Natural Selection 2 Spark Editor Released

[cashed]

Its a excellent first release. although it could steal some things from hammer.
Texture app (alt+RMouse especially) is a must!

[vcool]

Hey valve, a small indie developer just made a better editor than you've made in 11 years. GET YOUR FUCKING ACT TOGETHER

You gotta remember they grew up with Hammer. They basically learned and improved.

Anyone knows how well the editor runs? I really wanna do something on vacation (I'm most likely going somewhere warm) but my laptop sucks tbh. It could run hammer at lowest settings though.

[ƒray]

Hey valve, a small indie developer just made a better editor than you've made in 11 years. GET YOUR FUCKING ACT TOGETHER

You gotta remember they grew up with Hammer. They basically learned and improved.

Anyone knows how well the editor runs? I really wanna do something on vacation (I'm most likely going somewhere warm) but my laptop sucks tbh. It could run hammer at lowest settings though.

Well tbh.. The spark editor tries to be super friendly by making it "easy mode" for you and making brushes are somewhat a pain...(like accidentally, turning one, making one on the right axis, ugh its alright but could use some improvements) but models scaling and realtime lighting is really what the spark is all about.

[Zipfinator]

Well tbh.. The spark editor tries to be super friendly by making it "easy mode" for you and making brushes are somewhat a pain...(like accidentally, turning one, making one on the right axis, ugh its alright but could use some improvements) but models scaling and realtime lighting is really what the spark is all about.

I wish they had made it more like Hammer with those updated lighting and model features. I haven't tried it yet though so I'm not sure if I'll like it more or less. Stupid key still isn't here!

EDIT: Told them to resend it again and it got there in literally 10 seconds... I guess I put their store in my address book after I told them to send it so stupid gmail didn't move it out of spam. I don't even know how to get to the spam on gmail so I couldn't find it the first time. Oh well I have it now and that's all that matters!

[ixin]

Haha Fray the skulk I copied from one of NS2's screenshots and photoshop'd it hehe

[Zipfinator]

Finally got this all downloaded and installed and ready to open only to find out it wont even open the part to let me enter my key. I get some bullshit error that says reinstalling may fix, but of course it doesn't fix it. Guess I'll have a look around on their forums.

[ixin]

You get it when you don't have a certain file: http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums ... pic=108124

[Zipfinator]

You get it when you don't have a certain file: http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums ... pic=108124

Yeah I already fixed it. Working fine now!

Anyone know a way to get the camera to act like Hammer in the 3D Viewport though? Using WSAD and arrows to move? Panning and rotating around your own origin is kind of annoying.

[9f1062f623f9]

Glad you guys are liking our little Editor

[ixin]

I should stop making test levels and actualy START making a layout/level lol.

You can alter your keys at the options - search it at the tabs above! :p

[Zipfinator]

You can alter your keys at the options - search it at the tabs above! :p

I did look there and couldn't find it easily. I didn't see a camera keybinding either. I'll mess around with it though.

Probably not going to be using this much until I get a new computer though. It freezes up quite a bit, especially when placing models.

[Phraggah]

Love the name. Is the reference to old-school Halo modding purposefully, or just a coincidence?

[Fearian]

I gotta say, anyone who is raving about this being better outright than hammer clearly hasn't used it for long. Its got allot of nice features that Hammer lacks, and its a great alpha release but as soon as you try to make any kind of vaguely complex geometry your fucked. Not only is is near imposible to make the kind of detailed brushed at odd angles you've come to master in Hammer, but the editor will REGULARLY CRASH OFTEN. So make sure you save your work, especially If you plan on straying from box rooms.
Off the top of my head, I also had problems with big holes not becoming planes, deleting a plane and having it leave behind verticies on other planes, the snap function going batshit insane...

Don't get me wrong, I love it and its awesome, but take the praise you hear with a grain of salt, its far from finished and has alot of rough edges. All in all I'd rather use hammer to make a full level any day.

[YokaI]

I gotta say, anyone who is raving about this being better outright than hammer clearly hasn't used it for long. Its got allot of nice features that Hammer lacks, and its a great alpha release but as soon as you try to make any kind of vaguely complex geometry your fucked. Not only is is near imposible to make the kind of detailed brushed at odd angles you've come to master in Hammer, but the editor will REGULARLY CRASH OFTEN. So make sure you save your work, especially If you plan on straying from box rooms.
Off the top of my head, I also had problems with big holes not becoming planes, deleting a plane and having it leave behind verticies on other planes, the snap function going batshit insane...

Don't get me wrong, I love it and its awesome, but take the praise you hear with a grain of salt, its far from finished and has alot of rough edges. All in all I'd rather use hammer to make a full level any day.

Well there's several things to point out in this post that just need to be said. First off, the regular crashes are to be expected from alpha development tools, and are going to be fixed asap. Valve hammer wasn't good on the get go either, and the studio which developed this is a tiny tiny studio in comparison to the size of Valve.

Secondly, detailed brushes aren't design for this engine, or the most of modern level design tools. For details, you have to model. That's just the way mapping has evolved since Valve Hammer, and I would expect that Half Life 3's engine will follow a similar route. The mapping tool itself is to make basic areas in which they plan to future integrate models for walls / door frames / other "details" you may want to add.

Besides, it isn't 100 percent true that you cannot make interesting interior designs with this editor. It's very simple if you draw each face individually using the line tool, use create face, and if the face is drawn on the wrong side, use the "flip face" shortcut. I've seen many people making some very interesting designs, and it's much easier to "carve" things into walls without having the negative impact that valve hammer has when you cave into faces.　You can also modify verticies / points very easily, allowing you to easily make interesting brush shapes if you think creatively.

Thirdly, I will agree that Spark isn't fully at the point at which it needs to be, but that's why this was given to people who preordered the alpha. If you weren't planning on making a map for NS, or making a project on the NS2 engine, you probably should have not pre-ordered. Unfortunately, I can see this "alpha" thing leading people to believe this is how the editor will be when the engine is out. That's 100% not the case. Give them time, they've probably got a whole list of features to integrate, entities to add to the entity list, effects to work on / correct, and more options for each entity in the list.

For one, I would like to see a 3d model viewer when browsing through models. I have a hard time with the portrait pictures which often don't give me the whole picture of the model and often times I have to guess by placing it in the map and then rotating it around, which can be cumbersome.

Another thing that annoys me a bit is using the 2D views, which is a far too difficult task. Top view editing is annoying, since if you use the rectangle tool on top view it adds a polygon but attaches it to the top of the first room you build / the room you want to add onto. Instead, you have to start a new room in the 3d view port, which is just messy when it comes to being exact.


Otherwise, I feel the editor is where it needs to be for basic features and controls, though an alt click in the texture editor to duplicate texture settings would be a very nice and welcome feature. Right now, texturing is my biggest hurdle.

[ixin]

When the tool just came out and no update was available yet you could make Faces with a click which would make it even easier to make complex designs.

But yeah YokaI just said it all.