ValveSoftware
[Request] Update singleplayer branch
Title speaks for itself. Please update the singleplayer branch just like you did with multiplayer!
Updating it the same way would bring a nightmare to many, many more mods than with the MP branch. Not making it a separate appid was a huge mistake and if SP is updated "just like" it it'll be absolute doom for modding. That's beside a hundred of current issues, too. The longer SP is left alone the longer modding is alive.
Not making it a separate appid was a huge mistake and if SP is updated "just like" it it'll be absolute doom for modding
I mean, they can always create a new appid for SP, right?
if SP is updated "just like" it
By "just like" i meant only the codebase.
And you know what? I don't care if they won't create a new appid for this, because all the mods require you to switch the Source SDK 2013 Base Singleplayer to "upcoming" beta. If they could just update the main depot or whatever i don't care something else while keeping this god damn "upcoming" beta same and change a description to say "for legacy mods pre-2025" or some shit, then i'tll work!!܀
Got a little angry over this, i apologize. But really now, why wouldn't you like 64-bit binaries? Why wouldn't you like to have most of the features and fixes that the MP branch recently had in an update?
I find it easy to compile multiplayer mod than singleplayer mod on Linux because it has a script that automates the process, while for singleplayer mod you'd have to consult VDC and follow a long guide on how to set up the container to compile a mod in there!
Singleplayer should be left untouched. Right now it is holding up a lot of mods and if it changes in any way it will break everything. Really the only thing they should do with singleplayer is just push upcoming to main. It would be better to just make a new appid for a new SDK and merge both multiplayer and singleplayer into it. There is really no reason not to merge it and it would keep singleplayer up to date with latest engine changes.
Singleplayer should be left untouched.
no it should not
Right now it is holding up a lot of mods and if it changes in any way it will break everything.
😑 I hope i wouldn't repeat it here the third time, but they can always keep the "upcoming" beta the same but change the description of it to something like "pre-2025 update" then change the main depot with new updates.
Really the only thing they should do with singleplayer is just push upcoming to main.
This is the story of a man named Stanley. Stanley never installed sourcemods, but now Stanley decides to play a really old mod from ModDB with crappy 4:3 MSPaint thumbnail, and in instructions the author says something like: "you have to enable \"upcoming\" beta on source sdk 2013 sp!!1". But Stanley finds out, that there is no such thing as an "upcoming" beta in Source SDK 2013 Base Singleplayer, and Stanley instantly gives up, saying "Eh, it's probably not worth my time anyway".
...new SDK and merge both multiplayer and singleplayer...
I honestly agree with this part of sentence. Garry's Mod managed to merge MP and SP, so it should be possible.
Why you all don't want new features? Am i the one in the wrong here?
We do want the new features (and bug fixes. And edicts raised, which wasn't done here), but I personally don't trust their ability to implement it in a gentle, robust enough manner. All they were expected to for over 10 years now, is to just flip a switch to make Steam's "upcoming" 2013 SP branch the default one, so we, mod makers, don't have to instruct people on how to do that (every extra step exponentially decreases the amount of people who can play your mod, and many still don't get this instruction).
Yet it never happened. Such a simple thing that anyone with access could do it. Instead Valve & co drops humongous live-changing update without warning and fail to use a separate branch for that, and here on Github, move the SP branch around so any existing SDK 2013 forks now cannot merge with projects like Mapbase.
And then you expect everyone to just trust them to do it right? Because I do not. Some of us here have mods we've dedicated 5, 10, 15 YEARS to and a Valve update to the SP branch would just neuter our work if their track record is in any way indicative of how delicate they can (not) be.
edit: oh, right, and this MP update also made the SDK incompatible with older software, and this further feeds into my point about having dedicated years to our mods. What about those mods that by now are years behind in their pipeline, but it's a lot of work to change? My mods are just like that. I use VS 2015, not 2022. I can't use the current 2013 MP base, and if SP is updated, I'm damn certain they'll not care about legacy support whatsoever.
What they can do is literally create new sdk just Source SDK 2013 (like 2006 or 2007) because terms MP and SP are whack
There's no MP/SP it's part of game code not engine related
What they can do is literally create new sdk just Source SDK 2013 (like 2006 or 2007) because terms MP and SP are whack
There's no MP/SP it's part of game code not engine related
This, just make new SDK Base with new AppID and Source 2025 branch (revert SDK Base 2013 MP branch back to 2021 and set "upcoming" as default SDK Base 2013 SP branch), and maintaining it by adding simple bug fix like "Dropship gun" for example to SDK Base 2013 SP, while still making sure mods are still compatible. (like back then Valve maintained and updated both SDK Base 2006 and 2007 until 2009, 2010 respectively).
For new SDK Base and branch, add major bug fixes, new features and upgrade codebase to support newer VS. Might aswell merging SP/MP into one branch (Source 2025) since those MP features (static prop lightmaps, BSP compression) can be useful for SP aswell (EDIT: apparently, the reasons why 2009 and MP back then (and so with 2013 SP and MP) was made separate because MP branch are likely made to be updated frequently, while Valve didn't update SP as often to avoid breaking mods) .
Currently right now, SP mods like MMOD are kinda partially incompatible. MMod can't use it's own features like FXAA, and MMod, which actually runs on top of HL2, doesn't have all new features from HL2 like Classic Particles, HUD Aspect Ratio, etc...
Other like Synergy (which runs on 2013 MP branch), prior to v24.11 patch, simply breaks if it's load post-20th HL2 assets due to changes to HL2 shaders which add bicubic lightmaps.
Update: All Valve singleplayer titles (HL2 (including Episodes), HL:S and recently Portal), except the SDK Base 2013 SP now runs on HL2 20th Anniversary engine, after the recent Portal update. Looks like Valve might updating the SDK for SP later soon.
Now that i think about it, it does not make sense to update the branch, it'd make sense to just release the engine code, after all, they use Source 2 to create new games now. And before you say anything, yes, i am aware what needs to be done before publishing it, and i think Valve Software can do it if they spend some weeks on it. I'd rather see modders make cool mods with SDKs that were generated from forked Source Engine that adds modern graphics like Ambient Occlusion and PBR than see a fan-made Half-Life 3 mod look just like Half-Life 2. I think Half-Life fans deserve better graphics after all those years, and if some don't like it, then the forked engine's SDK can add a choice to use classic 2013 graphics in settings.