Source SDK to be free!

Ark

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/30/not-only-but-also-source-sdk-to-be-free/

They seem to be following in Epic and Cryteks route by releasing there SDKs free for all. I wonder if they'll offer up some kind of similar licensing scheme. I feel the tools and pipline need to be a bit better before they start the licensing stuff though.

PixelMasher

yea...they really would need to overhaul pretty much the entire pipeline, espcially the model import/export stuff, having to write your own lil code file just isnt intuitive at all. wonder what the appeal of using this would be when ce3 and udk are out there.

Ace-Angel

Just include the stuff like gravity gun, and portal gun, and you'll have a thousand people downloading it for no reason other then to create machinema...

AlanSMitchell

Ooo Gravity gun, and portal Gun Machinema time lol jk.
but yeah they really need to make a better mesh importing system.

Firebert

just the current versions or a new engine upon release? would love to see something that is easier to use than a pipe wrench made of red rope licorice.

RexM

The Source SDK needs to be overhauled if they wish to compete.

Maph

You know, I'm loving what all the big guns are doing right now!
Stimulate the indie scene moar I say!

Generalvivi

*thumbs way the fuck up!*

Richard Kain

It's cool that they would do this. However, I really don't see myself using Source extensively unless they tighten up the model importing. There are some amazing things you can do with the Source engine. But the hurdles you have to go through to get models into it are insane.

passerby

isnt it already pretty much free to use, Alien Swarm is a free game that comes with a sdk for source, and haven't checked but since tf2 is now free that could be a other free way to get source sdk.

Richard Kain

passerby wrote: »

isnt it already pretty much free to use, Alien Swarm is a free game that comes with a sdk for source, and haven't checked but since tf2 is now free that could be a other free way to get source sdk.

You are correct sir. This is, for the most part, a foregone conclusion for Valve.

Rai

passerby wrote: »

isnt it already pretty much free to use, Alien Swarm is a free game that comes with a sdk for source, and haven't checked but since tf2 is now free that could be a other free way to get source sdk.

Most gave up modding Alien Swarm, shit was a pain in the ass.. They hyped the modding scene, only to present them with a bunch of jumbled crap and no guidance.

The Flying Monk

Before this, If I made a mod with Source, would someone need HL2 installed to play it? I'm guessing this is just a way for existing Source mod games to be easily released.
Waiting to see if they also announce something to do with a Steam as well. If your mod can be picked up and sold on Steam easily that could make some people use this over UDK or the Cry engine SDK.

Ace-Angel

I think we just got our answer on why it takes Valve so long for next-next-gen games...them importation be non-cool, yo!

leilei

Rai wrote: »

They hyped the modding scene, only to present them with a bunch of jumbled crap and no guidance.

You mean all these claims I read of Source being the "easiest engine to mod ever" for the past 6 years are all ultimately blindly unfounded?


I do agree with that though since even for the other big Source games it's still the same crappy afterthought of a SDK defended for being "complexier than other engines", i've seen it suggested over UDK for a indie game before... had to facepalm at that.

R3D

leilei wrote: »

You mean all these claims I read of Source being the "easiest engine to mod ever" for the past 6 years are all ultimately blindly unfounded?

As far as importing models and such into, yes.

flaagan

I remember trying to do something with Source back towards the end of my college days... holy fuck that was a nightmare. Nothing I've heard since then suggests it's gotten any easier to deal with.

megalmn2000

Nice one! Next one : Frostbite 2?

Andreas

leilei wrote: »

You mean all these claims I read of Source being the "easiest engine to mod ever" for the past 6 years are all ultimately blindly unfounded?

lol. Anyone claiming that needs their heads examined.

Entity

qc files, gotta love em!

Ace-Angel

Importing files FROM Source games is a pain in the backside already on a massive scale, what would make you think exporting TO Source isn't even more so?

Surfa

Rai wrote: »

Most gave up modding Alien Swarm, shit was a pain in the ass.. They hyped the modding scene, only to present them with a bunch of jumbled crap and no guidance.

The weird thing is on the coding side of things the alien swarm base is actually a lot nicer because for the most part the alien swarm code is a lot neater then the base classes.

Also exporting to source really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It is just based on slightly old techniques and what not.

Pix

Putting models into UDK, 5 minutes, putting models into Source, 30 minutes plus fixing different issues 1 hour.

Surfa

I never really had that problem in-fact I normally got it the other way around, I take longer to get stuff properly into unreal then source (especially animated props). Once you get used to the source engine you can easily get models in-game in roughly the same time frame as unreal.

eld

Exporting models to source has been the least of my issues with it.

Edit: source feels very much like a heavy inhouse engine, capable but lacking features out of the box or tools for anything.

Surfa

Looking back at my posts it looks like I am almost defending source. What I meant to say is hammer so outdated in its methods that it makes steam engines look brand new. The engine lack multiple uv channels for models which in this day and ages is rather stupid. The only way to get lightmaps on to models is to use one of the most hacky methods ever conceived and they most likely won't match with brush lightmaps as you can't bake them in the level editor. The code released is also badly arranged and you spend half an hour looking for functions that aren't in any logical files. The shader sdk is massively overcomplicated and the base shaders are lacking some of the features that are standard in games today.

The thing is though I do like how it is set-up and the fact it isn't just one massive program that takes ages to load. I also like the community surrounding it but developing for source is just no longer a fun experience as other engine provided much nicer result and don't take as long to set up.

Ace-Angel

Which is why many of us don't like it, but are curious to see how Valve boys will polish the free future version.

Valve isn't all about hats, so I'm pretty sure we'll get a nice portion of the stuff cleaned up to a mirror spit shine.