Source SDK Release Notes

Source SDK Update 01/24/2008

Activating the Source SDK Beta.

Getting the Source SDK Beta

1. Go to File > Settings in the Steam client.
2. Click on the Change... button in the client participation section and select Source SDK Update in the drop-list of beta programs.
3. Click OK and restart Steam when you are prompted to do so.

Enhancements

SDK Launcher

• There is now a drop list that allows the user to switch between engine versions. No need to specify engine version as a launch option.

SDK Source Code

• Modders can now create single player and multi-player mods based in the HL2:Episode Two source code when the engine version is set to The Orange Box.
• It is still possible to create mods based on HL2:Episode One using the legacy version of the Source Engine.

Faceposer

• New menu option allows the user to build a scenes.image file. This allows users to add custom scenes to Orange Box games.

Hammer

• Two new lighting preview modes are available. 'Note:' 3D Ray-traced Lighting Preview can cause Hammer to run slowly for complicated maps.

Bug fixes

Hammer

• Fixed crashes that began as a result of a Source Engine update the week of 1/7.
• Hammer lighting preview renders some scenes completely dark.

SDK Launcher

• The %VProject% env var is again being dynamically set when you change the current mod in the SDK launcher.

Content Creation Utilities

• There is no longer a need to add -nop4 to the command lines of studiomdl and vtex.

SDK Source Code

• Client and server DLLs are now being copied to mod's 'bin' directory after build.
• Create Mod Wizard now adds App IDs 420 (HL2:Ep2) and 440 (TF2) to the mod's gameinfo.txt for SP and MP mods respectively.

Current Known Issues

• Cannot create shortcuts to Hammer, Faceposer, and Model Viewer.
• Linux makefiles shipped with the SDK are incomplete and will be updated in the next release.
• The Particle Editor is not presently included in the Source SDK.
• Updated SDK shaders are not presently included in the Source SDK.

See Source SDK Known Issues or Bugzilla for a more complete list of known issues and workarounds.

Previous Releases

• Click here for information on previous releases.