Wall Worm Forums

Thank you for the detailed report.

Since Max 2008, 2017 was the only version that I rarely used because when it came out I had so many graphics-related issues. I only test on it minimally at this point because 2019/2020 are so stellar. My only suggestion would be to make sure you have the latest updates for 2017 (all the product updates).

For Black Mesa, we regularly have thousands of displacements in a scene at once in a sculpt mesh with no issues. But our team is synched onto 2019/2020.

Also, please check your inbox. I've sent you a private IM.

Thank you for the detailed report on your problem. How much RAM do you have exactly?

This looks like a tricky issue. We may need to try to troubleshoot this via another avenue at the moment. Can you reach out to me via the WW Discord channel (you can join via the Wall Worm > Wall Worm Help floater and click the button labeled Ask for Help on Discord.

I had an opportunity to speak for Autodesk at GDC. Video below:

https://vimeo.com/330092252

You will need to explain more. What is a PMX file?

**Version 4.0.20 released on 4-8-2019**
* MDL: Updated MDL class to get the $illuminationorigin, $mass, $opaque, $mostlyopaque, $constantdirectionallight from model data (3ds Max 2018+).
* MDL: Updated the MDL-to-WWMT function to properly set the recently added parameters ($opaque, $illuminationorigin, etc) on WWMT Helpers created via a MDL (3ds Max 2018+).
* MDL: Added Bone and Skin import functions from MDL (3ds Max 2018+).
* Settings: Added function to list all available skies in current game to the default sky list (including from VPK for Max 2015+).
* Settings: Updated Settings GameConfig parser to assign a default sky from the actual current game for many games.
* VMF Exporter: Updated VMF Exporter to get sky list from current game (including from VPK for Max 2015+).
* VMF Exporter: Fixed bug exporting a scene to VMF if the scene had previously been exported to a drive that no longer exists.
* SMD Importer: Fixed MAXScript error importing SMDs in Max 2016 and older.
* Alpha Spec: Fixed Alpha Spec not having correct premultiplied alpha setting.
* Displacements: Added new button in Displacement Floater to reset selected displacements to their pre-sculpted/pre-painted states.

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Version 4.0.14 released on 3-29-2019
* MDL: Added checkbox for the Create WWMT from MDL buttons in MDL modify tab to weld verts. When on, the resulting WWMT mesh will have the vertices welded. ALways welds for staticprop.
* LODS: Updated functions to generate LODs to tie LOD positions to source mesh positions.
* MDL: Updated functions for converting MDL to WWMT to always weld verts if the MDL is a $staticprop.
* WWMT: Updated WWMT function to generate LODs to automatically hide all the LOD meshes. Previously, all LODs were visible in viewport.
* LODS: Fixed a rare MAXscript error in LOD custom attribute.

So there are some things you will need to understand about Source Engine models.

1) The only native animations you can export are Skeletal Animations (by bones). Your scene is animated at the vertex level via the Cloth modifier. There is no way to get your actual animation into Source. It's just not supported.

2) There is a way to get Vertex Animation into Source but it is not the same as your animation in the scene. The vertex animation that you can get into Source is called a Flex. These are controlled via Morpher or Morph-O-Matic modifiers inside Max. Even though you can get these kinds of morphs into Max, they are not the same as your keyframe animated vertex animations. Instead, they are morph controls to use with things like facial animations. See Making Facial Animations.

Here is another discussion similar to yours on our forums: https://www.wallworm.net/index.php?topic=1127.0

Version 4.0.12 released on 3-27-2019

   * MDL: Added Collision setting directly into the WallWormMDL geometry type allowing a choice of Not Solid, Bounding Box and Use VPhysics. This matches and overrides prop entity collision settings. Default is Use VPhysics.
   
   * Convert Scene to Model: Updated the function for generating hulls of clusters to honor the MDL node's Collision setting--so if the collision is set to not solid the prop will not generate a hull and if set to bounding box, the hull will be a simple bounding.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated MDL nodes to use the new more complex collision setting rather than always defaulting to Use VPhysics if the MDL has a hull. (The exporter will still set the prop to Not Solid even if the MDL is not set to Not Solid but the prop has no Collision Data.)
   
   * Proxy Tools: Added function to set the Collision setting for multiple selected WallWormMDL nodes in the scene.
   
   * VMF Importer: Updated VMF Importer to assign Collision setting in prop entities to WallWormMDL nodes.
   
   * LOD Tools: Added button to select MDL nodes with no LODs that were compiled with $staticprop.
   
   * LOD Tools: Added buttons to hide MDLs and WWMTs with LODs.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Fixed duplcated displacements that could happen if a displacement was not tied to a brush object.

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Version 4.0.8 released on 3-24-2019

   * Displacements: Fixed Displacement Proxies not getting reset when a new scene is loaded.

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Version 4.0.6 released on 3-17-2019

   * Textures: Added Macro in WW Pro to update all BitmapTexture nodes using VTF to use TGA. If TGA doesn't exist, creates a TGA of VTF.
   
   * Batch VMF Importer: Added option to convert VTFs to TGA.
   
   * LOD Tools: Added function to select all MDL nodes in scene with no LODs.
   
   * LOD Tools: Added button to import a prop zoo from a VMF that includes just props with no LODs.
   
   * Visgroup Manager: Re-organized some Autovisgroups so that utility nodes and displacement brushes won't appear unexpectedly when toggling some auto visgroups.

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Version 4.0.3 released on 3-11-2019

   * Installer: Fixed bug launching Max when WW was uninstalled with the Unsinstaller then re-installed.
   
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Version 4.0.2 released on 3-7-2019

   * Updater: Added user control on update frequency. Now allows to choose between System Startup, Daily, Weekly and Monthly.
   
   * UI: Cleaned up miscellaneous typos around WW tooltips and other places.
   
   * Materials: Updated the WW Source Shader custom attribute to not automatically open rollouts in Max 2016 and older to stop the material editor from scrolling to an non-useful location.

Version 4.0 released on 3-5-2019

   * Installation: Added an installer application for Wall Worm Pro and Wall Worm Free. See updated installation instructions.
   
   * Installation: Updated the update scripts to remove confusing notice about reactivating WW Pro on new installations.
   
   * SMD Exporter: Fixed bug in SMD Exporter for WW Free using versions of Max prior to 3ds Max 2018.2. The was causing meshes with a skin modifier to get deleted.

   * Modifiers: Added new modifier RandomElements for 3ds Max 2016+. This function will allow you to randomize objects per element (position, rotation, scale and UVs).
   
   * Entities: Added new function to display connections between entity inputs/outputs in the viewports.
   
   * Toolbars: Added button to display entity inputs/outputs and button to isolate selection of current entity selection and their inputs/outputs.
   
   * Displacements: Fixed bug with the Create Displacements function that would often create extra unused mesh snapshots of source brushes.
   
   * Settings: Updated default settings for Raw Materials to always use the $images shortcut when the raw path was blank. Previously, it could get set to $maps which is often an unwritable directory.
   
   * Starter Kits: Updated several player entities to spawn 8 units off the ground plane by default instead of 1 unit.
   
   * VMT Browser: Fixed crash when trying to load the game's VMT list and there is an unknown system exception. The exception is now caught. However, if there is an exception, the VMT browser will not actually load the the material list.
   
   * MDL: Added new function to load materials that are missing from MDL nodes. This function is found under Wall Worm > Wall Worm Utilities > Load Missing MDL Materials.
   
   * MDL: Added new function to generate Forest LOD nodes from a WallWormMDL node.
   
   * WWMT: Updated batch WWMT Exporter to export only one copy of a WWMT. Previously there could be a bug where a WWMT helper might export twice in a row.
   
   * LOD Tools: Added function to generate new LOD materials for WWMT Helpers with LODs.
   
   * Help Floater: Added details about whether WW Pro is installed or activated.
   
   * WWMT: Added macro to merge WWMT Helpers that share same material.
   
   * Settings: Fixed global settings for SMD exporter to honor user settings immediately across WW. Previously, the setting was not updating until after Max was restarted.
   
   * SMD Importer: Fixed the SMD importer not importing proper skin weights when the WW Engine is set to Goldsource.
   
   * VMF Importer: Fixed VMF Importer not classifying imported scene nodes.
   
   * Hull Helper: Added button in Hull Helper to align hull pivots to the rootnode for selected WWMT Helpers.
   
   * VMF Exporter: Updated VMF exporter to not duplicate props in export even if the scene manager got out-of-synch.
   
   * WWMT: Updated WWMT to check for Skin/Morpher/Morph-O-Matic modifiers or if picked node is a bone when creating a new WWMT. If any are detected, the new WWMT will not use $staticprop or Rotate Origin options even if global setting is set to use them.
   
   * Updater: Fixed MAXScript bug after updating WW and sometimes getting an error about an undefined function when opening a file.
   
   * Toolbar Installer: Fixed rare case of a MAXScript error when installing the toolbars (if the CUIX files are not writable).
   
   * Toolbars: Moved the Visgroup Manager button from the Level Design toolbar to the Grid and Nudge toolbar which contains other viewport management functions.