Looking to start modding for a university project

[temp89]

Hello, I am a neuroscientist experimenting with EMG (muscle detection), specifically with the hands. I want to create a virtual environment where the 3d hands you see on screen take 1:1 input from your real hands. I picked on the source engine due to its relative openness, its physics engine and the wide array of props you can mess around with.

I'm looking for tutorials on how to code new player interactions. Most of the tutorials I find are on mapping or modelling. I write code frequently in Matlab but I fear it's not the same level as coding for this game. How would I start going about this?

 

[Ennui]

I'm afraid you have quite the task ahead of you coding wise. The SDK provides much of the game's source code and everything you need, but you will have to learn your way around the code and figure out how it works. It's all C++. There are some coding resources for HL2 modding out there, but in general you are going to have to do a lot of it on your own or find help from someone with Source experience.

Key resources:
hlcoders mailing list - http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
Valve Developer Community - http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Main_Page (this is probably your best resource for coding/engine information)

There are a lot of community sites out there with a couple of simple coding tutorials, but many are outdated or extremely basic. There is really extensive level design documentation and tutorials available, but coding in the Source engine is notoriously esoteric for people who aren't familiar with it or aren't familiar with game code in general. You'll want to download the SDK, set it up with Visual Studio or whatever (there are tutorials for this on the VDC) and just start acquainting yourself with the source code and work from there.

You might want to look at the Unreal Development Kit and see if that better suits your purposes - it's another very powerful modern engine with a full set of tools (and a much smoother workflow than Source) and has the advantage of having comparatively great coding documentation for UnrealScript, as well as some very active forums and community resources for tutorials and questions and whatnot. Just a thought. I love Source but for your purposes UDK might be easier to work with.

On the other hand, UDK has very limited content (models, textures, etc for you to use in your project) whereas Source has all of the content from the Half-Life games to play with...

 

[PsychoJim]

Hi there, I'm a psychologist likewise looking to use Source/Half-Life 2 to create virtual environments. I'm afraid you're one step ahead of me based on what you've said already - I'm still learning how to create a basic map with rooms, doors and windows etc. However I have spent some time looking into the various potential applications that could be used for creating virtual environments. I settled on Half-Life 2 since it was cheap, intuitive, and had a strong user base. However you might also want to consider NeuroVR, Torque (from GarageGames), and as Ennui mentioned above, UDK. Like HL2, UDK has a strong community, is fairly intuitive and is flexible and powerful. However it seems far more power hungry than HL2, having blue-screened my computer a few times.