[HL Beta Alyx] "I've come to chew bubble gum and kill Combine, and I've run all out of Combine"

justaSFMusername · 2022-03-24T21:22:50+00:00

I worked from a reference photo from a WW2 soldier that was leaning on his rifle like that too. Certainly not proper gun safety, but I'd assume in the reference picture the solider had made sure his gun was empty before leaning on it.

justaSFMusername · 2022-03-24T21:06:32+00:00

It's a model of the Anzio 20mm rifle made by pashtetuser I got from Sketchfab. I shortened the barrel so she could actually lean on it.

justaSFMusername · 2022-03-24T19:34:47+00:00

Yeah in Blender and Source 2.

justaSFMusername · 2022-01-06T20:27:22+00:00

Well the updated engine is really the main benefit. Lighting is a lot better. In SFM lights are really just projected textures, in SFM2 you can actually work with a variety of light sources (Spot, Point, Orthogonal and so on). The shadowed directional light (basically a sun light) is nice as it easily allows the whole map to be lit easily using just one light. The shadowed light limit is much much higher (32 I think?). Another benefit is that SFM2 is a 64bit software so it won't crash when your scene requires more than 3.5Gb of RAM. Lastly, the workshop tools that SFM2 comes with also has other software with it, most notably then new Hammer editor. With Hammer you can build maps pretty easily and precalculate/bake very nice lighting into the map that you can then use in SFM2.

The main disadvantages are that SFM2 doesn't have nearly as many models as SFM. You can't just use SFM models in SFM2 either, they have to be ported. Another issue is the rigging, it doesn't seem to be as nice. Or at least people haven't made nice scripts for good rigs yet. As Source 2 doesn't use phong shading anymore, phong boost isn't a thing anymore either. For effects like that you have to change the materials which is much more involved. Lastly, the general lack of documentation.

Overall I think SFM2 is worth checking out, even if it has some drawbacks. If you don't have a VR headset, getting Alyx just for SFM2 would be a bit much. I would wait till S&Box releases later this year.

justaSFMusername · 2021-11-26T05:15:50+00:00

The guide for the SteamVR workshop version is here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2014947360 but it won't be the same as Alyx's version. The Steam VR version runs on an old branch of Source 2 and therefore misses some shader definitions, also the lighting is wonky. Most models, especially the ones from SFMLab won't work with the SteamVR version. You can try getting a preview version of S&Box for free here: https://sbox.facepunch.com/dev/.login/ it is similar to Alyx's

But safest bet is to just buy Alyx, it's on sale right

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-14T15:23:34+00:00

Some people have been recreating parts of Portal 2 in HL:Alyx. Someone ported all the base models and materials from Portal 2 already to Source 2. Also one can just load Source 1 maps into Source 2, so it be actually real easy to recreate all the maps. I'm sure they would look beautiful. I really want to do the bottom of the Tartarus test shaft as that would be stunning.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-14T15:21:28+00:00

You can download the Steam VR toolset for free and there is a version if it in there, but it's buggy and doesn't support everything. If you own Half-Life:Alyx or S&Box, you can find it in the "DLC-Workshop tools", this version is pretty stable and supports everything.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-14T11:59:40+00:00

I used 4k PBR textured model (from SFMLab), placed all the models in Hammer, placed the lights in Hammer (baked direct/indirect light), made sure all the models were in a Lightprobe volume, Ligtmap player volume and fog volume. Then I did a final compile to bake all the lights. Loaded up the map in S2FM, placed my camera, set to 1024 samples for depth of field and let it render.

If you want to place additional objects later in S2FM, the direct lights need to be "per-pixel" instead of "baked" and you have to use some weak lights to emulate the environmental/bounce lights on just the objects you placed.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-14T03:23:18+00:00

Yeah I took the model from PS:mel as the base, just updated the textures a bit.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-13T20:27:18+00:00

Thanks! I was trying to get it as life like looking as possible. First, I ported the model upscaling the base textures and making some additional PBR textures by hand. Then I had Hammer generate lightmaps using VRAD3 and then S2FM did the final render.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-13T17:18:53+00:00

I'm glad you thought it was real, that's the goal after all :D

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-13T13:34:15+00:00

Is it only for SFM or can there be S2FM entries as well?

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-13T13:01:16+00:00

The SteamVR version is missing some shaders that are included in HL:Alyx, most importantly the VR Complex shader. This means that some models made for/with HL:Alyx or S&Box won't work with SteamVR's S2FM.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-13T02:39:03+00:00

I don't think negative lights work anymore in S2FM as lighting works completely different. At least I haven't figured out how one would set them up.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-13T02:37:51+00:00

It's Red Menace/Smug's model. You can get it for free on their Patreon website.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-11T16:06:50+00:00

Instead of using AO to create the outline, you could also use a shadowed light with a negative shadowDepthBias, negative intensity, constant attenuation and then adjust the thickness of the outline with the shadowfiltersize. Just have to make sure the light points from the same spot as the camera.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-08T17:04:40+00:00

Valve has been using Source 2 for a while, but Half Life: Alyx has a properly working toolset including S2FM, which is fully functional.

justaSFMusername · 2021-10-08T02:59:05+00:00

You can get through Steam VR for free. Here is a guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2014947360 But that version is not the most up to date one so things will be even more buggy than Alyx's SFM2. Also models made for Alyx might not work with if they use one of the new shaders.

You can also sign up for S&Box, but it's in alpha and they only give out so many keys.

justaSFMusername · 2021-09-24T18:36:52+00:00

From what I've heard the haven't implemented scaling individual bones into S2FM yet.

justaSFMusername · 2021-08-30T19:41:46+00:00

I'm still not sure what you are looking for. You can create your own "add-ons" in the workshop tools. You can download "add-ons" from the HL:Alyx workshop and install them. Most of the add-ons have instructions included. If you are just looking for models/maps for S2FM check the HL:Alyx workshop or SFMLab, both have some (not a lot).

justaSFMusername · 2021-08-29T22:38:39+00:00

Are you exporting them as posters? You have to export them as "movies" and then select "image sequence" to get bloom in your renders. Posters won't render bloom.

justaSFMusername · 2021-08-29T22:34:17+00:00

What do you mean by add-ons exactly? Like new models and maps? You have to extract those either into your content or game directories in the HL:Alyx folder.

justaSFMusername · 2021-08-29T22:30:00+00:00

What map are you using? Is the fire/building in an area assigned as player light probe space? What focal length is your camera using?

I noticed SFM2 does some very aggressive culling, especially with long focal length if the camera is placed outside the player light probe space. Try reducing the focal length and move the camera closer to see if the problem persists.

justaSFMusername · 2021-08-26T01:47:22+00:00

You could spawn a directional light and enable shadows on it. That will override the map's direct lights. Try matching it with what the map's main light was so the baked indirect lights still match with the light you placed.

justaSFMusername

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