Reepblue's Notebook

With the release of Portal 2, I was wicked hyped to play it. After I played the campaign, I then went right into co-op. And after that, I played the campaign three or four more times. And every time I played it, I could not wait till the SDK. It was not long till people figured out that you can config the Alien Swarm SDK to map for Portal 2, since the engine versions are close enough such like Source 2006 and Source 2007. However their method involves copying over the files into a mod folder. Meanwhile like a pro, I just set up the SDK to read the Portal 2 VPKs. A thread on myApertureLabs about setting it up is here. So what did I do the instant I loaded up the tools? Well, to be honest, I was lost. It felt like I was mapping in unknown territory, much like I was mapping for Team Fortress 2, or Left 4 Dead. So, I started to make buttons and switches like I would for Portal 1. It was not long till I got a hold of a decompiler and realized that doors, switches, buttons, you name it, ar

First off, this map and the vmf is out. You can download them both here . (The vmf is in the SDK.) As you may notice in the SDK I have 2 vmfs. The plan was to extend the map a bit, but it did not go well at all. No idea why, I got andry and gave yup A little history: The paint system started way back in the summer when everyone was remaking Portal 2 elements in Portal 1. One thing that people tried and tried was the gels. Well to be honest, while on a role with the Thermal Discouragement Beam, Faith Plates and Vents (What happened to those?) I got cocky and decided to tackle the paint deal. To make a long story short, I did it in the most complicated way possible. The main issue was not the jumping effect, but the stains. To fix this, the floors worked like a grid. The paint would hit a sector, making the stain and spawning the effect at the center of that box. You can see it here . But for the common human mind (and its normal for everyone else to see this as madness), no one

First post, lets see how this goes. . . Ever since I played Left 4 Dead on my favorite campaign No Mercy, I always wondered how Valve got the lightning effect to work. It was not until May 2009 when I got to see the vmf. In Valves case, the lightning effect is done by logic_cases, sounds, logic_timers and flashing sprites in the 3D skybox. However, this is in the first part of No Mercy when your outside and inside almost equal amounts of time. Without going into detail on how they did theirs, I decided to take a whack on this effect for a map were your indoors. Better remember, lightning never strikes twice! This was for a small map I was playing with, mostly playing with an idea me and another developer were doing. For that screen, I had to go into demo mode, and slow down the playback. Yeah, it flashes that fast, like real lightning. A neat effect to have in your map, totally when you use env_projectedtextures. Best off all, its actually very easy to do.  I don't want th

As you might already know, there is a play list on my YouTube called "Hammer Notepad", which features a lot of crazy stuff I do in Valve's Hammer Editor on the Source engine. Over the months, people been asking me how I did them, what entities I used, etc. To clear this up, I wish to start a blog about the development part of the Source engine. Hopefully, this will limit questions and educate more mappers. .  Another way I want to use this blog is to talk about what I'm doing with the SDK tools. And now with Portal 2, I have a lot of plans and thought of what I wish to do. From just brainstorming to problems I wish to discuss, hopefully I will not forget about this blog as I did with so many others. . . Going back to Portal 2, Source 2011 is sure going to be exciting! I'm nervous on how complex its gonna be compared with the Source 2009 tools, but I'm still hyped . Rumors tell me that a complete over-hall of Hammer will be in the Portal 2 tools along with a