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[wallworm]

There is a new addition coming to Wall Worm very soon. Some code was donated from long time WW user Dave Brennan. Orvid is now taking some time to integrate it into Wall Worm. It's going to open all kinds of doors for working in Max for Source.

Keep your eyes on the lookout :)

[warmeup]

yayyyyyyyyyyy, I'm curious to see what it is.

Does it come inside a box? i love unboxing :P
just kidding.

[wallworm]

No comment... :) Stay tuned.

[wallworm]

Thanks to Dave Brennan, Chetan Jaggai and Andrew Penry helping me implement Dave's project into WW... this new goodie is almost here. It's going to be a major change that will bring all kinds of new possibilities.

Now just around the corner...

[Cem]

I think it is going to have models directly imported to 3DS Max without decompiling.

Hope I didn't ruin the surprise.

[Joris Ceoen]

Damn I can't wait  8)!

[wallworm]

Yes, it's native MDL loading. It's very close. It's now being finalized. No promise but my goal is with a week.

[the6thmonkey]

Ah exciting, can't wait

[wallworm]

Just an update. I've fallen behind on this new feature. However, I'm expecting to get a boost as Chetan Jaggi, a fellow Black Mesa developer and experienced C++ programmer, is going to help bring this new function to life.

I'm sorry it's taken longer than I expected... maybe I'm just getting old! :)

[Cem]

Just an update. I've fallen behind on this new feature. However, I'm expecting to get a boost as Chetan Jaggi, a fellow Black Mesa developer and experienced C++ programmer, is going to help bring this new function to life.

I'm sorry it's taken longer than I expected... maybe I'm just getting old! :)

Almost a month has passed through. Any news on this? Thank you.

[wallworm]

Yes, it's certainly taking longer than I'd hoped. But it's my main focus right now. No one wants this feature done more than me at this point. I'm not going to say when I expect it at this point... just know it's 90% of my focus ATM.

[wallworm]

An update on the MDL loader.

The MDL loader is getting closer to completion. There is a new programmer at Black Mesa helping bring it to completion. He is helping bring the project to a close.

This new plugin will be released in two stages. In stage 1, it will not have native MDL loading. Instead, it uses WWMT Helpers or QC files for geometry. But in the second phase, it will also include native MDL support that can lookup on the file system or inside VPKs.

The geometry class works like this (after phase 2): Use native MDL if file found; if not, use WWMT from scene if found; if not, use the QC if found.

Remember, in phase 1 it will not support MDL files yet. Until phase 2, the plugin will need to be able to find QC/SMD/VMT/(TGA|VTF) on your file system (QC files in the modelsrc folders, VMTs in game/materials folders, and TGA (free WW) and VTF (WWPRO) in the game info or MatGen paths.

I will be posting a BETA version for WW Pro users in the store later today. I have not had time to test any of these functions in WW Free and because some of the filesystem lookups in WW Free are much slower than in WW Pro, I'm not inclined to test in free until I have all of the WW Pro testing done. Please report any bugs you find in the beta.

Again, please remember this does NOT YET have the MDL file support. That will come in the next phase.

[wallworm]

The BETA ( wallworm_pro_beta.zip in the store downloads) is now available for WW Pro users. PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE PRECEDING POST!

If you are a WW Pro User, please be aware that the new system is not documented much. But here is the gist:

A new geometry class is now available in the Create tab under the Wall Worm category. The button is labeled: "Source Model". The actual classname of this geometry is WallWormMDL.

New instances of Point Entities will always be this type (except lights). Now if you add a point entity via the Entity floater, it will be this class with entity properties bound to it. For any property that is contained in the WallWormMDL class, it will always override and control the corresponding entity parameter. Those properties include: model, skin, bodygroup and default animation. If you bind a prop dynamic to this class, the animation class is limited to those found in the WallWormMDL object's model data. At this time, model data can only come from QC files and WWMT Helpers. After the MDL plugin is completed, you will be able to get the model data from MDL files inside the VPK and on your computer.

If  you need a prop_dynamic that is not bound to a WallWormMDL, you can convert the model to an editable poly and the entity settings will no longer be overridden by the WallWormMDL.

Because the WallWormMDL derives its data from external files, the mesh cache will be regenerated each time you open Max. This is slow for extensive scenes at this time. The native MDL update will not have this lag in opening files.

This new class is also used with new WWMT Proxies. The use of the PropLibrary is being phased out over the coming updates.

There are other new features and fixes available in the beta download's changelog file.

[wallworm]

Just an update. Black Mesa hired a new programmer to, in part, help finish this. It isn't in the WW Pro beta yet, but already I am testing this new feature that loads native MDL files from VPK directly in Max. My current compadre in this is Richard Geslot (his site may look old-school, but he's been adding some new goodies that will make all WW users get excited when these updates are released!) So as soon as this is released, I hope all of you both buy Black Mesa and send love to all of those who have been part of this new tool. Needless to say, there will be a full credits page linking to all those who worked on it.

[wallworm]

Next milestone in the MDL loaders. There is now an early version of the MDL loader in the WW Pro BETA ( wallworm_pro_beta.zip in the store downloads ). At this time, there is a model browser available to the WallWormMDL (Source Model geometry) in 3ds Max 2016. That browser will let you browse models in your game (even from the VPK) and load them directly into Max.

The MDL Loader is still not complete. But you can now load MDL files straight into Max! If you want to test it, understand these current limitations:

• Currently only available to WW Pro users to beta test. When released, will be added to free WW too.
• Only available in 3ds Max 2016 at this time (we intend on compiling to 2015-2017 once finalized
• While MDL and VMT files are now derived from VPK, VTF support is not yet added. This means that for the textures to load, the VTF/TGA must be present directly in the game/materials or the MATGEN path.
• LODS and Bodygroups are not yet loaded (just base mesh)
• Multiple Skins are not yet supported--only the base skin
• The collision hull is not yet supported.
• The MDL browser UI is not done.

Please read the changelog inside the beta download for a full list of updates in this beta. Also take note of the new MDL File Loader docs. Those docs are written for the final version so they may discuss features that are still not finished.

Note that because MDL loader is dependent on compiled plugins, the automatic updater for WW will soon be disabled and removed from WW. This is because DLL and DLR files are locked when Max is using them. That means that users will have to start learning to store WW in a known location on the filesystem instead of using the copy WW to appdata which was previously possible.