fixed MAXScript error that happened from too many time tags being generated in rare situations.
   
   * Parse BSP Log: Added check for Bad Surface Extents that will create a spline along bad surface to highlight the problem. The splines are placed into a layer named "Bad Surfaces Layer".
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated the batch file writer to output a cleaner compile batch.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Fixed the last_compile_.log file to work even when outputting to the console.
   
   * Compile Tools: Fixed MAXScript error in the Load Leak File function if the leak file exists but is empty.