by Tdarcos » Wed Sep 18, 2019 4:39 am
These are absolutely beautiful. If this is generating a 3d landscape, can it be exported, in a format other programs can use, like .3DS (3d Studio), .DXF (Autodesk) or (preferrably) .DAE (Collada)?
I did the Mars Statue and the Octagon lamp using Trimble Sketchup, because while it does have its own (undocumented) internal file format, it can export to .DAE files.
I've seen some wonderful looking landscapes designed as add-on maps for Half Life 2 and the episodes and related (Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1, HL2 Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Portal 2, Portal 2 Paint Gun), which for simplicity I'll refer to all of these as "HL2". There are a number of issues.
- The source files that describe the maps for HL2 have to be "compiled" into an undocumented / weakly documented binary format. When people distribute maps for HL2, this is the format they are releasing them in.
- You might like a segment of one HL2 map and a different segment of another, and like to combine those features as part of some other map. You could conceivably do that with Doom .Wad files and Duke Nukem 3d .Map files. Trimble Sketchup is designed to allow you to take components out of other designs and reuse them. You can't really do this with HL2 maps.
- I've been able to do nice things in Trimble Sketchup by borrowing from others. Adding a revolving door, a fire door, a fire alarm pull station, a vending machine, or an elevator to a building or structure from someone else's component is almost trivial, and makes it easier to do mine and improves the realism in my project.
- Conversely, I've been able to create stand-alone components in Trumble Sketchup that others can use (gates, staircases, gratings, an articulated bus, a paratransit van, etc.)
- In many cases I've built components in Trimble Sketchup by combining and improving other people's (lesser) components.
- Reverse engineeering HL2 maps to get source back has about the same luck as decompiling binary programs (maybe less) and editing these decompiled maps is unlikely to work well, meaning changes or combinations of other maps really can't be made.
- Learning the editor for Doom was easy.(say half an hour to be functional, and anywhere from a couple hours to a day to get good).
- Learning the editor for Duke Nukem 3d is a little harder but didn't require a huge effort to do reasonable work. (Maybe a couple hours to learn and two or three days to get good).
- Learning to use Trimble Sketchup was not very hard and with a little practice and help from a reference book or the on-line documentation it increases your productivity. (Again, maybe a couple hours to learn the basics and 3-4 days to get good.)
- The learning curve on all of these is gradual. There is a simplified nap editor for Portal 2, but it provides s limited capability and does not allow you to access all the features of the game engine, nor can you create maps for anything except Portal 2.
- To go beyond the limited subset of capabilitirs the Simplified Portal 2 Editor provides, or to be able to make maps for any of the other games in the HL2 franchise / universe, requires the use of the full Valve Hammer editor.
- The creation of an add-on map source code for HL2 maps to get the full capacity of all the features of the underlying game engine requires the use of the Valve Hammer editor. That desktop application is, to put it bluntly, a "bastard spawn from hell" and brings new meaning to the term "user hostile."
- The learning curve for Valve Hammer is not merely steep; it is damn near vertical. It is difficult to learn, dificult to use, and easy to make mistakes. I'd say the effort to learn to use the Hammer editor and have even reasonable profuciency is equivalent to the time needed to learn a new programming language (several weeks, minimum.) It very well fits the term "drop the hammer on them," as using that program to create maps is like trying to carve stone with sandpaper and a toothbrush. It brings new meaning to the term "painful."
I would hope this program helps solve some of the problem something like HL2 generates and Trimble Sketchup tries to solve.
These are absolutely beautiful. If this is generating a 3d landscape, can it be exported, in a format other programs can use, like .3DS (3d Studio), .DXF (Autodesk) or (preferrably) .DAE (Collada)?
I did the Mars Statue and the Octagon lamp using Trimble Sketchup, because while it does have its own (undocumented) internal file format, it can export to .DAE files.
I've seen some wonderful looking landscapes designed as add-on maps for Half Life 2 and the episodes and related (Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1, HL2 Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Portal 2, Portal 2 Paint Gun), which for simplicity I'll refer to all of these as "HL2". There are a number of issues.
[list=1][*] The source files that describe the maps for HL2 have to be "compiled" into an undocumented / weakly documented binary format. When people distribute maps for HL2, this is the format they are releasing them in.
[*] You might like a segment of one HL2 map and a different segment of another, and like to combine those features as part of some other map. You could conceivably do that with Doom .Wad files and Duke Nukem 3d .Map files. Trimble Sketchup is designed to allow you to take components out of other designs and reuse them. You can't really do this with HL2 maps.
[*] I've been able to do nice things in Trimble Sketchup by borrowing from others. Adding a revolving door, a fire door, a fire alarm pull station, a vending machine, or an elevator to a building or structure from someone else's component is almost trivial, and makes it easier to do mine and improves the realism in my project.
[*] Conversely, I've been able to create stand-alone components in Trumble Sketchup that others can use (gates, staircases, gratings, an articulated bus, a paratransit van, etc.)
[*] In many cases I've built components in Trimble Sketchup by combining and improving other people's (lesser) components.
[*] Reverse engineeering HL2 maps to get source back has about the same luck as decompiling binary programs (maybe less) and editing these decompiled maps is unlikely to work well, meaning changes or combinations of other maps really can't be made.
[*] Learning the editor for Doom was easy.(say half an hour to be functional, and anywhere from a couple hours to a day to get good).
[*] Learning the editor for Duke Nukem 3d is a little harder but didn't require a huge effort to do reasonable work. (Maybe a couple hours to learn and two or three days to get good).
[*] Learning to use Trimble Sketchup was not very hard and with a little practice and help from a reference book or the on-line documentation it increases your productivity. (Again, maybe a couple hours to learn the basics and 3-4 days to get good.)
[*] The learning curve on all of these is gradual. There is a simplified nap editor for Portal 2, but it provides s limited capability and does not allow you to access all the features of the game engine, nor can you create maps for anything except Portal 2.
[*] To go beyond the limited subset of capabilitirs the Simplified Portal 2 Editor provides, or to be able to make maps for any of the other games in the HL2 franchise / universe, requires the use of the full Valve Hammer editor.
[*] The creation of an add-on map source code for HL2 maps to get the full capacity of all the features of the underlying game engine requires the use of the Valve Hammer editor. That desktop application is, to put it bluntly, a "bastard spawn from hell" and brings new meaning to the term "user hostile."
[*] The learning curve for Valve Hammer is not merely steep; it is damn near vertical. It is difficult to learn, dificult to use, and easy to make mistakes. I'd say the effort to learn to use the Hammer editor and have even reasonable profuciency is equivalent to the time needed to learn a new programming language (several weeks, minimum.) It very well fits the term "drop the hammer on them," as using that program to create maps is like trying to carve stone with sandpaper and a toothbrush. It brings new meaning to the term "painful."
[/list]
I would hope this program helps solve some of the problem something like HL2 generates and Trimble Sketchup tries to solve.