which source sdk should i download? Created 10 years ago2013-12-17 08:41:58 UTC by ninja defuse

i am going to make a Half-Life 2 map, i am thinking between "Source SDK" and "Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer"

No SDK needed, just start Hammer.bat in the steamapps/common/Half-Life 2/bin folder.

i can't find Hammer.bat, i am on Linux Ubuntu... i am going to download the SDK

Hammer doesn't run on non-Windows, you might try using Wine but I don't know how well Source Hammer works using it.

Old VHE (3.5) works perfectly on Linux, i tested it.
Not sure about Source VHE.

I still don't understand the purpose of these Source SDK Base... games, if you can call them games. Do we need them?

And when you want to make a map for, let's say, HL2, Ep1 or Ep2, should you map for HL2, Source SDK Base 2007, SDK Base 2009 or SDK Base 2013?

It's so confusing what you need and if you need it at all.

@the mighty atom
i have found something:

[quote]
Engine branch

Before starting a mod you need to choose which version of Source you will use. Change the SDK's engine version to the one you want.

Source 2006

Outdated - Original Half Life 2: Episode One mod. Only included for backwards compatibility reasons.

Source 2007

Original Orange Box mod. This is the most recent HL2-Based engine branch available. This is what most mods use!

Source 2009

Updated Orange Box mod. This is the current version of the engine with Mac support. However, you cannot make a mod for Source 2009; you can make a content-only mod of a 2009 game by following Creating a Mod manually.

Alien Swarm (via Alien Swarm SDK)

The oddball of the bunch. Alien Swarm is totally free to play and its SDK includes source code, but it's source code for a top-down shooter. It also lacks many of the HL2-compatible code's peripheral tools (including custom shader support) and cannot access HL2's content.

Source 2013

In 2013, Valve phased out the Source SDK with the release of SteamPipe. With this change, they updated the source code to the latest version of the Source-1-Engine for the HL2-based engine branch. This time around, the source code is not made available via an SDK launcher, but is instead hosted on Github. See Source SDK 2013 for more information.

Warning:Your Engine Version in the Source SDK must match the Engine branch of your mod! Failing to do this will result in Source SDK tools being unable to load required resources.
[/quote]

Lovely, but I still didn't understand

If you're making a map, use the Hammer that's included with the game binaries. If you're making a mod, use the SDK and the SDK base.

Yep What PB said.
I map regularly for EP2 so its in common/Half-Life2/ep2/bin
Run hammer.bat and make sure you don't have any environment variables set

That's for Windows platforms anyway.

Valve really messed with the modders in 2013

But I thought the SDK was being phased out. What. And even then, you can only choose the actual games, not one of the SDK Base games. It's a mess. I guess you have to change the AppID to the SDK Base AppID?

The SDK LAUNCHER is being phased out for all existing games.
The SDK itself is now just the same collection of tools chilling in the games 'bin' folder.

If you want to create a mod, you must download the standard issue Source SDK and use that to create a mod. Once your mod is created, restart steam, run the game, then you can run tools specific to your mod from the Standard Source SDK.

I've never heard anything about the app ids

So you're saying you still need the SDK launcher to actually create a mod, let it create the mod files, the C++ source code and whatnot AND that you don't need a SDK Base?

Just shoot me already.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure you don't need the SDK base. Could always be wrong though. And you're saying shoot YOU?
lmfao. if you only knew what i'm going through right now haha

I was about to mail an instant-punch toy to Valve, when I found this thread.
Why the hell do I have to browse these intricate folder structures to START HAMMER, when it worked perfectly in the SDK.

I feel like the Valve developers are the most lazy asses ever.

[EDIT] Holy shit, now I have missing textures and stuff all over the place. It's a total mess.

Since Skals shouted this...NOOOOOOooooo

EDIT2: HOW do I compile for EPISODE 2? Found out how: Tools>Options>Configuration.

I have a new problem though:What happened to the model browser? The black interface is horrible, and some models aren't even viewable because of this(like some foliage).

Also, notice the texture currently selected in the top-right? That's a texture used in a HL1 project( hammer 3.5). What?

New bug/inconvenience: there's no feedback when clicking/hovering over a brush corner(those little white squares). That is truly annoying.

Indeed, the black interface of the model browser is terrible. I liked it before when it had the old green-ish Steam UI color.

And having no feedback while hovering over the selection handles is indeed annoying. What the hell did Valve do to break such a little tiny feature like changing the cursor icon when hovering over the handles that has been in Hammer since the GoldSource age. Unbelievable.

Sledge! Sledge!

Sledge is for 3.5, right?

for now