Propper - for mappers who need custom props

Dr. ROCKZO

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jul 25, 2009
580
159
If it gives good results how much of a performance boost is this going to give us?
 

Ankh

L3: Member
Sep 18, 2008
114
41
no idea on the performance, all I know is I can get it working, but func_detail is easier.

it seems like the kind of thing you'd only need if a) you were nearing the brush limit or b) you wanted to give it a unique skin, or c) if it was repeated everywhere

I imagine it'd cut down the map size because of fewer baked lightmaps and there'd be less in the texture memory so performance should overall be greater than using brushes, but only noticably if you were doing really detailed objects

Handy tip: if the model is too complex, you can turn it all to func_detail and create a simplified collision mesh using nodraw
 

Jindo

L3: Member
Aug 6, 2009
121
123
I'd always wondered why Hammer didn't do this already, I'm glad they're working on it! I just can't figure out any modelling programs out there, and yet it's so easy in Hammer.
 

Numerous

L4: Comfortable Member
Oct 14, 2009
150
72
I doubt this handles any sort of polygonal mesh well, or allows for dynamic animation. And I doubt it ever will.
That said, for the 0.00001% of people who are willing to use this crude instrument to model (its like chopping down a tree with a bunch of pens) then it'll be a small step on the way to actually getting some good modelling, which is better than nothing, I guess.

That said, this.
And by the way, before you ban me, I invoke Poe's law.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I can get it to run, but the custom entities won't import. I thought at first Boojum Snark's custom entity set might be interfering, but removing it didn't fix the problem. Oh well. I should probably just learn a real modeling program anyway, or ask someone to make my model for me. It's a pretty simple model.
 

Sel

Banned
Feb 18, 2009
1,239
2,570
Uhm, the idea of modeling programs being used to make props is the creation of complex objects, which hammer is completely incapable of, so, I'm not really sure I see the point of this thing at all.
 

Fearlezz

L10: Glamorous Member
May 4, 2008
787
476
This is was annouced around a year ago. Suprised it didnt end up here until now.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I figured out how to fix the problem, by the way; a line needed to be added to the .fgd file for some reason. I've already produced a pretty good Roman column and a lighted sign with this. I'd still prefer to redo them in a real modeling tool before I put them into a map's final version -- they're missing UV maps, they don't receive damage overlays when hit, you can't wrap a "papercraft" style model around them well like the ones official props have, and the hitboxes are a bit wonky -- but generally speaking the results look good and are a good way to quickly reduce expense on repeated brush-made objects without sacrificing detail.

Anyway, this is only version 0.21; a lot of those issues will probably be addressed in the future.
 

Tapp

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 26, 2009
776
215
I find the most useful aspect of this program is that it always gets the scale right. Whenever using a modelling program, it's very hard to get the dimensions just right.