L4D SDK Is Out!

[Platypus]

That's right ladies and gents, the l4d sdk has been released, even if this is just a 'beta'. Instead of valve updating the sdk itself, this version is listed under 'Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools Beta'. Layout wise it's the same as hammer, but it only contains l4d textures, ect ect.

To install:

Open Steam, go to your 'Tools' tab.

Click 'Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools Beta' to install

It will then prepair the files for download, then actually download after that.



Note: You might have to restart steam to see it in the tools tab.

http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2510
(http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2510)
For all you people making their first map in hammer may I suggest valve's own developer wiki:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/L4D_Level_Design_Basics_Tutorial

[Garfsan]

niiiiiice man good luck to the modders!

[DethPenguin]

Is this some May 15th fools prank?

[blackjack452]

I dont think its a march fools prank. although it doesnt seem to work for me. when I open the editor it encounters an error and closes immediatly

[mrbellcaptain]

mine completely freezes and doesnt do anything. I tryed to delete to reinstall it but it still says i still have it downloaded and when i go to use it it gives me an error message.

[Platypus]

I've had no problems, but a few people on my friends list are also reporting what you guys are saying.

[Aeris]

"This game is currently unavailable. Please try again at another time."

[Platypus]

"This game is currently unavailable. Please try again at another time."
Got that error at first as well, but i clicked it again and it started. It's probably all the people in your area downloading it at the same time and clogging up the system.

[GamerKing]

Yes, its all everyone elses fault.

[mrbellcaptain]

okay i got it working now finally!

[blackjack452]

30 min in a loading screen...not exactly what i was hoping. Hopefully this will be sorted out quickly or it magicly starts to work.

[Frito]

Awesome, now GTFO and start modding. :P

[Steve Cloud]

Hooray for the SDK!

[SlainPwner666]

Alright, I'm a complete noob to modding of any type, will it be easy to understand?

[DethPenguin]

Alright, I'm a complete noob to modding of any type, will it be easy to understand?

Watch a few tutorials and it becomes pretty clear.
(Just SDK/Hammer in general. I don't think that much will be different than the L4D Hammer editor; other than L4D specific textures, triggers, entities etc.)

[SlainPwner666]

Alright, thanks. Watching a HL2 vid as we speak. Seems pretty easy to pick up. Only problem is that Hammer is being a real bitch currently

[Platypus]

Watch a few tutorials and it becomes pretty clear.
(Just SDK/Hammer in general. I don't think that much will be different than the L4D Hammer editor; other than L4D specific textures, triggers, entities etc.)

Yeah, it's the regular hammer editor it just has only l4d textures and entities.

Alright, I'm a complete noob to modding of any type, will it be easy to understand?

Just follow this for you first map and learning basics:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/L4D_Level_Design_Basics_Tutorial

[Kiwi]

Huuray, at least Valve can now say it took them less than a month to release it (not by much I may add), hopefully in the next few weeks we see some maps coming out ^^.

[Hon3r]

Ohhhh maaaaaaann!

... I think I need a towel.

I found this tutorial (http://www.l4dmods.com/LevelDesignDocs/pages/L4D_Level_Design_Basics_Tutorial.html) to be helpful as well.

[SlainPwner666]

Gah!

the Block tool aint working ATM. Any advice?

[DethPenguin]

Gah!

the Block tool aint working ATM. Any advice?

1. Press Enter

2. Make sure its block, not selection.

3.

[Hon3r]

Gah!

the Block tool aint working ATM. Any advice?

1. Restart program

2. ?

3. Profit!

[blackjack452]

Ok well I got it to work. I had to switch to an older computer running XP. I dont think Hammer editor agrees with vista

[Keptron]

THE CAKEEE IS A LIEEEE. Nah it isn't, GO FOR IT!
I am downloading it, I will begin to finally use SDK of Valve from L4D ( Never tried HL2 SDK )

Edit:
lol, anyone bugging in the end of download? It appears here "Starting download ..." :| I will restart and check it again

Edit 2:
L4D map creator have just ripped off my computer parts, freaking Vista.

[shadowstreak]

Ok well I got it to work. I had to switch to an older computer running XP. I dont think Hammer editor agrees with vista

works fine in windows 7, though my map takes ages to compile (4+ hours) due to the way I originally made my level, it is not very clean.

[Cyanyde]

Final-fucking-ly!
Thank god, I can finally do some real work on my secret project. :D

Also, anyone tried Sketchup yet? I just installed it and it seems pretty cool.
(it feels almost like modeling in mspaint) :P

[SickDaza]

WOW I wish I had PeeCee Version now oh well.

[PuSs]

wooohhhhhhhhhhhh, ive started using the tutorials that came with the SDK and made my very first L4D map lol:)

heres a little video i just uploaded to youtube :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaPh5cTsyIY

[one of them]

Alright...
currently trying to figure out how to make certain weapons under the director's control (where sometimes they spawn, sometimes they don't) but I'm not seeing it in Valve's tutorial. I thought it might use the entity "game_weapon_manager", but I'm having trouble finding out exactly what to do with it.

EDIT: All "Game_Weapon_Manager" does is let you edit the amount of ammo of a specific weapon and how many of those weapons can be in the map.

[Stakhanov]

You can follow a basic level design tutorial , congratulations :p

It mentions a func_nav_blocker entity at some point , apparently this is what prevents bots from getting stuck on dropping ladders or slopes before crescendo events (NM3 , DT4)
This is good news - it can receive input from triggers and so allows dynamic / random map layouts with no navigation issues.

[blackjack452]

Yay! finally i got it to work! turns out it takes a min to load up and im incredibly impacient

[Platypus]

Alright...
currently trying to figure out how to make certain weapons under the director's control (where sometimes they spawn, sometimes they don't) but I'm not seeing it in Valve's tutorial. I thought it might use the entity "game_weapon_manager", but I'm having trouble finding out exactly what to do with it.


Step 1: Place all tier two weapons in the spawn positions you want them to be on the map.

Step 2: Name each weapon something unique such as "huntingrifle_1" "autoshotty_1" "assault_1" ect ect for each group. This means each weapon in that group would have a number following it. Ex: "huntingrifle_2" "autoshotty_2" and "assault_2" would all be in a second spawn poisition seperate from the first cluster of tier two weapons.

Step 3: Click the entity tool and create a "point_template". Name it something, for example "weaponsgroup_1" "weaponsgroup_2", ect ect. Remember how in the last step you named each weapon uniquely? This is why: the point_template controls all these weapons as a single group. So for your point_template named "weaponsgroup_1" you make Template 1 "autoshotty_1", Template 2 "assault_1", and Template 3 "huntingrifle_1". Click apply and close the window.

Step 4: Make a point_template entity for every spawn "group" of weapons. So if you have 5 possible possitions for tier two weapons in your level, your going to have to make 5 point_templates. Important: Remember to name each point_template something unique.

Step 5: Create a logic_case entity on your map, someplace easy to remember. Name it "weapon_trigger". What the logic_case does is pick up to 16 random templates. Open your logic_case and go to the Outputs tab.Click the add button then insert the following info:
MyOutput: OnCase1
Target Entity: weaponsgroup_1 (or what ever you named your first template)
Input: ForceSpawn

Following this example, input all the data for all your weapon spawn templates. So for your second spawn group, it would look like:
MyOutput: OnCase2
Target Entity: weaponsgroup_2 (or what ever you named your second template)
Input: ForceSpawn

Step 6: Now you have to trigger the logic_case. Go to your info_director and then the Outputs tab. Add the following output:
MyOutput: OnGamePlayStart
Target Entity: weapon_trigger (or what ever you named your logic_case)
Input: PickRandom

You should now save and compile the map. If you did it correctly, when you start a game the director will tell the logic_case to pick a random template, which in turn forces the group of weapons to spawn.

[one of them]

TYVM Plat, very helpful.

[Platypus]

No problem mate. Hopefully more people will use it when they need their tier 2's in their map.

[darkmessiah]

Finally.

. . . .

[Stakhanov]

So this confirms that the director really places pickups at random , and not relative to your performance. Pretty sure it happens on map start anyway.

[jimihendrix820]

Anyone know if they now allow custom content to be downloaded automatically from the servers?

[Platypus]

Anyone know if they now allow custom content to be downloaded automatically from the servers?
Not yet, you're going to have to load it up onto your server and have all your friends download the maps and install them as well, at least at the moment. On the official blog they said they released the SDK because they wanted content to be ready for when they update the matchmaking system to include things such as downloading custom campaigns and searching for them in the lobby system.

[Hon3r]

Has ANYONE got this working with Vista? I'm afraid to try...

I remember what happened when I tried installing a webcam that said "works with windows Vista!" right on the box: It caused much BSoD...

[shadowstreak]

Works with some, does not work with others, Working on my windows 7 right now, which has more bugs.

[Dead Fish]

Has ANYONE got this working with Vista? I'm afraid to try...

I remember what happened when I tried installing a webcam that said "works with windows Vista!" right on the box: It caused much BSoD...

I'm using Vista and didn't have any problems with it. Made a little room, put the bare essentials in it and compiled to see how it works.

[Etheallmighty]

this is pretty cool! I have no idea how any of this works, but I just followed the tutorial and made a little map! I know I'm a N00b, but still, I'm proud of myself lol.

[UKMD Elmo]

this is pretty cool! I have no idea how any of this works, but I just followed the tutorial and made a little map! I know I'm a N00b, but still, I'm proud of myself lol.

Yeah I'm an SDK noob too, but I'm pretty chuffed I made a functioning outdoor/indoor shooting range for CSS. Damn but I need some practice...

[one of them]

Hammer has a pretty big learning curve for most...
I remember first starting it up and seeing those 4 blank screens and thinking how un-simple this was going to be. But it turned out to be the exact opposite.

[Steve Cloud]

Can I use custom models yet? Wanna use that Glock skin on FPSBanana.

[gehn6]

This should probably be clarified. The SDK isn't out yet, just the authoring tools. They didn't say anything about the SDK being out for mod creators. Half way there though!

[Etheallmighty]

This should probably be clarified. The SDK isn't out yet, just the authoring tools. They didn't say anything about the SDK being out for mod creators. Half way there though!

I don't follow...difference?

[Apex_]

I don't follow...difference?

In this case, "authoring tools" are specifically aimed at mappers, including the updated versions of Hammer and the particle editor, etc. Gehn is referring to source code examples and tools necessary to code mods based on L4D. Meaning hard code, C++ mods instead of Sourcemod plugins and scripted stuff.

[Etheallmighty]

In this case, "authoring tools" are specifically aimed at mappers, including the updated versions of Hammer and the particle editor, etc. Gehn is referring to source code examples and tools necessary to code mods based on L4D. Meaning hard code, C++ mods instead of Sourcemod plugins and scripted stuff.

.........*strait emotionless face*........



.......explain like you would a third grader

[DethPenguin]

.........*strait emotionless face*........



.......explain like you would a third grader

Authoring Tools: Make maps
SDK: Edit source code/engine (Make mods)

[one of them]

How are you guys getting the bar to pop off the door when it's first used?

[SlowMotion]

Its an automatic thing... I believe the door entity is door_rotating_checkpoint, its a point entity, then you just search for the door model. :) Theres two different ones, along with their matching frames where they have hinges on the left or right side of the door.
Also, have the opening speed set at 200 - Nothing sucks more than a slow door :(

[one of them]

I know how to make the door, but it doesn't include the bar. You have to add that as a seperate prop. When you open the door without the bar, you can still hear the bar popping off... but it doesn't.