Cross-Purpose and General Development
- VERC - Valve Editing Resource Collective. This site's predecessor, which offers primarily HL1 resources (Official)
- Game-Advance.net - Very small new modding community. Focus is on source engine, but forums exist for non-source modding as well. Hosts modding projects.
- hl.tozcentral.net - Half Life and Half-Life 2 resource, Post your own bots, maps, media, mods and tutorials
- HL2World.com - Half Life 2 Knowledge Base
- Nem's Tools - Several useful Source tools including GCFScape
- TWHL - Mapping community and tutorial site, mostly HL1.
- Wunderboy.org - Several useful Source tools including VTFTool
- C-SEC - Japanese Source modding and mapping development site, including with translated many SDK documents to Japanese.
- Gamedesign.net - Some helpful modding and mapping tutorials.
- GamesModding.com Tutorial Database - A list of almost every Half-Life 2 modding tutorial out there.
- Handy Vandal's Almanac - One of the original top editing resource sites for Half Life, contains some HL2 info. Linked to in Worldcraft's help menu.
- Interlopers.net - News and general resources
- LevelDesign.nu - A large Swedish game-dev community which covers texturing, mapping and modeling.
- Mapcore - A great place to get mapping, modelling and texture help from industry pros.
- Mod Database - Free listings of mods for almost every moddable game. A great database full of tons of information on mods that are out there.
- Modhelp.net - A developing modding community.
- Mod HQ - Comprehensive news resource for Half-Life 2 modifications and Steam related content in general. Valve visits it. Why not you?
- PixelGames - File reviews and downloads, real friendly editing site based on community!
- The Snarkpit - Mapping and modelling community site
- Sourceblog - General tutorials (Many on Texturing/Skinning)
- SourceWiki - Unofficial and older Source Wiki
- Wavelength - One of the original sources of HL1 editing material, now steadily servicing HL2
Mapping
- Custom Source Tools - Source Mapping Compile Tools - Faster, and more helpful with errors over the V Tools (Includes 64bit, and Linux versions)
- ZHLT - Zoners Half Life Tools - Faster, and more helpful with errors over the Q Tools (Includes 64bit, and Linux Source Code)
- Madedog's E-Portal - A small amount of great step-by-step tutorials.
- Mir Half-life2 - Tutorials on Mapping, all in Russian!(Все по русски!)
- Shammers Forums - A small community, with a couple of useful tutorials.
- Edit Life - Mapping articles, entity list, error documentation and forums
- Half-wit 2 - Another collection of Mapping tutorials
- Hl2Mapping.com - A Friendly helpful, mapping community.
- I Wanna Map - You wanna map, We wanna help. For Tutorials and help
- Mapping-area - Tutorials on Mapping, Beginner to Advanced, all in french!
- NiRiDa Studios - Comunidad Española de Edición en Source - Spanish Community for the Source Engine edition tutorials.
- zombie's * Edited* Optimization Page An in-depth guide to optimizing your maps.
- RobotChaos Map Making Tutorial - Along with a few other things (Sprays, etc.) - Has a small ever building step by step tutorial on making maps taken from a beginner's perspective.
- SdK Central - A small but growing community with map submissions, tutorials and overall help.
- SourcePrefabs.com - Great source for download-able prefabs to use in Hammer with a growing community.
- Spillmodding.no A norwegian mapping community with more than 130 tutorials for more than 13 engines!
- zombie's Optimizing-page information on optimizing your map
- TAz00.com 22+ Tutorials on Mapping, Beginner to Advanced, 10+ Maps with source files included!
- DispEd - Precise displacement editor used to make geometric shapes in the style of "Quake 3 patches."
Modeling
- Cannonfodder's Tools - 3DSMax Importers and Exporters, Dispgen - Displacement Terrains from heightmaps, StudioCompiler - Model/Texture Compiler/Decompiler, winBSPzip - BSP Packer
- RnL Forums' Lightwave Plugins - Lightwave mesh export plugins. Not currently available, but may be in the future.
- Insects Infestation - II SDK modeling Export models to Source engine tutorials for 3DSMax, Maya, MS3D, XSI, FRAG.
- CG Talk The largest and most useful model discussion/news site on the internet.
- Digital Tutors - Excellent video tutorials, free and packaged, for using SoftImage|XSI and Adobe Photoshop
- Redemption - Modeling tutorials and blog for XSI and HL2 Source
Programming
Sample Source Code
Other
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Sorry I thought this only edited on my screen. :(
Image Creation and Editing
- Adobe Photoshop - The standard image editing tool in the industy, used by professionals all over the world. Very expensive.
- Paint Shop Pro - A cheap alternative to Adobe Photoshop. For those who don't want to break the bank.
- Adobe Photoshop Elements - Low-cost, consumer version of Photoshop with high-end features such as colour management removed.
- Paint.NET - An open source .NET based image manipulation program.
- The GIMP - Completely free, open source image editing software available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and other UNIX operating systems. Complex to use, but powerful, scriptable and endlessly modifiable.
- Wally - Simple freeware texture/decals/skining editing program.
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3D Modelling, Animation and Rendering
- Maya 3D - Excellent modeling and animation package. Considered to be one of the best among modders. Also expensive.
- 3D Studio Max - Powerful tool for modeling and animation, one of the industry's best. Expensive.
- Blender - Free, open source modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback library/engine/IDE.
- Milkshape3D - Low cost, popular and simple to use 3D modelling program.
- Lightwave 3D - Excellent modelling & animation tool. See Lightwave for links to HL2 exporters. Like every other high end package, it is considered to be one of the best by its fans. :) Expensive, but less so than others.
- Softimage|XSI - Program used to make models & animations for HL2. XSI Mod Tool is available for FREE.
- Wings3D - Free, open source Nendo-alike natural modeling IDE.
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Resources
Content for your project.
Photo Reference
- 3d.sk - Human Photo References for 3D Artists and Game Developers (large source -partly free)
- Morguefile.com - Lots of free photos. Anything from fruit to cement factories.
- ShutterStock - 700,000 photos/vectors/illustrations/images/etc avail by subscription. All royalty-free.
- TextureRef.com - Online repository of Texturekits and high-res Photo References for Artists (small source - partly free)
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