30 November 2010

Hammer Source Interface Crash Course in 15 Min

by World of Level Design
Hammer Source Interface Crash Course in 15 minutes. The tutorial covers the entire interface to get you started mapping in Hammer Source. Most commonly used functions are covered.
After watching the 15 minute video you will be comfortable navigating around the viewports in Hammer Source and you'll be ready to start mapping.

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19 November 2010

DoD:S, TF2, CS:S and HL2:DM Updates Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)
  • [Windows] Added support for raw mouse input. Raw input reads directly from the mouse, bypassing Windows control panel mouse settings. This addresses issues with high DPI mice, and provides for a more reliable controller experience at various resolutions
  • [Windows] Improved custom mouse acceleration
  • [Windows] Updated mouse configuration UI to support raw input and acceleration; added tooltips to some of the options
  • [Windows] Fixed UI tooltips so that they display correctly on first hover

17 November 2010

Source engine day/night cycle & dynamic weather

by biohazardpro

The position of the celestial bodies is dependent from season and clime. Right now the 2D skybox uses one texture with some overlays applied and a procedurally generated static mesh for stars.

All weather effects, daytime, clime and season are synced between client and server. Weather is randomly applied based on the current climate and the time of day can be read from the hosts computer.




Additional information:
The shadowmapping code is written from scratch and not based on Valves technique in any way. In my current build two shadowmaps at 3072² and 1024² are drawn to allow a shadow with a range of 10k units (the video just shows the former one though), all factors are variable and can be changed to the users liking.

During a second pass of the main view various information (worldspace normals, screenspace normals, depth, sky mask, sharpen mask) are drawn via MRTs to different textures at once to allow post processing effects like SSAO, DOF, edge detection and godrays. All screenspace effects can be individually toggled as well.

The weather effects include particle effects, fog, color correction and sounds, every weather routine can be assigned a weight to allow more variety. Particle effects are partially drawn in worldspace and a seperate view similar to how 3d skyboxes work.

16 November 2010

Steam client update released

A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the File menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

Steam
  • Fixed Steam Cloud showing as endlessly syncing for some games
  • Fixed a case where Steamworks matchmaking could lose some keys set in the lobby, when running against the new matchmaking server
  • Fixed an issue where some windows could appear briefly before they were ready to be shown
  • Fixed game download stalling for some users when downloading games with DLC
  • Windows: Fixed Steam client update stalling for some users with HSDPA modems
  • Windows: Fixed compatibility for in-game overlay and games calling GetRawInputBuffer
  • Windows: Improved performance of .dmp file writing on client asserts/crashes
  • OSX: Improved retail game install to minimize amount of game data that needs to be downloaded after initial install
  • OSX: Fixed badge count listed as ‘1’ after auto-joining a server using the server browser

11 November 2010

TF2, CS:S, DoD:S and HL2:DM Updates Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)
  • Fixed a bug with voice recording intermittently not recording after playing in a level for a while (Mac)
  • Fixed a rare client crash caused by text rendering (Mac)
  • Updated the server browser localization files

10 November 2010

Midweek Madness DoD:S for $/€2.50 £1.50

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04 November 2010

Steam client update released

A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the File menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

Steam
  • Updating store pages to show stats and launch options for games you own.
  • Updated Speex and JPEG libraries
  • Fix a memory leak when toggling the game viewed in the details view
  • Fix a crash when receiving and merging updated data for stats/achievements in some situations
  • Fix sometimes failing to fully recognize a game as exited for certain launcher app setups
  • Fixed navigating to game guides in the store
  • Fix Steam Cloud bug where users who converted from the demo to the full version of Everyday Genius: SquareLogic, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, or Jolly Rover would have their progress reverted to the progress they made in the demo while opted into the beta
  • Fixed community chat bug
  • Fixed displaying Steam Service dialog under OSX
  • Fixed a couple rare crashes and added more instrumentation around potential memory corruption
  • Fixed Steam API logging
  • Improve tooltips support under OSX
  • Added installer support under OSX for an upcoming game release