Valve's Source Film Maker is now in open beta

Valve has a great track record with its fans - from releasing amazing games to supporting the modding community. One of the most successful games ever released by Valve was Team Fortress 2, which made its debut in 2007 in The Orange Box. Along with the game, Valve released some trailers in the form of introductions for the character classes, called Meet the Team. Now, Valve will let users make their own films with the announcement of the Source Film Maker. Valve recently announced on the Source Film Maker blog that the video creation tool is finally in open beta. It seems to only be able to access the Team Fortress 2 art assets at the moment, but by the time the tool is out of beta, every game running on the Source Engine will be able to be used.

In their blog, Valve says, “The Source Filmmaker (SFM) is the movie-making tool built and used by us here at Valve to make movies inside the Source game engine. Because the SFM uses the same assets as the game, anything that exists in the game can be used in the movie, and vice versa. By utilising the hardware rendering power of a modern gaming PC, the SFM allows storytellers to work in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get environment so they can iterate in the context of what it will feel like for the final audience. “

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Those interested can download the Source Filmmaker here on steam.

Ready.. Action!

Before the Source Film Maker, budding machinima makers had to rely on development tools provided by Valve, which are usually used for making games or mods based on the Source Engine. People also used Garry’s Mod, which is a physics sandbox. Unlike regular games, Garry’s Mod has no aims or goals. It is primarily used to play around with the Source Engine physics and art assets, or make comics or movies.

This comes after the recent announcement by Valve about Steam Greenlight. Steam Greenlight is a new system that enlists the community’s help in picking some of the next games to be released on Steam. It also helps developers get feedback from potential customers and start creating an active community around their game as early in the development process as they like.

The problem smaller developers had with Steam was when they were attempting to get their game on Steam, they’d either get a “yes” or “no” for an answer. No explanation was given otherwise. Greenlight looks to help the developers who submit videos, demos, screenshots, etc. and let the community decide if the game is worth being on Steam.

Valve seems to be continuing on the amazing track record they have with their fans. We hope the Source Film Maker provides more hilarious videos like the Meet the Team videos.