Microbrush 2

[Echo51]

I swear it was 2 i used

Well, guess ill learn it eventually, but ill first start using it when school starts, thats were im going to be missing hammer.

Im sure i heard about a MB2->VMF, but not the otherway around? cause that would be more useful if you switch between it

[Shrinker]

You alter my reality and substitute your own? :P
There shall be a VMF import for MB2 too, yeah.

[Shrinker]

So how can 2-point clipping be visualized nicely in 3D?

That picture is to be understood as a full binary tree: The two lower left views are descendants of the view above them. Note any inconsistencies? Well, I actually had 7 instances running with the same scene in all of them :P

One of my bindable "commands" is to deselect the original brushes, and there is a complementary command to deselect the copied brushes. In clipping, I misused that mechanic a little, but it turned out practical. I originally added that mechanism to quickly deselect the original or copied brushes after, well, copying brushes on the fly. Internally, those are just two lists of brushes filled after copying them, that easy to use for clipping too. In this case, the "originals" are always the ones behind the front face, and the front face is always shown in the normal (unselected) brush color.

Like all the other commands, clipping works in click-and drag mode (that is, you perform a full clip by pressing the clip key or mouse button down, moving the mouse, and releasing the key or button), and in two-click mode (that is, you release the button without a valid clip plane, to place the second point with the next press). In the two-click mode, one can fly around and reposition the grid without interfering negatively with the active mode. One could start making a box here, fly to the other end of the world, and end it there. Every mode can be canceled by hitting a key that doesn't trigger a non-interrupting grid function, so when you are panicked, you can always cleanly abort what you are doing.

[nub]

Wow that's uber-cool. So you're going to give it the ability to export to VMF or something?

I love the concept of blending the 3D camera with 2D grid views, that makes things a lot more interesting and you only worry about one screen.

Once you get all the essential tools down, you can start aesthetics, then you can put in graphical features like lighting the maps and such.

[Echo51]

NUb, export to VMF is already done, atleast it was when i had a version to mess around wtih..

(10$ im going insane, as this is probaly not right)

[Shrinker]

nub: Once I got all the essential tools down, I can start working on the non-essential tools! Are you thinking of a lighting preview? Such a thing is not planned at this point, it's too much hassle. For entities in general, yeah, I want to have good support. But don't expect those specific editors you grew familiar with from hammer... I'll rather put some effort into converting back and forth without any data loss. There won't be FGD support... The converter sources are to be shipped with the tool, so if anyone thinks there is need to make this or that better, they can work on that. And as long as they stick to the unlossy conversion principle, people can easily use that changed converter :)

As for entity descriptions... how about poems instead of key/value pairs? We'll see what turns out to be the best way to describe their properties :P

Echo51: So far, there is only an XML <-> MB2 converter that comes with it. Or maybe I programmed a fully-fledged VMF converter, deleted its sources and forgot about it? :D

Hypothetical NPC properties:
Arr, ye combine soldier! /*NPC type*/ Swinging your RPG day in, day out. /*Weapon type*/ Run up to that wooden construction when there is danger! /*Response to seeing opponent*/ You were really drunk last night. /*Idle animation: lying on the floor*/
Hm okay, not very funny, and not very poem :P

[Echo51]

Im so going insane >_>

buuuuuut before that ill learn how to use this thingy yeah, i have to give you that the config is easy to read

[Shrinker]

I found a really cheap way of making an arc today:

You basically make a piece which is 2 units high, and add a 45° slope at one end, then just copypaste it, and along one axis, double its size each time :D

Note that this is not an x² parabola, and probably no c*x² (c <> 1) parabola either.

[Echo51]

Awesome also if you played linerider there is a way where you draw 2 lines, then draw from 1 point to another on the line, and place the start/end points a bit further down the line, and you will get a curve

[Shrinker]

I now have cubic clipping!! :D:D Brushes are now recalculated only when they become visible and are "dirty" (or are transformed) -- so the way is free now for visualizing properties, and and and...

Not much longer, and I'll be presenting my first room!

[Shrinker]

And now I have face-drag back! :D:D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GETe1q8mLe4

[Echo51]

Awesome :3

Surely all those hotkeys make work go fast, but what if there is actually people, like that fails at remembering stuff?

[Shrinker]

There is a config to look at (and to mess around with). So unless you have an odd syndrome preventing you from learning new things, ... :P

[cheesemoo0]

I have to say I can't wait for this.

[Echo51]

Well, not learning, more like concentration disorder and lacking social skills

well, yeah, ill see if i get time to mess about and make a mess