New Blog, Welcome!

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 three view Tilegen. I can't wait, just one more week to go. On that same note, I'm unsure about how much the vpk system will limit me. Since I've been mapping, I always known the gcf file system. Its really easy once you get the hang of it. Drag and place, your done. However, the vpk system is a tad different as you can not do sourcemods anymore using the same bin file as the game, no more texture replacements, (unless they are in a separate vpk) and you have to script your sounds in. But yet again, Valve has improved the vpk since when I used it (Left 4 Dead) in Left 4 Dead 2 and Alien Swarm. Who knows, maybe it will be easier for the developer and the user altogether. . 

Anyway, I'll be writing up and linking my Notepad videos from now on, plus more.