Source Engine and Dog Fights, together at last.

Emil Mujanovic

So it's mid week, wishing it was Friday already. But to make things a little easier we have some lip smacking goodness for you.

• Polycount newcomer drops a one-stop-shop 3DS Max exporter for the Source Engine
• Paths of Hate Trailer (OOHH PRETTY!)

More after the jump.

 

 

It seems to be common knowledge that getting your models into the Source Engine can be somewhat of a trying task. How would you like a tool that will help smoothen that process some more?

Polycount newcomer shawnolson stormed into Technical Talk and dropped down Worm Wall Model Tools for 3D Studio Max, focusing on exporting meshes for the Source Engine with a bunch of automated features too:

• Automatically generates a QC text file for your model
• Allows you to pick your own custom collision model if you don't want to use the auto-generated model (see planned features)
• Auto-generate LOD models of your model
• Gives you a visual representation inside Max of the limits (range) tied to each LOD model which is especially helpful if you are also building your level design inside of Max (with Convexity)
• Visually set the $illumposition position
• Assign a surface property to your model from inside the Max interface
• Set various model flags including $staticprop, $opaque and $mostlyopaque
• Automatically makes layers in the layer manager for the model, hull, LODs and helpers
• You can select LOD objects in layer manager and tweak their Multi-Res settings or edit the LODs to your liking after they are created

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57I5TbCDCyY

 

Have a play and provide Shawn with some feedback, as it's always a pleasure seeing these kinds of tools pop up that help us artists to showcase our artwork without much fuss.

 

 

Now that the technical stuff is out of the way. Check out the trailer for Paths of Hate by Damian Nenow! This short is so well executed and filled with style that oozes awesomeness from the first to the very last second.

I was impressed with just a single minutes worth of footage that I can't wait to see the final thing!

 

 

Related Links

• Polycount - Wall Worm Model Tools Thread
• Shawn Olson's website
• Wall Worm Model Tools Site
• Vimeo - Paths of Hate Trailer
• Paths of Hate Official Site

VidGameDude

Thank god...been having major problems with Qc for a while and its been a major bitch for me and other max users as well.
much appreciated shawn!

and thanks polycount for showing him to us!

l8s

Wiktor

Holy macarony.. That trailer was breathtaking!

MoP

Paths of Hate looks awesome!

Also it's great to see some Source engine tools built into apps, it always seemed to me that far too much Source model creation relied on weird archaic text files and unnecessarily complex procedures - nice that someone thought of simplifying it for everyone

Xoliul

Waw that trailer was mind blowing, I have never seen the hand drawn-style pulled off so well in 3D.

shawnolson

Thanks VidGameDude and MoP... not to mention Emil for giving me a shout-out like this. The tool is still a work-in-progress and I haven't made documentation yet. But anyone who uses it, please feel free to share feedback to help direct the rest of the project. I probably won't have any updates for the tool until after the current level I'm designing is done... probably sometime after the new year.

shawnolson

For those not following the forum thread ( http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78621 ), there have been many updates since this article. The docs have been started at http://wallworm.com/projects/utilities/docs/ . There is also an updated video in the forum (also on the docs page).