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Category Archives: Tutorials
Windows 7 in .Net – Jump Lists
Editor’s Note: This article was originally written in February 2010, and at the time the released version of .Net (version 3.5) did not implement features new to Windows 7. These features are now accessible in .Net 4.0 which has since … Continue reading
The Carve Tool and You
There’s something I’ve always wanted to discuss in regards to mapping with Valve Hammer Editor, and that is the use of the carve tool. As far as I’m aware, the carve tool was never intended to be used with anything other than a rectangular brush, because when given a more complicated primitive to work with (such as a cylinder) the results become quite messy.
This has resulted in many veteran mappers adopting a viewpoint that is essentially “NEVER USE THE CARVE TOOL”, which is then passed on to new and aspiring source mappers who read those kinds of comments in tutorials and forum posts. Despite this, the carve tool remains a useful technique for quickly creating rectangular holes in a brush and shouldn’t be discarded from your mapping arsenal. Continue reading
Creating Source Maps with SketchUp
Valve released the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools recently, which included some plugins for Google SketchUp. In this video, I’ll show you the basics of exporting SketchUp geometry into the .VMF format. The plugins export generic VMF data, so it works with other Source games too. If you don’t have Left 4 Dead, you won’t have the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools, so I’ve uploaded the SketchUp plugins for anyone who wants them for mapping in other source games:
http://files.nacimota.com/sketchup_plugins.zip Continue reading
Working with the Windows Registry
Our website contains many tutorials that require editing the Windows Registry. Rather than summarizing the process in every article, I thought it might be better to make a more in-depth exploration separately. In this tutorial, I will explain what the Windows Registry is, how to edit its contents and the risks associated with doing so.
In the early days of Windows, applications would often store their configuration data in text documents called initialization files. Typically, these files would use an extension like .ini, .txt, .cfg, etc. One of the major problems with this particular system was that with the sheer number of applications installed, the .ini files would become scattered across the file system, making them difficult to track. After the release of Windows 95, in an effort to further standardize and manage configuration for applications and Windows, Microsoft encouraged software developers to use the Windows Registry as an alternative to INI files for storing configuration data. In the years that followed, the Windows Registry became the standard repository for application settings. Continue reading
Hiding User Accounts on Windows
On Windows XP, it is possible to hide user accounts from both the Welcome Screen and the User Accounts control panel. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how. I’m sure people have various reasons for wanting to do this, so here we go. Continue reading
User Account Control and You
In this tutorial, I’ll discuss disabling and configuring User Account Control (UAC) on Windows Vista, along with the pros and cons of doing so.
User Account Control, or UAC as it’s often called, is arguably the most controversial feature of Windows Vista. It’s also probably fair to say that it’s Vista’s most misunderstood feature. Continue reading