Previewing models in the official (obsolete) Hammer? Created 5 years ago2019-08-31 21:34:41 UTC by MOCOLONI

I've never been a fan of community Hammers such as Sledge or J.A.C.K., so I'm using Half-Life SDK's one with a tweaked halflife-cs.fgd that I made. However, one of the things I never found out is the ability to enable model previews on entities such as cycler_sprite, and I don't know if it's related to the FGD or Hammer itself. If the former, what should be done? The only workaround for me right now is play with the entity until achieving the desired position in the map, which is somewhat time-consuming.

In the FGD entity definition, add studio().
@PointClass base(Target) studio() = env_something
Not sure if you gotta make the following change as well, but:
model(string) : "Model" should he changed to:
model(studio) : "Model"
Note: this is just an example, there is no env_something.

Hammer 3.4 doesn't support models, if I recall correctly. 3.5.2 beta does, however.

VHE 3.5 (the last official by Valve) supports it, and needs something in the .fgd like Admer mentioned

Right.
In case you don't have Hammer 3.5 and the fgd file, here you go:

Hammer 3.5 (executable only)
Hammer 3.5 fgd file
Counter-Strike expert fgd file for Hammer 3.5

Admer456 said:In the FGD entity definition, add studio().
@PointClass base(Target) studio() = env_something
Not sure if you gotta make the following change as well, but:
model(string) : "Model" should he changed to:
model(studio) : "Model"
Note: this is just an example, there is no env_something.

Hammer 3.4 doesn't support models, if I recall correctly. 3.5.2 beta does, however.

Alright, thank you.
I also took a look at an exemplary FGD and noticed that some of them also have 'Sequence' for studios with models - are those for models with animations?

Bruce said:VHE 3.5 (the last official by Valve) supports it, and needs something in the .fgd like Admer mentioned

I'm no expert, but it makes me wonder if 3.5 is actually a Valve product as it can't be found anywhere 'officially'.

The Mad Carrot said:Right.
In case you don't have Hammer 3.5 and the fgd file, here you go:

Hammer 3.5 (executable only)
Hammer 3.5 fgd file
Counter-Strike expert fgd file for Hammer 3.5

Is there something like an official hosting for Hammer 3.5?

MOCOLONI said:I also took a look at an exemplary FGD and noticed that some of them also have 'Sequence' for studios with models - are those for models with animations?

It's used for previewing model animations in Hammer. You put in the number of the sequence (as defined in the model, you'll have to use a model viewer or decompile to model to find a list of all animations for a model) and the entity will play that animation in the 3D viewport.

MOCOLONI said:I'm no expert, but it makes me wonder if 3.5 is actually a Valve product as it can't be found anywhere 'officially'.

It is made by Valve, but it isn't officially supported as it was only released as a beta. I believe it was only ever released on the old VERC website, which has been defunct for years, which is why it can't be found "officially" anywhere anymore.

The 3.5 beta was posted on VERC only - it's a build from Valve, but they never "finished" the release so it's not included in the official SDK. See the page on our VERC mirror at VERC: Hammer Beta, which is the closest you could get to an "official" download now that VERC is offline.

Dr. Orange said:It is made by Valve, but it isn't officially supported as it was only released as a beta. I believe it was only ever released on the old VERC website, which has been defunct for years, which is why it can't be found "officially" anywhere anymore.

Thanks a bunch!

• Reference for future readers:
  • Latest proper archive of Hammer 3.5 at the now-dead Valve ERC website: http://web.archive.org/web/20080420133241/http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=hammer_beta
  • TWHL reupload: https://twhl.info/wiki/page/VERC%3A_Hammer_Beta

Edit: removed my propaganda link. I'm sorry if the edit bumped the thread...