Update for Kreedz Climbing, Map compilers, Workshop Tools released

An update for Kreedz Climbing has been released. This patch will be automatically applied by Steam within 15 minutes. You may have to restart Steam for the update to immediately begin downloading.

Please note that when a patch is released, the currently running servers will be out of date and won't show up on your server browser anymore. Once they update they will appear again!

Hello climbers! This is going to be a big post, so bear with me as we have quite a few things to talk about!

First, the return of a much-loved map from Kreedz Climbing's mod days, kz_sheol!

This level was removed from the game after the transition to Steam for technical reasons, but with those issues resolved, the map returns! Use your KZ skills to climb to safety and escape the underworld!

kz_sheol was created by the talented Millet who is also responsible for several other official maps for Kreedz Climbing, and it's a pleasure to see his work return!

Now for the patch notes:

Kreedz Climbing:

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed respawning from a trigger_legbreak sent the player to the spawn momentarily, falsely activating spawn-related triggers.
• Non-standard aspect ratios in detail prop textures are now supported.
• Fixed ammo count for the USP not updating when spectating other players.
• Fixed the name of other players not always appearing in some situations while in spectator mode.
• Fixed hammer expert compile settings being reset to default when verifying game content.

Additions:

• info_player_start and info_player_seeker now support global Enable/Disable as well as AddAllowedPlayer and RemoveAllowedPlayer, allowing mappers to directly control spawn locations.
• Added an OnSpawn output to info_player_start and info_player_seeker. The activator will be the player who spawned.
• Added -use_hammer_resources command line option, which enables the hammer resources folder to (temporarily) be used by the game. Please see the section on VBSP Autopack for more information.
• Serverside workshop downloads are now more descriptive to ressure server operators the server hasn't frozen during the loading phase. Note that servers may appear temporarily unresponsive as they decompress workshop maps.

Kreedz Climbing Development Tools:

• Fixed a bug causing cubemaps in the map to become corrupted in some cases, which manifested itself as pink-and-black reflections on specular textures for some players. A map affected by this bug will have to be re-uploaded via the updated tool to correct the issue.

Map compile tools:

VBSP, the first stage of the compile process:

New feature: Autopack

Autopack is a new feature, built directly into vbsp, which is capable of automatically detecting and packing custom content (materials, models etc) during the compile phase, a task normally performed by a third-party tool such as Pakrat or VIDE. Invoked using the -autopack command in Hammer's expert compile dialog.

• -autopack, which when used will compile a list of custom content the map depends on during vbsp compile and automatically pack it without mapper intervention.
• A new folder has been created in the kz folder, "hammer_resources". This contains a materials, models folder like the base game, but this is only loaded by Hammer and the vbsp autopack function. Custom mapping content can (and now should) be placed in these folders - this means that when testing your autopacked map, the content you see is what's inside the packfile, making any packing errors immedietely obvious. What you see is what another player will see upon loading your Workshop map.
• Autopack will automatically generate .dx80.vtx files for custom models that don't have them. .dx.80.vtx is required to support Kreedz Climbing's DX8 mode, and some custom models made for later Source engine games aren't released with them.

Autopack comes with the following additional commands:

• -autopackstrict: Like -autopack, but won't generate a .bsp file if any of the custom content dependencies can't be found. Useful to make sure there are no missing files.
• -dependencies: Normally vbsp will only print a list of missing files, this will cause the tool to display the names of every piece of custom content the map currently uses.
• -onlydependencies: Like -dependencies, but won't generate any files, used for information-only compiles.
• -allowoverrides: If you place files with the same name as original game content in the hammer_resources folder, your map's packfile will override the original content, causing players on just that map to see that content. This might not be what you want (as future update to that content will be ignored on your map), so you have to intentially opt-in to content overriding with this command.
• -ignoreoverrides: You may have a lot of accidentally overriden content in your hammer_resources folder - this may happen if you extract a HL2 .vpk for example. If you are absolutely sure you don't want to do any overriding and deleting the offending content is too time consuming, specify this command and vbsp will completely ignore it and stop complaining.
• -packmapfolder: Automatically attempts to pack the contents of <vmfdirectory>/packfiles/<mapname> into the map during compile.
• -embed <directory>: Attempts to embed the contents of this directory into the packfile during compile.

As said before, autopack requires any content you intend to be packed into your map to be placed into the hammer_resources folder. For example:

kz/materials/mytextures/wall.vmt must be moved to:

kz/hammer_resources/materials/mytextures/wall.vmt

Please see the upcoming Steam guide on custom content packing for more information.

Other changes to vbsp:

• Maps with leaks in them will no longer compile, unless -allowleaks is added to the command line.
• Maps with no info_player_start will no longer compile.
• Smoothing groups now work on func_detail geometry.
• Previously-compiled versions of the map will now be renamed to .bak, meaning if the compile fails, later tools will fail too with a missing file, instead of potentially running VIS and RAD on an old version of the bsp.

VRAD, the lighting stage of the compile process:

• Up to 60% faster compile speed ( thank you for the contribution here).
• Fixed an ingame crash that can occur when using -staticpropshadows.
• Added a new command option -maxquality, implies -final -textureshadows -staticpropshadows -staticproppolys.

Thanks for bearing with me during this long announcement! Hopefully these changes will make mapping a more pleasant experience. Happy climbing!