SFM megathread

[YM]

Finally done: http://youtu.be/1SLDWg3bIcI?hd=1

Mention the cubemaps and you'll join the list of people to test the punch-in-face-over-the-internet machine on.

 

[xzzy]

If nothing else, the version of Hammer that comes with SFM is leagues better than TF2's Hammer. Saved cordones, a compile window that doesn't lag, and instead of crashing without ceremony on a corrupt vmf, it actually deletes the bad brushes and loads the map.

And those are just the things I noticed in a couple hours of use.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Finally done: http://youtu.be/1SLDWg3bIcI?hd=1

Mention the cubemaps and you'll join the list of people to test the punch-in-face-over-the-internet machine on.

You mean building cubemaps in the SFM console didn't work? That's kind of silly. Hope it gets tweeked soon.

Also, nice work. The short felt kind of random with the shots, and I feel that the light from the fire is still a tad bright.

 

[YM]

If nothing else, the version of Hammer that comes with SFM is leagues better than TF2's Hammer. Saved cordones, a compile window that doesn't lag, and instead of crashing without ceremony on a corrupt vmf, it actually deletes the bad brushes and loads the map.

And those are just the things I noticed in a couple hours of use.

The two vmf formats are incompatible aren't they?

I opened strata in the SFM hammer and now it crashes TF2 hammer. Shit.

 

[xzzy]

There do seem to be some incompatibilities, yes. But I've taken vmf's back and forth without issues so I haven't quite isolated where the problems come from.

In related news, I still haven't figured out why custom maps load into SFM with too much light. The only fix I've found that actually helps is to cut the output of all lights in a map by 50%-75% when building for SFM.

 

[xzzy]

Also, I strongly recommend not pressing your steam screenshot key while in SFM.

(it locked up SFM too, I had to force quit it)

 

[ANova]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feKEaHave1A

 

[MarcoPixel]

@YM: Nice video, really like it. Saw it before on FP, didnt noticed its from you.

@ANova: I like it, great idea.

I made 2 posters because i got bored and wanted to get back in SFM. I really like how the pyro one turned out.

 

[xzzy]

Huge shame about the pyro's ankles being shattered though, which they'd have to be to bend like that.

 

[Deodorant]

I just found this Words cannot describe this level of perfection. (It's good. Unironically.)

 

[Shock]

Wallpaper I made.

 

[Vincent]

I just found this Words cannot describe this level of perfection. (It's good. Unironically.)

I hope that's a road to el derado reference. That movie was amazing.

 

[Micnax]

I hope that's a road to el derado reference. That movie was amazing.

Considering it's said in the description, I would assume so.

Also, does anyone else get this problem with custom maps? The edges of the viewport get stretched out in the bottom and right sides. It carries over onto the rendered video too so it's a real problem.

 

[YM]

Apparently "-sfm_guardband 0" fixes it but I've yet to try it

 

[Micnax]

Apparently "-sfm_guardband 0" fixes it but I've yet to try it

That did the trick, thanks!

 

[YM]

I made 2 posters because i got bored and wanted to get back in SFM. I really like how the pyro one turned out.

Pyro one is good but his foot is totally messed up

 

[MarcoPixel]

Pyro one is good but his foot is totally messed up

I try it to fix it.

EDIT:

Better?

 

[YM]

yep

 

[Micnax]

Made this video flythrough just to showcase areas of my 72 hour map:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSheiW94R8Y

 

[YM]

comments:

1. Your lighting is bad, looks like you've suffered the "custom maps import way too bright" bug, turn your tonemap down to compensate and get some depth to the shadows
2. Your camera work is mediocre, you do lots of spins and twirls which are a bit disorientating and often you pause entirely
3. You used the segmented engie music
4. Your flythough is in a weird order, you do the outside twice, why not just spend more time on the outside when you get there the first time?

I found an interesting way of doing flythoughs SUPER fast yesterday:

1. Create your clip to be longer than you want the flythough, several minutes
2. Create a camera
3. Navigate it to the start point
4. With all time selected, the camera selected and the playhead at 0:00 press space and begin moving the camera in the path you want your flythough to take.
5. Camera work can be super shoddy with pauses and jitters
6. Once you're finished pupeteering your camera go back to the clip editor
7. Use ctrl+alt+shift+drag on the end to increase the time scale to somewhere between 4 and 5
8. Select the shot>edit clip>bake timescale
9. Open the shot's motion editor, select the camera and all time and use the smooth slider a few times
10. Go back to the clip editor and rescale the clip back to it's original length (or slightly shorter or longer if you wanted to speed up or slow down the camera motion)
11. Bake the timescale again

And presto! You're done. All the nasty jitters and pauses are completely gone and you have a super smooth flythough. You can now edit it to your hearts content or publish as-is. Total time: 10 minutes.

You can use this method on part of an animation's motion to speed it up if you want to wizz though an area (or slow to a crawl) select the section you want to alter the timescale of, copy the samples from the motion editor, paste them into a new shot with the same camera, then adjust the timescale of that shot and bake it, then copy the samples back and move the samples from after the changed section to meet. apply a little smoothing to the joins and you've got a quick wizz like they did in the goldrush video all those years ago.