Valve releases Half-Life: Alyx dev tools to Steam Workshop

Valve has opened Half-Life: Alyx up to the modding community, with the latest update adding Steam Workshop support.

So, if you’ve got the skills, you can now modify existing Alyx levels or create your own, totally new ones with new models, textures, and animations using Steam Workshop. Actually, you don’t even need to be that skilled, because Valve has started putting together documentation on the Workshop tools and how they work, so everyone can get involved.

According to their Steam announcement, with this first Beta release, Valve has included the following new and updated editing tools:

• Hammer – the latest version of the Source 2 level editor.
• Material Editor – the tool for creating and tuning materials in Source 2.
• ModelDoc – a tool for viewing, editing, and compiling models with animation, collision, and other gameplay attributes.
• AnimGraph – the animation tool used to create complicated animation setups with blends and transitions.
• Particle Editor – for making new particle effects.
• Subrect Editor – for creating smart texture sheets known as “hotspots”.
• Source Filmmaker – the Source 2 cinematic renderer and animation tool.

Valve will be adding to, and improving, the available tools in the coming weeks. The Workshop tools suite also includes the editable source for all Half-Life: Alyx maps, “including a collection of interactive objects and prefabs”.

For Linux fans out there, the update also adds “a native Linux version of the game using the Vulkan rendering API, as well as optional support for using Vulkan on Windows”.