A love affair with TF2 mapping leads to shameless replica of Hammer for Unity 3D

(s2a) yahodahan

L3: Member
Apr 22, 2009
144
18
Hi everyone!

I've posted a few maps here, and built many more, that just never made it to the site. I've spent countless hours lovingly crafting all sorts of mappy bits, and can honestly say Hammer just plain rocks, especially with sites like this.

I've been gone from the TF2 mapping scene for a bit, as a result of moving over to the Unity 3D engine to build mobile/other games, and life in general. Unity is an amazing engine, no doubt, but I have always, always felt it is missing the core of any good game engine- in-editor geometry construction, especially BSP style, the way Hammer does it. So fast, simple, and sexy.

Erm, lets get back on track.

ProBuilder for Unity 3D makes it possible!

fancy intro video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgt-a6-1Y3c

Download the free demo, or check out more videos/tutorials/etc, right here:
www.sixbysevenstudio.com/probuilder


Basically, this tool, "ProBuilder", is meant to be a replica of Hammer for Unity 3D. I had been using Hammer for TF2 map modding (http://forums.tf2map...ead.php?t=16803, http://forums.tf2map...read.php?t=6398, others), and simply fell in love with how fast, intuitive, and powerful the BSP workflow was. Once I made it past the cliff-wall learning curve that is, haha.

When I started working in Unity, I immediately felt the lack of any construction methods was a serious problem. Using the built-in primitives was terribly tedious and limited, and doing the model-export-import-test-repeat loop was time consuming and just silly, for environmental geo. So, when the Asset Store popped up, I immediately went looking for something like Hammer's construction set- and found nothing! Long story short, I decided this had to exist, took a month off work, and taught myself Unity editor scripting while building "ProBuilder 1.0".

The first version was... useable, it added great functionality but really didn't fulfill the promise of replicating Hammer for Unity. After several more months of upgrading, learning, and building, plus lots of really great feedback from users, ProBuilder is at version 1.6.5, and it's getting very close to that goal! Better yet, ProBuilder 2.0 is in the works, and is a complete re-build from scratch, using C# instead of Javascript, a massively more powerful and flexible base, and boasting all the best features of Hammer! Ability to create special primitives (stairs, arches, cylinders, etc), smoothing angles, advanced UV control, etc- all coming soon!

So, that's the story on ProBuilder, and I really hope some folks here might enjoy it! Personally, as a long-time user of Hammer and UDK, this system feels like a must have for level building in Unity. I have really made every possible effort to make it simple, fast, intuitive, and powerful for level design, staying true to the Hammer editor...while skipping that nasty learning curve. Well, it was nasty for me at least, heh.

Comments/thoughts/etc welcome, I'd love to hear what this community thinks, and please help spread the word if you like the tool. Every bit of support helps to keep developing this and other tools.
 

Micnax

Back from the dead (again)
aa
Apr 25, 2009
2,109
1,585
dhLgQ.gif


I gave up on Unity because it was horrible for making world geometry, might jump back over to it now.
 

(s2a) yahodahan

L3: Member
Apr 22, 2009
144
18
@Micnax: great to hear! Give 'er another chance :) I didn't note it here, but I also made a grids and "vis groups" plugin that perform almost identical to Hammer. Give those a look as well, thanks!

@Aly: Thanks! Well, the only thing it has over Hammer right now is 1) Less crashing 2) Ctrl-Z usually works 3) learning curve is practically zero :)

But when ProBuilder 2.0 hits the scene...then Hammer will have some competition ;)
 

Micnax

Back from the dead (again)
aa
Apr 25, 2009
2,109
1,585
Googling "Rexy" just led me all over, and down all sorts of paths I'd rather not share. Care to elaborate? :p

He's a member of this site, and has quite a voice.

@Micnax: great to hear! Give 'er another chance :) I didn't note it here, but I also made a grids and "vis groups" plugin that perform almost identical to Hammer. Give those a look as well, thanks!

I saw! I went through the tutorial videos and it's very nice. What features do you think will be included in ProBuilder 2.0, and what do you think the release date will be? I might use it to help with my indie game.