I Hate Mountains

Believe me, we’d really like to add some news on this front page, but I got an unfortunate accident with my Source SDK. Today, without any warning, it just stopped working. When opening up the Source SDK Launcher, there’s nothing I can do anymore. It opens correctly, but I can’t click anymore on the tools. If I try to double-click on Hammer Editor, Model Viewer or Face Poser, the SDK Launcher just stops itself without any error message and without launching the corresponding application.

This is not the first time the Source SDK stops working… but this is the first time it does not display any error message. I tried the usual stuff: Refresh SDK Content, Reset Game Configurations, Defragment Cache Files, Verify Integrity of Tool Cache, Restart Steam, Reboot Windows, Delete the ClientRegistry.blob, uninstall and reinstall the Source SDK GCFs, delete everything SDK-related in Steam and reinstall everything from scratch… I even deleted the whole Valve preferences from the registry. So far no change.

I used the SDK for a few hours and it stopped working when I tried to relaunch Hammer using a different game configuration. The only thing I did before it stopped working is install the Dawn of War II Demo (but I doubt this was related, I uninstalled it just to be sure). There was also a Steam update released at the same time… I really don’t know what to do, if some of you already faced the same problem someday and know what to do, please post in the comments or send an email to nicolas@ihatemountains.com, I really need it to finish the fifth map of the campaign…

Edit April 18:
I just entirely uninstalled Steam and reinstalled it only with Source SDK to witness that it doesn’t change anything. I’m now completely stuck.

Edit April 19:
Mokay, I uninstalled Steam again, trashed ALL the GCFs (sigh), deleted the whole Valve registry key, cleaned the computer with TuneUp, and installed everything back from scratch (40 GB of GCFs to download, sigh) and things seems to be working again. Thanks to the people who tried to help there and via e-mail, much appreciated.

Yesterday, we learnt that some people managed to get their hands on some private-exclusive-early access to the Left 4 Dead SDK. Which means a few things :

1. First, that there is a SDK. That’s not as bad as some people thought after all. Even if it’s five months late, it’s still better than never.
2. Second, that Valve is testing it. Therefore, we can assume that they got it right this time. Hopefully, when the “new” SDK comes out, it shouldn’t screw everything during several weeks this time. But seriously, we’re not really this confident, and chose to prevent the automatic SDK update in Steam anyway.
3. Third, we know that someone at Valve’s headquarters is reading this blog, Google Analytics is tracking you! What are you waiting for to offer us an early access to this SDK? Come on! Mail us at team@ihatemountains.com, dont be shy!

Anyway, since I developed a little tool to handle the custom content, sort it between Left 4 Dead content and external stuff and embed it automatically in the map files, it’s not much of a problem anymore. BUT STILL, we’d really like to see the new functionalities, if any.