Half-Life 2 SDK

[Robert]

I read the news on hl2.net that the HL2 SDK will release erlier than HL2. Since i don't really are into what SDK means ( ) i might thought that you could play a little with it.

I mean, for all the modders they can make models and so on, so they must be able to play them? :O Or am i confused

Sry ;/

 

[[Matt]]

SDK = Software Development Kit.

You can make maps, models and other things with it but you cant play any of the game at all!

 

[GOoch]

Suley you can still wander round maps youve created though..
Ithought that was the idea. With out the Game been out.

 

[Calm_Blue_Ocean]

You can only view the map in the editor. There is a camera which you can move around to look at your creation, but you cannot play the level.

 

[Calm_Blue_Ocean]

I should also point out (for those that don't know) that in the editor there are no animations, no AI or entity movement etc., no lighting effects, and most entities (lights etc) are represented by icons.

So don't expect to see any pretty screenshots when the SDK comes out. Unless of course you are a mapper or modmaker, then those first screens will be very exciting indeed!

 

[GOoch]

Right nice one m8 Just seeing the Orange coloured walls in a picture made me think you could do that. Now i know :cheese:

 

[loque]

Calm_Blue_Ocean you just take out the fun off everything dont you :flame:

 

[Calm_Blue_Ocean]

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it! ;(

 

[Argyll]

They might release the 'engine' with it... for something to test on without having the game yet.

Again, it's just speculation

 

[Calm_Blue_Ocean]

I kinda' doubt it. The SDK will be enough to give the modders a head start and Valve will probably be very careful about leaking more than that (I'm still amazed they kept the game quiet this long).

It's really quite amazing that Valve is releasing the SDK before the game, I've never heard of any other company doing that. Of course Valve was probably the first company to release gamecode to the general public 5 years ago. Valve has shown incredible foresight all along. The community of modders they have fostered has been responsible for much of their success (and it hardly cost them a dime).

 

[TrueWeltall]

Valve just wants the game to last long And it will.

 

[Calm_Blue_Ocean]

Yup, it's amazing that so few other game developers have caught on

 

[rendle]

They're going to have to release some kind of runtime engine with the SDK. There's no way anyone's going to spend any time at all developing maps/mods if they can't test them - that's just not the way programming works.

The "game" isn't the Source Engine, it's the levels, the models, the AI and the story. Everything else should be available in the SDK.

 

[derby]

I'd make maps using the sdk. It may take a while to learn the process, so by the time you managed to cobble something together that was worthy of being compiled the game wuld be out. The map previrews with the new hammer should be awesome and besides, after you've been waiting 5 years are you really going to be able to wait a few months to try out the new stuff. Own up who has watched the video more than 5 times now?

 

[KiNG]

so what else can u do with the sdk besides build maps and models? can u alter game code to fit your mod? (say a matrix mod for questions sake)

 

[Apos]

The point is not to give modders everything, but to give them a head start. Yes, without the game, it will be pretty hard to test things out: but the mod process takes much more planning than.

1. Beam brilliant ideas into the computer.
2. ???
3. Profit.

It'll take that month just to look over the new code and to play around with the new toolsets.

 

[skycreatoR]

Yes, but then again, you cant test if its fully functional

 

[Apos]

I already covered that. No, you can't test, but testing is not the point. The point is to give modders a head start by giving them the chance to play around with the new tools and look at the code. They'll have plenty of time to test things out later, and by then they'll have already better planned out what sorts of things they WANT to test out.