Source SDK
Encyclopedia
The Source SDK is a software development kit
compiled by Valve Software that is used to create maps or mods for the Source engine
, with the exception of Left 4 Dead
, Left 4 Dead 2
, Alien Swarm
, and Portal 2
. These games are packaged with their own SDKs, called the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools, the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools, the Alien Swarm SDK and the Portal 2 Authoring Tools respectively. They are all tweaked versions of the Source SDK, but tailored to suit the needs of the games and their engine builds.
, which used the 2007 version between May 11, 2010 and June 23, 2010, and various mods built on old Source 2007 code. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch was updated to the 2009 version of the Source engine on September 30, 2010. Although currently, all multiplayer Source games were updated to the Source Engine MP.
is a program included in the Source SDK that allows users to create maps for the Source Engine
. It can be used with many different game configurations, for Source games like Team Fortress 2
, Counter-Strike: Source
, and Portal.
Developers may use the program to view models and their corresponding animations, attachment points, bones, and so on. It can also be used to view props, weapons, buildings, and just about any other 3D object found except something which is a brush
(an object created in Hammer that makes up the actual world - something like a floor, wall, room, skybox or terrain). The Model Viewer can't view game textures either (Hammer is used for that purpose instead).
This tool allows one to:
Note that any packages including one or more of the above games come with the Source SDK and also that Half-Life: Source, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source and the free releases of Portal and Team Fortress 2 do not come with the Source SDK. Some of the games listed here may also be packaged with their own equivalent of the Source SDK, namely Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Alien Swarm, Portal 2 and Insurgency Modern Infantry Combat. However, in most cases, the Source SDK will still be available.
Software development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
compiled by Valve Software that is used to create maps or mods for the Source engine
Source engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
, with the exception of Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X...
, Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States and November 20 in Europe; in 2010, Left 4 Dead 2 was made available to...
, Alien Swarm
Alien Swarm
Alien Swarm is a total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 created by Black Cat Games and initially released on May 28, 2004. Alien Swarm, version 1.2 was released on September 10, 2004, with the official campaigns, Sigma and Ortega...
, and Portal 2
Portal 2
Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
. These games are packaged with their own SDKs, called the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools, the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools, the Alien Swarm SDK and the Portal 2 Authoring Tools respectively. They are all tweaked versions of the Source SDK, but tailored to suit the needs of the games and their engine builds.
Utilities
There are 4 utilities in the Source SDK:- Create a Mod: Dumps Source Engine code into a folder and places a mod directory under the SourceMods folder (Note: This appears neither in the Left 4 Dead (2) Authoring Tools, nor the Source 2009 version of the SDK.)
- Refresh SDK Content: Checks for data updates and downloads/refreshes new data
- Reset Game Configurations: Recreates game configurations with the basic games; mods mentioned in the configurations are removed unless manually edited
- Edit Game Configurations: Edits individual game configurations, primarily for Hammer
Engine versions
The Source SDK currently has three engine versions. A user can choose the 2006 version of the Source engine, which is only used by Half-Life: Source, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source, and various mods built on old Source 2006 code. All other Source games were updated to the most recent 2009 version of the Source engine, with the exceptions of Episode TwoHalf-Life 2: Episode Two
Half-Life 2: Episode Two is the second episode in a series of sequels to the 2004 first-person shooter video game Half-Life 2. It was developed by Valve Corporation in tandem with Episode One, the first game in the series, and released in Q4 2007 via Valve's Steam content distribution platform...
, which used the 2007 version between May 11, 2010 and June 23, 2010, and various mods built on old Source 2007 code. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch was updated to the 2009 version of the Source engine on September 30, 2010. Although currently, all multiplayer Source games were updated to the Source Engine MP.
Applications
There are three applications in the Source SDK, Valve Hammer Editor, Model Viewer, and Face Poser.Valve Hammer Editor
The Valve Hammer EditorValve Hammer Editor
Valve Hammer Editor, formerly known as Worldcraft and now commonly called Hammer, is Valve Software's map creation program for their game engine, Source. Old versions of Worldcraft also supported Quake and Quake II. Versions prior to 4 supported exclusively GoldSrc, Source's predecessor. The...
is a program included in the Source SDK that allows users to create maps for the Source Engine
Source engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
. It can be used with many different game configurations, for Source games like Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
, Counter-Strike: Source
Counter-Strike: Source
Counter-Strike: Source is an FPS video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is a complete remake of Counter-Strike using the Source game engine. As in the original, Counter-Strike: Source pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds...
, and Portal.
Model Viewer
The Model Viewer is a program that allows users to view models and can be used for a variety of different purposes, including development.Developers may use the program to view models and their corresponding animations, attachment points, bones, and so on. It can also be used to view props, weapons, buildings, and just about any other 3D object found except something which is a brush
Brush (video game)
Brushes are used in some 3D video games such as games based on the Source engine, its predecessor the Goldsrc engine, Unreal Engine's tool Unreal Editor, etc. to construct levels. Brushes can be primitive shapes , pre-defined shapes , or custom shapes...
(an object created in Hammer that makes up the actual world - something like a floor, wall, room, skybox or terrain). The Model Viewer can't view game textures either (Hammer is used for that purpose instead).
Face Poser
Face Poser is the tool used to access facial animations and choreography systems.This tool allows one to:
- Edit facial expressionsComputer facial animationComputer facial animation is primarily an area of computer graphics that encapsulates models and techniques for generating and animating images of the human head and face. Due to its subject and output type, it is also related to many other scientific and artistic fields from psychology to...
, gestures and movements for characters (known as actors), allowing one to mix or blend several expressions on the fly. - Lip synch speech with the speech the characters use (and blend the speech with other facial expressions). The phonemePhonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s used for lip-synching can be extracted from existing spoken .wavWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
files, and the tool takes care of the real-time association between the spoken phonemePhonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s and the movements of the lips. - Sequence expressions and other acting cues and preview what the scene will look like in the Game engineGame engineA game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
. A scene can refer to multiple actors and thus can be used to block out fairly complicated interactions and dialogue between game characters.
Full list of SDK applications
- bspzip: A command-line program that packs level-specific materials, models, and/or sounds into an existing BSP file.
- captioncompiler: A command-line program that compiles localized collections of Closed CaptioningClosed captioningClosed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...
text into a readable .dat file. - demoinfo: A command-line program used to view the data contained in a demo file (.dem format).
- dmxedit
- elementviewer
- glview: A program used to view a map's visibility leaves, a feature of the BSP file format.
- hammer: The level editor for Source.
- height2normal: Height map to normal mapNormal mappingIn 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or "Dot3 bump mapping", is a technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents. It is used to add details without using more polygons. A common use of this technique is to greatly enhance the appearance and details of a low polygon model by...
converter. - height2ssbump: Height map to SSBump map converter.
- hlfaceposer: The tool used to access facial animations and choreography systems.
- hlmv: A program that allows users to view models.
- mksheet: A command-line program used to combine frames into a single tiled image for use in particles.
- motionmapper: A command-line program used to remap skeletal animation motions onto a target skeleton.
- normal2ssbump: normal mapNormal mappingIn 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or "Dot3 bump mapping", is a technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents. It is used to add details without using more polygons. A common use of this technique is to greatly enhance the appearance and details of a low polygon model by...
to SSBump map converter. - pfm2tgas: A command-line program used to convert HDRHigh dynamic range renderingIn 3D computer graphics, high dynamic range rendering , also known as high dynamic range lighting, is the rendering of computer graphics scenes by using lighting calculations done in a larger dynamic range. This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios...
textures to multiple TGATruevision TGATruevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display...
textures of different exposures. - qc_eyes: A program that allows for the configuration of eye texture orientations in models.
- SDKLauncher: The launcher program for the SDK.
- shadercompile: A command-line program that is used to create shaders as part of a compile pipeline.
- splitskybox: A command-line program that cuts up a skyboxSkybox (video games)A skybox is a method of creating backgrounds to make a computer and video games level look bigger than it really is. When a skybox is used, the level is enclosed in a cuboid; and the sky, distant mountains, distant buildings, and other unreachable objects are projected onto the cube's faces , thus...
image to 6 separate textures: front, back, left, right, up, and down. - studiomdl: A command-line program that compiles SMD files into models.
- vbsp: A command-line program that compiles a VMF file to a native Source map, a BSP file.
- vbspinfo: A command-line program used to view the data contained in a BSP file.
- vconfig: An interface used to edit game configurations for the SDK's programs.
- vrad: A command-line program that calculates radiosity lighting on a pre-existing BSP file.
- vtex: A command-line program that converts TGATruevision TGATruevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display...
images into VTF texture files. - vtf2tga: A command-line program that converts VTF texture files into TGATruevision TGATruevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display...
images. - vvis: A command-line program that calculates visleafs (visibility leaves) on pre-existing BSP files.
- xwad: A command-line program that decompiles GoldSrcGoldSrcGoldSrc, or Goldsource, is the retronym used internally by Valve Software to refer to the heavily modified Quake engine that powers their science fiction first-person shooter Half-Life ....
WAD files, BMP images, and SPRSprite (computer graphics)In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
files into TGATruevision TGATruevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display...
or VTF images.
Useful Third-Party Applications for the Source SDK
- 3ds Max SMD exporter: An exporter for Autodesk 3ds Max that outputs an uncompiled SMD file.
- Batch Compiler: An application that allows a user to visually select map compilation parameters and compile a map without leaving Hammer open.
- Crafty: An application that views bspBinary space partitioningIn computer science, binary space partitioning is a method for recursively subdividing a space into convex sets by hyperplanes. This subdivision gives rise to a representation of the scene by means of a tree data structure known as a BSP tree.Originally, this approach was proposed in 3D computer...
, gl, map, mdl, vmf, and several other files. Allows for exporting to common formats like obj. - Entspy: An application that views and allows modification of entities in a compiled bsp file.
- GCFScape: An application that views and extracts the contents of GCF files.
- GUI StudioMDL: A GUIGraphical user interfaceIn computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
frontend for studiomdl. - MDLDecompiler: A program for decompiling Half-Life 2 and CS:Source models.
- Pakrat: An application that allows you to pack custom materials, models, etc. into a .bsp file. Kind of like bspzip.
- QuArKSAS: A utility to extract files from the Steam Filesystem.
- Terrain Generator: An application that is used to create terrain. Exports to common formats such as VMF.
- VMEX: An application that is used to decompile a BSP map to VMF.
- VTFLib: An application containing two programs, VTFCmd and VTFEdit. VTFCmd has the same functionality as vtex, but has more features such as batch conversion. VTFEdit is a GUIGraphical user interfaceIn computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
frontend for VTFLib.
List of Steam games packaged with the Source SDK
- Half-Life 2Half-Life 2Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
- Half-Life 2: Episode OneHalf-Life 2: Episode OneHalf-Life 2: Episode One is the first in a series of episodes that serve as the sequel for the 2004 first-person shooter video game Half-Life 2. It was developed by Valve Corporation and released on June 1, 2006. Originally called Half-Life 2: Aftermath, the game was later renamed to Episode One...
- Half-Life 2: Episode TwoHalf-Life 2: Episode TwoHalf-Life 2: Episode Two is the second episode in a series of sequels to the 2004 first-person shooter video game Half-Life 2. It was developed by Valve Corporation in tandem with Episode One, the first game in the series, and released in Q4 2007 via Valve's Steam content distribution platform...
- Half-Life 2: DeathmatchHalf-Life 2: DeathmatchHalf-Life 2: Deathmatch is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation. Released on Steam on November 30, 2004, it uses many of the assets from Half-Life 2, and the same Source engine. It features unique levels, optimized for multiplayer arena play, and a few new...
- Counter-Strike: SourceCounter-Strike: SourceCounter-Strike: Source is an FPS video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is a complete remake of Counter-Strike using the Source game engine. As in the original, Counter-Strike: Source pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds...
- Team Fortress 2Team Fortress 2Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
- Portal
- Day of Defeat: SourceDay of Defeat: SourceDay of Defeat: Source is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. Set in World War II, the game is an updated version of Day of Defeat, moving from the GoldSrc engine used by its predecessor to the Source engine...
- Left 4 DeadLeft 4 DeadLeft 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X...
- Left 4 Dead 2Left 4 Dead 2Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States and November 20 in Europe; in 2010, Left 4 Dead 2 was made available to...
- Alien SwarmAlien SwarmAlien Swarm is a total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 created by Black Cat Games and initially released on May 28, 2004. Alien Swarm, version 1.2 was released on September 10, 2004, with the official campaigns, Sigma and Ortega...
- Portal 2Portal 2Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
Note that any packages including one or more of the above games come with the Source SDK and also that Half-Life: Source, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source and the free releases of Portal and Team Fortress 2 do not come with the Source SDK. Some of the games listed here may also be packaged with their own equivalent of the Source SDK, namely Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Alien Swarm, Portal 2 and Insurgency Modern Infantry Combat. However, in most cases, the Source SDK will still be available.
External links
- Valve Developers Community - Official Source SDK wiki
- SourceMod - Third-party C++ and Pawn wrapper to the Source SDK for game server plugins and extensions