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[McFlyGold]

Ok, I've gotten Wall Worm to successfully export a model of mine from 3DS Max to Source Filmmaker. That's the first part of the journey. Now I'd like to try to make a few small and simple set pieces. My problem is, I don't know how to go about this at all! What I'd like is a very small tutorial showing the steps needed to get an extremely simple map from Max to SFM. Consider that I have absolutely no knowledge in Hammer at all!

Here's the specs of the small room,

ground: L: 1024, W: 1024, H: -32
walls: L: 32 W: 1024 H: 512
sky: L: 1024, W: 1024, H: 32

I added world geometry tags to the ground and walls and added a skybox tag to the sky. I then added very simple textures to the ground and walls. (Don't know what to do to the sky) I then hit "Export VMF" In the VMF Exporter, I chose the "default" preset and then hit "Export VMF (and Compile if Applicable)

After that, I started up Source Filmmaker. My first message was an error "This map is missing high dynamic range (HRD) lightmaps. The SFM requires HDR lightmaps to render properly. You can create HDR lightmaps for your map with hammer or vrad. See the Source Developer Wiki for more info."

After that, it loads the map, but there's no textures on anything. Now I know that this is simply because of my ignorance. I simply don't know what to do.  So is there a simple tutorial that will explain the steps 1 by 1 to do something as simple a making a small room? Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

[wallworm]

Well, I actually just made a video on this very thing. And I've updated some docs. You may want to review this page, download the sample file (if you are using Max 2013) and watch the video: Brush Materials and Decals.

I should really have held off of this video because I am actively developing the Brush Material Exporter. I am working on some updates where I've actually rebuilt the texture system... so there are some core changes coming. Overall they are fairly painless but give more versatility.

I wanted to point out that tagging things as part of the 3D Skybox should be avoided unless you are building a closed 3D Sky. At the moment the exporter only adds the 3D sky if you've also added the Sky Camera (by clicking the Get/Set Sky Cam button in the Tags tab--but if you do that and haven't built a sealed 3D sky the map will leak and fail to compile correctly! :)

For just emmitting light, you need to have a brush with a material on it named tools/toolsskybox . You can do it manually or you can open the material library included in Wall Worm--Open Slate... click Load Material Library and look for the materiallibraries folder in WW. You can apply the sky material to make an object appear as the sky. TO make it cast light in the scene... add one Target Direct Light in Max.

Anyway, I'm cramming this in since I'm leaving in a few. Watch the video above to get an in-depth understanding.

Also, I've updated some other relevant docs yesterday:

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[McFlyGold]

Wow, that's pretty much what I was looking for. I had to do things a little differently because I don't use the Slate editor (I never got used to that thing), but all in all it was just what I was looking for. I basically used the plane technique for rendering out the textures for both the walls and the ground. I'm guessing that's the only way to get textures out of Max and into Source, by using Render to Texture?

Is there a way to add a player spawn in Max or do I have to add one in Hammer? From what I understand, it has to be an "info_player_teamspawn" type because SFM is currently based on TF2 and I guess that's the type of spawn entities it uses? (I'm not completely sure on these things as you can probably tell.) I'm merely asking out of a curiosity since SFM has a function to spawn a player where the SFM camera is.

Also note that I'm not trying to make a map for people to actually play in, I'm basically just wanting to build virtual sets for animations or posters.

Thanks again for all your help! I wouldn't be making anything creative at all if it weren't for your great tools, hard work, and personal help!

[wallworm]

Using the Render To Texture isn't the only way to make textures in Max for Source... but it's pretty much the best way if you want to also make normal maps. I did make a brief detour in the video showing how to create a bitmap from a map node in Slate (using the Render Map function).

As for the player spawn... I have built a few common entity functions into WW but they are limited to a few common ones used in all Source games (like decals, sky camera and move_rope). To add any entity in your mod, you'll need to get Convexity. It will let you place entities and edit them.

And, regarding the thanks... you are quite welcome. I look forward to more of your work.