A quick question about Steam and Source SDK

[Hollywood Knights]

Ok, so I've been doing a little 3d modelling recently, and have decided to try my hand at some level design/editing as well. I've had the Valve Source SDK / Hammer Editor (I don't quite know the difference between the two terms, I'm afraid) recommended to me. On looking at how to download the thing, it seems like you can only access it through Steam, and you have to have a copy of a game that uses Source...

I also figured it's high time I bought Half-Life 2, having never played it. Or Portal, as a matter of fact. Seems like I should play the games before I get my hands dirty, so to speak (also I guess I'd need HL2 to actually look at any levels I made in-game).

However, I want to keep my use of Steam to a minimum. I don't have a very powerful computer, and don't always have access to the internet, so having to be online and be running quite a complex program in the background at the same time as playing a game might slow me down a bit - at least, that's my understanding of how Steam works, I've only downloaded it very recently. Also, I'm a cantankerous old traditionalist who likes his games to come on CDs in little plastic boxes, but that's kind of a minor point.

So my question is: What's the best way for me to go about getting Half-Life 2, Portal, and the Source SDK in a way that is both relatively inexpensive, and means I won't necessarily have to be connected to the internet to use them?

Hope you can help.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Steam has an offline mode...You'll be fine. And those games are dirt cheap on Steam, too.

 

[Claptrap]

You can run steam in offline mode, Im not sure where the option is but im sure someone will tell you.

 

[DazZ.]

You don't need to be on the internet to use Steam games.

You can get the Orange Box on disk from an internet store for quite cheap I'd imagine.

The SDK is free and comes with Hammer and Model Design software.

Also Steam isn't complex, it's made to be run in the background of games it is hardly system extensive.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

You can run steam in offline mode, Im not sure where the option is but im sure someone will tell you.

You can do it manually, but if it doesn't sense an internet connection on booting Steam, then it'll prompt you to choose offline mode.

 

[Hollywood Knights]

You don't need to be on the internet to use Steam games.

You can get the Orange Box on disk from an internet store for quite cheap I'd imagine.

The SDK is free and comes with Hammer and Model Design software.

Also Steam isn't complex, it's made to be run in the background of games it is hardly system extensive.

Ok cool, so I could buy the Orange Box (in disk form) off Amazon say, or in a store, then Steam would detect that I'd got it, let me download Source SDK, and then I could run the whole lot in offline mode, if I wanted to? If so, that's great!

*Gets credit card out in anticipation*

 

[The Undoer]

I suggest you go onto steampowered.com, download Steam, and then make an account and buy the Orange Box.

That will give you 5 -very- good games, for 10 pounds/15 dollars, once you have that you can download the entire Source SDK for free from Steam Tools, a tab under the library.

As for connectivity, you'll need one to download the games, make an account, and download the SDK, but after that you can offline mode to your hearts content (They need running once with an internet connection first though).

As for resources, I'm on a mediocre computer (BUT I LOVE HER ANYWAY!!!) and it runs just fine, I never turn Steam off, and it's always there running in the background. It should be too much of a system hog atall.

 

[DazZ.]

You don't need to be on the internet to use Steam games.

You can get the Orange Box on disk from an internet store for quite cheap I'd imagine.

The SDK is free and comes with Hammer and Model Design software.

Also Steam isn't complex, it's made to be run in the background of games it is hardly system extensive.

Ok cool, so I could buy the Orange Box (in disk form) off Amazon say, or in a store, then Steam would detect that I'd got it, let me download Source SDK, and then I could run the whole lot in offline mode, if I wanted to? If so, that's great!

*Gets credit card out in anticipation*

Yeah, that exactly. Have fun and go make me some good mods!

 

[The Undoer]

You don't need to be on the internet to use Steam games.

You can get the Orange Box on disk from an internet store for quite cheap I'd imagine.

The SDK is free and comes with Hammer and Model Design software.

Also Steam isn't complex, it's made to be run in the background of games it is hardly system extensive.

Ok cool, so I could buy the Orange Box (in disk form) off Amazon say, or in a store, then Steam would detect that I'd got it, let me download Source SDK, and then I could run the whole lot in offline mode, if I wanted to? If so, that's great!

*Gets credit card out in anticipation*

For the note, most of the games have a metric fuckton of patches, so yeaaaah. You'll probably need to update a lot overnight, the original cache size of Team Fortress 2 (part of the Orange Box) Is only half it's current size of 4 gig.

 

[Hollywood Knights]

Thanks for all the help guys. Right, I've got some game buying to do!

 

[Doctor VonSexMachine]

You're going to want to check this out: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Your_First_Map I'm addicted to the hammer editor, I just need to pump out something playable!