Wow, haven’t posted anything for a month, so I figured I’d fill the void.
Things have been pretty slow of my own choosing as I’ve been trying to get out more. Yes folks, I have in fact NOT been at my computer and playing “Reallife”. GUI is a little funky, the NPCs are hard to command but the framerates are amazing.
Nem has released a new version of VTFLib and VTFEdit with support from 7.2 format and HDR textures and I’ve been playing with moving the shell extensions and 3DS Max plug-ins over to it. Seemed to make more sense to use his library rather than keep chopping it up for my own sick pleasure.
I’ve been hacking around in Max on-and-off for the past month making up an artillery model for Waldo. This 75mm PAK 40 is going to be for his currently Work-In-Progress beach map based on Fox Green. It’s the first proper from-scratch Source map model I’ve made from scratch. I’ll be releasing a version for public consumption when its done.
Oh and the secret project GingerLord and I have been working on is coming along very nicely – thanks for not asking ;o) We will tell you about it soon – promise….
Related posts
Another tools update as promised. I’ve now added support for the new 7.2 VTF format to the VTF shell extensions and tweaked a few other bits and pieces.
The memory issue with the thumbnail viewer still perplexes me although it’s much better in this version. I think its something to do with heap memory and that fact that its not released until the application quits, but as explorer never does because its a system process, it never gets released. Either way you’ll see memory usage drop when you close a folder in thumbnail view.
The new 7.2 format add’s support for 3D volumetric textures although at present, none exist to test with, therefore support is “experiemental”. I’ve also added support for 16-bit HDR textures.
I’ve changed the way the installer works with this release so it should unistall properly, however before upgrading to v1.0.2 please unistall your previous version and reboot before installing.
Related posts
Haven’t posted anything for a while so heres a quick update…
I just turned 30 so am now officially an “old fart” in many ways. My birthday was thankfully quiet and I spent the week after in England with my family. Thanks to the wonder of re-circulated cabin air I ended up with what felt like ebola the week back and spent most of it in bed feeling miserable and coughing up various body parts.
Probably the most annoying thing was that after a year of waiting for Day of Defeat: Source my trip to England coincided with the release, so I didn’t get to see it until 2 weeks after everyone else! :o(
Having had a chance to play DoD:S now I can say for the whole I like it and am fairly impressed although there are some things I don’t like. I think theirs some gameplay issues that need to be resolved and there some technical things that make me think, “Why on earth did they do it like that?” but thats just the SDK geek in me. Certainly its non the old DoD and theres a certain amount of adjustment and re-learning needed but I’m looking forward to whats to come in future updates.
So apart from playing DoD:S I’ve been trying to get some other things done too. Unfortunately I’ve got into my old habit of putting my fingers in too many pies and now I’m swamped with a mass of small stuff that I never seem to get through.
Currently I’m updating my VTF tools for the new 7.2 VTF spec which now includes provision for 3D volumetric textures. I’ve updated most of my apps to recognise the format and also handle HDR texture properly. I’m also working on getting HDR natively into 3DS Max via the VTF plug-in and trying to code support for animated texture too.
One nice thing is that the release of DoD:S has seen a flood of new people in the DoD MSA forum. Theres some old hands that have returned and a lot of new talent but at present it just seems to be re-skins and normal maps. A lot of people seem a bit put-off doing any new models as theres about 5 times as much work to do if you include LOD modelling and setting up physics but its really not that hard. I’m slowing trying to encourage people to get their feet wet and give-it-a go but not many takers so far… :o/
With a view to the above, I’m going to try and put together a few tutorials and introduction to some of the basics of working with Source just to help people get started. There a lot of confusion about VMT/VTF compared to how textures used to work in Goldsrc and concepts like LOD and MIP mapping are making a few eyes glaze over.
Well that’s all for now… over and out :o)
Related posts
Ye Gods! Another update!
I’ve now brought my 3DS Max VTF import plug-in up to version 1.0 rather than being a beta point release. Like the VTF Shell Extensions, this now supports all but one of the VTF sub-formats and doesn’t break when opening animated of cubemap files.
I’m hoping to add true HDR format and animated texture support for the next release.
Related posts
I’ve finally got my programming head back on and have updated my VTF Shell Extension plug-ins. I’ve largely re-written both of them from scratch and have added support for all of the VTF file storage formats (except 8-bit paletted) and better handling of cubemaps and animated images. The detail view columns add-on also adds a bunch more fields to choose from.
Related posts
So Day of Defeat:Source is upon us – September 26th is the planned release date. Guess I better start model making again…
Feel free to head over to the Day of Defeat forums and add to the pre-emptive nay-saying – I need to get my ban quota up.
Related posts
Oh look, I updated my website…
My cat related problems seem to of solved themselves now. I’ve manged to get a new HP2610 combined printer/scanner/microwave/toaster for 700 SEK (about US$90) and a replacement 6600GT graphics card for free. Just goes to show its not what you know but who you know…
I actually got a full refund for my old card but that’s already been spent of a plane ticket to the UK. Still, I had enough change to buy something other than rice pudding to eat :o)
Anyway, if you find anything bust on the site let me know.
Related posts
I am officially having a bad day.
In the past 24 hrs the following has happened:
- My 3 moth old Gainward 6600GT graphic card has fried itself to death playing Battlefield2.
- My Seagate 80Gb S-ATA hard-disk failed while I was out buying milk.
- My cat decided she needed more leg room while lounging next to my keyboard and so kicked my scanner off the desk and onto the floor, thus breaking the glass and twisting the body.
So, through acts of God and vindictive felines I’m down about 3000 SEK in hardware.
The scanners knackered, the hard disk is out of warranty but hopefully I can get a replacement graphic card from the company that supplied it to me.
And before you ask, I don’t know why the card and hard-disk failed in the same day. My rig is pulling 350W max and my PSU is rated for 450W and running fine. Nothing is overclocked, case temp is fine and its got more fans than The Beatles. Jesus just hates me.
Related posts
I’ve updated GUIStudioMDL 2 and hopefully fixed the bug where it would constantly report that the paths for studiomdl.exe and GameInfo.txt were invalid. It was a bizarre bug within some of Microsofts own code… :rolleyes:
You can download the updated version from the GUIStudioMDL page.
Related posts
Regarding the apparent bug in GUIStudioMDL2 – having spoken to a few users I think I’ve tracked down where it is and will try to fix it shortly. I’ve just re-installed my system so I don’t have Visual Studio up and running yet to re-compile it and I’ve got a 3D model “rush job” I have to get done by the end of the week…
On another note, please if you find a bug in my programs email me and tell me about it – I had no idea this bug existed and probably wouldn’t of unless someone said. I do test my programs as best I can but I can’t get everything. I’ll admit I’m not perfect but I can’t fix problems I dont know about!
Related posts
