Interlopers.net Forum - Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials

Smurftyours wrote:Isn't modding fucked over in Germany due to game restrictions?

What?

Alot of mods have illegally ported content and/or use illegal software during development so I don't think laws would affect modding much.

Is the video game classification as bad as it is in Australia, like I know that in Germany any game that has Nazis or excessive violence is banned?

@ DA_im
IMHO = In my humble opinion

Lots of games are censored here, but modding isn't affected by it.
Ofc. if a mod is using the original content of the game it might be also censored like the game.
(e.g. no blood decals)

AFAIK, the source SDK isn't censored while some of the Games like EP1 & EP2 are censored.
This means source mods won't be censored.
Since we're on PC it's still possible to patch the episodes back to uncensored by exchanging some textures and adding a few commands to the autoexe.cfg file.

Ark11 wrote:Alot of mods have illegally ported content and/or use illegal software during development so I don't think laws would affect modding much.

Is the video game classification as bad as it is in Australia, like I know that in Germany any game that has Nazis or excessive violence is banned?

If you want to release a game in Germany you have to hand it in at the usk, which gives the game a rating (0,6,12,16,18, or no rating). If your game is too violent, they wont give it a rating, which doesnt mean that its banned, BUT it can be banned by the bpjm, which results in the game being forbidden to advertise and you cant buy that game in a store like you would do with other games, but instead have to ask the staff to hand it out. in those cases the pulisher is most likely to not release the game in germany, to avoid having it banned. Or they will censor it so it gets a rating.

The "nazi stuff" on the other hand is banned by law in germany and youre forbidden to use it, unless its ,for example, a historical documentation.

So its not affecting modding.

I have been working with Source for 2.5 years off and on. I learned everything on Interlopers, the VDC (Valve Developers Community), and assorted tutorial websites. I am definitely not a professional.

After having learned everything from scratch, I feel I have found an understanding of what I need to learn in a more professional sense. Namely, modeling. I really want to take some college-level modeling classes. I feel like there aren't enough resources out there for me to learn modeling from scratch. Plus, I don't have access to the computing power or software to take on the task alone.

When it comes to approaching a professional team and/or developer, my opinion is to work on small time mods and improve your skills. Test your ability to follow something through to completion. Explore your creative powers and see if you can translate an idea into a product. As time goes on, you will come to understand yourself: either you will want to continue learning and branching from area to area, or you will realize that game design is not really your path.

Comparing professional to freelance is important as well. I am about as freelance as it gets. I have built and rebuilt my levels time and time again and I have several projects running at once. Their progress is horribly slow but I am getting what I want for my time. I work full time and overtime at a real-life job and only do mod work in my spare time. I have no deadlines. On the other hand, a professional team may have deadlines, content modifications (or removals) which will assist in meeting deadlines, etc. It is a matter of what you want.

As someone who was working with the source engine feeling the same way, I have a few simple points.
-Learn how to model
-Get good at modeling
-???
-Get a job!


Seriously though, education won't do anything if you don't apply it. If you want to get it, go for it. But it's not about having a degree. You can't get a degree for "game design" and expect to land a job, you have to have some sort of artistic talent or programming knowledge which will either leverage yourself high enough within a company or allow you to start managing your own project and company in order to design "games".

If you want to design games, as in gameplay design, I hear the best place to start is level design / environment art. Level Design is very crucial to the way a game plays, so you need to understand the proper flow of a level in order to apply that to a bigger picture. Or, even better, start your own independent game and go from there and see where life takes you.

You can always drop out of school if you get offered a job! And you can go back later too if you lose the job. You will learn as much or more working as you will in college if you are at the point where you can do well in a job, the field is that young.

It's also not uncommon for people to go back to school years later. In the long run it doesn't matter, just always make the choice that gets you closer to where you are going. Apply to schools, jobs, and internships at the same time and take what you get, and keep trying.

College's real benefit is in the non-degree classes anyway. Only trade schools and highly focused degree programs have you take more classes in your field than in other fields. That may not be true of game design programs, but those are relatively new so it's all very different and ambiguous. What is most important in the traditional sense of going to college, in education, is all the other stuff you learn that connects in interesting ways that can be applied but aren't neccessarily considered part of the same field. In most degrees you will take as many math, history, science, and humanities classes as you will take classes in your degree program. Employers also like it because it shows that you can succeed and finish something over a long period of time, but there are many ways to show that depending on your life.

If you want to get into another country to get a job, a degree will definitely help. Getting a work visa in the US is significantly easier with a BA, MBA or BSC and variants.

Ultimately, if you want to get into the industry learn a modelling tool. It really is that important. I intend to learn XSI at some point; I'll be replacing my mod's progress with it. That's how big a deal modelling is.

Remember; Hollow got hired on his artistic skill, but the first test they threw at him was in 3DSMax.

Perfectly put Banter. Didn't think about that with visa's.

Learn 3DSMax first, that is the standard. XSI has more capabilities meant for movies that you don't need (e.g. Fur, breakout), Maya seems niche and limited, everyone uses Max. Whatever you learn you can learn the others too.

Where do I get a copy of 3dsmax, by the way? Without paying a great deal of money?

How do you think most modders get it?

A few use student licenses.


3dsMax should be free for noncommercial use.

Toilet Paper Bay.

lmao. i suppose it was a question that was ripe for a "let me google that for you" strike

Major Banter wrote:Remember; Hollow got hired on his artistic skill, but the first test they threw at him was in 3DSMax.

Yeah, and now I use the bloody program every day at work . It's not just for the fact of learning to model, just to be fluent in the software helps a lot. We pretty much build 90% of the game within Max, using custom Maxscripts and plugins. Then it's compiled out like a typical level.

I've not been there even a month and the amount of stuff i've picked up is about 100 times more than I could have ever learnt by myself or even within this community, simply because you have all these people directly at hand to help and guide you, so you improve very quickly. A couple of us want to start a little side project so hopefully my new found max skillzz can be used for that heh.