Saber Interactive unleashed the modding floodgates for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 last year with the release of official mod tools for the game. While the game’s mod tools are very powerful, the majority of mods for the action game are either increase player counts, add weapons, or are largely cosmetic.
A year has passed since the release of Saber’s official mod tools, but the Space Marine 2 community is still tinkering, and Saber has released a brand-new full map editor for the fantastic action game that allows players to build full campaigns or PvP maps within Blender. Released by Senior AI Programmer Artyom Yashin, the new tools allow players to truly unleash their creativity.
Shared on the Space Marine 2 Modding Hub Discord server, Yashin explained that this is still an early version of the map builder currently in a “deep testing stage.” Nevertheless, the tool allows players to build new maps for the game, although it cannot generate “good lighting as of now”.
Neo_Kesha explained that the new mod tools allow modders to create entire maps within blender and then import them into the Map Builder. The Map Builder tool then converts a GLTF file into a SCN file and generates files for geometry. The tool then runs the Furnace scene builder which converts everything into a real scene the game can use.
With the too, players can “create and setup levels with geometry”, map AI nav-meshes, design custom scripts with scenarios embedded directly into the scene, and place prefabs of existing assets. However, it cannot decompile existing maps—although the modding community has a different tool for that—and it cannot edit prefabs.
After just a few hours of the map tools launch, fans have already started converting maps from other games into Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. YouTuber HAPPYMAN5 shared a number of videos of custom maps for the game, including a version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Dust map in a custom multiplayer match with friends.
In fact, a collection of custom PvP maps for Space Marine 2 is already available on Nexus Mods in the form of Forges of the Imperium. This collection of mods includes a port of Halo 4’s Exile Map, a port of Dust 2 from CS: GO, E1M1 from DOOM, and Glass Houses from Roblox.
At the time of writing, custom maps for Space Marine 2 overwrite existing maps when played in PvP. However, considering how fast players have been able to create maps for the game, it may not be long until players figure out how to load large numbers of custom maps without replacing anything.
With Space Marine 3 not expected to launch for a number of years, Saber Interactive is still keeping Space Marine 2 alive with new content. However, for PC players, the game’s modding community seems ready to explode with creativity, and these custom map tools are just the start of a brand-new era for the game.
